How do I put a searchable database on my site

[prescotian]

I run an old school contact site with over 2500 contacts. I want to put them into a database/spreadsheet form with five main fields

First Name
Surname Name
Year Left
e-mail address
location

plus a column for other notes

This is quite new to me and I do not know where to start!

[Old Pedant]

Depends on what kind of server you are using. If you are using a Linux server, the obvious choice is MySQL combined with PHP.

If you are using a Windows server, an easier answer would likely be an Excel spreadsheet and ASP coding. Has the advantage that you don't need any mechanism for converting from spreadsheet to database. You can just upload a new version of the ".xls" file to the server any time you want.