Hi newbie, My advice would be not to attempt to use a Google Spreadsheet as a simple database, if you had a good alternative. Here are a few reasons:
1) Google won't commit their spreadsheet API to production status (as it has done with the Calendar API for example) - it's been in permanent 'beta' in labs for over 3 years. Recently, Google deprecated a part of the Spreadsheet API without any consultation with their users, and they've claimed that further change is on the way. 2) The 'List Feed' which would makes the most sense for using spreadsheets doesn't provide any way for your application to reference a column in code, and have that reference 'stay put' despite user changes to the spreadsheet. A column reference which behaved something like a named range would have done the trick, but Google don't see the value in providing one. 3) The querying capabilities offered by the List API are quite primitive. There are no range comparison operators (less-than, greater-than), and no negation operator (there is an inequality operator, but that can't be used to negate an entire expression) ... at leastif these facilities exist, they are not documented [1]. There are certainly no joins - although they can be kind of simulated using inter-sheet VLookup formulas in the worksheet. 4) The documentation is overly sparse. For example, there is nowhere in the reference or the guide which explains how to specify a date literal in a query. It turns out you can use a date serial value, but figuring that out is something that each and every user of the API discovers for themselves. 5) In my experience, the few Googlers which monitor this forum don't have head-space in their frantic work-day to do anything except quickly scan a few "here is the problem, what is the solution" questions which interest them personally and react on the spot As far as I can tell, the are not accountable to anyone for seeing to it that the API's users are actually happy and productive. SO ... If you *need* to use a spreadsheet as a database - for example, because there already exists a spreadsheet with a real-world data-set - which is presently edited via the Google Spreadsheet UI but which you need to make use of - then you can work around these issues. Expect to spend a fair bit of time on code which has nothing to do with your problem domain. However, if you want the capability of a database, I advise you not to use a spreadsheet. Not even a Google Spreadsheet. Use a database. [1] List Feed Query Reference - http://code.google.com/apis/spreadsheets/data/3.0/reference.html#ListParameters On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 12:05 AM, Linux newbie <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Can anyone advise me on how to establish Google Spreadsheets as a simple > Database? > > Thanks >
