SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Installation

Excel is very powerful for data analysis, data crunching, and data visualization; it also supports data storage.  We can store up to 1 million rows per worksheet and we can have multiple worksheets, over 2 GB file size (if we have Excel 2010 64 bit version), sort and filter data, and Excel has even provided us a long list of database functions DAVERAGE, DCOUNT, DSUM… etc.  We are all familiar with Excel and it works!  We open an Excel worksheet, define the column headers, then we can enter data!  Quick and simple!  And you know what the best part is?  We don’t need to bother IT department; we can do it right now on our desktop!   We all know how busy our IT department is.

However, if you have a giant Excel worksheet then you may notice it has a sluggish performance especially if your PC only has 1 – 2 GB memory. Excel also has limited multi users’ support; so if your application requires concurrent data access, then it is time to consider a proper database as data storage.

I am going to demonstrate how we can use Excel with SQL Server 2008 R2 Express edition and consolidate the benefits from both products. SQL Express is a free and feature-rich database for developing and deploying desktop, web, and small server applications.

You can download it from Microsoft website.

The installation is quite simple unless you want to do some customization.  Since this is the first time we use SQL Server, so we should keep it simple and accept all the default settings.

We start the installation by clicking New installation or add features to an existing installation.

• Select I accept the license terms.
• Click Next > buttons.

• Wait until the Setup Support Files is completed, then click Install button.

• Click Next > buttons.

• Click Next > buttons.

• Click Next > buttons.

• Click Next > buttons.

• Click Next > buttons.

• Click Next > buttons.

• Click Close > buttons.

Now SQL Server is installed and is ready to use.  I am going to import data to SQL Server in my next blog.

• Create Excel Pivot Table from SQL Server
• Import data into SQL Server
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Installation

Andrew Chan is the owner and founder of ALG Inc.

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