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

6 points·lazyfunctor··8 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.

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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

Thanks, will check this out.

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

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

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).

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

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

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

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