Updated 2017-08-29 17:04:39 by RLH ▲

ADB - A(nother) database engine for Tcl/Tk

Developed by Roalt Aalmoes

Important websites concerning ADB/ADBSQL:

ADB together with its MySQL database connectivity module adbsql are a Tcl/Tk package useful for Tcl/Tk programmers that want to store their data in a database-kind of way with tables and fields.

ADB support at this moment one database at a time, but within this database multiple table can be defined.

Two (optional) features of ADB that may make it worthwhile for you:

  • Writing the database as XML output and later of course the ability to read it. For this purpose, the well-known tDOM package has to be installed.
  • Connecting directly to a MySQL database. For this purpose the mysqltcl package has to be installed as well.

The fun part of ADB is that you can either use it as a full pure tcl library, or you can use these advanced features.

Short history:

This package has been used for many years in my ATDOR program. A Track and Field meeting organisation program. I've decided that the database engine in this program might be useful for many other purposes. The ATDOR program, currently uses an older version of this library, will be re-released later to use this version. So see http://www.atdor.com for a application of approx. 20k lines of code using it.

Examples of how to use it edit

To initalise a table:
    proc AthletesDBKey { rec } {
        return [[lindex $rec 0]]
    }

    set structure { 
        {no        "Licence number" 10 p alphanum}
        {firstname "First name" 20 {} alphanum}
        {surname   "Surname" 20 {} alphanum}
        {sex       "Sex" 10 {} alpha}
        {birthday  "Birthday" 4 {} int}
        {club      "Club" 30 {} alphanum}
        {category  "Category" 10 {} alphanum}
    }
    ADB::Init Athletes $structure AthletesDBKey

To add a new record:
 ADB::GetEmptyArray Athletes new_arr
 set new_arr(no) 12445
 set new_arr(firstname) John
 set new_arr(surname) Doe
 set new_arr(birthday) "01-01-2001"
 ADB::Add Athletes [[array get new_arr]]

To fill an array with a record:
 ADB::GetArray Athletes 12445 athletearr

To parse over all records in a table:
  proc ForAllAthletes { } {
    set atlkey [[ADB::FirstKey Athletes]]

    while { "$atlkey" != "" } {
        ADB::GetArray Athletes $atlkey athletearr
        
        # Do something with array athletearr, for instance:
        puts "Surname is $athletearr(surname)" 

        set atlkey [[ADB::NextKey Athletes]]
    }
  }

An example.tcl file is included that contains these and other examples.

ZB 14.07.2008 - I think, that every TCL-er interested in database applications is more familiar with SQLite - so "quick comparison" would be handy.

RLH 2017-08-29 : I think it being a "pure Tcl" database option is nice. It can go where Tcl does. I also like that while it has MySQL support it could be expanded to other databases or possibly piggyback on the TDBC.

Category Database