Does it need to be accessed by multiple people? Does it need to be updated frequently? Does it need to be accessed programmatically? Does performance matter? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should probably use a database.
If it’s something you interact with manually, has less than 100,000 rows, and is mostly static, then sure, use a spreadsheet.
I used to have some scripts to convert and merge between CSV and sqlite3. Even a lightweight db like sqlite3 has value. Google Sheets fills some of the gaps with its QUERY statement but I still find it a bit awkward to use a lot of the time.
Does it need to be accessed by multiple people? Does it need to be updated frequently? Does it need to be accessed programmatically? Does performance matter? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should probably use a database.
If it’s something you interact with manually, has less than 100,000 rows, and is mostly static, then sure, use a spreadsheet.
I used to have some scripts to convert and merge between CSV and sqlite3. Even a lightweight db like sqlite3 has value. Google Sheets fills some of the gaps with its QUERY statement but I still find it a bit awkward to use a lot of the time.