Name: Database vs Spreadsheet - Advantages and Disadvantages
Uploaded: 2020-03-09T00:41:38.000Z
Duration: 7 min 6 s
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Now, we understand why people use databases.

However, I would imagine some of you are Excel users and still imagine an Excel spreadsheet

Data tables, databases, and Excel spreadsheets are different things!

In this lecture, we will focus on the differences between spreadsheets and databases.

This exercise will be relevant, not only for current Excel users.

Those of you who do not use Excel regularly will still have the chance to understand the

advantages and the disadvantages of using databases or spreadsheets.

Let’s start with a definition What is a spreadsheet?

It is an electronic ledger, an electronic version of paper accounting worksheets.

It was created to facilitate people who needed to store their accounting information in tabular

So, it is possible to create tables in a spreadsheet.

This is one reason some people believe spreadsheets and databases are interchangeable, while,

Both can contain a large amount of tabular data and can use existing data to make calculations.

Third, neither spreadsheets nor databases are typically used by a single person, so

The differences between the two forms of data storage lie in the way these three characteristics

Every cell is treated as a unique entity.

It can store any type of information – a date, an integer value, a string name.

And then, not only can we have different types of values in various cells, but we can also

Each cell is a container of a single data value.

It is the smallest piece of information there is.

You must pre-set the type of data contained in a certain field.

This feature prevents inadvertent mistakes – for example, in a field containing date

values, should the user try to insert a string, the software will show an error and she will

This won’t happen in Excel – if you insert a string in the column with date values, you

wouldn’t obtain an error message, and Excel will store the string value.

In a spreadsheet, data can be stored in a cell, while in a database, data is stored

in a record of a table, meaning you must count the records in a table to express how long

the data table is, not the number of the cells.

And that is it – you cannot pick a font colour or size.

All you care about is the information being stored; you don’t care about formatting.

Another substantial difference is that, in a spreadsheet, different cells can contain

calculations, such as functions and formulas.

This means, if you want to combine two integers, the result will be stored in another cell.

In a database, all calculations and operations are based on the existing data and are done

There is a specific feature, called “views”, similar to the tables, in which you can do

These objects also contain columns that can be normal columns like the ones in the tables

or could contain a certain type of calculation.

There is no way you can mistake a record of data with a calculation.

The database features mentioned so far improve data integrity – you can’t store different

types of data in the same field, and it is unlikely someone will mistake a data value

for an outcome of a calculation, especially in large data sets.

Data integrity is a strong advantage when working with databases.

Naturally, you might think a spreadsheet can contain multiple worksheets, so one can create

tables in the worksheets, and then use the worksheets to create relations between the

Well, in a spreadsheet, such relations will be logically limited.

Instead of setting up spreadsheets or worksheets, one can set up relations between the tables,

and this will boost the performance of operations, increasing the speed with which you could

Albeit powerful for many circumstances, spreadsheets have their limitations.

Excel is incapable of handling over 1 million rows of data.

This immediately induces us to look for a solution.

Usually, the fix is to use databases, where having 2, 5, or 10 million records is not

Referring to the multi-user property, spreadsheets are lagging.

Essentially, every person must update their own spreadsheet with new data.

For instance, if there is a new purchase to register or a last name in the “Customers”

table to correct, every user must make these changes manually.

You would justifiably think Google Docs and the latest versions of Office solve this issue,

In Google Docs, you might have trouble finding out who changed or deleted information incorrectly,

which often leads to a cumbersome situation where people have a hard time organizing their

As opposed to that, you saw in the Data Control Language lecture that databases provide a

stable structure, controlling access permissions and user restrictions.

One person can make a change that is visible to everybody instantly.

This feature increases efficiency and data consistency when using databases.

Considering data integrity and data consistency, using databases eliminates duplicate information,

which is another way to save space and increase efficiency.

You know a certain first and last name corresponds to a unique email address.

So, if you know John McKinley has changed his email and you are using a spreadsheet

flooded with data, you may change the email address once and accidentally miss updating

They can be avoided when using a relational database - an accredited user only needs to

access the “Customers” table and change John McKinley’s email address there.

Not only will this operation save time, but it will also anticipate inconsistencies.

So, what we discussed in this lesson highlights why databases are a better environment for