Ye Old Pivot Table vs. Crosstab Query

*Warning* This is a very geeky blog entry...!

subtitled: Who needs Excel anyway?

Today, I discovered the Crosstab query in Access. (I also discovered the Make Table query, but that discussion is for another time & place!) How did I discover this, you might ask... Well, it's all due to the fact that Excel will only let you import 65K records, because that's the maximum lines in a spreadsheet. Now, there are tons of "workarounds" on the web, if you're a programmer, data nerd, or techy geek (or all of the above)...but I'm just a wee little data enthusiast, definitely NOT tech savvy enough to read the numerous workarounds posted for this problem. In fact, I can't even read the questions posted regarding this problem, because they too include one of these scary "languages" called Code.

Anyway, instead of throwing my hands up in the air--which, really, I should've done given the amount of sleep I got last night--I began to think...think...think...think... You know, like Winnie-the Pooh does when encountered with a problem. I thought, there must be a way to do this in Access. (And by this, I mean a "pivot table" because that was my ultimate reason for wanting the 65,000+ records in Excel in the first place.) Guess what?? THERE IS!

Yes! I hearken back to the Access class where my teacher was like, basically anything you find yourself doing with data in Excel on a daily basis, you should be doing in Access instead. I LOVE HER FOR SAYING THAT. On the surface, Access does present intself as hard-to-understand and it's not really all that user intuitive. But, let me tell you...it is a lot easier to do difficult stuff in, as long as you're able to find a tutorial that you can understand. I mean, most of what I learned in Excel, I learned on the fly. Or, someone showed me once and I "got it." But for Access, the classes definitely help; the books help; the online tutorials help; even Microsoft's help center helps. In other words, you will need help if you are going to use this program.

Hey--that's probably the main reason why laymen AND tech savvy peeps neither one like it: they don't want to admit they need help! But me? No problemo. I love learning stuff, which--they have told me--usually involves trusting other people to teach it to you. (At first glance, it would seem this is incongruent with my stubborn, know-it-all personality. Au Contraire... Because once I have learned something, I can then pass it off as something I have known all along...)

Anyway.

What is the moral of this story? Let me recap for you:

• Excel has a silly limitation of 65,000 records in a spreadsheet and no inherent workaround when importing data that exceeds that limitation
• Access doesn't need your stinkin' Excel spreadsheet anyway...
• I still like Excel for formatting and makin' her pretty.
• ...but TODAY, my heart belongs to Access. LOVES.
  

this is how cool my job is

it allows for time (in fact, requires it!) for me to learn new things about my favorite program: EXCEL. (yes, i'm a microsoft whore, too...)

here is what i learned today: the formula to calculate someone's age when you have their date of birth.

=INT((TODAY()-A1)/365.25)
(taken from http://www.fontstuff.com/excel/exltut01.htm)


i tested it out and it works! i'm 31!

the admins are moving today!

yay! peace and quiet, finally...!

excel heaven

basically, my new job consists of taking someone's very boring looking & overwhelming-in-capacity data, scaling it down, making it look pretty and making it make sense. of course, it doesn't make sense to me--which is the very beauty in what i'm now doing. do i care how many members were added to such and such medical group? NO. but i do care that someone else can easily access this number on a simplified and beautified spreadsheet.

yes, my friends. THIS is heaven. w-e-l-c-o-m-e.