MS Excel

[Wudang]

With Microsoft Access you do not need any other software. It is similar to Excel with extra features, like being able to define relationships between tables and very easy to produce reports and views. No need to touch SQL (unless you want to). It is all done for you. Great if you are the only one doing updates.

My query above was asking does other software work just as easily? It looks like, from reading other people's posts, the answer is no.

Right - MySql the front-end (Workbench) isn't bundled with it.It's a separate download.
The SQLite BM mentions is quite cool. The Plex media server uses it under the covers for its catalog.
I had a quick look at Libre Office Base and the "create a new DB wizard" seems pretty straightforward compared to my dim and distant memories of helping someone with MS Access.
We've wandered away from Excel though which is a different beast though Excel can be a useful tool for analysing a DB.

 

[TragicMonkey]

We've wandered away from Excel though which is a different beast though Excel can be a useful tool for analysing a DB.

Indeed. It's sometimes easier to grab a bunch of detailed data from a database, dump it into a spreadsheet, and play with it there to see what's in there. It feels like getting your hands directly on the data. I also like to pivot raw data in Excel in order to double check any complicated grouping and pivoting I've done in SQL, so if I get different results I can see I've made a mistake somewhere.

Excel's also handy sometimes in writing SQL, like if you have a large list of values you need to put in your query sometimes it's easier to use concatenate and other text functions in Excel to format them before you paste them into your query. I frequently get handed lists of names or numbers to pull data about, and begin able to format them for my convenience first is handy.

 

[wobs]

We've wandered away from Excel though which is a different beast though Excel can be a useful tool for analysing a DB.

Hey, that's fine, as I'm pretty clueless with SQL, so I may learn something if you keep it in "English".

 

[Wudang]

Hey, that's fine, as I'm pretty clueless with SQL, so I may learn something if you keep it in "English".

At its heart SQL is easy - it's just set theory you learned in school maths. Think of it like that and a lot falls into place.

 

[alfaniner]

Related to my problems with backing up:
I have a directory listing of the folders I'd like to back up. I can't just do the top level because that kacks my system for some reason. So I'm breaking it down. I've tried free backup suites but have the same issue.
I'm putting this out to coders out there. I'm using robocopy. I've got a directory listing of the folder, fully qualified. What I'd like is to create a .bat file in this format:

robocopy "sourceFolder1" "destinationFolder1" parameters
robocopy "sourceFolder2" "destinationFolder2" parameters
robocopy "sourceFolder3" "destinationFolder3" parameters

I know I need the quotes because the top level folder name has a space in it. (It's my User name, so I hesitate to change it, in case it screws up some links.)
I've tried using OpenOffice and LibreOffice Calc (not much difference from MSExcel), pasting the directory listing into two columns, and adding columns on either side with the extra commands. But I have a devil of a time formatting and getting the cmd window to accept it properly (even after converting it to a .txt file.)

I think a better way might be to have the folder names in a separate file, and import each line into the Calc file dynamically. So it would work like

robocopy SourceExternalFileLine1(folderName) DestinationExternalFileLine1(=sameFolderName with new output disc path) parameters
robocopy SourceExternalFileLine2 DestinationExternalFileLine2 parameters
robocopy SourceExternalFileLine3 DestinationExternalFileLine3 parameters...etc.

I know a little about using % for substitution, and macros. (I was a software analyst for several years.) But I thought perhaps someone here might know off the top of their head. Trust me, I've been fiddling with this for hours the last few days. Yes, it would be faster to do each line manually (by now) but I want to automate it for future use so I don't have to do all that again. (Just get a listing, and say "Back these up".)

 

[Wudang]

When rushed I've done that with notepad++ find and replace. Use simple regexes
Find: ^ (start of string)
Replace with "robocopy"
Find:,
Replace with " " to strip commas from CSVs which were often my starting point

 

[novaphile]

When rushed I've done that with notepad++ find and replace. Use simple regexes
Find: ^ (start of string)
Replace with "robocopy"
Find:,
Replace with " " to strip commas from CSVs which were often my starting point

Just in case you haven't seen it, please note that Notepad++ supports column copy and replace etc.

So you can start with a line like this:

'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'

Copy the line as many times as you need resulting in:

'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
'Complicated command directory name lots of parameters'
etc.

Produce a list of directory names.

Folder1
Folder2
Folder3
Folder4
Folder5
Folder6
Folder7

etc.

Copy the list, select the block you want to replace, and then hit paste:



And voila!

 

[alfaniner]

Thanks, I'll look into that - it may do what I want. In fact, two minutes before reading your post, I HAD installed Notepad++, because I needed to read the log file from the operation that had been running all day. It finished without kacking the system! But... it says it stopped because the output disc is full. I checked and the output was twice the size of the original. I'd even formatted the drive before starting.
This was just from copying the top level C:\Users\MyName (and all subfolders), which I couldn't get to work before. I spot checked a few files and they are the same as the original. I have the suspicion I copied everything to a new subfolder, but will have to look around to verify that.
Then I'll have to format and start again. Probably by doing individual folders which I wanted to avoid, but at least I'd know the info is there.

One other problem I had was using Calc and having a devil of a time wondering why it was putting special characters in the cmd window when I executed the .bat, instead of what I had typed. Turned out (after several hours) that Calc uses "Smart quotes" instead of "Straight quotes". Once I figured that out I copy/pasted straight quotes for use and got one line to work, anyway.

It ain't over. Tomorrow I format and try again. I know I shouldn't have to, but I can't figure out why I have double the output yet.