Topic: using excel as database

[Steve]

Are there any major issues with using an excel spreadsheet as a database with a large amount of data, if the data is only called upon 1-3 rows at a time? I am developing a browser based application to store data on my computer about a collection of things. The browser will display the data in a nice webpage I create, all locally. I don't want to install a server just for this, and I know some friends will want to use it and have no idea how to do any of that.

So I am thinking about a simple setup script that would establish a spreadsheet with the provided information and use that to save and pull the data. I just don't want it to be incredibly slow down the road.

[webwhy]

three things come to the forefront for me:

• You'll need to be on windows to make this remotely easy
• You might have to load load the entire dataset into memory, but I'm not sure how the internals of Excel work with large data.  this might not be an issue
• How you work with the data will need to be inline with how spreadsheets are optimized for retrieval and processing.  row and column indexing, defined functions and macros.  This will be weird if you're used to SQL

i would suggest using an embedded relational db like Sqlite3.  It is flat file based (no server setup), and will be more familiar (SQL)

[webwhy]

also on a more Meta level.  why?

Excel is pretty good at providing data views within itself.  no need to build a webpage.

if you don't know how do build in Excel, then it doesn't make much since to use it as a data source.

[Steve]

I wanted it to be nice and pretty, basically. I was looking into some elements of it and stumbled on an old java based system that works on all platforms, going to test it out because it may eliminate my need to build this at all.

When I was actually looking for one, nothing. Looking for development stuff and there it is

[Perspective]

Just use a comma (or tab) separated text file. It works just like a spreadsheet without the crazy proprietary binary format.