Should I use Oracle instead of MySQL?

[zRonin]

I have a website with a database of 440,000 entries (in one table) that uses the REGEXP function of MySQL to match user input to content. Depending on the expression I need to match this takes anywhere from 0.1 to 0.6 seconds. Do you think I could cut down on execution time with Oracle?

[zCat]

I doubt it. Have you ever used Oracle, or have easy access to an Oracle installation?

This thread should really be in the databases forum

[zRonin]

I haven't used it before, but I have plenty of time to migrate. I do have easy access to an oracle installation.

[zCat]

Obviously I can't make any predictions on your specific issue, but my gut feeling is converting to Oracle at best wouldn't make any significant difference, but would certainly cause you much more heartache as far as administration goes, because Oracle is a damn complex beast.

(If you're going to go for another database, I'd try PostgreSQL, unless you need any Oracle specific features).

However it sounds like your query is probably very I/O bound (i.e. the database has to scan the entire table from disk, which can be relatively slow). Rather than changing the backend, I'd suggest seeing if you can optimize the query in MySQL first.

[Habtom]

The idea of moving to oracle seems pretty good to me. But what would you gain. As far as I know, Mysql is better in speed than oracle. You will have less effort in managing the Mysql than Oracle.

But you are right, as the number of rows go up, Oracle might handle things better than Mysql. Afterall, I haven't seen any DB who can beat Oracle.

Habtom