difference between SPList and table

Question

Hello Friends,
I am using Sharepoint list for storing and retrieving data. but we could have been done this with table from databse.
whts actually difference between them. why we should use this. and whts concept of parent -child relationship between them. is this same relationship like rows inside table.

and when we insert data into sharepoint list. where it is actullay stored? is this stored inside database ,if it is then how?

Answer 1

SPList data is stored in Content Database (Microsoft SQL).
Do not use database directly, because it's structure may vary with applying Hotfixes, Service Packs, etc (Microsoft doesn't guarantee you that DB structure will be always same, but guarantees the same about Object Model)

Best practice is to work with lists from Object Model or Web Services.
If you are about SharePoint 2007, then there is big difference between Database table and SharePoint list - you can't do Join operations.

Answer 2

>Do not use database directly, because it's structure may vary with applying Hotfixes, Service Packs, etc (Microsoft doesn't guarantee you that DB structure will be always same, but >guarantees the same about Object Model)

While it's probably true that the structure may vary, the common reason given for not accessing the database directly is that as the structure isn't known direct changes can cause it to be corrupt (and problems may appear later rather than at once).

There's also the fact that MS won't support people who have made direct changes to their databases.

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