{"id":804,"date":"2020-08-18T00:32:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T04:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/?p=804"},"modified":"2020-08-17T16:26:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T20:26:46","slug":"trouble-with-spreadsheets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/18\/trouble-with-spreadsheets\/","title":{"rendered":"Trouble with Spreadsheets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d942c2121bfbd137a3b44056a000f09c\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Responsive Top -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9531091850463532\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"6574318169\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>You&#8217;ve heard horror stories about spreadsheets, I&#8217;m sure, and you&#8217;ve probably encountered a few nightmares in your own work. Mathematician, and stand-up comedian, Matt Parker, discusses a few of these problems in his video, When Spreadsheets Attack!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>When Spreadsheets Attack!<\/h3>\n<p>Matt does a great job of presenting all the spreadsheet examples in an engaging and informative way. You can learn more about him <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/standupmaths\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on his Stand=up Maths website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And remember, way back in 2014, Dr. Felienne Hermans told us to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.felienne.com\/archives\/3355\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stop blaming spreadsheets<\/a> when things go wrong! You can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.felienne.com\/archives\/3634\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see her Enron numbers in this article abstract<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yb2zkxHDfUE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Video Timeline:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\">01:40 &#8211; European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\">02:45 &#8211; Dr. Felienne Hermans and the Enron spreadsheets<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\">11:30 &#8211; Gene name errors<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Gene Name Errors<\/h3>\n<p>One of the problems that Matt discussed, stating at the 11:30 mark in his video is the problem with using gene codes in Excel &#8212; sometimes the codes are automatically changed to dates!<\/p>\n<p>For example, there is a gene named DEC2, and Excel sometimes converts that to December 2nd in the current year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard01.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-805\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard01.png\" alt=\"date problem in Excel\" width=\"380\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard01.png 380w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard01-300x156.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, after years of problems, the official gene-naming committee is changing those names, to avoid codes that could be interpreted as a date.<\/p>\n<p>You can easily avoid those data problems though, with these steps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When typing, format the cell as Text first, or type an apostrophe before the value<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;\n<p>When opening a csv file, choose a data type for each column, in Step 3 of the Text Import Wizard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard02.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-806\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard02.png\" alt=\"choose a data type\" width=\"395\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard02.png 395w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/textimportwizard02-300x223.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>More From Matt Parker<\/h3>\n<p>For more of Matt&#8217;s videos, go to his Stand-up Maths channel on Youtube. My favourite is this stand-up routine about spreadsheets.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UBX2QQHlQ_I\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>__________________<\/p>\n<h3>Trouble with Spreadsheets<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-807\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01b.jpg 400w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01b-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-808\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a.jpg 400w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a-160x160.jpg 160w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/troublespreadsheets01a-320x320.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>_____________________<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;ve heard horror stories about spreadsheets, I&#8217;m sure, and you&#8217;ve probably encountered a few nightmares in your own work. Mathematician, and stand-up comedian, Matt Parker, discusses a few of these problems in his video,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spreadsheet-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}