Queries. Excel isn't a database but a lot of people use it like one anyways.
Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
111–120 of 201 posts
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#112Freeze multiple, unconnected columns and rows.
That way I could view the descriptions at the top and the sums at the bottom while I'm scrolling through any point in a spreadsheet.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#113You can't tell whether you got the right answer.
My rule of thumb is that any interesting spreadsheet has a mistake. Anyone who uses a spreadsheet and doesn't independently know the answer "close enough" is living in a fool's paradise.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#1141. Really, really great looking graphs. Excel fails so hard at this it's unbelievable.
2. Easy navigation. The giant spreadsheet model is a very simple metaphor but sometimes I'd like a way to jump to different parts of it more easily.
3. Not be a spreadsheet. The one-big-sheet model might be better represented as a bunch of smaller tables floating in space with formulas interconnecting them. The letter/number convention has been around since the very first spreadsheet, surely we can do better.
4. Understand the internet. RSS, live stock quotes, etc. The address of a cell ought to be internet-compatible somehow, e.g. http://myspreadsheets.com/daily_report/C2 or http://myspreadsheet.com/daily_report/mynamedtable?x=Jan2007.... Google Docs does something like this, I think.
5. Allow scripting in a language that doesn't completely suck. Javascript or python would be good choices.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can do most of that (pretty simply) in excel. For your data C2:C10 - Do a field: sum(C2:C11) Then when you want to add more data - right-click on the row (11) and "insert" That will update your sum calculation. Also - you can do named fields - so that if you select the fields C2:C11 - then you can name them as "invoices" (in excel 2003 it's in the top left corner - there's a selection box you can type in. Just se…
Do a field: sum(C2:C11) I.e. leave a blank row at the bottom of my table, and have the sum include that blank row? I actually know about that trick (thanks :)... what I want is a spreadsheet that does what I want without my tricking it.
You don't have to trick it in Excel 2003. If you have 10 rows (i.e. c1 thru c10) and in c11 you have the sum if you right click on row 11 and insert row it will insert a row above 11 and update your formula for you in c11 to include the new row.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#116One interesting model of where spreadseets may go is Resolver, at http://code.google.com/p/resolver/ or http://www.resolversystems.com/. Most of the issues complained about here can be solved through the Python back end.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#117Oh my goodness, you're going to get my spreadsheet rant. This is what frustrates me every single time I use Excel (or the Google Docs spreadsheet, for that matter). I may not be answering your question since I'm talking about usability instead of more powerful features, but I can't but imagine that there'd be a market for simple and easy to use, even if it turns out it's not going to be addressed by your particular s…
CatDancer, the problem is that the system can't always know what you intended: should the range be "greedy" and jump to incorporate the new numbers as you append them, or should it be "strict" and keep to the boundaries you originally gave it? Sometimes the latter behavior is what is desired, and expanding to C2:C11 would be wrong in that case. So what's really needed here is a lightweight way to communicate your intention to the system. (Actually, you can do this in Excel - http://tinyurl.com/26b78 - but it's far from lightweight.)
I'm assuming that (in terms of your example) the invoice amounts that you're adding up would form a contiguous range of numbers, and that this range would be bounded by whitespace. That is, you might have some other range that used column C -- say "expenses" -- but it would be lower down, say starting at C15, and there would be at least one blank cell between the two. Is that correct? If it weren't for that lower range, you could just take the sum of the whole column and you'd be good. But it's too inconvenient (and not the "spreadsheet way") to force everything into separate columns.
If the above is correct, how would you feel about being able to define a range with a notation like this: "C2:C✱", meaning "the range of cells that starts at C2 and goes down until it hits whitespace"? Then as you add numbers to C11, C12, etc., the range would automatically expand to include them. But you'd still have to be careful to ensure there was a "moat" of whitespace around your invoice range. If you filled in the last non-whitespace cell before your other table, you'd now have connected the two tables in such a way that "C2:C✱" would leap down to the end of the second table. In other words you'd be lumping "invoices" together with "expenses" which is probably incorrect.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#118They must be very good, if they are expected to come up with something within a few months that will be able to compete with Google Docs, Microsoft Office and Open Office.
I can't wait to see it.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#119Here are some features that would be nice in Excel: 1. Programmability in something other than VBA (Python?). 2. Online spreadsheets like Google. 3. Better search and replace. 4. Ability to reference tables through URLs so they could show up in blogs and in HTML. Something like this: http://ycspreadsheets.com/joe/doc1.ss?s=1&block=a1:c10. This should produce HTML that some javascript can replace in my blog with the t…
1. Already doable to a significant extent http://www.google.com/search?q=excel+python 2. Well, Google does this :) 3. Follows from 1. 4. Good idea, but why not just use this: http://www.google.com/search?q=spreadsheet+widget Or http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=55244... 5. Already easily doable in Excel http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6115870.h... In Google Spreadsheet, just us…
Can't you accomplish #2 via Sharepoint or Office Online? I know there are some options if you click Windows Logo > Publish in Excel 2007.
Re: Ask HN: What can't you do in Excel?
#120I would like to do conditional formatting on one column based on the contents of another column.
Can't you do this by making your conditional format for a cell dependent on another column, and then use the format for all cells in the column?