"Excel's default behavior is to convert certain text entries into dates. It makes sense for general spreadsheet use, but not for geneticists. Genes, like Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1, are given alphanumeric symbols (MARCH1) as a shorthand for their full, complex names. When a scientist would input "MARCH1" into an Excel spreadsheet, the software would automatically interpret this as a date and convert it to "1-Mar"[...]For a long time, Microsoft's position was that this was a niche issue affecting a small number of users"
To be fair, this really is a niche issue. For all that I agree with the frustration for Microsoft's terrible behavior in so many other respects, it's hard to fault them for not being immediately responsive to something like this.
I think it does not make sense even for general spreadsheet use; it would be better to specify the type explicitly. (I also think a "zoned spreadsheet" would be better, although sometimes compatibility might still be needed with existing spreadsheets so a zoned spreadsheet cannot be the only implementation.)
It's also less helpful because it's not very deterministic. A year is a short time and when it rolls over it will pick the current year even when you may have wanted last year.
That's not really a counter argument to what was said. Daoboy said (and he's right!) that MS hasn't done anything because the behavior impacts very few users, not because it benefits very many users.
"Excel's default behavior is to convert certain text entries into dates. It makes sense for general spreadsheet use, but not for geneticists. Genes, like Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1, are given alphanumeric symbols (MARCH1) as a shorthand for their full, complex names. When a scientist would input "MARCH1" into an Excel spreadsheet, the software would automatically interpret this as a date and convert it to "1-Mar"[...]For a long time, Microsoft's position was that this was a niche issue affecting a small number of users"
To be fair, this really is a niche issue. For all that I agree with the frustration for Microsoft's terrible behavior in so many other respects, it's hard to fault them for not being immediately responsive to something like this.
I think it does not make sense even for general spreadsheet use; it would be better to specify the type explicitly. (I also think a "zoned spreadsheet" would be better, although sometimes compatibility might still be needed with existing spreadsheets so a zoned spreadsheet cannot be the only implementation.)
Ok, sure. Now open this .csv
Do you really think that auto converting MARCH1 to a date even helped anybody? Who is writing dates like this?
It's also less helpful because it's not very deterministic. A year is a short time and when it rolls over it will pick the current year even when you may have wanted last year.
That's not really a counter argument to what was said. Daoboy said (and he's right!) that MS hasn't done anything because the behavior impacts very few users, not because it benefits very many users.
I do from time to time, mostly for home budgets. I'm surprised every time it works.
The option to turn off the auto conversion stuff, should have been shipped way before 2023.