Programming Forums - View Single Post - Your help needed in getting started, please.

dcw9996 · Feb 25th, 2008, 11:56 AM

Thank you all for your responses!!! I greatly appreciate everyone taking the time. You gave me alot to think about.

But first, let me apologize for the double post. I clicked the link to register, and did so. When I got the confirmation email, I clicked the supplied link and it brought me here. I created my post, but when I attempted to post it I received a message that "you are not logged in". So I logged in and that's when my post doubled. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I have a few questions, if I may. I was interested in the suggestions about MS SQL, so I took a look around. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I read it seems that SQL is used to "access" different databases (like MS Access, Orale, Sybase, etc). None of my daily work is in any of these databases, so would this avenue be a waste of time?

And your suggestions that I start with something that I can apply to what I do every day was right on the money. It would be much more meaningful to me to work towards something that has some value to what I do.

All of my work is in Excel. This is for 2 reasons. 1) I'm good with Excel so it's easy for me. But the second reason is the main reason. My bosses, while not very good at all with Excel, they are familiar with it. So I have set up an "interface" sheet (so to speak) and they can go there and easily "ask" questions of the database that I've built. MS Access, which is available to us, scare the crap out of them. And the learning curve for them would be horrendus.

So, referring back to a suggestion lectricpharoah made, what language could I use to create my own database from the Excel data that I have? Will SQL pull info from Excel as well? If I were to put my data from Excel into Access, what could I use to build a simple interface to pull info from Access, and allow dunderheads to research info from the database?

I realize that it will take me CONSIDERABLE time to accomplish this. But it will give me something really functional to focus on.

Sorry to ramble on. Thanks again for your help.

Don

Feb 25th, 2008, 11:56 AM	#6
dcw9996 Newbie Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Upsate NY Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Re: Your help needed in getting started, please. Thank you all for your responses!!! I greatly appreciate everyone taking the time. You gave me alot to think about. But first, let me apologize for the double post. I clicked the link to register, and did so. When I got the confirmation email, I clicked the supplied link and it brought me here. I created my post, but when I attempted to post it I received a message that "you are not logged in". So I logged in and that's when my post doubled. Sorry for the inconvenience. I have a few questions, if I may. I was interested in the suggestions about MS SQL, so I took a look around. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I read it seems that SQL is used to "access" different databases (like MS Access, Orale, Sybase, etc). None of my daily work is in any of these databases, so would this avenue be a waste of time? And your suggestions that I start with something that I can apply to what I do every day was right on the money. It would be much more meaningful to me to work towards something that has some value to what I do. All of my work is in Excel. This is for 2 reasons. 1) I'm good with Excel so it's easy for me. But the second reason is the main reason. My bosses, while not very good at all with Excel, they are familiar with it. So I have set up an "interface" sheet (so to speak) and they can go there and easily "ask" questions of the database that I've built. MS Access, which is available to us, scare the crap out of them. And the learning curve for them would be horrendus. So, referring back to a suggestion lectricpharoah made, what language could I use to create my own database from the Excel data that I have? Will SQL pull info from Excel as well? If I were to put my data from Excel into Access, what could I use to build a simple interface to pull info from Access, and allow dunderheads to research info from the database? I realize that it will take me CONSIDERABLE time to accomplish this. But it will give me something really functional to focus on. Sorry to ramble on. Thanks again for your help. Don