I learned that flat file databases work better if values are small, static and if you want to keep track of previous values. Flat files are not ideal if you need to perform complex searches through the values, values change often or if you don’t want others to be able to view and modify the values easily. In addition, Chapter 2 tells us the strengths of the popular relational database are that they allow difficult queries and joins among different tables but they don’t work well if a special data topology is needed to the perform the application primary function.
The type of database that I found most interesting was the hierarchal databases. I found interesting because of how reliant