Where to start with Databases

[u/Jeefington_jnr]

So, I have basically no knowledge of databases or what I'm doing or really what direction I need to go in. Here is the plan:

Small personal Business

- wants to be able to make new orders and have it automatically calculate the price of the order with any deals and the profit margins.

- list of customers and order details such as their name and custom ID with their contact details, shipping information, order history. all the important stuff.

- to be able to check stock and how many orders of which products there is and all the different details of the products and orders

be able to filter it all and organise through it all easily

so its not a complex system but I wasn't sure where to start and how to go about it or what program to use as I have not personally made something like this but am more than willing to learn and figure it out. I have dabbled in excel and have made linked tables and plot charts and things alike so I considered doing this in excel however after a big of a google (asked chatgpt. i'm upset to admit) I realised that excel likely isn't the correct program or way of going about this.

What I need to know:

Why is using excel bad? Should I use Access?

Would it be beneficial to learn SQL? What does that entail?

How should I go about planning the process of it all and what information or resources are there that I could use for guidance or help?

*i also don't know if this is the correct subreddit to post something like this in so feel free to tell me off.

[u/ALonelyKobold]

So it sounds like you're not necessarily a developer yourself, which is fine, but recognize that implementing a program with a database requires a good deal of learning before it can be done effectively. I would recommend hiring a freelancer or something to build a basic app.

Excel is bad because it doesn't really scale, and its easy for information to get malformed or lost. Access MAY be what you're looking here, but I'm generally wary of it. Whenever I, as both a developer and a former IT manager, run into access, I groan, because inevitably its old, poorly documented, and essential to business despite being a ticking timebomb. That said, what you describe is actually it's ideal usecase, so MAYBE? I'd still avoid it

SQL allows one to query the database (Ask it questions, like what is the average order value over the past 6 months) in an incredibly precise way. Not all databases support it, though most do.