Civil Engineering job - wants skill in database programs - Computer Technical Help

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Civil Engineering job - wants skill in database programs

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08-25-2014 , 08:28 PM

yellowdoyle

veteran

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 2,452

Hi,

For a civil engineer position, am I safe in assuming that access knowledge is sufficient for having database skills? This is not a computer engineer position.

Most of my life I have used Excel for things. I am now learning about relational data and why one might want to use Access instead.

Along the same topic, does anyone have good recommendations for a primer on access? If i self-studied for a few hours a night after work, how much progress could I make on Access skills and knowledge in 3-4 weeks?

Thanks very much!

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08-25-2014 , 10:58 PM

bex989

centurion

Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 153

Not much in 3-4 weeks.

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08-25-2014 , 11:17 PM

daveT

S.A.G.E. Master

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 23,955

This depends on many factors.

If your data is > 2g, then Access isn't going to work out since 2g is the size limit.
If you are going to have many people using it, probably not very good either.

My impression of Access is that it is like Excel w/o any of the useful equations, and it is like a database w/o any of the compelling functionality. I use it a bit at work and I hate it.

You could get okay at databases after 3 to 4 weeks, but designing one and really using one well isn't something you learn by watching a few tutorials.

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08-26-2014 , 12:40 AM

yellowdoyle

veteran

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 2,452

Definitely won't be designing one, just inputting data and running queries from an existing database, I imagine. This type of job has lots of historical measurements at various locations, so I think the database is relatively simple.

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08-26-2014 , 12:41 AM

yellowdoyle

veteran

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 2,452

Quote:

Originally Posted by bex989

Not much in 3-4 weeks.

That's kinda what I figured. To be clear, I meant Access end-user proficiency. Just the guy who looks things up in Access and adds new entries. Still not much, or given those conditions, a different story?

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08-27-2014 , 01:44 AM

daveT

S.A.G.E. Master

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 23,955

If you want to use Access as a glorified Excel sheet that can store more data than Excel, it is very simple to use. Importing data is creating a template on Excel, saving the data, and a few button clicks.

Updating data is dead simple. Just change the data you want to change and its done.

Querying data is where I get stuck. Seems like a lot of work to learn how to use a tool that doesn't port to anything else you may want to use in the future. If by "query" you mean filtering data you want and exporting it to Excel so you can use pivot tables or whatever else, that is simple to do as well.

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