Hey ppl, I am a newbie and wish to ask for advice....

I want to build a website where ppl can look up figures by doing a "search". I have all the info in a excel spreadsheet, but don't know where to go from here.

I have used dreamweaver b4, so no prob there, i just think i will need to learn MySQL and/or perl php.

Basically i want the user to be able to cross reference a large amount of data, and then have it displayed on screen.
E.G. browser wishes to know how many ppl visited Spain in a given time period, and who were they.

Is this possible? How difficult is it? What do I need to learn?

Thanks in advance for ure help.

Lee

Lee,

I would suggest you go to your favorite book store and buy a PHP/MySQL book. You will need to learn a little about how to setup a MySQL database and get your data into that database in an logical, well-organized way.

Next, you will need to learn PHP to get that data out of your database based on your query (e.g., user input). If you are a Dreamweaver veteran, then formatting the results will be no big deal.

If you are a complete novice, give yourself about 12 hours to read, setup and learn some of the examples in your book. After doing that, it should be clear to you how to proceed with your own project.

The key is to choose a book that explores both PHP and MySQL together.... and make sure it is reasonably up-to-date.

I hope this helps.

Dump it all into MySQL, connect up to your database, create a simple form and results page. Wahlah, done in 10 minutes.

You might want to start here:
http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com

To set up your database will be easy. Just create it with the correct fields, then export your Excel database as CSV format. Then use PHP (there are some premade scripts) to import this data.