The Underscore Archives

> Rick Edwards asked
>Just out of interest why does the client want to maintain their master
"database" as an excel spreadsheet and not work >>.with their actual
database they've had built for their website?

We use excel to collate and calculate our data before loading into mysql
tables several times a week (using the rename/swop method). We are
constantly thinking about the best method, but so far the spreadsheet
wins everytime for data that changes a lot and requires calculation,
insert and delete, copy and paste, edit and replace, etc and all the
other things that spreadsheets are so good at. And office staff are far
more likely to be able to do this with excel than with mysql. 

I would guess that the above client views their excel spreadsheet as the
main data and calculation core of their business, whilst the table that
exists on the website is just a regular "snapshot".

Regards
Rupert Russell
www.comcar.co.uk