EXCEL grid in another GUI

[kalos]

hello

I want to create a GUI for an app that runs a database (among other things)

a part of this GUI, I want it be a grid, but with all the features of EXCEL grid, ie. it will feel like using EXCEL grid

do you have any idea for this?

thanks

[Jimdoria]

Recommendation #1 - Don't try to re-write Excel from the ground up!  

Most of what Excel gives you falls into two categories: calculation engine (using formulas to calculate the value of cells based on the values of other cells) and data presentation (sorting data, filtering it, color coding certain values, etc.)

Do you need both of these feature sets? It's not common for a database app to need the calculation engine features, since you can usually do those kinds of things in the app's code.

First of all, can you just use Excel itself? With it's data access features, programmability via VBA, and its presence on many Windows computers, maybe you can just base your app directly in Excel.

You don't say what language you will be developing in. That makes a big difference. If you are using a .NET language such as C#, VB.NET or ASP.NET, there are some very full-featured components you can use. Check out http://www.infragistics.com/dotnet/netadvantage/winforms/wingrid.aspx

That gives you a lot of data presentation ability, but if all you really need the full range of Excel functionality, you'll need something like http://www.infragistics.com/dotnet/netadvantage/aspnet/infragisticsexcel.aspx.

There are probably similar components for other languages, depending on how well supported they are. These may not be free, though. (The Infragisitcs one sure aren't.)

Maybe if you gave us some more background on what you are trying to do we could offer more options.

[kalos]

I need both calculation and data presentation features of EXCEL, including macros, scripting, functions, etc

basing a database app in EXCEL, would not suffice, because I need only a part of app's GUI to have a grid similar to EXCEL (eg, the upper half of the window).

For now, I have not chosen a language to implement it, but I will use the language and database that will offer the most features for this task. Any recommendation?


What kind of info would you like more? It is pretty straight forward, it is about a database (with clients info, procedures info, items info, altogether combined into tables etc), I will answer any other question you need.

that WinGrid seems very interesting!!! how can I find a list of such things, or better, a comparison of them?

thanks!