Question

difference between MS Excel and MS Access

Answer 1

Microsoft Excel and Access are two different application software from Microsoft. They both deal with tabular data, but still there are numerous differences between the two. Excel is a spreadsheet application program, whereas Access is a database program. Both are structured in different ways, and thus serve different purposes.

Answer 2

Excel is also a lot easier to learn since it is meant to be used by a lot of people. The learning curve for Excel is not really that steep as most of the things you would need to learn are related to word processing. Even the more advanced controls and options do not require a lot of learning. Access is also easy to use when it has been set-up beforehand. But unlike Excel, the learning curve of Access gets pretty steep quickly. To implement the more advanced capabilities of Access, the person who would set-up the database and interfaces would need to know programming. Knowledge of Visual Basic and SQL is of great help when creating new Access databases.Summary:
1.Excel is a spreadsheet application while Access is an RDBMS
2.Excel is usually used for paperwork while Access is used in storing information that can be accessed by a lot of people
3.Access locks data at the record level while Excel locks the entire spreadsheet
4.Most users of excel do not really know any programming while you need that to take full advantage of Access