This is my first post, I am sorry if I have got it wrong.  I need some help with EXCEL. I have a spreadsheet of 66 columns and about 400 rows.  This is to identify species of timber ( the rows), from their attributes ( the columns).  I tick the column that an attribute is present, then another column where an attribute of the same species is present.  Up to 30 attributes may be present for one row, but scattered over the columns. Is there ant way of getting the software to identify the row to which all the ticked attributes apply?Excel has some database capabilities but you would be much better off importing your spreadsheet into Access which has much easier to use querying capabilities.Thanks for your suggestion.  I have considered using Access but I am much less familiar with that and there will be a learning curve. I would also take a long time to ENTER all the data. However a friend of mine has come up with the solution, which is to use the Filters tool in  Excel and that works.  Many thanks to everyone who has read my post and considered it, especially to Thank strollin. As far as importing data into a database from excel, if you saved your data as a csv you could import it to access, but you would need to learn how to create the structure of the database layout for the data to be passed to it.

I use MySQL and a tool called SQLyog for my databases, and SQLyog community edition is free and allows you to have a GUI visual tool to create, edit, and delete pieces of the database as well as run querys etc.

If I was having to import the data to a database from excel I would create a csv file and then edit this csv file with instructions on how to place the data contained inside it into the database. Then once this is done, run it and it very quickly would populate the database values into the database.

However this is not an easy task for anyone who has never done this before. You would have to be really committed to learning it and working with it.


If the data your working with just needs a search function and then ability to look up or edit info then excel might be the way to go with a 'flat database" layout, however if you want to be able to import and export data and have custom reports and custom interfaces to interact with the data with, then you really need to have a real database. The nice thing with Access is that it plays well with Visual Basic for creating interfaces for it with VBA. http://www.functionx.com/vbaccess/

For my database with MySQL, my PROGRAMS run in C++ and C# to interact with it. Quote from: CharlesC on November 01, 2014, 01:52:03 PM

Thanks for your suggestion.  I have considered using Access but I am much less familiar with that and there will be a learning curve. I would also take a long time to enter all the data. However a friend of mine has come up with the solution, which is to use the Filters tool in  Excel and that works.  Many thanks to everyone who has read my post and considered it, especially to Thank strollin.

If I was having to import the data to a database from excel I would create a csv file and then edit this csv file with instructions on how to place the data contained inside it into the database. Then once this is done, run it and it very quickly would populate the database values into the database.