[Discuss] Frustration with SQL and Spreadsheets

[markw at mohawksoft.com (markw at mohawksoft.com)]

> On Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:08:58 -0400
> "Derek Atkins" <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
>
>> If you're going to nitpick, you should at least make an argument that
>> is hard.  This is easily handled with:
>
> Look, I'm not a database guy. I'm sure the database people can provide
> some actually difficult examples of why they're not so easily
> interchangeable.

I am a "database guy." I never said they were the same thing. I said they
were idiomatically identical.

Converting something that is a "database" to a spreadsheet may lose data.
Converting something that is a "spreadsheet" to a database may lose data.

(This is the source of my frustration.)

A spreadsheet can be implemented on top of a SQL database and it would
work in both worlds