Use Spreadsheets Everywhere • Hacker News Board

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#121

Post by Akronymus » Wed, Aug 04, 2021, 7:14 AM UTC

LegitGandalf wrote: post #39

laGrenouille wrote: post #16

I agree with a lot of the points raised here. I think many of the problems with spreadsheets are due to the software rather than the users. As mentioned in the article, its hard to slowly iterate from a small manageable spreadsheet to an larger software solution. For example, Excel would be a lot more usable and maintainable for me if there was a way to make a special "data sheet" in which data types are forced to be…

Tables are probably the most overlooked feature of Excel. Why use tables? * Each column is uniquely named - no more wondering if you are referencing the right cell, no more thinking about "to $ or not to $" * The table's rows and columns are reliably discovered by pivot tables - no more wondering if the entire dataset is referenced by the pivot * New columns that are formulas are automatically applied to every row *…

Oh excel...

What a love hate relationship I have with it.

On the one hand, it is great for doing a quick and dirty analysis with data not in a DB, on the other, it mangles data and translates the keywords/function names.

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#122

Post by infogulch » Wed, Aug 04, 2021, 3:30 PM UTC

gbrown wrote: post #95

testudovictoria wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say that I have a small, very limited amount of experience with MS Access. I agree; the middle ground between Excel and databases sounds very similar to Access. We had been using Excel for org charts like most places. We wanted to add grouping, metadata, and neatly be able to extend/add information with or without constraints. This was much before I knew anything database related, and Access seemed to…

I was mostly being glib, but I've had some bad experiences with Access over the years. I actually think lightweight database and scripting utilities in Excel could be good, but it would be susceptible to some of the design traps that Access steps on.

What are the biggest design traps that Access fell into? If someone were rebuilding spreadsheets with more structured design like Access, what should they avoid?

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#123

Post by LegitGandalf » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 2:28 AM UTC

blowski wrote: post #91

jjtheblunt wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't excel limited to just over a million rows?

Yes, although you can have multiple sheets each with a million rows. Kind of like sharding. But I’d be fascinated what kind of system spec is required to get good performance on those kind of numbers. I’ve been on a Mac for years, where Excel is crippled by limitations.

Working with a Mac for the first time this year, excel on Mac is actually worse than excel 2010 :(