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> they had to rename a gene to stop excel auto-completing it into a date. No one in their right mind uses a spreadsheet for data analysis. Good for working out
by afturkrull 6y ago
> they had to rename a gene to stop excel auto-completing it into a date.
No one in their right mind uses a spreadsheet for data analysis. Good for working out your ideas but not in a production environment. I figure excel was chosen as this the utility the scientists were most familiar with.
The proper tool for the job would be a database. I recall reading about a utility, a highly customized database with an interface that looks just like a spreadsheet.
- mattkrause 6y agoThe analysis itself isn’t (usually) happening in Excel. A lot of tools operate on CSV files. People use Excel to peek at the results or prepare input for other tools, and that’s how the date coercion slips in. Sometimes, people do use it to collate the results of small manual experiments, where a database might be overkill. Even so, the data is usually analyzed elsewhere (R, graphPad, etc).
- imtringued 6y ago>A lot of tools operate on CSV files. The mistake was to believe that Excel can operate on CSV files. It doesn't support them in any meaningful way. It supports them in a "I can sort of pretend that I support CSV files" way.
- Arrath 5y agoWhat is a good alternative to working with CSV files than Excel? Excel sure isn't ideal but it's always there as part of the MS Office suite, so I've never looked for anything esle.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoAnd yet, we are still being taught to use an Excel (2003) spreadsheet for data analysis... (Because that's what most businesses are still using !)