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You know, if you want to fast sort 20k lines, then Excel is the wrong tool. Access is better, and with their DOM linking model you can simply define once, use m

You know, if you want to fast sort 20k lines, then Excel is the wrong tool. Access is better, and with their DOM linking model you can simply define once, use multiple times as you delete/edit/insert lines into that Excel/Word. Click of a button in Access and zbang! those lines are sorted instantly. For single user Access is still fastest database to use locally. Nothing beats it! Well, until you need 50 millions records, at which point you definitely switch to PostgreSQL as none of Microsoft tools beats that beast when it comes to large data (MSSQL included!).

TheRealPomax 6y ago
It really isn't. Access is great for _persistent_ data, but if I have a .csv file and I just need it quickly sorted so I can grab the top 100 entries after multi-column sorting, Access is about as useful as SQL: pointless for what I need.
- unnouinceput 6y ago
  Then you definitely don't know to use it to it's usefulness. But that's OK, as long as Excel fits you needs. You do know, just like in Excel, you can simply right click on column data and select order, yes? Or filter if you want. To your point, if I have a .csv file I can simply copy/paste it to Access in a new table, and just next/next through the wizard that will pop-up. Now do a test, get that .csv file, with 20k rows, and paste it in Excel 50 times, so you'll have 1M records in a table. Let me know in how much time Excel vs. Access will order it.
  - tracker1 6y ago
    That's my quick and dirty shortcut to get one-off csv imported into a database (even remote rdbms)... Usually paste into a new database table, then query/insert and drop said table when done. That or I'll write a one-off node script.
tracker1 6y ago
While I do like Access for some use cases, and Access provides a decent UI option as a quick and dirty for anything with an odbc driver (even csv), It's not great or the fastest option. For that matter, you can use SQLite about anywhere you might otherwise use JET, .Net Core now has a driver in the box, and you can use it anywhere .Net Core works.

TheRealPomax 6y ago

It really isn't. Access is great for _persistent_ data, but if I have a .csv file and I just need it quickly sorted so I can grab the top 100 entries after multi-column sorting, Access is about as useful as SQL: pointless for what I need.

unnouinceput 6y ago
Then you definitely don't know to use it to it's usefulness. But that's OK, as long as Excel fits you needs. You do know, just like in Excel, you can simply right click on column data and select order, yes? Or filter if you want. To your point, if I have a .csv file I can simply copy/paste it to Access in a new table, and just next/next through the wizard that will pop-up. Now do a test, get that .csv file, with 20k rows, and paste it in Excel 50 times, so you'll have 1M records in a table. Let me know in how much time Excel vs. Access will order it.
- tracker1 6y ago
  That's my quick and dirty shortcut to get one-off csv imported into a database (even remote rdbms)... Usually paste into a new database table, then query/insert and drop said table when done. That or I'll write a one-off node script.

tracker1 6y ago

While I do like Access for some use cases, and Access provides a decent UI option as a quick and dirty for anything with an odbc driver (even csv), It's not great or the fastest option. For that matter, you can use SQLite about anywhere you might otherwise use JET, .Net Core now has a driver in the box, and you can use it anywhere .Net Core works.