Access v Excel: When to Use Access

 

Due to the learning curve involved many people use Excel for their database data when it would be much more efficient using Access.  They are probably using Excel because they are comfortable with it and do not have time to learn Access.  However in some areas Access is far more efficient managing large amounts of data and the training investment would be well worth it.

 

Some examples below:

 

·         You have data that is constantly changing and you frequently need to produce reports based on it.  Your Reports and Queries in Access are dynamic.  What this means is that you are storing the instructions and not the results.  The results are only produced once you run the report or Query.  The benefit of this is that if the data you are querying or reporting changes you do not have to rewrite your reports and queries.  In Excel this would present you with quite a bit of extra work editing and reformatting.

 

·         Creating additional reports and queries is so much easier in access as it does not involve creating links and transferring data.

 

·         As you are able to store several tables within an Access database it enables you to organise your data more logically and efficiently.  Your Reports and Queries are able to reference multiple tables in a much easier way than Excel.

 

·         If you are using a version of Excel prior to 2007 you are limited to 65,536 records.  Access is able to handle much larger numbers.

 

·         With a large amount of data Access will be much quicker at extracting records that meet multiple criteria.

 

For further information go to catraining.net