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Such tools exist, but aren't popular because they're frustrating. Relational databases are much more rigid than flat files. Columns have datatypes which must be enforced, there are foreign keys, some (combination of) columns may have uniqueness constraints, and so on.

All this adds up to a bunch of errors when you're trying to input and manipulate data, because what you've entered is violating some rule someplace in the database.

It would be awesome if someone could build an interface that gives users the flexibility of Excel, and communicated the issues with the data they're trying to write in a really intuitive way. (e.g. syntax highlighting for data with issues, mouseovers / tooltips, dropdowns & autocompletes for foreign keys, etc)



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