Software Requirements

[Jivan 10]

I am trying to build an excel model with several files of 200 MB eahc one and all toghether will reach at least 10 GB size.

 

I can't open more than 500 MB , i have al I7 processor and 16 GB RAM. Does anybody know what version of excel is better?, i began with 2007 , now i just changed to 2010 but i have more problems.

 

When i try to insert a new column excel says there are not sufficient resources, r something like that

 

Should I use the 64 bit version of excel?

 

On the other hand, Windows XP or windows 7?

 

Please i need help

 

Many thanks

[Mr_You 10]

Maybe try importing your data into an SQL database. Some options to consider are:

 

• SQL Server Express (free with restrictions) or SQL Server (pay) by Microsoft
  
• MySQL by Oracle (free with restrictions)
  
• PostgreSQL by an Open Source Community (free with no restrictions)
  

 

SQL Server Express may be the easiest for you.

 

Make sure you backup your source data!

[kayaktri 10]

I do not have enough expertise in Excel to answer your question. However, I do have enough experience to communicate that I second the above posters comments that this would be much better suited work for a SQL database. I personally use MS SQL Server for my data repository, and am quite pleased. The other databases the above poster identifies would work as well. Although the code for the statistical math components is more difficult to generate in SQL, the database is very efficient in handling very large data sets. Also, Ad Hoc reporting of your data is very simple using a SQL database. I have a system at work that performs about seven million updates every day on hardware inferior to yours without any issues at all.

 

Best Wishes . . .

[Jivan 10]

Many thanks for your comments. I don´t know anything about SQL programming. So which one of these softwares would you recommend to me? how much time do you think it would take to reach the minimum level required to do the same as anyone can do using excel? There is one easer and simple than others at using math formulas.

 

Thank you

[Tams 20]

I am trying to build an excel model with several files of 200 MB eahc one and all toghether will reach at least 10 GB size.

 

I can't open more than 500 MB , i have al I7 processor and 16 GB RAM. Does anybody know what version of excel is better?, i began with 2007 , now i just changed to 2010 but i have more problems.

 

When i try to insert a new column excel says there are not sufficient resources, r something like that

 

Should I use the 64 bit version of excel?

 

On the other hand, Windows XP or windows 7?

 

Please i need help

 

Many thanks

definitely 64 bit of everything --- 64 bit OS, 64 bit excel, lotsa RAM

 

the latest excel can open a million rows of data

[kayaktri 10]

I think you can continue to use excel by simply adding horsepower to the equation, however in my opinion, it will not do it efficiently and that is why it is necessary to continue to ramp up your hardware. Do not get me wrong, I use excel every single day to perform functions for which it is well suited, but I also know what other systems (databases) do well and rely on them when they are more efficient.

 

To answer your questions:

 

So which one of these softwares would you recommend to me?

 

I have not used all available database software, so I cannot comment on which is the best, and they all do something better than others, but I have chosen MS SQL Server to accomplish my database tasks. It is robust enough for my purposes, and is easy to create databases and tables, import data, manage data, and manipulate this data. It is the one database that is tightly linked to Excel in case you wish to import/exprt data to from excel (which I do).

 

how much time do you think it would take to reach the minimum level required to do the same as anyone can do using excel?

 

I cannot answer this as I do not know what you are doing with Excel. Excel truly does a good job at quickly summarizing data in a mathematical and statistical sense. It has many built in functions to perform this work. I myself have custom code working in my Excel spreadsheets that I find very useful. SQL coding is similar to building custom formulas in excel. The good news is if you do not know how to code in SQL, you can find hundreds of examples on the internet that work with little or no modification. To give you an example, once you learn how to perform basic data manipulation in SQL (which could be accomplished in a day or two (IMO), if you are computer savvy), it takes me about as long to code a custom formula in Excel as it does for me to write SQL code for the formula. The main difference is SQL allows for a lot more flexibility in how my data is displayed and grouped, and it is much more efficient when dealing with large data sets.

 

Is one easier and simple than others at using math formulas.

 

I do not know which one is easier or more simple for math and statistics, as I think each have a similar baseline for achieving this goal. I use MS SQL Server due to it being less complex to perform the functions I require in a simple and efficient manner. We mainly use Oracle at work, and other systems that I work on a weekly basis include PostGres and MySQL, but at the end of the day, I prefer to use MS SQL for my purposes as I can manipulate the data faster (import, export, create databases/tables, etc.) than I can with the other systems. Also, I prefer the GUI of MS SQL, for managing and manipulating data than the other programs, although I am sure others would have a different opinion.

As the previous poster mentioned, the lightweight version of MS SQL is a no cost solution.

 

In the end, you can accomplish what you are looking for on anything from paper and pencil, a spreadsheet, or a database, it just depends on the amount of efficiency you are expecting.

 

Best Wishes . . .

[geektrader 10]

I am trying to build an excel model with several files of 200 MB eahc one and all toghether will reach at least 10 GB size.

 

I can't open more than 500 MB , i have al I7 processor and 16 GB RAM. Does anybody know what version of excel is better?, i began with 2007 , now i just changed to 2010 but i have more problems.

 

When i try to insert a new column excel says there are not sufficient resources, r something like that

 

Should I use the 64 bit version of excel?

 

On the other hand, Windows XP or windows 7?

 

Please i need help

 

Many thanks

 

May be time to ditch Excel and move to better suited Statistical Packages. R is one of them. Free and lots of addons.