Surely every user working with an office suite from Microsoft has come across programs that use spreadsheets as a saved document. This is a type of application programs (or rather, documents created with their help), the simplest example is MS Excel. Let's see why such documents are needed, how to work with them correctly.
Spreadsheets: what's this?
Based on the generally accepted concept of spreadsheets, it is believed that these are files created with a specific work area in which you can perform fairly complex calculations (up to solving tensor equations), study functions, build graphs and charts, and, finally, calculate currency units based on a given or constantly changing course and so on.
However, as is already clear, spreadsheets are sheets. They need to enter some data, perform subsequent editing, calculate values based on them and create reports in the form of the same presentations.
Spreadsheets: what are they?
In fact, there are so many table formats today that the average user does not even know about it. Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind is really MS Office Excel.
But the trouble is that not all users who encounter a standard office suite know that almost the same popular data format allows creating the equally popular MS Access program.
Unlike the standard Excel, this application supports the creation of universal SQL-based databases, and you can integrate them not only into the computer system itself, but also into Internet resources or sites created using a language of any complexity. However, Excel also has such support, not to mention the fact that in all office applications it is possible to create the same universal scripts based on Visual Basic or Java.
Spreadsheets are not only a means of displaying structured data, but also a powerful tool for tracking calculations in similar documents in update mode (when opened).
Purpose of Spreadsheets
Now consider the documents themselves, which are spreadsheets. What programs can they create? Yes, all those that relate to standard office suites. Not only Excel, by the way, but also utilities from the Open Office or Lotus Pro suite .
Now let's look at the spreadsheets and their purpose in more detail. In addition to what has been said above, tables may even require strict financial or audit accounting, as well as statistics.
But what most users don’t know about is that in the same office Excel application, using add-ons and applets of supported programming languages, even primitive toys can be created. Remember at least the same "snake". In programs of this type, such a game is created in minutes.
And this is far from all the features that spreadsheets have. Programs whose name may differ (which is completely natural), in fact, are divided into several main types. Here it is necessary to distinguish between purely mathematical programs that allow algebraic or geometric calculations, and applications involving the creation and interaction with SQL servers and databases, as well as those applications that can create executable applets in their own environment based on built-in language tools.
In this sense, of course, we can say that spreadsheets are application programs, but rather they can be attributed not to executable files, but to the type that is commonly called dynamic libraries, which themselves do not start, but have internal executable code. This is not the point.
Type of input
Now let's look at one more thing on what constitutes spreadsheets. What are the programs for creating them is also a little clear. Now I need to say a few words about the data being entered and to be processed. Consider them using the standard Excel application, especially since most of the applications that work with spreadsheets have similar formats.
If you right-click on the active cell (or select the appropriate data format command from the menu), you can see that the type of input data can be quite diverse.
The general format is used only so that the program determines what exactly is entered (text, numbers, percentages, etc.). The number format is more interesting. Here you can even set exponential data with the required number of decimal places and separator. The text format, respectively, involves the recognition of even numbers or formulas precisely in the aspect of the text. Interest, dates, etc. are recognized when you specify the desired format.
But this is far from all that spreadsheets are capable of. What are the tools for processing input data yet? This is easy to understand if you look at the main line of formulas. It is this element that performs one of the most important functions. Probably everyone noticed that it is indicated by the name fx. And it is in this field that computational formulas are introduced. Their format can be very different.
By the way, not all users clearly imagine the type of input formulas. The fact is that they can differ quite a lot from the standard form. Of course, when selecting cells, you can use, for example, a standard action like “= A1 + B1” for a sum, a special button for automatic summation or “= A1 * B1” for a product, but for a range of the same summation, it is better to enter a formula without selecting cells. It is worth noting that spreadsheets are a program that supports the so-called multilingualism. In other words, there is absolutely no difference whether the formula “= SUM (A1: A10)” or “= SUM (A1: A10)” will be introduced. Naturally, without quotes.
Other more complex formulas have their own format, especially when it comes to cross-calculations, related data on different sheets or even located in different documents.
Structuring and Editing Tools
Now another look at spreadsheets. What are the data processing tools? Everything is simple. The simplest way is to create filters that can be sorted, sorted, or searched.
In the same Excel, you can apply automatic filter creation on a selected range without specifying sorting conditions. If complex filtering is required, then you will have to enter conditions either for the general case or for cells containing data of a certain type using conditions like “and / or / not”, etc. That is, filtering can be performed in several ways, for example, when provided that the cell contains such and such data, contains such or such data, does not contain them at all, etc. Search conditions can be set as many as you like.
The simplest examples of creating Excel spreadsheets
As for the creation of documents of this type, everything is simple. For example, when the program is first launched after installation, the application offers to create a document based on its own template or an empty table. Depending on what the user needs, the appropriate type is selected.
Actually, after entering any data, you can use all the package tools, for example, build diagrams based on the selected ranges. Note that for any action in programs of this level, it is assumed that there is a so-called wizard, with which the creation of an object becomes a matter of a couple of seconds.
Access Databases and Similar Programs
As for the Access application, it, like most similar programs, is more focused on working with databases, and not on mathematical operations. Using it, you can create quite large arrays with filtering or cross-processing, and with support for built-in language applets and SQL servers.
With all this, such spreadsheets are, rather, a means of accounting for information, its structuring and even statistics. Few people know that this application is in no way inferior to the same 1C system, and in some ways even surpasses it.
1C software package
“1C” is a fairly powerful system that has at its disposal many unique tools. Firstly, the package itself is divided into several main parts according to the type of data taken into account.
So, for example, it presents the sections: “1C: Enterprise”, “1C: Accounting,” “1C: Warehouse,” etc. That is, for each specific case, its own module is provided. What can I say, with the help of this application you can easily write an invoice with the subsequent reservation of the goods in automatic mode or returning them to the account if the shipment was not made on time. And this is just the simplest example.
Search system
If we talk about the search capabilities of any software products of this direction, they can be implemented in several ways.
For all office applications, the standard tool is to use the combination Ctrl + F (to search for specific content on the active page). However, this method is not suitable for linked sheets and files.
In the case of setting several conditions, it is better to use special filters that are available in any application of this type, but it is better to use the writing of macros in Visual Basic, which greatly simplifies the search and filtering process. In this case, you can even set links to files or sections of tabular data that are stored in them.
SQL support
SQL, if anyone does not know, is a unique programming language that was originally developed as a tool for working with databases.
What is most interesting: today it is believed that this is the only tool that can connect databases and application software. In other words, the language text is independent for any type of DBMS, and the programmer who creates the database on its basis is free to choose: edit or add only the data that he really needs.
And in this regard, many spreadsheets are exactly the solution that can support this language, regardless of the nature of the software product with which they were created.
Practical application
Well, as for the practical point of view on all types of spreadsheets, there is no need to go far. The same tax authorities around the world use precisely such structures for accounting. True, they are not brought to perfection everywhere, however, electronic means of accounting are conquering the world more and more.
Perhaps in the post-Soviet space these technologies have not yet received widespread use, but even if you pay attention to the electronic declaration of income systems, it becomes clear what exactly lies behind such innovations. What can I say? Today it’s quite easy to order plane or train tickets online. But this is the same database that responds to an order, makes changes to the number of remaining seats, etc. Yes, and any program of this type looks exactly like a table with a difference except in the interface (visual layout for user convenience).
Instead of an afterword
Of course, this is far from all that can be said about spreadsheets. Here is just a small part of what such programs are really capable of, and even with support for built-in or external tools that simply incredibly increase the capabilities of any software package. But, probably, each user already fundamentally understood what it is and why all this is needed.