.. dataset documentation master file, created by
   sphinx-quickstart on Mon Apr  1 18:41:21 2013.
   You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
   contain the root `toctree` directive.

dataset: databases for lazy people
==================================

.. toctree::
   :hidden:


Although managing data in relational databases has plenty of benefits, they're
rarely used in day-to-day work with small to medium scale datasets. But why is
that? Why do we see an awful lot of data stored in static files in CSV or JSON
format, even though they are hard to query and update incrementally?

The answer is that **programmers are lazy**, and thus they tend to prefer the
easiest solution they find. And in **Python**, a database isn't the simplest
solution for storing a bunch of structured data. This is what **dataset** is
going to change!

**dataset** provides a simple abstraction layer that removes most direct SQL
statements without the necessity for a full ORM model - essentially, databases
can be used like a JSON file or NoSQL store.

A simple data loading script using **dataset** might look like this:

::

   import dataset

   db = dataset.connect('sqlite:///:memory:')

   table = db['sometable']
   table.insert(dict(name='John Doe', age=37))
   table.insert(dict(name='Jane Doe', age=34, gender='female'))

   john = table.find_one(name='John Doe')


Here is `similar code, without dataset <https://gist.github.com/gka/5296492>`_.


Features
--------

* **Automatic schema**: If a table or column is written that does not
  exist in the database, it will be created automatically.
* **Upserts**: Records are either created or updated, depending on
  whether an existing version can be found.
* **Query helpers** for simple queries such as :py:meth:`all <dataset.Table.all>` rows in a table or
  all :py:meth:`distinct <dataset.Table.distinct>` values across a set of columns.
* **Compatibility**: Being built on top of `SQLAlchemy <http://www.sqlalchemy.org/>`_, ``dataset`` works with all major databases, such as SQLite, PostgreSQL and MySQL.

Contents
--------

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   install
   quickstart
   api
   queries

Contributors
------------

``dataset`` is written and maintained by `Friedrich Lindenberg <https://github.com/pudo>`_,
`Gregor Aisch <https://github.com/gka>`_ and `Stefan Wehrmeyer <https://github.com/stefanw>`_.
Its code is largely based on the preceding libraries `sqlaload <https://github.com/okfn/sqlaload>`_
and datafreeze. And of course, we're standing on the `shoulders of giants <http://www.sqlalchemy.org/>`_.

Our cute little `naked mole rat <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=A5DcOEzW1wA#t=14s>`_ was drawn by `Johannes Koch <http://chechuchape.com/>`_.
