How do I use SQL Offline (Local Host) for my Database?

Hi, I've been looking around to find out how I can use SQL Offline, so its stored into a File so I can later access it? I've been using .MDB (Access Database). I'm fairly new to Database, so please go gentle and explain :)

Microsoft's recommendation is to use SQL Server as the primary database and then SQL Server CE as the offline database. Access will do though. Basically it's no different to using any other database any time. You simply need to update the offline database at appropriate intervals, like when you shut down, with any data it requires, like Customer records. You then try to connect to your primary database at startup and, if you can't, you use the offline database. If you can connect to the primary database then you check whether the offline database has any data pending and, if it does, you copy it to the primary.

There's nothing special about this. It works exactly as you'd expect it to.

Well, my database wasn't going to be accessing the internet at all. I just wanted a fast file system that could access thousands of students to gain information, I thought Access Might've been slow, but I think I might stick to it unless theirs a better solution. I think my question was unclear, I wanted to know if I need anything special installed on each machine my app will be on or if I can just create a .SQL ? file that holds the database tables. All this is OFFLINE in to a File and not Accessed online.

In that case SQL Server CE could well be apt for the main database.

In terms of features it is about the same as Access, but is not prone to the same issues (such as corruption that needs Compact & Repair).

In terms of installation you just need to add 7 DLL's to your installation package.


Another free alternative is SQL Server Express, which has more features (such as support for Stored Procedures), but has a larger/more complex installation.