Modern "text only" flat file database?

[Halcyon]

I have a bunch of data currently sitting in an Excel spreadsheet, however it's not really the best place for it. A database of sorts would be more suitable.

I'm aware Microsoft Access will do what I want, but I'm slowly moving away from Microsoft Office products (because, you know, a word processor etc... doesn't need to be "cloud connected"). Decades ago I used Q&A under DOS (see screenshot below) which is basically what I want today, but just to run on a modern (Windows 7) system and perhaps later on Linux once I move away from Windows. It will only ever be used to store text-based data (no images or other embedded content) and do some basic look-ups etc...

I suppose I could just use OpenOffice or LibreOffice, but just in case anyone has any other suggestions, I'm open to ideas.

[Roeland_R]

I have a bunch of data currently sitting in an Excel spreadsheet, however it's not really the best place for it. A database of sorts would be more suitable.

I'm aware Microsoft Access will do what I want, but I'm slowly moving away from Microsoft Office products (because, you know, a word processor etc... doesn't need to be "cloud connected"). Decades ago I used Q&A under DOS (see screenshot below) which is basically what I want today, but just to run on a modern (Windows 7) system and perhaps later on Linux once I move away from Windows. It will only ever be used to store text-based data (no images or other embedded content) and do some basic look-ups etc...

I suppose I could just use OpenOffice or LibreOffice, but just in case anyone has any other suggestions, I'm open to ideas.

When you save it as xml, csv or json file format you can use Python for processing the data. Read, Write, Find, Sort. All is possible.
For good examples watch the socratica Python videos on youtube.

[bd139]

Access is still the best thing around for this sort of stuff, perhaps unfortunately. You can still buy Microsoft office perpetual licenses. And even Office 365 doesn't have to be cloud connected. Standard desktop applications. If your time is worth money, just pay for office.

LibreOffice Base is a turd. I wouldn't go near that. So many bugs it's unreal.

Other option is use SQLite as a database and write something yourself. We have an internal app which is written in Tcl/tk and uses SQLite in the back end and it's ridiculously powerful, totally portable. Tcl takes a bit of getting used to however. Python + wx is another good option.

The problem is however that 99.9% of the power of Access is in the reporting side of things. To get anything that fast and good is going to cost you more than an office license.

[tggzzz]

I have a bunch of data currently sitting in an Excel spreadsheet, however it's not really the best place for it. A database of sorts would be more suitable.

What's inadequate about your current implementation, and what are the required improvements? (Don't tell us your solutions, tell us your problems and possible solutions).

Do you require the ACID properties that make "proper" databases so valuable? Or are you simply looking for improved "slice and dice" reporting mechanisms?

[julianhigginson]

Gosh... Is FileMaker still a thing? I think that might be what you want... Flat text database sounds like a bunch of pain though.

[bd139]

FileMaker has gone cloud, mobile all sorts. Never seen it used anywhere though for at least 10 years!

[Gribo]

SQLite is the ideal solution for such applications, and, if you ever need a more complex solution, migrating to MariaDB should be pretty straight forward.

[Halcyon]

I have a bunch of data currently sitting in an Excel spreadsheet, however it's not really the best place for it. A database of sorts would be more suitable.

What's inadequate about your current implementation, and what are the required improvements? (Don't tell us your solutions, tell us your problems and possible solutions).

Do you require the ACID properties that make "proper" databases so valuable? Or are you simply looking for improved "slice and dice" reporting mechanisms?

Probably the latter, it doesn't need to be a textbook DB. The issue with Excel is that it's one record per row and it involves a lot of scrolling horizontally due to the number of fields (columns).

Gosh... Is FileMaker still a thing? I think that might be what you want... Flat text database sounds like a bunch of pain though.

I haven't touched FileMaker Pro since around 1998/1999. It was clunky then, I can't imagine what it's like now.

[Halcyon]

Gents, I should also add, I'm not a programmer, it needs to be a "GUI" type solution. I understand basic code of various languages, but that's about it. Any queries I have won't be complicated at all. I really don't want to be fiddling with back-end code.

[BradC]

I've had pretty good results with Libreoffice using a Postgres back end. That also allowed me to spin up Avery label maker in a Windows VM and print from the database.

[Nauris]

If Q&A does all you want, then why not run it in virtual machine or emulator?

[nctnico]

Gents, I should also add, I'm not a programmer, it needs to be a "GUI" type solution. I understand basic code of various languages, but that's about it. Any queries I have won't be complicated at all. I really don't want to be fiddling with back-end code.

I second the suggestion for sqlite. There are many tools for accessing Sqlite databases.

[pardo-bsso]

I second the suggestion for sqlite. There are many tools for accessing Sqlite databases.

Me too. But if it really needs to be text only Havaiana and Ojota are nice to use. See http://havaiana.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

[laseralex]

Gosh... Is FileMaker still a thing? I think that might be what you want... Flat text database sounds like a bunch of pain though.

Filemaker still exists and it is absolutely brilliant for drag-and-drop database creation.

My father owns a liquor store, and I use Filemaker to extract information from our cash register system for running business metrics and also printing price tags.  A few years ago on one of the busiest days of the year our cash register system failed and since it was a holiday the tech support was off duty.  (Insane!)  Anyway, I managed to create a proper Point of Sale system in filemaker in about 90 minutes: with a barcode scanner plugged into a laptop we could scan in orders, generate an invoice with a total, print a receipt, and accept cash payment or credit card payment through Square.  I'm pretty sure the best Access database developer would struggle to create a touchscreen oriented point-of-sale system in 90 minutes.  Yet I as a basic FileMaker user managed to do so with no problems.

For a database for people who don't run databases for a living, Filemaker is the answer.