MySQL: Exporting Data to Excel II: Going straight to Excel

Last week Allan introduced us to the notion of pulling information out from our database and making it available as in a CSV type format ready for using in Excel. This week Allan extends this idea by firstly showing us how to save our CSV data and then how to really wow our reporting colleagues by using BiffWriter to throw data straight into an Excel document….

…. and even if the business analysts don't really appreciate it, you can have an inner glow of satisfaction knowing how much more usable your website is!

MySQL: Exporting Data to Excel

So, your web site is all running nicely, and suddenly your boss wants a report on how many users in the database are aged between 30-35, or live in France, or visited in the last week. Of course, the site spec never had any reporting facility, and you'll be asked to produce custom SQL queries like this every time they have a marketing meeting to discuss leveraging synergies while thinking out of the box.

In this article, Allan shows you how to make the data easily exportable from a MySQL database into Excel, ready for Powerpoint loveliness, and then shows how you can bag up the code as a Dreamweaver Server Behavior for the next time the boss interrupts your game of Quake.

Beginner's SQL: How about a Date?

Today we will uncover the secrets to success using dates in SQL, secrets not at all difficult to understand, once you've seen them. In a way, they're like magic tricks. If you know how the tricks are done, they're not really magic, although they may still be delightful.

This article contains explanations, tips, and examples for several different database systems, but makes no attempt to be exhaustive. There's just not enough space or time. My intent is to give you the confidence to deal with your own date situations, by helping you understand how they all work.

MySQL Data Types

While I've been writing my tutorials for DMXzone, I've often been surprised at how many support queries I get from people who have difficulty because they're choosing the wrong datatype for their database columns. That's one of the negatives about Dreamweaver's power: it can insulate you from the nitty gritty of data too much sometimes. So, following several requests, I've put together a tutorial on the different ways to store data in MySQL. Even if you think you're an intermediate DW/ PHP developer, you might learn something ..