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I will never trust Excel for manipulating any real world data. Period. Excel only keeps the first 15 digits of any number you give it [0]. If you want to keep
by pjbster 6y ago
I will never trust Excel for manipulating any real world data. Period.
Excel only keeps the first 15 digits of any number you give it [0]. If you want to keep the full number, you have to store it as text instead. And then you can't perform calculations with it without converting back to a number and losing fidelity.
The two most prevalent data types in business are numbers and dates. It's incredible that Excel is rubbish at dealing with both and yet the world thinks it's the gold standard for doing "business-y stuff" in.
[0] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/last-digits-changed-to-zeros https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/l...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nly 6y agoPresumably the 15 digits thing is because Excel stored numbers as IEEE binary64 doubles? It's amusing because real world JSON has exactly the same contraint, and that's arguably the most common data exchange format in the world now.
- rvba 6y agoWhat calculations do you make with "businessy" stuff that you need more than 15 digits of accuracy?
- pjbster 6y agoFinancial data migration. Big numbers down to many decimal places. I lost days trying to locate a non-existent problem due to this "feature". Not to mention a stakeholder breathing down my neck.
- rvba 6y agoWhat kind of finance numbers do you keep, that you need 15 digits of accuracy. Exchange rates are usually 4 digits. So where does the other 11 go and why do you need it? For example, this 0,00000000001 of a dollar?