Other Persistent Storage Modules

The modules listed on this page provide mechanisms for storing data on disk. Some modules are simply the disk-based equivalent of dictionaries; others provide for persistent storage of arbitrary Python objects.

Disk-based Dictionaries

[http://docs.python.org/lib/module-anydbm.html anydbm] Included with the standard Python distribution. The anydbm module is a generic interface to all the DBM-like modules listed in the next two lines, selecting from whichever modules are installed.

[http://docs.python.org/lib/module-dbm.html DBM],BR [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-gdbm.html GDBM],BR [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-dbhash.html dbhash] Included with the standard Python distribution. Each of these modules is an interface to a specific library.

[http://docs.python.org/lib/module-bsddb.html BSDDB] Included with the standard Python distribution. In addition to dictionary-like behaviour, this module also supports B-trees, which allows traversing the keys in sorted order.

[http://www.equi4.com/metakit/ Metakit] MetaKit is a C++ library for storage, transport, and manipulation of structured objects and collections. A Python interface is available.

[http://www.lemburg.com/files/python/mxBeeBase.html mxBeeBase] mxBeeBase is a high performance construction kit for disk based indexed databases. It offers components which you can plug together to easily build your own custom mid-sized databases, up to around 2Gb on 32-bit platforms).

Data Writing and Parsing

PyTables reads and writes large amounts of numeric data.

[http://python-dsv.sourceforge.net/ Python-DSV] parses comma-separated value (CSV) files or similar delimiter-separated files (see also 0305).

The xBase .dbf file format used by several old systems such as dBase(II,III,IV), Fox(Base,Pro)

• xBase (http://linux.techass.com/projects/xdb/) - Python interface in plans

• http://www.fiby.at/dbfpy/index.html

• http://cbbrowne.com/info/xbase.html

• http://www.clicketyclick.dk/databases/xbase/format/

Persistent Objects

[http://docs.python.org/lib/module-pickle.html pickle.py] Included with the standard Python distribution. The pickle module can convert Python objects to and from a string representation.

[http://docs.python.org/lib/module-shelve.html shelve.py] Included with the standard Python distribution. Built on top of the pickle and anydbm modules, the shelve module behaves like a persistent dictionary whose values can be arbitrary Python objects.

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/pypersyst/ PyPerSyst] A portable object database management system (ODBMS) as well as a database application framework. PyPerSyst works well with Pyro and Twisted.

[http://starship.python.net/crew/jmenzel/ PyVersant] A wrapper for the [http://www.versant.com Versant commercial OODBMS].

[http://wiki.zope.org/ZODB] The Zope Object Database is a persistent-object system that provides transparent transactional object persistence to Python applications.

• DirectoryStorage: http://dirstorage.sourceforge.net/

• PGStorage: http://hathawaymix.org/Software/PGStorage

[http://www.mems-exchange.org/software/durus/ Durus]

Durus is a persistent object system that offers an easy way to use and maintain a consistent collection of object instances used by one or more processes. Changes to persistent instances are managed through a cached Connection instance that includes commit() and abort()  methods so that changes are transactional.