Spreadsheet as a relational database engine
Spreadsheet as a relational database engine
复制标题
电子表格作为关系数据库引擎
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Jerzy Tyszkiewicz
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jerzy Tyszkiewicz
电子表格是最常用的数据管理和分析应用程序之一。也许它们甚至是各种最广泛使用的计算机应用程序之一。然而，计算的电子表格范例仍然缺乏足够的分析。在本文中，我们演示了电子表格可以扮演关系数据库引擎的角色，而不需要使用宏或内置编程语言，只需使用电子表格公式即可。我们通过电子表格函数实现关系代数的所有运算符来实现这一点。因此，在给定SQL中的数据库定义的情况下，可以构造具有数据表的空工作表和填充了查询公式的工作表的电子表格工作簿。此后，当用户在数据工作表中输入、更改或删除数据时，查询工作表中的公式会自动计算查询的实际结果。因此，电子表格用作数据存储并执行SQL查询，因此充当关系数据库引擎。这篇文章是基于Microsoft Excel(TM)的，但我们的构造也适用于其他电子表格系统。我们提供了在Excel2010测试版中进行的一些性能测试。他们的结论是，对于具有几千行的桌面数据库来说，性能已经足够了。
Spreadsheets are among the most commonly used applications for data management and analysis. Perhaps they are even among the most widely used computer applications of all kinds. However, the spreadsheet paradigm of computation still lacks sufficient analysis. In this paper we demonstrate that a spreadsheet can play the role of a relational database engine, without any use of macros or built-in programming languages, merely by utilizing spreadsheet formulas. We achieve that by implementing all operators of relational algebra by means of spreadsheet functions. Given a definition of a database in SQL, it is therefore possible to construct a spreadsheet workbook with empty worksheets for data tables and worksheets filled with formulas for queries. From then on, when the user enters, alters or deletes data in the data worksheets, the formulas in query worksheets automatically compute the actual results of the queries. Thus, the spreadsheet serves as data storage and executes SQL queries, and therefore acts as a relational database engine. The paper is based on Microsoft Excel (TM), but our constructions work in other spreadsheet systems, too. We present a number of performance tests conducted in the beta version of Excel 2010. Their conclusion is that the performance is sufficient for a desktop database with a couple thousand rows.