play framework anorm for different database

Question

I am new to Scala as well as play framework with Scala 2.0. I like the idea of writing the SQL code myself and have full control rather than depend on ORM tool. But does Anorm SQL work across different database vendors like MySQL and Oracle? Since I am writing an application which should be capable to work with any Relational database, my requirement is to write SQL which should work across databases since my application should work with vendor database.

Some vendor might have Oracle and some might have MySQL. So my code should be DB agnostic.Is this possible in Scala as I know that quires which run on mysql will not run on Oracle.

Thanks in Advance, Pradeep

Answer 1

Short answer: NO.

Long answer: Anorm is just a library for dispatching your SQL queries to the database through JDBC, retrieving the results and delivering them to you. It does not understand the differences between different databases because it relies on JDBC for connection handling, and on you for writing queries.

You either have to handle different DB engines yourself or have an ORM handle that for you.

PS: Unless you really need to have a DB agnostic application (and fully understand its implications), I'd suggest you simply target 2-3 popular engines and avoid the future complications.