In: Computer Science
: Write a paragraph to reflect on what you have learned about Microsoft access in terms of the difference between relational databases versus spreadsheets. Discuss ways in which a relational database could be useful for your work (if you have a job) or for your personal or professional projects (if you are a full-time student)
A spreadsheet is not a database. These are 2 separate tools that complement each other. A database and a spreadsheet work in tandem with each other. The data contained in a database is viewed in and orderly, formatted manner by exporting it to a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet allows many calculations on it and thus helps the user make more sense out of the data by using charts, graphs, calculations, etc.
In a relational database (RDB), data is collected from various sources and stored into what is known as tables. These tables will have some kind of a "relationship" amongst them. A well defined relationship between tables can be maintained to enforce the data integrity. An RDB can store all kinds of data and from various data sources in very high volume.
Student Expense RDB
For eg. You can have tables containing the list of all the various types of expenses (Rent, Food, Medical, Entertainment, Utilities,etc) incurred along with a unique expense code for each type. Second table containing the entries for all daily expense amounts along with the respective expense code. "Expense Code" is the relationship between the tables. The data from this example can be exported to make a spreadsheet indicating which category of expense has the highest amounts, and a monthly graph can be built using this information to see the trending months with highest expenses. Furthermore even a trend of daily expenses can be made to indicate what part of the month sees the highest expenses.
Employee @ NESTLEX using an RDB
Consider an employee using SAP (an ERP system) in his company say, Nestlex . The company manufactures and sells food products. There are relational databases that store all the data starting from Customer Interaction, Purchasing, Sales Orders, Warehousing, Manufacturing,Finance and Waste Disposal. From the customer facing sales executive, the factory manager, the accountant, the warehouse manager, the HR and the CFO all make use of the SAP based ERP system to meet their work requirements.