4.2.3 Spreadsheets and databases

• Databases


  Software used to store and process huge amounts of data
• Databases and spreadsheets are both concerned with storing and processing huge amounts of data
• Databases can be used like spreadsheets to calculate totals, generate statistics and process data using equations to generate new values
• Purpose of databases


  To store different types of data
• Purpose of spreadsheets


  Originally software recreations of business ledgers used to keep track of company accounts
• Evolution of spreadsheets


  1. Initially did little more than summarising columns or rows of numbers

  2. Later included formulae to calculate profits, losses and taxes, as well as statistical analyses and charting
• Spreadsheets have no need for queries
• It is possible to search for individual values within a spreadsheet, but it is not possible to replicate the complex selections and modifications to data performed by database queries