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DBMS > 4D vs. Microsoft Access vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Sphinx

System Properties Comparison 4D vs. Microsoft Access vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Sphinx

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
Name4D infoformer name: 4th Dimension  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Access  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL Azure  Xexclude from comparisonSphinx  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionApplication development environment with integrated database management systemMicrosoft Access combines a backend RDBMS (JET / ACE Engine) with a GUI frontend for data manipulation and queries. infoThe Access frontend is often used for accessing other datasources (DBMS, Excel, etc.)Database as a Service offering with high compatibility to Microsoft SQL ServerOpen source search engine for searching in data from different sources, e.g. relational databases
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMSRelational DBMSSearch engine
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score2.47
Rank#110  Overall
#54  Relational DBMS
Score101.16
Rank#11  Overall
#8  Relational DBMS
Score76.78
Rank#16  Overall
#11  Relational DBMS
Score5.95
Rank#55  Overall
#5  Search engines
Websitewww.4d.comwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­microsoft-365/­accessazure.microsoft.com/­en-us/­products/­azure-sql/­databasesphinxsearch.com
Technical documentationdeveloper.4d.comdeveloper.microsoft.com/­en-us/­accessdocs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­azure-sqlsphinxsearch.com/­docs
Developer4D, IncMicrosoftMicrosoftSphinx Technologies Inc.
Initial release1984199220102001
Current releasev20, April 20231902 (16.0.11328.20222), March 2019V123.5.1, February 2023
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial infoBundled with Microsoft OfficecommercialOpen Source infoGPL version 2, commercial licence available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonoyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC++C++C++
Server operating systemsOS X
Windows
Windows infoNot a real database server, but making use of DLLshostedFreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesno
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.yesyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes infofull-text index on all search fields
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoclose to SQL 92yes infobut not compliant to any SQL standardyesSQL-like query language (SphinxQL)
APIs and other access methodsODBC
RESTful HTTP API infoby using 4D Mobile
SOAP webservices
ADO.NET
DAO
ODBC
OLE DB
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
Proprietary protocol
Supported programming languages4D proprietary IDE
PHP
C
C#
C++
Delphi
Java (JDBC-ODBC)
VBA
Visual Basic.NET
.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C++ infounofficial client library
Java
Perl infounofficial client library
PHP
Python
Ruby infounofficial client library
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresyesyes infosince Access 2010 using the ACE-engineTransact SQLno
Triggersyesyes infosince Access 2010 using the ACE-engineyesno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesnonenoneSharding infoPartitioning is done manually, search queries against distributed index is supported
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replicationnoneyes, with always 3 replicas availablenone
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnononono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyesyesyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACID infobut no files for transaction loggingACIDno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyes infobut no files for transaction loggingyesyes infoThe original contents of fields are not stored in the Sphinx index.
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.no
User concepts infoAccess controlUsers and groupsno infoa simple user-level security was built in till version Access 2003fine grained access rights according to SQL-standardno

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More resources
4D infoformer name: 4th DimensionMicrosoft AccessMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL AzureSphinx
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