Getting Up to Speed with Databases and SQLite

Abstract

Ask people to tell you words they associate with database and you’ll probably get big among the responses. Databases handle large amounts of data, and everyone knows that. How big? It depends whether you count the number of items in a database or the size of the items. The Library of Congress has 160 million items on 858 miles of shelving as of this writing. The catalog, which is based on a database, is available online at www.loc.gov/about/fascinating-facts/ . There’s no question among people who are interested in databases that the Library of Congress catalog is far from the largest database in the world. (In all likelihood, the largest databases are not visible to the public because they contain classified corporate and governmental information.)