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One problem with Excel is that it is mainly used by non-programmers. Approximately 10% of professional spread sheets contain serious errors. Another problem is

One problem with Excel is that it is mainly used by non-programmers. Approximately 10% of professional spread sheets contain serious errors. Another problem is that it mangles it inputs in unpredictable ways. Geneticists have been forced to rename certain gene names because Excel messed them up[0]. [0] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/ https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

giardini 5y ago
aliasEli says >" Approximately 10% of professional spread sheets contain serious errors."< That seems waaaayyyy low. The article referenced includes a link stating that 24% of Enron spreadsheets had errors: https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Enron_s_Spreadsheets_and_Related_Emails_A_Dataset_and_Analysis/1222882 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Enron_s_S... The following says 96% of spreadsheets have errors: https://www.i-nth.com/resources/blog/your-spreadsheets-are-wrong https://www.i-nth.com/resources/blog/your-spreadsheets-are-w... That website has an excellent bibliography re spreadsheets and errors: https://www.i-nth.com/resources/bibliography/ https://www.i-nth.com/resources/bibliography/ University of Hawaii’s College of Business Administration researchers found that 88% of 113 spreadsheets audited had errors (and a wonderful leading story about a very ironic spreadsheet financial nightmare involving Lehman Bros and Barclay bank - If you're an Excel guru, read it!): https://vinsonedu.com/blog/88-of-all-spreadsheets-are- https://vinsonedu.com/blog/88-of-all-spreadsheets-are- marred-by-errors/ "What we know about spreadsheet errors (revised 2008) by Raymond R. Panko: https://web.archive.org/web/20191229170034/http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/Mypapers/whatknow.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20191229170034/http://panko.shid... Nonetheless, Excel rules! It seems that Excel spreadsheets will continue to proliferate until someone pries them out of accountants' and engineers' cold dead hands.
- aliasEli 5y ago
  It was a long time ago that I looked into this. It is nice to see that there are better studies now. (I always thought that the number of errors seemed suspiciously low).

giardini 5y ago

aliasEli says >" Approximately 10% of professional spread sheets contain serious errors."< That seems waaaayyyy low. The article referenced includes a link stating that 24% of Enron spreadsheets had errors: https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Enron_s_Spreadsheets_and_Related_Emails_A_Dataset_and_Analysis/1222882 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Enron_s_S... The following says 96% of spreadsheets have errors: https://www.i-nth.com/resources/blog/your-spreadsheets-are-wrong https://www.i-nth.com/resources/blog/your-spreadsheets-are-w... That website has an excellent bibliography re spreadsheets and errors: https://www.i-nth.com/resources/bibliography/ https://www.i-nth.com/resources/bibliography/ University of Hawaii’s College of Business Administration researchers found that 88% of 113 spreadsheets audited had errors (and a wonderful leading story about a very ironic spreadsheet financial nightmare involving Lehman Bros and Barclay bank - If you're an Excel guru, read it!): https://vinsonedu.com/blog/88-of-all-spreadsheets-are- https://vinsonedu.com/blog/88-of-all-spreadsheets-are- marred-by-errors/ "What we know about spreadsheet errors (revised 2008) by Raymond R. Panko: https://web.archive.org/web/20191229170034/http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/Mypapers/whatknow.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20191229170034/http://panko.shid... Nonetheless, Excel rules! It seems that Excel spreadsheets will continue to proliferate until someone pries them out of accountants' and engineers' cold dead hands.

aliasEli 5y ago
It was a long time ago that I looked into this. It is nice to see that there are better studies now. (I always thought that the number of errors seemed suspiciously low).