Automating an alphabetical list from a spreadsheet

[cybertect]

My DB (in the screen shots) has two copies of Alien on different discs.

It's just some junk data I put in there for some basic testing. I can't comment on DaveC's data.

 

[berniedicters]

just learn to database man

better in the long run





not entirely serious post i know people find it easier to use the tools they are already familiar with but seriously for manipulating data use a database

I was going to say similar. Much of my IT career seemed to be spent trying to persuade people away from their vast and complicated spreadsheets into much simpler and more manageable databases.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

My DB (in the screen shots) has two copies of Alien on different discs.

It's just some junk data I put in there for some basic testing. I can't comment on DaveC's data.

just a jokey comment

mind you it' does mean you may get update errors and duplicate data

making the film title unique is no good because of remakes and films sharing names

if i was going to going ott a composite key made of name year ans director would work well to eliminate duplicates

 

[berniedicters]

just a jokey comment

mind you it' does mean you may get update errors and duplicate data

making the film title unique is no good because of remakes and films sharing names

if i was going to going ott a composite key made of name year ans director would work well to eliminate duplicates

I think when you get to that complexity of composite key, it's time to go for a unique autoincrement primary key and do the input validation in the middleware or at the front end...

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

probably the best way to go about it practically but i was trying to think along db design lines... i generally take shortcuts using the programming language so i try to spend some time thinking about more db design based solutions

 

[DaveCinzano]

I did a bit of tinkering at lunch time. Have a play.

Download 35 MB zip

If you think it will do the job well enough and want to send me over your appleworks sheet, I may be able to import your existing data to save you re-entering it.

cybertect, that is brilliant, many thanks!

I have had a little play on it, and from what I can see it does everything that I was looking for. May a thousand years of happiness reign over your house

If you PM me your email address I shall send you the spreadsheet - I have it in both AppleWorks and Excel.