No skillful database professional would ever refer to spreadsheets as “databases,” it doesn’t give justice to the term. Still they seem to be all pervasive in your report sharing when it comes to doing analysis by small businesses. Till now, we have witnessed three varieties including Simple Tables that arrived with Excel 2.0, Excel Tables, that pulled into the year 2007 and Pivot Tables, that made their entry in the year 2010.

Although there are various features in Excel that simplify work, still we can’t ignore what databases offer and there always remains the need to convert Excel into database. Now, let’s go deep into the varieties of spreadsheets that we have come across with their very arrivals:

Simple Tables

They are also referred as “Grey cell” spreadsheets, which are marked by various manual functions from the user’s end. You can choose from various month options and period options from the predefined list. Specific range names are placed in there by you manually, cell names are exempted from this. If you convert Excel to web application, you would definitely be more than surprised, as there would be much more than expected.

Excel Tables

In these tables, Excel performs automatic adjustments. With each addition of column or a cell, Excel does instant expansion of tables. And this is quite dissimilar to the Simple Tables, where it is the manual effort that is put to use.  In these tables, you are not free to refer to rows or columns directly in performing calculations. Instead, you have to choose a particular formula and then you’ll have to refer to the actual amount with that, without mentioning the row or column.

Pivot Tables or Excel 2010

Here, you find innumerable rows, columns as well as cells scattered across the entire Excel spreadsheet. It can be divided into three forms. Yes, when data is related to alphabetic characters defining specific information, then we refer to it as Labels. However, numerical data comes in the category of Values. And when commands related to calculations are incorporated, we call them Formulas.

Each cell of Excel 2010 can store loads of information. You can’t even imagine how much information each cell must be containing because when we browse through the spreadsheet, we can only find information of the size of the cell, which gets visible to us. Special formats for dates can be spotted in Excel. In spite of these amazing features, the need to convert Excel into database cannot be neglected.

These Pivot tables are very essential for conducting relational analysis. As a user, you can bask in its reporting capabilities. If we use these tables as a group, we can reap the highest benefit.