Ask HN: How do I get a better understanding of NoSQL databases

6 pointslazyfunctor11 years ago8 comments

I have a reasonable understanding of relational databases. I am not so sure about NoSQL databases. Though I have used mongodb in the past. Can someone point me to resources to get a deeper understanding? How do I go about learning the trade-offs of choosing say a document store over a key value store. Also CAP theorem and related trade-offs. When is NoSQL better suited than relational etc.

dikek 11y

The Little MongoDB Book might help. It doesn't answer all your questions but it gave me enough background (albeit MongoDB specific) to learn more. It's also a fairy short read. http://openmymind.net/mongodb.pdf

latch 11y

The Little Redis Book [1] might be better. Redis is easier to pick up and probably more useful as it's more complementary to existing database options.

[1] http://openmymind.net/redis.pdf

lazyfunctorOP11y

Thanks, will check this out.

alok-g 11y

This goes a bit in a different direction, but it should help.

"SQL and NoSQL are two sides of the same coin, mathematically"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313234

joeclark77 11y

I can't recommend enough the book Seven Databases in Seven Weeks by Eric Redmond & Jim Wilson. It covers the whole range of different types of databases, with just a little bit of theory (the CAP theorem).

s3b 11y

I would recommend Martin Fowler's NoSQL Distilled : http://martinfowler.com/books/nosql.html

joeclark77 11y

I also found a great video lecture by Martin Fowler on the topic: http://youtu.be/qI_g07C_Q5I

lazyfunctorOP11y

Thanks. Looks like this is what I am looking for.

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