Excel vs. Access - please help!!!! Urgent!!!

[Guest]

Hi everyone!

I have a very important and urgent question - it's for a internship project
and I have to decide by tomorrow!!
I have to choose between Excel and Access for working on a large data set
that comes as an excel file with many variables and observations for these
variables. We will have to determine many measures (like ratios, percentages
etc...) that will have to be calculated each week
What would you suggest using?

Thanks a bunch

D

 

[Guest]

I'd use access, it's easier to set up and organize reports and qureies.
Excel just has the tabs/sheets to organize things.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Hi everyone!

I have a very important and urgent question - it's for a internship
project and I have to decide by tomorrow!!
I have to choose between Excel and Access for working on a large data
set that comes as an excel file with many variables and observations
for these variables. We will have to determine many measures (like
ratios, percentages etc...) that will have to be calculated each week
What would you suggest using?

Thanks a bunch

D

That sure sounds like a job for Excel. However it does depend.

How well do you know Access? Excel?

How many lines - records are you talking about? Are you coming close to
Excel's limits. That might force your decision.

While I am more of an Access person, I still use Excel for many
functions.

 

[Guest]

We will have about 90 variables and each variable with about 3,000-5,000
observations per week. Maybe all these variables will be aggregated in much
fewer observations, I am just not sure.

and also we will definitely not use all 90 variables - From the weekly data
we will have to calculate some 10-15 very easy (like ratios between averages
of two variables) reporting measures and draw some graphs.

My boss just wants to have to press one button each week (when getting the
new data file) and get the report. does that sound doable?

Guys, thank you again for saving me

 

[Arvin Meyer]

The one thing not mentioned so far is the file size. Excel can handle 64,000
rows of data, Access significantly more (2 GB of data, or comfortably about
half that amount). For analyzing existing data, Excel is a better tool. For
entering and storing it, Access is the better tool. There is no reason
whatsoever that you can't use them both, even with 1 button. I do
Access/Word/Excel/PowerPoint/MapPoint integration all the time. With
Microsoft Office and a bit of skill, it's a piece of cake.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access Downloads
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access

 

[Joseph Meehan]

We will have about 90 variables and each variable with about
3,000-5,000 observations per week. Maybe all these variables will be
aggregated in much fewer observations, I am just not sure.

and also we will definitely not use all 90 variables - From the
weekly data we will have to calculate some 10-15 very easy (like
ratios between averages of two variables) reporting measures and draw
some graphs.

My boss just wants to have to press one button each week (when
getting the new data file) and get the report. does that sound doable?

Guys, thank you again for saving me

:

If I understand correctly that means you will have 3-5 thousand rows
used in Excel. That is a comfort level for Excel.

I have never worked with an Excel file requiring that many entries every
week (plenty of Access files however). I understand you can set up a data
entry form of sorts to make it easier.

At this time, I would be leaning towards Excel.

Arvin had a good point, maybe using Access for the data entry part.

 

[Mike Painter]

Hi everyone!

I have a very important and urgent question - it's for a internship
project and I have to decide by tomorrow!!
I have to choose between Excel and Access for working on a large data
set that comes as an excel file with many variables and observations
for these variables. We will have to determine many measures (like
ratios, percentages etc...) that will have to be calculated each week
What would you suggest using?

Sounds a bit to much like a homework assignment to me.

If *you* have to make the decision I would guess that the people expect
*you* to have the knowledge needed.

 

[Guest]

Hey guys, thank you all for your suggestions - I decided to use excel for
the main project but also work in Access on the side. after all, just like
you said they are fully compatible and can be integrated (well don't know at
this point how but have several weeks to learn it)

So thanks again to all of you
D