Re: Vlookup nightmare

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

aaron.kempf@xxxxxxxxx wrote
>harlan so you think that excel is the best tool

Not all the time, no. I've been pretty caustic about using it for
systems admin, text processing, even what should be database work. But
for what it does do well, free-form numeric calculations, it WAY EASIER
than any database.

>you think that access is 'too hard' to use and yet you talk smack about
>postgres?

You're confusing different points. For most Excel users, both Access
and PostgreSQL (and Oracle, DB2, and name your RDBMS flavor) represent
unknown territory, so are more difficult to use than the crude but
known tool (much like you and spreadsheets).

For me, RDBMSs and SQL are part of my toolset. I use Access for ad hoc
queries (because I'm lazy and find the query builder faster for simple
queries than writing SQL queries), but I'd never build a system for
other users based on it.

>access is the best, easiest to use db product in the world. all data
>'should' be in ODBC-- i'm sorry that you have a bunch of excel dorks
>for friends.

Who says I have any friends?

AFAIK, my friends don't use Excel except perhaps for personal finance,
and Excel most definitely does make a MUCH BETTER financial calculator
than Access.

As for Excel developers, I do work with some, and it's my ongoing
project to get them to do things my way. However, they, unlike you,
know Excel is better for some things than Access (or Word or whatever),
know when it isn't, and have demonstrated some capacity for learning
how to improve their usage of Excel.

>put everything in ODBC and your life becomes a lot easier

Perhaps, but if the choice is direct entry of hierarchical information
(best description of the sort of stuff I get from customers) into Excel
or into Access, I'll choose Excel because I know which is easier.

You need to realize that it's a function of just how far down the
ladder you are that you have most of what you need via ODBC.

.

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