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The world of data storage and management is dynamic and ever evolving. With the rise of XML, JSON, and NoSQL databases, traditional SQL databases have had to adapt to these shifts in technology. One such adaptation is storing configuration data in SQL instead of XML. This blog post will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of this approach, and illustrate how to implement it using SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, MySQL 5.7, DB2 11.1 and Azure SQL.

Storing configuration data in SQL instead of XML offers several advantages. SQL databases provide ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) guarantees, which ensures data integrity and consistency. Moreover, SQL databases offer a mature and robust ecosystem that includes advanced features like indexing and full-text search. On the other hand, XML files are often slower to read and write to, lack ACID guarantees, and do not offer the same feature-set as SQL databases.

However, XML is not without its advantages. XML files are easy to read and write, and they can be easily version-controlled. Furthermore, XML is platform- and language-agnostic, which makes it a versatile choice for storing configuration data. However, these benefits often do not outweigh the drawbacks, especially for large scale applications.

Let's see how we can store configuration data in a SQL Server 2016. Suppose we have a configuration setting "MaxUsers" that we want to store. We can create a table "Configuration" to store this setting, as shown in the following T-SQL code:

CREATE TABLE Configuration (

  Id INT PRIMARY KEY,

  Name NVARCHAR(100),

  Value NVARCHAR(100)

);

INSERT INTO Configuration (Id, Name, Value) VALUES (1, 'MaxUsers', '1000');

To retrieve the "MaxUsers" setting, we can use a SELECT statement as follows:

SELECT Value FROM Configuration WHERE Name = 'MaxUsers';

The process to store and retrieve configuration data is similar in SQL Server 2017, MySQL 5.7, DB2 11.1, and Azure SQL. The SQL syntax might differ slightly, but the concept remains the same: Create a table to store the configuration settings, and use INSERT and SELECT statements to add and retrieve data.

In conclusion, storing configuration data in SQL instead of XML offers several benefits, including ACID guarantees, a mature and robust ecosystem, and advanced features like indexing and full-text search. However, XML does offer some advantages, such as ease of use and platform- and language-agnosticism. Nevertheless, for large scale applications, SQL is often the better choice for storing configuration data.

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