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There are some datagrids I had quick look into:

Also, previously I had a very small experience with MySQL.

What are the differences between (a) datagrids, as given above and (b) databases like MySQL, with enduser-oriented frondend added to them?

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    Simple, a grid is for displaying, a database is for storing. Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 19:18

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A grid or datagrid is a kind of user interface widget used to display tabular data.

A database is a software system that manages read and write operations on large amounts of structured persistent data.

Here are some typical goals/features for a database that don't apply to a datagrid:

  • Ensure transactions always complete in their entirety, or get fully rolled back, even in the event of a software crash or a power failure.
  • A declarative query language to efficiently read the data or compute statistics about the data.
  • Processing millions of updates to the data from dozens of external sources every day.

Here are some typical goals/features for a datagrid which don't apply to a database:

  • Efficiently scroll through thousands of rows by only rendering the subset that are currently visible.
  • Visual indication such as flashing when one of the cell's values changes.
  • Allow rows and columns to be added, removed or rearranged on the fly.

It's like asking what the difference is between a text file on your hard drive and a text editor like Notepad. They're not even close to being the same thing.

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  • And for some reasons, datagrids use JSON files to store their data, instead of using SQL database as a backend? Do I understand right? Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 20:10
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    Datagrids don't store anything. A datagrid is a UI widget. As soon as there's code storing stuff, you've gone outside what a UI widget is. It's entirely possible and in fact common for a datagrid to be used to display stuff that came out of an SQL database, but the code connecting the two is a separate thing from the datagrid and the database. If you're talking about how the grid represents and manipulates the data it's been given in memory at runtime, it certainly won't be in the form of a JSON file, but an actual Javascript object or array is very likely if that's what you meant. Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 20:26

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