Spreadsheet versus Database

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Spreadsheet versus Database

Spreadsheet versus Database

Hello, Database!

Comparison of a simple formula in Sheets vs Coda

Example Table

Example Table

Task Name

Task Owner

Task Due Date

Task 1

Suzie

4/14/2022

Task 2

Mike

4/21/2022

Task 3

Max

4/28/2022

There are no rows in this table

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CEO asks:

Mike is out today. Are there any tasks assigned to him with today (4/21/22) as the due date?

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Formula in Coda:

Task 2

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Formula in Google Sheets:

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While you might not yet be familiar enough with the Coda-Formula Language (CFL) to write the above formula yourself, you will most certainly be able to read it, and to intuitively understand the following:

Which table is the formula looking at? The example table.

What are the filtering criteria? Where the Task due date is 4/21/2022 and where the task owner is Mike

The same cannot be said for a Sheets formula. Without a detailed understanding of how the Index and Match formula work AND - most importantly - without access to the underlying data, one cannot make any sense of the variables used in the formula.

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