MS Excel allows to easily perform a lot ofmath functions and statistical operations on the data. Manyorganizations use itto storage front-end data such as clients and sales records. However, as the volume of the information increases, there may be need for more reliable and secure data storage. These reasons may force some companies to migrate their MS Excel data toenhanced database management system.
When contemplating a database migration, several factors must be taken into account. Open-source database management systems like PostgreSQL and MySQL are an excellent choice for companies looking to keep their new system’s total cost of ownership (TCO) in check. Consequently, organizations must carefully assess the advantages and disadvantages of the selected database systems.
For instance, a company might opt to transition from MS Excel to MySQL if they lack a robust database development team. This decision stems from the fact that PostgreSQL is a sophisticated DBMS more suitable for complex, resource-intensive databases, particularly those that are large and intricate. At the same time, another popular open-source database system SQLite is not powerful enough to become reasonable target for migration of MS Excel spreadsheet.
Strategies of Excel to MySQLmigration
There are several common strategies used to migrate MS Excel spreadsheets to MySQL database. The most straight forwardapproach consists of the following three steps:
- export data from MS Excel spreadsheet into comma separated values (CSV) files
- create empty MySQL table per worksheetwith the suitable structure
- import data in those tables using ‘LOAD DATA’ statement
Despite of simplicity of the method above, the migration process always implies risks of data loss or corruption when doing it manually due to human factor. Using special software that automates migration procedure may eliminate those risks and reduce time and efforts required for the migration project.
Software for Excel to MySQL migration
Intelligent Converters, a software company focused on database migration and synchronization problemssince 2001, has created Excel to MySQL converter to automate and simplify the entire migration process. This tool can export large and complicated Excel spreadsheets into MySQL database or script file with just a few clicks of mouse buttons. The converterhas user-friendly interface and supports command as well.
It handles all necessary data transformations and allows to customize migration through wide range of settings. For those cases when the target MySQL declines direct connection, the tool provides option to export data into MySQL script file that can be uploaded to the server machine and imported into a database locally.
Intelligent types mapping.
Unlike MS Excel, MySQL offers a more extensive array of data types. In MS Excel, distinctions between INTEGER and DOUBLE are not apparent, leading to the conversion of numeric data into MySQL DOUBLE to avoid potential data loss. However, this approach can result in inaccurate MySQL data.
To address this issue, this converter methodically assesses each column and gathers statistics during the conversion process. When all values have been cast to enhance precision, an update is made to the column to ensure greater accuracy.For instance, there is a set of values:
10.000000000000000e+000
-3.000000000000000e+001
0.2100000000000000e+002
TheExcel to MySQL converter initially generates a MySQL column with the DOUBLE data type, which is subsequently converted into INTEGER.
This approach, known as ‘intelligent type mapping,’ yields significantly improved results at the conclusion of the conversion process, particularly when transferring data from CSV files to MySQL. As anticipated, CSV files store all data in text format. Consequently, the data is analyzed by the Excel to MySQL converter, and the most suitable data type, such as date or numeric, is assigned to each value from the CSV fields.
