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I want to use a free database to do some databinding (storage) in my WPF Application (PixelSense).

I have already used SQL Server 2010 with Visual Studio 2010 and it works very fine.

I've heard also that Entity Framework does not work great with MySQL due to some incompatibility issues, and SQLite doesn't support Booleans.

What do you suggest for me in this case ?

Edit

Thank you, I've choosed Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

Why : Free, by Microsoft, almost the same as SQL Server

Wassim AZIRAR
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1 Answers1

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In microsoft world, you can use :

  • Sql Server Express
    • 10Gb per DB size limitation
  • Sql Local DB, which is the replacement for Sql Server User Instance. It's part of Sql Server Express.
    • 10Gb per DB size limitation
  • Sql Compact
    • 4Gb per DB size limitation

As it's Microsoft products, you will have less probability of issues.

My preference goes to Sql Compact because of its low binaries footprint. There are however some limitation (ntext not supported very well), at least in the version I used some years ago.

Good to know, Access database are not supported. While Access has not a good reputation, for local app it make senses.

Outside Microsoft World, SqlLite has a good reputation.

Community
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Steve B
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  • I removed SQLLite as you have found an issue (boolean not supported) – Steve B Jun 27 '12 at 14:49
  • Do not hesitate to tell us which DB you choose and why – Steve B Jun 27 '12 at 15:15
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    It also depends on the amount of data that you are working with. Compact addition has 4GB size limit vs 10GB for Express. Here is an article that compares all 3 mentioned above side-by-side: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jerrynixon/archive/2012/02/26/sql-express-v-localdb-v-sql-compact-edition.aspx – Void Ray Jun 27 '12 at 15:47
  • @Dmitriy: it's a community wiki. Feel free to update the answer directly – Steve B Jun 27 '12 at 15:48
  • I don't have enough rep yet :(. Feel free to copy my comment to your answer. Thanks for pointing this out. – Void Ray Jun 27 '12 at 15:58