Database (Spreadsheet) Help.

[GameDesigner]

Does anybody have any experience working with Excel Spreadsheets and MMF2. I tried to do one and I am not really getting it and understanding all those commands has run my patience thin.

All I want is to have something that can access a shared excel file and update an item I have while still allowing me to add new commands later.

For example:

This is a test. did it pass? YES / NO WHY?

I want the question to be something I can just add in excel whenever I want.

The yes and no I want to be check boxes that when clicked will save the info in the excel document based on which is selected.

The Why section I want to have any comments on why the test failed.

All these should be saved and accessible at anytime. Giving them a number to search through may help finding things too.

Any help someone can give me. For someone who has no more patience I would appreciate your help.

Thanks,

[droberson]

Have you considered just using the data grid and loading and saving the information that way?

Is Excel the only way you can save the data???

Let me know and I will try to help.

[DJFuego]

you'll need to save as CSV pray that the person opening the file in excel knows what they're doing. Then read that file back into the data grid. or, use the excel active x.

[GameDesigner]

I really wanted to use the data grid but alas I am only on MMF2 and I can't afford to spend the extra money on Developer.

Excel I thought would just be the easiest way to have shared data since I don't know much or may not have access to other means like access and such.

[GameDesigner]

The only person touching the excel file would be me but I want to be sure that certain changes (When test result is chosen) can be relayed from my MMF2 created application into that excel file from different PCs.

[droberson]

How about using ODBC to set the data source to the excel file. Then use SQL command to add, delete or update records?

Another option is to create a file the data is dumped to, and then in Excel use its database tools to connect to the data file for viewing.

[GameDesigner]

I have tried that too but it is a bit beyond me. I don't know anything about SQL so I wouldn't even know how to start. If anybody is willing to do an example of how to make a Dbase using excel. I would appreciate it. Essentially I am planning on having 4 different criteria.

1)Current Date
2)Test performed
3)Result Pass/Fail
4)Comments

If anybody knows how to use ODBC and wouln't mind setting me up I would be eternally greatful. I just don't grasp this technical database stuff.

[droberson]

Ok, so let talk about how many rows of data you expect to maintain in the database? Are you talking about 1000, 10,000, 100,000 or more?

Excel is fine for smaller number of records. When you load a speadsheet the entire datafile is loaded into memory.

If you speaking of a large number of records a database is better to use like MySQL or some other.

[GameDesigner]

Well probablt 4-5 cells wide and possibly 1000's of records down. Is that too much when using excel?

[droberson]

What do you mean by 1000's??? 10,000, 100,000. Give me an estimate range of the total. Excel has a max of about 65,000 but remember they all get loaded into memory in one shot. So depending on how much memory and how many characters per record it may not all fit in memory of the computer. That is why a database is better because it loads in chucks that will fit in memory so you can have 100's of thousands to millions of records.