kahouty — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 23:29:24 +0000

Yes. MYSQL is the way to go with this sort of thing. And the above is all good advice, modeling the db...setting up a unique 'ID' for each user and adding the tables and columns from there. It would be way easier to set it all up as a nice web form and output it all in a nice 'format.php' page. In most cases excel is going to be a crutch compared to what you CAN do with php and mysql. Look into some possibilities and maybe present them to the 'client'. Theres always a better way to go about things imo.

model the data

Paul Lyons — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:45:45 +0000

So often people get tied to excel or worse FileMaker without realizing that there are so many better ways.

The first thing to do is to model the database.

List all the fields in this excel doc and figure out the best table structure.

At a minumum each user would have one record for there account.
A "user" or "directory" table which would relate via an ID or username to the records.

Search for sites on data modeling or pick up "data design for mere morals" by hernandez... a great book for starters.

it sounds like the projext needs to get to the next generation.

best of luck

Busy — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 20:52:03 +0000

excel can be imported into MYSQL but as a text based doc, you'd have to use PHP or recreate the formulars.

You say it has to be exported into excel but nothing about info being displayed. You could do it two fold, import data into MYSQL database (for safe keeping) then export the info to you as a .cs? (comma seperated something - forgot the last word), anyways this text file with all the data can be imported into excel.
you could cut out the database and just create the text file but being safe with back up is handy