In this post, I’d like to introduce you to hamsterdb, an Apache 2-licensed, embedded analytical key-value database library similar to Google's leveldb and Oracle's BerkeleyDB.

hamsterdb is not a new contender in this niche. In fact, hamsterdb has been around for over 9 years. In this time, it has dramatically grown, and the focus has shifted from a pure key-value store to an analytical database offering functionality similar to a column store database. 

hamsterdb is single-threaded and non-distributed, and users usually link it directly into their applications. hamsterdb offers a unique (at least, as far as I know) implementation of Transactions, as well as other unique features similar to column store databases, making it a natural fit for analytical workloads. It can be used natively from C/C++ and has bindings for Erlang, Python, Java, .NET, and even Ada. It is used in embedded devices and on-premise applications with millions of deployments, as well as serving in cloud instances for caching and indexing.

hamsterdb has a unique feature in the key-value niche: it understands schema information. While most databases do not know or care what kind of keys are inserted, hamsterdb supports key types for binary keys...