.NET Data Storage - Database vs single file

Question

I have a C# application that allows one user to enter information about customers and job sites. The information is very basic.

• Customer: Name, number, address, email, associated job site.
• Job Site: Name, location.

Here are my specs I need for this program.

• No limit on amount of data entered.
• Single user per application. No concurrent activity or multiple users.
• Allow user entries/data to be exported to an external file that can be easily shared between applications/users.
• Allows for user queries to display customers based on different combinations of customer information/job site information.
• The data will never be viewed or manipulated outside of the application.
• The program will be running almost always, minimized to the task bar.
• Startup time is not very important, however I would like the queries to be considerably fast.

This all seems to point me towards a database, but a very lightweight one. However I also need it to have no limitations as far as data storage. If you agree I should use a database, please let me know what would be best suited for my needs. If you don't think I should use a database, please make some other suggestions on what you think would be best.

Answer 1

My suggestion would be to use SQLite. You can find it here: http://sqlite.org/. And you can find the C# wrapper version here: http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/

SQLite is very lightweight and has some pretty powerful stuff for such a lightweight engine. Another option you can look into is Microsoft Access.