How about just not auto-convert everything and keep the integrity of the data unless specifically asked to? Is that so hard?
Microsoft fixes the Excel feature that was wrecking scientific data
Submitted 1 year ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
ElectroNeutrino@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Chais@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Microsoft assumes their users are complete idiots, even when they (the users) are actively trying to convince them (Microsoft) otherwise. No matter how advanced the feature may be, they’ll assume you found instructions somewhere to do something entirely unrelated and they constantly have to save you from yourself. As a result you constantly have to fight the OS for access and control.
sndrtj@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Excel is never ever going to break backwards compatability. In fact, quite some “features” in Excel are just there to stay bug-for-bug compatible with existing systems.
Example: Excel stores dates internally as a float - called the serial date, you can view it by running DATEVALUE on any cell that contains a date. It is supposed to be the number of days since 1 January 1900. However, since early Excel versions had to be compatible with Lotus1-2-3, Excel had to be compatible with a bug in Lotus123: they had erroneously assumed 1900 to be a leap year. In addition, the indexing is off by one. So the actual 0 epoch of an Excel serial date is 30 December 1899 for all dates starting 1 March 1900.
macrocephalic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Now if only it would stop dropping leading zeros unless you ask it, and we got rid of the MM/DD/yyyy date format entirely.
theparadox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Now if only it would stop dropping leading zeros unless you ask it
That appears to actually be a feature. Image
macrocephalic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Holy shit! Now I just need to talk to some sysadmins and get some group policies set.
Etterra@lemmy.world 1 year ago
MM/DD/YYYY is the correct format here in America.
EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 1 year ago
I think the point was that the format itself is odd. I am European and it’s weird to me: logically it should be either from greatest to smallest, or from smallest to greatest, not a weird in-between.
neuropean@kbin.social 1 year ago
Thank god! You have no idea how awful this is for scientists. Need to paste some gene names down? Better hope it’s not MARCHF8 or in the Septin gene family, otherwise you have to convert columns to text then import the data. Seems like a simple fix, but many wet lab biologists are technologically challenged.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 1 year ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In 2020, scientists decided just to rework the alphanumeric symbols they used to represent genes rather than try to deal with an Excel feature that was interpreting their names as dates and (un)helpfully reformatting them automatically.
Yesterday, a member of the Excel team posted that the company is rolling out an update on Windows and macOS to fix that.
Excel’s automatic conversions are intended to make it easier and faster to input certain types of commonly entered data — numbers and dates, for instance.
But for scientists using quick shorthand to make things legible, it could ruin published, peer-reviewed data, as a 2016 study found.
Microsoft detailed the update in a blog post this week, adding a checkbox labeled “Convert continuous letters and numbers to a date.” You can probably guess what that toggles.
The update builds on the Automatic Data Conversions settings the company added last year, which included the option for Excel to warn you when it’s about to get extra helpful and let you load your file without automatic conversion so you can ensure nothing will be screwed up by it.
The original article contains 225 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 18%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Why are scientists using a paid service such as Excel anyway? Shouldn’t they be using something like Libre Open Office?
kaitco@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Many scientists are based out of corporations or universities who contract with Microsoft, so Excel would be the default solution for working with spreadsheets.
Also, when it comes to “office” applications, there is no real substitute for Excel. Word processing, presentations, email, notes; there are many open and closed source alternatives that will do the same if not better than MS Office applications. Excel, however, is the exception.
LibreOffice Calc, G-Sheets, Apple’s Numbers, or the myriad of competitor office solutions have never matched Excel for in-depth analyses or overall function. For just basic features, one could limp by with most alternatives, but doing real analytical work within spreadsheets requires Excel.
Zeth0s@lemmy.world 1 year ago
By experience, being a scientist doesn’t mean one is the smartest guy in the room. Just that one has passion and luck and luxury to pursue that passion.
Many use alternatives to excel (R, python, Matlab, libreoffice). For others installing a software is challenging enough that they use whatever provided by IT.
Other don’t give a sh*it, they are too busy in exploiting or in being exploited. No time to think about what it is better
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 1 year ago
In college a professor gave is some homework to be done in excel, and as the nerd that I am, asked if Livre Office was ok because I use Linux and have no access to Excel. The professor was like, well in that case everyone do tge homework on R or python. My classmates were really mad at me for that.
Tavarin@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
I’ve had the same copy of excel since high school, and it’s done a damn fine job processing experimental date through undergrad, my PhD, and 6 years as a working researcher.
It’s also the software pretty much everyone has, so you can easily share data with collaborators and other researchers. And it has a ton of functionality so you can process and analyze data easily, and create the visuals for papers very easily.
dpunked@feddit.de 1 year ago
Why should they do that?
Etterra@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Office Libre is free, and modern MS Office UIs looks like dog dookie. OL can also save in Excel format if you want.
Hey look at that, I found a solution that didn’t require they change their entire process or have to wait for Microsloughed to get their act together.
Moneo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Libre calc is one of the worst UXs I have ever had the displeasure of using. I can’t imagine anyone recommending it is using it as their main work application.
Deebster@programming.dev 1 year ago
It’s too late though, scientists already had it rename the genes. Although of course there are other things that can trigger it, not just in science.
cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 1 year ago
FFS, scientists should know how to handle data, and Excel ain’t it.
Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev 1 year ago
how about fuck MS?
MelodiousFunk@kbin.social 1 year ago
Me before reading the article: It's got to be dates. Excel thinks everything is a date.
Me after reading the article: Even the workaround is halfhearted. Jeebus.