Good Morning. VB - Excel automation / Excel database questi

Tom Schreiner · May 18th, 2002, 02:09 AM

Hi everyone.
I am in the beginning stages of a fairly large project and would like some advice on a few particulars.
At the heart of this project, I will need to create a database which will be referenced very often by several different programs for various reasons. The database will be updated with new information about every five minutes or so. Will be read only.
The options available are VB using ADO or Excel. Because of my familiarity with Excel and not with ADO, I would prefer to use Excel for now. The computers being used are low grade(about a pentium 300 or so with 128 megs ram) My main questions are namely:

Will using Excel for this database use many more resources as opposed to ADO?

This will be a hidden ole running of Excel.
If I have another workbook using application level code, will this affect my ole workbook as well?

Also, I will no doubt be converting to ADO eventually. Will I be able to, without extreme difficulty, convert my Excel sheets over to a stand alone data base?

Do you think this would be a good time to learn the ADO model? I have until July 1 to get this done. I cannot afford to spend several weeks learning ADO.

Thanks for the advise. If I did not ask the correct questions, please advise.

Tom

Nimrod · May 18th, 2002, 03:26 AM

I'm no expert in this but ... aren't you going to get into data integrity and sharing violation issues if two different sources attempt to write or access the data at the same time ?
How is excel going to handle backing out of incomplete transactions ? What will happen if two individuals write to two different Items in the same record simultaneously... data corruption ?

I could be wrong but when I think Multi-Access I think about Multi-Relation databases that can lock records and back out of transactions.

Tom Schreiner · May 18th, 2002, 03:46 AM

Thanks Nimrod...
This is getting more and more complicated.
I will learn ADO
Thanks,
Tom

mcleve · May 18th, 2002, 09:56 AM

Hi Tom,

Wish I could help but unfortunately this is the next step in the project that you have been helping me with..
Good Luck and let me know how it is coming!!

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May 18th, 2002, 02:09 AM	#1
Tom Schreiner Board Regular Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Posts: 6,824	Hi everyone. I am in the beginning stages of a fairly large project and would like some advice on a few particulars. At the heart of this project, I will need to create a database which will be referenced very often by several different programs for various reasons. The database will be updated with new information about every five minutes or so. Will be read only. The options available are VB using ADO or Excel. Because of my familiarity with Excel and not with ADO, I would prefer to use Excel for now. The computers being used are low grade(about a pentium 300 or so with 128 megs ram) My main questions are namely: Will using Excel for this database use many more resources as opposed to ADO? This will be a hidden ole running of Excel. If I have another workbook using application level code, will this affect my ole workbook as well? Also, I will no doubt be converting to ADO eventually. Will I be able to, without extreme difficulty, convert my Excel sheets over to a stand alone data base? Do you think this would be a good time to learn the ADO model? I have until July 1 to get this done. I cannot afford to spend several weeks learning ADO. Thanks for the advise. If I did not ask the correct questions, please advise. Tom

May 18th, 2002, 03:26 AM	#2
Nimrod MrExcel MVP Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Vancouver BC , Canada Posts: 6,259	I'm no expert in this but ... aren't you going to get into data integrity and sharing violation issues if two different sources attempt to write or access the data at the same time ? How is excel going to handle backing out of incomplete transactions ? What will happen if two individuals write to two different Items in the same record simultaneously... data corruption ? I could be wrong but when I think Multi-Access I think about Multi-Relation databases that can lock records and back out of transactions.

May 18th, 2002, 03:46 AM	#3
Tom Schreiner Board Regular Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Posts: 6,824	Thanks Nimrod... This is getting more and more complicated. I will learn ADO Thanks, Tom

May 18th, 2002, 09:56 AM	#4
mcleve New Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 25	Hi Tom, Wish I could help but unfortunately this is the next step in the project that you have been helping me with.. Good Luck and let me know how it is coming!!