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Other posters have mentioned Microsoft's Excel 20-year-old ODBC support [0]: you can connect any database as a source of data, then create pivot tables for live

Other posters have mentioned Microsoft's Excel 20-year-old ODBC support [0]: you can connect any database as a source of data, then create pivot tables for live ad-hoc transforms and summarizations of a database. This is a separate feature to connecting to an Excel spreadsheet using ODBC. I showed this to my manager and he immediately demanded I explain to the rest of the team how this black magic worked… [0]: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Overview-of-connecting-to-importing-data-c0ad7aec-ff1a-4e48-9c21-dc18a102433f https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Overview-of-connect...

lancewiggs 10y ago
ODBC is over 20 years old. I was using ODBC from MS Access to query Oracle databases in the early 90s - both ODBC and (preferably) pass-through queries. The entire system included then generating (recursive) reports in Access, passing the data to Excel to integrate with other data and input, opening and updating a Powerpoint file with linked tables, saving the PPT and returning to Excel for the next in the series. All driven by VBA. All in 1995, maybe 1994 too. I had to restart Windows after each run of 20 or so, and had two computers as one was always tied up running jobs. Kludgy but at least I wan't writing COBOL. Here is some 1994 PR: http://archives.cpajournal.com/old/16531700.htm http://archives.cpajournal.com/old/16531700.htm
dizzystar 10y ago
Was going to post about this. The ODBC support is actually pretty awesome, but it is a pain in the ass to get working on some databases. If you want to connect to PostgreSQL, for example, go through these steps and enter the bowels of Windows: http://www.dashbay.com/2011/03/working-with-postgres-on-windows-via-odbc/ http://www.dashbay.com/2011/03/working-with-postgres-on-wind... You can also use the ODBC in LibreOffice Calc to similar effect. You can also connect to the database with MS Access and LibreOffice Base. In my opinion, it is much easier to make an intuitive interface for a non-tech user. SpreadsheetDB seems to want curl and JSON requests, which is never going to be used by a non-tech.

lancewiggs 10y ago

ODBC is over 20 years old. I was using ODBC from MS Access to query Oracle databases in the early 90s - both ODBC and (preferably) pass-through queries. The entire system included then generating (recursive) reports in Access, passing the data to Excel to integrate with other data and input, opening and updating a Powerpoint file with linked tables, saving the PPT and returning to Excel for the next in the series. All driven by VBA. All in 1995, maybe 1994 too. I had to restart Windows after each run of 20 or so, and had two computers as one was always tied up running jobs. Kludgy but at least I wan't writing COBOL. Here is some 1994 PR: http://archives.cpajournal.com/old/16531700.htm http://archives.cpajournal.com/old/16531700.htm

dizzystar 10y ago

Was going to post about this. The ODBC support is actually pretty awesome, but it is a pain in the ass to get working on some databases. If you want to connect to PostgreSQL, for example, go through these steps and enter the bowels of Windows: http://www.dashbay.com/2011/03/working-with-postgres-on-windows-via-odbc/ http://www.dashbay.com/2011/03/working-with-postgres-on-wind... You can also use the ODBC in LibreOffice Calc to similar effect. You can also connect to the database with MS Access and LibreOffice Base. In my opinion, it is much easier to make an intuitive interface for a non-tech user. SpreadsheetDB seems to want curl and JSON requests, which is never going to be used by a non-tech.