[libreoffice-users] Re: database or spreadsheet

Am 07.02.2012 23:08, Dan Lewis wrote:
>       A spreadsheet (Calc or Excel ) cab be used as a back end data
> source and Base as the front end. How does this fit into this
> discussion?

We were talking about the process to turn a collection of spreadsheet 
lists into a relational database. I tried to explain that this involves 
a lot more than copying data and adding forms.

A spreadsheet as data source of a Base document is not a database at 
all. It is a way to present spreadsheet data as if they were stored in a 
database. Some sheets may contain matrices, descriptive text or any mix 
of data rather than database-like lists.
I use this quite often for "fuzzy address collections" copied and 
dragged around from various other sources. Finally I collect everything 
in a Base query and tell "my users" to use this query for a certain 
serial letter.
The beauty of data sources is that the user who needs to compose a 
serial letter or label printing, does not even need to know where the 
data come from. All he/she needs to know is the name of the data source 
and the name of a query. The rest is always the same.

>       Remember that Base will only create queries and reports from the
> spreadsheet. Neither fields, views, nor tables can be created, modified,
> or deleted. All of these types of changes must be done in the
> spreadsheet.
>       Also, what about saving each sheet of the spreadsheet as a dBase
> file?

It is the best database format for flat lists. You can edit the data 
directly in the data source window. dBase is editable, can be indexed 
for fast lookups and it has no practically relevant row limits. But the 
built-in dBase driver does not provide relations and the query 
limitations are the same as with csv or sheets. If you save an 
inconsistent spreadsheet as dBase the resulting table will be text only. 
So you better check your data.


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