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cloud.google.com·6h ago
Data Science
Simon Willison's Blog·Aug 9·5 min read
SQLite compressed text-history prototypes
TL;DR
A new method for efficiently storing revision histories in SQLite databases was proposed, utilizing zlib or zstd compression on a JSON array of text versions. This approach significantly reduces storage requirements by eliminating redundant data.
✦ Why It Matters
Implement this compression strategy today to optimize your SQLite database storage for text revisions.
Key Takeaways
- Use zlib or zstd for compressing text revisions.
- Store revisions in a single JSON array to save space.
- Limit each row to 128 revisions or 3MB of data.
- Test the method with simulated revisions for effectiveness.
How It Works
The proposed method involves storing all previous versions of a document in a single SQLite column as a compressed JSON array. By using compression algorithms like zlib or zstd, the system reduces the size of the data significantly, leveraging the redundancy in text revisions.
A second column can store timestamps as a simple array of integers, which do not require compression.