Re: Serial, concurrent, parallel

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

On 1/16/2025 5:03 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
 
 

... Especially as so many people seem to use spreadsheets
in lieu of (real) databases.  :<

 
As far as I can see, a databse is just a spreadsheet that has been
crippled by having all the cells on each line tied together

 
Databases (relational ones) are *so* much more.  In addition to
strict typing on each "column", you can define relationships
between columns and specific values in columns, writing code
to enforce constraints so that certain values are not accepted
in certain places based on other values, etc.
 
E.g., I can state that "fertile" can not be true if "sex" is not "female".
On a per-record basis.  So, Bob can never be marked as "fertile" but
Becky might!
 
Or, that the city can not be "chicago" unless the state is "Illinois"
(I am assuming there are no chicagos in other states; "Springfield"
tends to be a popular city name -- but, there is no Springfield in
Alaska so if someone tries to enter an address of Springfield,
Alaska, it is known to be invalid and shouldn't be accepted.).
 
Or, that a social security number must be of the form XXX-##-####
*and* XXX can't be 000, 333, 666, etc.
 
Or, that a mother's birth date must precede those of her biological
children by at least 5 years but the father's must precede his
biological children by 9 years.
 
Etc.

All of those can be done on a spreadsheet.  ...and similar checks can be
done between cells in different rows.  The check formula is written into
a 'hidden' cell and the final result is displayed in a 'locked' cell.
If someone puts in faulty data, the spreadsheet can't stop them but it
can ensure that the dud data doesn't appear in the output.

I use spreadsheets for all sorts of things: calculating component
values, customers and accounts, encoding sensitive information,
addressing envelopes, uploading invoices to the Web ...etc.

I tried using a database to keep track of my Christmas Cards, but find
it slow and restrictive compared with a spreadsheet.


--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk