Best way to save data?

[simplyJ]

I am making an appliation that stores names of books and descriptions of the books on a client computer. I want to be able to install this on any computer and have it work.

The user will be able to search through books titles and book descriptions to view all of the results.

Can anyone tell me what the best way to store the information is?

...
If a database is used (ie MS Access), will the user have to have the MS Access installed? I am trying not to use PWS and also not to make the user set up an odbc connection.


I thought about using a random access file, but I figured the searches would be too slow. The book list might get up to a few thousand.

Thanks

 

[muesli]

The best way to store information in this case is defintely an Access database. If you are developing in VB6 Professional you will not need Access installed on the machine. You can connect through the Jet engine and DAO, without having to set up an ODBC connection.

 

[WilMead]

Access should serve you well. Two things to be alert for are Slack Space and Filesize. Editing the Access database creates slack or unuseable space. Combined with the 1GB filesize limit a dynamic database could get itself into trouble. With only thousands of books, a Gig is a lot of space and you should not have a problem.

Why limit yourself to a client computer? ;-)
Your product could be turned into an activeX and used for a web site. That would reduce your maintenance, unless of course you have to add the network to support the web site.

In any event a database is the way to go. They all look the same to an application, or should, so which one you use doesn't matter.

Wil Mead
wmead@optonline.net