Re: [libreoffice-users] Schema in Calc

Hi :)
I seriously doubt it!  It is database functionality.

It would be like expecting a word-processor to have DTP functionality, or a
text-editor to do the same things as a word-processor.

One option might be to get Base to read the tables as it's external
back-ends.  That would get you to the same screen showing all the different
tables/work-sheets and their headings.  However since the calculations take
place within the work-sheets Base wouldn't show any links between the
tables just yet.

Although you don't see the links directly it might help you figure out the
obvious ones and a print-out (or screen-shot) of that screen might help you
be able to draw in the rest as you figure them out by hunting through the
worksheets.

This process might help you figure out how to set-up Queries to do the work
that is mostly done within worksheets at the moment and that would probably
increase reliability quite a lot.


So, that route might help you migrate the whole work-book and all it's
sheets into a proper database.  One problem with spreadsheets is that a
column or row might not have every field doing the same calculation as all
the rest in the row or column.  People sometimes put a lot of effort into
finding errant cells that misbehave in that way and there are a lot of
tools to help track such cells down.  A database allows you to write a (or
modify) a calculation (formula) in one place, in a Query usually.  Then you
can be certain that exactly that formula is applied to every single line
with no exceptions (although IF type statements help deal with special
cases).  The Query contains no actual data and only has the formula written
once so it's extremely light-weight but when viewed as a table it looks
like one of the tabs (a worksheet) within a spreadsheet.  If you want it to
look pretty then set-up a Form or Report to present the output of the Query
in a more pleasant manner.


Errr, part of the power of spreadsheets is that it does have the
flexibility to have very different calculations in a column or row but then
each cell needs to be labeled usually in an adjacent cell/field so that you
know what it's for a few months or years later.  Unfortunately many people
keep using spreadsheets to do what a database would do better = which is ok
as part of the planning process but often becomes unwieldy in the
longer-term.
Regards from
Tom :)



On 30 July 2014 07:37, Pat Brown <mistyhaven@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>    In a relationall DB there is a facility to display all the tables and
> this also shows how the tables are related and also which fields are
> related and how they are related. This is extremely useful to get an
> overall pcture of how things fit together and, importantly in this case,
> what the effects would be of changing something in one table on the data in
> the other tables. Does such a feature exist in Calc? With a large number of
> sheets and many cells looking up data in cells on other sheets it would be
> great to be able to see how changing a sheet name or a column heading would
> affect the rest of the data.
>
> Thanks
>
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