In a spreadsheet, you can input data in cells. These data can be text or numbers. For the text, the spreadsheet does not know anything about the information, just that it is not a number. It has cell numbers, like A4 or B12, but it does not care what is inside the cell – name, address, favorite color, etc. – it only distinguishes between text and numbers.

A database on the other hand, tries to make sense of the kinds of data that have been input. A database has fields – like an address field. It has restrictions on what can be entered in the fields, like only addresses in the address field. A database is used to ask questions about the data in particular fields; for example, how many in a particular mailing list live in New York, and how many live in Chicago.

A spreadsheet uses its data mainly for calculations. The numeric data are used for basic calculations and complex analyses.

A database is used primarily to organize data and give some sort of meaning to it. A database also uses the data for other uses such as mailing lists, form letters, etc.