The Excel superstars throw down in Vegas (www.theverge.com)
from misk@sopuli.xyz to technology@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 09:38
https://sopuli.xyz/post/13827941

#technology

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megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Jun 12:54 next collapse

If the earliest sports were a way to practice skills needed for hunting or warfare, then making an e-sport out of spreadsheets is going back to the roots of sports. It’s practicing skills needed for your daily job.

NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 14:05 collapse

Excel: a tool to make an ignored case that the data should be handled in a database

bamboo@lemm.ee on 15 Jun 20:12 collapse

In many cases you’re right. I manage some spreadsheets at work that are relatively small, have little/no automation, and are really just inventory lists with some notes on each item. Could be a CSV.

Xirup@yiffit.net on 15 Jun 14:21 next collapse

Nice post but I almost get blind reading that.

itsralC@lemm.ee on 15 Jun 14:34 next collapse

There is a button to change the color scheme to B&W

Deebster@programming.dev on 15 Jun 14:52 collapse

I started but then I noticed the scrollbar and realised it’s a lot longer read than I have the attention for right now - to the “read later (yeah right)” pile with you!

fluxion@lemmy.world on 16 Jun 00:45 collapse

FWIW they did a pretty good job covering an Excel competition and actually making it interesting/readable.

jpreston2005@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 14:27 next collapse

The other day I couldn’t get my VLOOKUP function to work because the table I was trying to query hadn’t been designated “Table2” but “Table14” because…? Company laptop was dangerously close to putting a small dent in the closest brick wall. Doing this for fun? What?

misk@sopuli.xyz on 15 Jun 14:38 collapse

I think at certain point you’re kind of expected to switch to INDEX & MATCH. I did plenty of Excel macros for work back in the day and at similar point I just switched to doing things in Python.

CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz on 15 Jun 19:43 next collapse

I just cannot imagine any task you can do in excel that isn’t easier to do with Python/Pandas. The simplest manipulations of an excel sheet pretty much require you to chain an ungodly list of arcane commands that are completely unreadable, and god forbid you need to work with data from several workbooks at the same time…

misk@sopuli.xyz on 15 Jun 21:55 collapse

If you’re reliant on third party add-ons you don’t have a choice. Bloomberg and Eikon are two examples that didn’t have a good Python API back then. Even after I started to use Python more sometimes I had to script opening up Excel itself, forcing formula refresh and exporting that.

You also need to consider that average Joe at a big financial corporation knows Excel so he uses that for everything. People that know Python are more expensive.

CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz on 15 Jun 22:11 collapse

Oh, I definitely get that the major appeal of excel is a close to non-existent barrier to entry. I mean, an elementary school kid can learn the basics(1) of using excel within a day. And yes, there are definitely programs out there that have excel as their only interface :/ I was really referring to the case where you have the option to do something “from scratch”, i.e. not relying on previously developed programs in the excel sheet.

(1) I’m aware that you can do complex stuff in excel, the point is that the barrier to entry is ridiculously low, which is a compliment.

catloaf@lemm.ee on 15 Jun 21:09 next collapse

At that point you should just use a database.

misk@sopuli.xyz on 15 Jun 21:39 collapse

There are environments where Excel is used as glue that does faux-ETL for very unpredictable data which is so small in volume you don’t even consider a database. Also, database would mean MS Access which is just icky so it was used only when necessary.

uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca on 15 Jun 22:49 collapse

Xlookup

killea@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 20:19 next collapse

Didn’t know they were having an Eve Online event.

Archer@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 20:27 collapse

The fact that Eve was a sponsor was perfect

killea@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 22:40 collapse

Hah sorry, former redditor here, posting on title alone. That is truly wild but also makes perfect sense.

benwubbleyou@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 22:16 collapse

Here’s a great video by People Male Games about this!

PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks on 15 Jun 22:16 collapse

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