Phase 1 Individual Project for Spreadsheet Applications
Phase I DB: Database V.S. Spreadsheets
Fundamentals of Database Systems
August 20, 2010
When dealing with large amounts of information that you will need to conduct business a spreadsheet may be an inferior choice. The choice of many users is to use spreadsheet applications when possible to store and house their data. This stems from the understanding of the systems. Most users understand the basic concepts behind spreadsheet applications and can manipulate their way through these systems with ease compared to using a database system. What many people don’t understand is how easy it is to retrieve their data later on if they would have used a database system. If you were to look at spreadsheet applications much like that of Microsoft Excel you probably already understand that by its design it is much easier to crunch numbers within these types of systems. Programs like Excel are highly known for and recommended for manipulating numbers and complex equations. That may seem to work fine for the time being when you are only dealing with a limited amount of data/ accounts. You will notice as time goes on that the number of spreadsheets that you will need to conduct business will greatly increase making it hard to manage the amount of these spreadsheets and it will make it harder to track your information later on ( ). On top of this you will find yourself having to do a lot more work to attempt to get these different spreadsheets to work hand in hand with one another making the task very frustrating to all the users involved. There is one upside to dealing with spreadsheet applications rather than a database. I had just touched on the subject of crunching numbers earlier but let’s revisit that now. When dealing with possible such as future profits, target zones, or estimating net gains for a company it is much easier to do the work within a spreadsheet application and then use that information and upload it to a database system( ). The complexity of
Fundamentals of Database Systems
August 20, 2010
When dealing with large amounts of information that you will need to conduct business a spreadsheet may be an inferior choice. The choice of many users is to use spreadsheet applications when possible to store and house their data. This stems from the understanding of the systems. Most users understand the basic concepts behind spreadsheet applications and can manipulate their way through these systems with ease compared to using a database system. What many people don’t understand is how easy it is to retrieve their data later on if they would have used a database system. If you were to look at spreadsheet applications much like that of Microsoft Excel you probably already understand that by its design it is much easier to crunch numbers within these types of systems. Programs like Excel are highly known for and recommended for manipulating numbers and complex equations. That may seem to work fine for the time being when you are only dealing with a limited amount of data/ accounts. You will notice as time goes on that the number of spreadsheets that you will need to conduct business will greatly increase making it hard to manage the amount of these spreadsheets and it will make it harder to track your information later on ( ). On top of this you will find yourself having to do a lot more work to attempt to get these different spreadsheets to work hand in hand with one another making the task very frustrating to all the users involved. There is one upside to dealing with spreadsheet applications rather than a database. I had just touched on the subject of crunching numbers earlier but let’s revisit that now. When dealing with possible such as future profits, target zones, or estimating net gains for a company it is much easier to do the work within a spreadsheet application and then use that information and upload it to a database system( ). The complexity of
References: Cohen, B. (2004). Database Basics Part 2: Spreadsheets and Databases. Small Business Computing. Retrieved from http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/bizt