A High-Performance ScriptableObject Database System for Unity

Created by Krolti

DatabaseSO is a simple yet effective way to use ScriptableObjects in Unity to create structures that resemble databases. It maintains editor-friendly workflows while offering quick search operations, support for serialization, and a query system.

Key Features:

Lightweight, performant

• Works with Mono and IL2CPP compilers
• Binary Search implementation enables millions of operations on large indexed datasets
• Efficient memory management via appropriate ScriptableObject implementation

Advanced Querying

• Supports filtering, ordering, skipping, and taking

Editor Integration

• Automatic ID assignment and validation
• Null reference cleaning
• JSON import/export functionality with UniTask
• Dirty flag handling for proper asset saving

Extensible Design

• Generic implementation works with any data type
• Virtual methods allow custom validation logic

Getting Started

Note: Examples in package are optional

• You can use template to create your own database

Right click in Project tab >

Create/Database SO/Database Script

• It will automatically create a simple empty database implementation:

using UnityEngine;
using Krolti.DatabaseSO;

[CreateAssetMenu(fileName = "ClassName", menuName = "Database/ClassName")]
public class ClassName : Database<ClassNameData>
{

}
[System.Serializable]
public class ClassNameData : DatabaseItem
{

}

• Let's create Simple Color Database

using UnityEngine;

namespace Your.Namespace
{
    [CreateAssetMenu(fileName = "Color Database", menuName = "DatabaseSO/Examples/Color Database")]
    public class ColorDatabase : Database<ColorData>
    {
		
    }

    [System.Serializable]
    public class ColorData : DatabaseItem
    {
        [SerializeField] private Color color;
        public Color Color => color;
        
        /// <summary>
        /// Just transparensy check.
        /// </summary>
        public override bool IsValid => color.a > 0;
		
        public ColorData(Color color)
        {
            this.color = color;
        }
        
        // Method to fix database item
        public override bool TryFix()
        {
            if(color != null)
            {
                color.a = 1;
                return true;
            }
            return false;
        }
		
    }
}

To begin with creating Databases you can create a simple database.

Note that class that inherits Database<> should have [CreateAssetMenu] attribute, and T type should include [System.Serializable]

Usage

You can search items in the database:

// ...
ColorData founditem = colorDatabase.Search(searchID);
// ...

Or with safe method:

if(colorDatabase.TrySearch(searchID, out ColorData data))
{
    data.DataTag = "Modified tag!";
}

Unitask / Async

Also you can write async JSON saving with Task/UniTask

public async UniTaskVoid StartExportUniTask()
{
    // ...
    string json = await database.ConvertToJsonUniTaskAsync(true, _cts.Token);
    // ...
}

public async void StartExport()
{
    // ...
    string json = await database.ConvertToJsonAsync(true, _cts.Token);
    // ...
}

Tag repository

If you want to have access your database with tags there's a solution in Core folder:

[CreateAssetMenu(fileName = "Respond Database", menuName = "DatabaseSO/Examples/Respond Database")]
public class RespondDatabase : TagRepository<RespondData>
{

}
[System.Serializable]

public class RespondData : TaggedData
{
    // Take input as a database tag
    [SerializeField] private string output;

    public string GetRespond() => output;
}

Tag Repository Usage

[SerializeField] private TagRepository<RespondData> respondData;

// or with direct acess
// [SerializeField] private RespondDatabase respondData;

[SerializeField] private string input;
[SerializeField] private string tryInput;

private void Awake()
{
    string respond = respondData.GetByTag(input).GetRespond();
    Debug.Log($"Assistant's respond: {respond}");

    if(respondData.TryGetValue(tryInput, out var data))
    {
        Debug.Log($"Assistant's second respond, successfully: {data.GetRespond()}");
    }
}

Thread Safety

Although not all of this code is thread-safe, some of it is. It functions well when used on a single thread (such as Unity's main loop), but if you use it on multiple threads, you'll need to manage synchronization yourself to prevent problems.

Install package (UPM)

Window → Package Manager → + → Add package from Git URL...
Paste:

https://github.com/krolti/com.krolti.databaseso.git

Or Install via manifest.json in "dependencies": {}

"com.krolti.database-so": "https://github.com/krolti/com.krolti.databaseso.git"

Install manually

Also you can install it into Assets/Plugins folder via .unitypackage

Latest Release

Contribution

If you find this library useful, please consider starring the repository and contributing improvements! For issues, suggestions, or feedback, open an issue here.

Contributing Guide