Migrating from a spreadsheet to a database

Limitations of traditional spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are a popular choice for storing tabular data due to their familiar, row-by-column interface and ease of use. However, they can quickly become unwieldy as data grows. Over-reliance on Excel causes a multitude of problems such as data overlap, mistaken entries, conflicts from simultaneous usage, lack of scalability, and difficulty in maintaining data integrity and security.

Switching to a relational database solves these problems by centralizing data management, ensuring data consistency, providing robust data validation, and enabling concurrent access without conflicts.

Visual DB provides a spreadsheet-like interface so that users can migrate from Excel easily, and get all the benefits of a relational database without losing the ease-of-use of spreadsheets.

How Visual DB bridges the gap

Visual DB bridges the gap by marrying the spreadsheet interface with a robust relational database. Each row in a Visual DB sheet is backed by a database record, and stored in a centralized database. This gives you data consistency, integrity, and scalability while maintaining the ease of use of a spreadsheet.

Just like in a spreadsheet, Visual DB instantly recalculates formula fields when dependent fields are updated. Totals instantly update when any value in the column is edited.

When you save, Visual DB makes sure you don't overwrite changes made by others. Visual DB also protects the integrity of a record by not mixing your updates with someone else's. These may seem like basic features, but it is surprising how many of our competitors don't have these basic protections.

Going beyond traditional spreadsheets

Visual DB is not merely a spreadsheet replacement but also offers sophisticated capabilities commonly associated with business intelligence tools. These features include but are not limited to:

• Grouping with unlimited nesting levels
• Aggregation: see summaries at each level
• Sorting on multiple columns
• Advanced filtering

Advanced filtering

Visual DB is very good at helping you locate the record you want to update. It has advanced filtering that supports combining AND/OR conditions. It also has full-text filtering that instantly updates the screen as you type.

Scalability and performance

Visual DB supports the display of up to 100,000 records simultaneously. Don't worry if your database has millions of rows. Visual DB can accommodate databases of any size by using query parameters to fetch subsets of data.

Interoperability

Relational databases often serve as crucial integration hubs linking different business applications together. However, if a database is proprietary and is behind the firewall of another company, its effectiveness as an integration hub is compromised. Visual DB allows users to bring their own databases, ensuring they have complete control and ownership. This ensures interoperability with multiple applications beyond just Visual DB. This flexibility distinguishes Visual DB from its competitors.

Moreover, Visual DB does not demand any specialized types of tables or columns for its operations. It seamlessly integrates with your existing, standard tables and columns, ensuring compatibility and facilitating its use alongside other tools.

Key features

Here are the main features of the spreadsheet aspect of Visual DB:

• BYOD (Bring Your Own Database).
• Your database can be hosted in any cloud provider, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS and Google cloud.
• Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server.
• No code. Build sheets and forms with zero coding or SQL knowledge.
• Role-based access control: Decide who can add/remove columns and who can only enter/update data.
• Full-text filtering that instantly updates the screen as you type.
• Advanced filtering that supports combining AND/OR conditions.
• Grouping with unlimited levels of nesting.
• Unlimited number of records per table.
• Use query parameters to determine which subset of rows (out of millions) to display.
• Display columns from lookup tables, not just the main table.
• Instant scrolling of up to 100,000 rows.

Try it today with your own database.