4 ms·
Excel endures because it's the non-programmer's REPL for data. Like a Lisp REPL, using Excel is nimble and has an instant feedback loop. Click "A-Z" to sort asc
by pitay 9y ago
Excel endures because it's the non-programmer's REPL for data. Like a Lisp REPL, using Excel is nimble and has an instant feedback loop. Click "A-Z" to sort ascending, click "Z-A" to sort descending. Move/hide/freeze columns. If one has intermediate-to-advanced skills, one can pivot the data on multiple axis. None of the centralized systems with even the slickest web GUIs can match Excel's capabilities.
What about Business Intelligence products such as Hyperion? They can provide reports from a defined data model which gets data directly from the database. People can create their pivots and other transformations on the data fairly easily. Is their something that Excel offers that makes it much better than one of these Business Intelligence products in certain situations?
- mickronome 9y agoExcel offers a few things in most scenarios, primarily because that any enforced structure always implies lost flexibility, and one of the issues often quoted with Excel is the lack of enforcement of using the right structures and data sources. A simple one: If I have been asked to do a report, but it turns out I don't have the correct access rights to some data, my manager can simply send it to me in an Excel sheet, or he can log an issue with IT to change the acess rights to a specific key/dimension/hierarchy. The 'one true data source' move often correspond to tighter access controls when good auditing really would have been the correct solution, hence the above situation is fairly common.
- pitay 9y agoThanks very much for the info that Excel may offer least friction in a lot of circumstances, especially when ad-hoc things need to be done with data.