XML as a relational database

Hello,

I got the impression from a few articles online that XML can
be used with ODBC / JDBC just like a regular RDB. Is this
true, and if so how is the performance?

Thanks,

-CC

You can pretty much use XML for anything, it is essentially a db. They say its the fastest way to convey information though i haven't seen any benchmarks to confirm this.

You can use it as a DB. That doesn't mean that you should. It's good at what it is made for: storing data in a very categorized/organized manner. However, it's not designed to be a DBMS (Data Base Management System). It is not meant for storing large numbers of records and it's certainly not built for designing complex data structures with relationships and such. If you're looking for a good database, use something else. That's all I'm trying to say.

Jmacp and ober0330, thanks for sharing your knowledge and
giving some guiding advice. Just out of curiosity, are there any
current standards which would allow a single portable DB
to work on any platform?

MySQL

Although, maybe you should more clearly define your needs.

Thanks ober0330. My needs are to have a local database used
by a Java application. The database will be mirroring some data
on an application server (basically a local performance DB
cache).

Mysql should suit your needs then.

Thank you sir!