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ANALYTICAL AND BUSINESS GRAPHICS

A nice feature of spreadsheet packages is the ability to create analytical graphics. Analytical graphics, or business graphics, are graphical forms that make numeric data easier to analyze than when it is in the form of rows and columns of numbers, as in electronic spreadsheets. Whether viewed on a monitor or printed out, analytical graphics help make sales figures, economic trends, and the like easier to comprehend and analyze.

The principal examples of analytical graphics are bar charts, line graphs, and pie charts. Quite often these charts can be displayed or printed out so that they look three-dimensional. Spreadsheets can even be linked to more exciting graphics, such as digitized maps.

The key features of spreadsheet software are summarized in the accom­panying box.

Database Software

A database is a computer-based collection of interrelated files. Database software is a program that controls the structure of a database and access to the data.

In its most general sense, a database is any electronically stored collection of data in a computer system. In its more specific sense, a database is a col­lection of interrelated files in a computer system. These computer-based files are organized according to their common elements, so that they can be retrieved easily. Sometimes called a database manage or database management system (DBMS), data-base software is a program that controls the structure of a database and access to the data.

The Benefits of Database Software

Because it can access several files at one time, database software is much better than the old file managers (also known as flat-file management sys­tems) that used to dominate computing. A file manager is a software pack­age that can access only one file at a time. With a file manager, you could call up a list of, say, all students at your college majoring in English. You could also call up a separate list of all students from Wisconsin. But you could not call up a list of English majors from Wisconsin, because the rele­vant data is kept in separate files. Database software allows you to do that.

 

 


Date: 2015-04-20; view: 1079


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