VB3 and relational databases

For a variety of _very_ odd reasons, I'm forced to build a fairly large relational database in Visual Basic 3.

Anybody know how to set up a relational database in VB3?
Anybody know where I can find any info?

Are you going to write an application in VB based on a relational db, or are you going to write a db in VB?

I'm hoping it'll be the former but expect I'll have to do the latter (and then the former)

I'll assume here that you are actually building an access DB to be used from VB3 and not building your own DB (yuck).

VB3 comes with a tool called visdata, usually you get the source code and all, compile it and then you can use it to create an access DB and maintain tables etc.

Do not use data-bound controls. Access the DB using regular SQL using the recordset object. I have never had a good experience with data-bound controls.

If you are indeed building your own DB then good luck and may the force be with you.

Let's be clear about our language here:

DBMS = database management system = a generic engine with which one can manage many different collections of data for different purposes (each of those being called a database).

DB = database = a specific instance of a collection of data for a specific purpose, using a DBMS.

So, which of these are you building? If you want to build a truly relational database management system, my hat is off to you. I think, however, that you will find this is a large job that cannot be accomplished by any one person in a reasonable time. In fact, none of the larger SQL DBMS vendors has truly accomplished this task. Oracle, the largest of these, manages only about 60% compliance with the logical features of a true relational DBMS, according to Codd & Date. (We have had a few discussions about this in the past).

I would also suggest that VB is not the tool to use for this. However, if you simply mean you want to develop a VB application that manages a few flat lists of items, you could perhaps accomplish this by using CSV files (the "flat file" database approach). Don't expect this to remotely resemble a true relational DBMS, though.