Hi,
I am a professional developer with over 20 years of experience in software development. I am one of top freelancer.com coders, and I have very extensive experience in strings processing and parsing.
I've more than 12 years in the experiences of the database developing.
My skills are includes MS SQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, MS Access, Sybase etc.
For the small desctop application like you require, I suppose to use powerful and easy to use and store SQLite.
I hope in cooperation with you.
Thanks, Andriy