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How do I create a simple program that will pull information from a database, insert it into a few formulas, and spit out the answers?

Asked by coelacanth (222points) March 17th, 2012

My knowledge of programming is non-existent, which makes it hard to even know what to search for to learn how to do this! Help, por favor!

For example, consider the following data:
Quadrat, Species
1, ASTCAN
1, ASTPIL
2, ASTCAN
2, ASTPIL
2, ASTERI

ASTCAN has a Conservation Value of 10, ASTPIL is 0, AND ASTERI IS 5, but I don’t want to have to enter those every time I enter the data.

How can I create a program that will then spit out the average Conservation Value of the quadrats I entered, for example?

=(sum of Conservation Values of Species column)/# species
QUAD 1 = (10+0)/2
QUAD 2 = (10+0+5)/3

P.S. If you recognize these values and names, it is because a program called FQA, Floristic Quality Assessment, exists for this exact purpose. My intention is to be able to create my own database of information to use with a set of formulas that this program does not offer.

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