what is the purpose of access
You may be the same person who posted the previous message, but here's
the same answer just in case:
On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 23:15:02 -0700,
Access is a "relational database management system", and a user
interface that can be used with other relational database management
systems, such as SQL Server.
A relational database is a logical way of storing information; you
will have many "tables" - collections of data about one particular
kind of person, thing or event - which are connected in a logical way.
For example, in a database for a school, you would have a table of
Students, a table of Classes, a table of Teachers, a table of Grades,
and probably several other tables, and be able to use these tables to
combine information about all these subjects.
how does it differ from Excel?
Excel is a spreadsheet, a good one. It's best used when you need to do
calculations and graphs and projections based on individual sets of
data. It is NOT a relational database; you can create "tables" in
Excel, and even (with a lot of work) create relationships between the
tables, but that's not its primary purpose. "You can drive nails with
a crescent wrench but that doesn't make it a hammer" - use Excel for
spreadsheets and flexible calculations, use Access for databases.
