Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
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Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#2At the time (506 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24070385
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#3At the time (506 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24070385
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Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#4PSA: if you use Excel as intended, you would just go File/New/Blank Worksheet, switch to the Data tab, then use the 'From Text/CSV' wizard to specify the data types for each column in your data source, neatly bypassing this entire issue.
But yes, just double-clicking the CSV from Explorer, using the legacy 'open this as a sheet' functionality, experiencing data loss and then complaining about it (and the state of Excel, MSFT and The World in general) on social media is much, much more fun...
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#5[deleted]
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#6PSA: if you use Excel as intended, you would just go File/New/Blank Worksheet, switch to the Data tab, then use the 'From Text/CSV' wizard to specify the data types for each column in your data source, neatly bypassing this entire issue. But yes, just double-clicking the CSV from Explorer, using the legacy 'open this as a sheet' functionality, experiencing data loss and then complaining about it (and the state of Exc…
In Japan everyone passes around CSVs in shift-jis still for exactly this reason - the default opening action of Excel with CSVs.
Its easy to say its people being dumb, but at this point I really wish excel just wasn't so confident in itself and actually asked you during the default open operation what you want to do.
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#7Similarly, if your last name is "Null", sometimes it's just easier to just change your last name.
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#8>Even then, a scientist might fix their data but export it as a CSV file without saving the formatting.
Is this supposed to be a joke? Since when does excel support CSV files? Yes you can import and export CSV files but that is just there to check a box. That feature doesn't actually work. Just import and export .xlsx files in your applications directly.
CSV is such a bad format because it's not even a standard, there is RFC4180 but most people have never heard of it. CSV is complicated enough that anyone who thinks they can implement it will get it wrong on their first attempt but simple enough that people believe they can implement it on their first attempt.
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#9PSA: if you use Excel as intended, you would just go File/New/Blank Worksheet, switch to the Data tab, then use the 'From Text/CSV' wizard to specify the data types for each column in your data source, neatly bypassing this entire issue. But yes, just double-clicking the CSV from Explorer, using the legacy 'open this as a sheet' functionality, experiencing data loss and then complaining about it (and the state of Exc…
>then use the 'From Text/CSV' wizard to specify the data types for each column in your data source, neatly bypassing this entire issue.
Something people do not understand is that type information in CSV files is conveyed out of band. The application that is reading the CSV file must know the datatype which effectively turns each CSV file into an application specific format.
Re: Human genes renamed to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates (2020)
#10PSA: if you use Excel as intended, you would just go File/New/Blank Worksheet, switch to the Data tab, then use the 'From Text/CSV' wizard to specify the data types for each column in your data source, neatly bypassing this entire issue. But yes, just double-clicking the CSV from Explorer, using the legacy 'open this as a sheet' functionality, experiencing data loss and then complaining about it (and the state of Exc…
In Japan everyone passes around CSVs in shift-jis still for exactly this reason - the default opening action of Excel with CSVs. Its easy to say its people being dumb, but at this point I really wish excel just wasn't so confident in itself and actually asked you during the default open operation what you want to do.
It uses Windows-1252 in Europe...