Access offers a lot of features which you probably don't need if you are
happy using excel.

Access is limited to 256 columns as well as I understand it.

If your rows are going to get bigger than 65536 rows, then I wouldn't go to
multiple pages. I would go to Access.

Even if you data was to go above 16K rows, I would consider access. Excel
gets pretty slow when dealing with a lot of rows.

Access does offer you an SQL interface and this can be much more efficient
in retrieving subsets of your data.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

"mike allen" wrote in message
...
odd question, i know, but one that's been bugging me.
i create fairly involved programs. the only process i know is a simple
one:
inputs are put into an excel spreadsheet. code is written in vb modules
(vb
editor?) as subroutines (and sometimes functions). this code will crunch
the data and output it on another spreadsheet (or wherever it is needed).
most programs establish a "database" that keeps up w/ the output. i keep
this "database" on another excel spreadsheet. i can refer to it in code
and
draw anything from it and organize it any way i want (in code). this
leads
to my question:

what can access (or any other database program) do that excel cannot?

the only thing that i can think of is my "databases" in excel spreadsheets
may run out of room (only 256 columns by 65,536 rows). also, the size of
the file may be larger in excel vs. a (compressed?) access database.
can i enlarge a spreadsheet's dimensions?
i know i can use multiple spreadsheets as my "database", but how hard is
it
to reference data when it is split up?
when data is larger than 256x65,536, is there any other way i can use
excel
as a database? or do i have to go to access (which i know nothing about) ?
thanks, mike allen