Today I had an epiphany. I have a half-finished program being built by a friend that stores data in mySQL tables – data I need but have to wait for as the program’s not finished. I sat at my desk going “gosh, if only there was some way I could get the results out while I wait for it to be finished.” and then it hit me, much like a bucket of water would… I’ve been writing mySQL and PHP for 9 years now – all my homebuilt sites run on mySQL tables! I use PHP to do things that I can’t be bothered to learn how to do in Excel. I can actually combine something I do for fun (coding – I know, sad) with my work! MY HOBBY IS USEFUL FOR TEH REAL WORLD! *flails*
I seriously wonder how I ever achieve anything if it takes me this long (at least a month since I knew this program ran on mySQL) to put 2 and 2 together…
I also had an achievement – I went out for dinner and only ate half the pizza. As a fully paid up member of the clean plate movement and the “there are children starving in Africa” guilt trip sufferer, I always finish my food, even if full. Today I did not (I did however bring it home for noms tomorrow). This is an important step in my aim to be less of myself.
Happy Birthday to AnM! It was her birthday on Saturday. I have a cool present lol (hope she hasn’t already got it…*rubs hands together with glee*)
I have also noticed that I’m updating WordPress versions pretty much every time I post, which suggests I’m not posting enough…
oooooo – excited!!!!
It’s dispatched! Bit delayed (though not as bad as my usual efforts…) but should get it next week.
You are aware you can use the ODBC stuff to imbed MySQL queries into Excel? Thereby when you refresh the data it updates your sheet? I did this to stop the Excel-using types bothering me to run queries for them all the time, and it wasn’t enough to warrant an entire API change to alter the front end for a few people.
I know it exists (though was more interested in using Access as a front end for a mysql database) but have never used it. The data is currently in mysql format so I figure stick to php for now since it’s almost second nature to write basic php now, and export to .csv when I need it in excel/SPSS for actual analysis.