Microsoft excel

I’m a heavy user if sheets and teach both Excel and sheet and thus far didn’t encounter something I needed for glide that exist in Excel but can’t do it in sheets

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@yinon_raviv if you havent seen any maybe you might be using sheets a lot compared to excel
Because i originally use excel

and also @yinon_raviv

As data in sheets increases it begins to slow down
Excel has higher holding capacity e.t.c

On this I agree with you but for glide limitations it holds well

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I would always prefer Sheets for collaboration purposes, plus ARRAYFORMULA and QUERY.

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I agree with you for tha t but excel is still better

Can you elaborate functions that Excel has but Sheets doesn’t?

How does Excel work with adding Python scripts, and also with Zapier?

Actually i am not much of a formula wizzard i hardly use them
In formulas and functions sheets and excel have the same

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I would be crazy to use development resource to support Excel and then have to maintain two source applications going forward. There are plenty of other “must do” fixes and enhancements that we are waiting for.

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Every single formula let our apps slowly and getting out users angry.

I only recommend to use formulas in gsheets if you REALLY NEED IT. Only…

In other cases, DataEditor is our best place to learn and build our apps base

https://docs.glideapps.com/all/guides/quick-starts/getting-started/background-refresh

I can… easy! :innocent:

Microsoft Windows is still the king on desktop world and MS Office with Excel is one of reasons. Any hardware company that wants to make money must have connectivity on Windows and its software market.

What can I do using Excel but not with GS?:

  1. Connectivity with many many systems vía ODBC/OLEDB to read/write data to databases. E.g., ODBC is a standard with more than 25 years working and its performance and background are still a legend, not a legacy!.
    I still remember when I saw the JDBC term at 1st time created by Sun… wtf? … couldn’t Sun think about another term to make a different with Microsoft?
    And all this is free and you can use it withit Excel very easy.

  2. MS Excel has Visual Basic for Application (VBA) and this is a monster able to create and connect to most external software/hardware.
    Many of you have used GS Macros and its “Record Macro” tool right?.. come on, you need to be honest…where did you see and use it at 1st time? … in MS Excel and it has been there since 1993-94 if my memory doesn’t fail me yet!

  3. From Excel I can read/write real-time data from software and devices using DDE, OLE or OPC (these are standards created or used by numerous automation hardware/software suppliers for Process Control and Industrial Automation) and monitor my house or industry if I wish. Even, I could make my own HMI (Human Machine Interface) in Excel in order to start/stop a pump, light bulb or motor.
    Try to do it in GS is still a nightmare because is another word, another concept and have other needs. Use Zapier here? no way, it’s a joke!
    This video is an attempt of what I have wanted to do with GS from long ago and then use Glide as frontend to help users to control their homes/shops but so far, there is no an efficient and simple workaround:
    https://youtu.be/vA3aPVwa8V8

What can I do using GS but not with Excel?:

  1. GS is open and works 24x7 on internet, it is always alive and making calculations and queries. MS Excel can do it too (on Windows world) but if you close the file, the magic will disappear!

  2. GS has many Add-On free and useful, you don’t have to wait for Google to have a new improvement/feature in your spreadsheet.

  3. Functions like ArrayFormula(), Query(), ImportRange(), ImportHTML(), etc, are things very useful and valuable. Excel doesn’t have this kind of things although has other very powerful.

Saludos @ThinhDinh, te cuidas.

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Thanks for the detailed explanation Gustavo :+1:

Regarding the points about connecting to databases, I don’t have much experience with it as I have only worked with small to moderate size databases until now, but Google Sheets also comes with a way to connect and read/write to databases using Scripts, albeit with a few drawbacks as Ben Collins has detailed here. I think the best way to handle this is a combination of Python & Google Sheets.

VBA is excellent and yes it comes first but now we can record Macros in Sheets as well. Point still stands about Sheets can do the same thing.

About the HMI, admittedly I have no experience with it and at first sight I think it’s gonna be hard to do it in GS, so agree about that.

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Well, if we are using no-code or low-code solutions, try to read a database via scripts doesn’t seem very logical although I understand the case.

I know programing and have used many programming languages (even Cobol… a dinosaur) but if I can avoid it, I’m going to do it. I’d rather software where I only have to configure settings instead of programming or create code but I know how the real world is and sometimes we need to use the plan B without pain/mercy: script!

In Excel I can use a wizard tool to read and retrieve data from many external sources (DB) without any script or even better, put an ActiveX control and let it do the job but (and I’m not going to lie) sometimes we need to create some VBA code for special cases.

At the end, both solutions are fine and powerful and we just need to know where and when to use them.

Chao Thinh!

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You can now actually import an .xls or .xlsx file into Google Drive and run it as a Google Sheet @Glider

A BIG feature that Excel has while GS doesn’t.
Excel does not require the Internet connection. I saw another thread that there’s a plan to make Glide work offline in read only mode. It also updates the data when the Internet connection becomes available.
However, with Excel, we can all have different set of data while using the same app. That is, I can change anything I want without affecting other users.
Another advantage is that using local files reduces the possibility of data breaching and also improves the speed.
GS can be saved to Excel, but Glide currently can’t link to the local file.

About a thousand other things.

I listed a script that pulls an excel csv file directly into your glide/google sheets.

There are other solutions that offer this kind of setup that are even more free than glide. The larger appeal to the glide and sheets database is the ability to access live data that is ever changing. Without that feature I would be using something else.

my database is in Excel, having no knowledge how to use scripts, how would you recommend going forward?