Why does everybody hate Excel?

[hellfire45]

In the last 5 years of working with Excel and VBA, I have numerous times run across people who flat out seem to dismiss the utility of using Excel, sometimes entirely.

I hear things like:

"Excel isn't robust, we have to put it in SAP, Alteryx, Access etc.."

"VBA doesn't add value to the end user."

"VBA and Excel isn't programming."

"Excel workbooks are too slow."



Everybody seems to reject Excel first as a potential solution to problems. I have 100 page long VBA programs that do hundreds out hours of manual work in 10 minutes and when I write an excel formula that has 25 nested functions in it, surely that too is programming.

Anybody else run into this kind of attitude and feel frustrated by it? As an analyst that primarily uses Excel and Tableau it is frustrating when an automation I create in Excel is easily dismissed, even after completion, in favor of virtually any alternative.

When I create an automation in 2 weeks that does a variety of things and then the IT department insists that it be put into SAP, and it takes them a month to even complete the scoping session I think to myself "hmm...Excel doesn't look so bad now for its versatility, flexibility and speed of implementation."

Thoughts?

 

[My Aswer Is This]

I love Excel and Word.

If you "hate" Excel just go back to using Lotus.

 

[shg]

I love Excel and Word.

Ditto.

That doesn't mean Excel fulfills every requirement, but it doesn't pretend to. For people that know how to use it, it is applicable and useful for an astonishing breadth of problems.

 

[RickXL]

Maybe the rumour was started by gene researchers: Excel created major typos in 20 percent of scientific papers on genes.

It says: 'One mistaken gene conversion for example turns the gene symbol SEPT2, short for Septin 2, to “2-Sep.”'

 

[skywriter]

I love Excel and Word.

If you "hate" Excel just go back to using Lotus.

What's that suite that used to come with Windows?

I think there was a word processing program and a spreadsheet program, maybe Outlook Express was in there too, anyone know what I'm talking about.

Works?

 

[Harry Flashman]

I think a lot of programmers hate Excel because they don't use it often enough to get the most out of it. So occasionally when they are forced to use it they find it frustrating, but mainly because they don't know how to use it. Also there is lot of snobbery towards VBA as a programming language.

A lot of non-programmers who use Excel on the other hand use Excel very poorly, often as a database, but with data entered inconsistently, meaning that it often has to be cleaned up before any proper analysis can take place, and this is often a laborious process. Then there are those who know how to use Excel to an extent, but go overboard on trying to make things look pretty without enough thought towards functionality.

On the plus side if you know what you are doing and use Excel a lot, especially if you know VBA, Excel sometimes provides the optimum balance between power and speed of development. In my work I do a lot of ad hoc projects that work best if I create a tailor made tool for the job (usually with VBA). These are once off sorts of projects so it doesn't make sense to develop a stand alone application with C# etc. Excel means I can get the job done right, quickly and cheaply.

 

[Harry Flashman]

What's that suite that used to come with Windows?

I think there was a word processing program and a spreadsheet program, maybe Outlook Express was in there too, anyone know what I'm talking about.

Works?

Microsoft Works. It had a very basic word processing program and an even more basic spreadsheet program. It may have done other stuff too, but that is what I remember.

 

[FDibbins]

I have a great deal of sympathy with that.

It results in users making certain types of progress quickly then, seemingly without warning, it will "help" you with something that you did not want to be helped with and now you are stuck because you don't know how to "undo" the help.

Oh, and I agree about Word. I have spent many a happy hour arguing with the auto numbering feature for lists - and pasting in tables from disparate sources - and making lines in drawings stay put - and making objects appear where you want them - and changing the color of bullet points - and making all paragraphs format the same way and, well I could probably think of lots more if I put my mind to it.

Regards,

I spent a few hours yesterday, trying to figure out why the text in a colleague's document had ALL turned red. No amount of formatting, styles or anything else for that matter, would change the text back to black. Eventually discovered that he had accidently somehow turned on the Show mark-up - Reviewers. Just another "something" that a noob could activate that you have no way of identifying.

As far as excel is concerned, it is a REALLY good workhorse. It can do most things most other programs can do - sometimes better, sometimes not so well. I can be made relatively robust, and at the lowest level, can be fairly easy to start using. If you want something professional/complex/secure, then pick something that more closely fits your requirements

 

[Rhodie72]

I think a lot of programmers hate Excel because they don't use it often enough to get the most out of it. So occasionally when they are forced to use it they find it frustrating, but mainly because they don't know how to use it. Also there is lot of snobbery towards VBA as a programming language.

A lot of non-programmers who use Excel on the other hand use Excel very poorly, often as a database, but with data entered inconsistently, meaning that it often has to be cleaned up before any proper analysis can take place, and this is often a laborious process. Then there are those who know how to use Excel to an extent, but go overboard on trying to make things look pretty without enough thought towards functionality.

On the plus side if you know what you are doing and use Excel a lot, especially if you know VBA, Excel sometimes provides the optimum balance between power and speed of development. In my work I do a lot of ad hoc projects that work best if I create a tailor made tool for the job (usually with VBA). These are once off sorts of projects so it doesn't make sense to develop a stand alone application with C# etc. Excel means I can get the job done right, quickly and cheaply.

I agree with you here too. Excel is great for learning the basics of programming too without forking out huge amounts for a programming enviroment with more power and the training required to begin learning it proficiently. There is so much that can be achieved with VBA that goes beyond average expectations but as you said, it's limited only because it's an interpreted language rather than compiled machine code.

It's the sheer customizablilty of VBA that makes it so versatile too. The limitations we come up against are often because of ignorance of the language or lack of intelligence too. Often it's a fashion statement that one knows how to code C# or Perl etc... rather than being useful for the job. Being capable as opposed to being able are the differences between achieving and underachieving maximal benefit from the API. People just want a quick result that's accurate and they will do anything to avoid learning a new language to achieve it.

We write English so why should we learn Spanish to deliver a result in English if it can be done faster in Spanish without errors?
We write Formulas so why should we learn VB to deliver a result in Formulas if it can be done faster in VB without errors?
Logic. Few use it. Emotions are what drive people to do the silly things they do... feel too lazy, feel too bored, can't be bothered to learn, feel too pressured to attempt... so many reasons not to win. People love failure because it pays as much as success in a full-time salaried job.

A comedian recently interviewed stated that he loved baby talc after a shower until one day he dropped the talc bottle on the bathroom floor... he rolled in it. Whatever was left he scraped into a pile and dumped it into the bin. There was a small ring of hardened dust left on the floor that he couldn't clear up by hand and attempted to blow it away unsuccessfully. When his wife returned from work he appologised profusely when she simply asked why he never used the vaccuum cleaner like a sensible person?

VBA can vacuum up the work in a flash but people don't think of learning the nuts and bolts of their programs because they simply don't have a clue about it to begin with until people like us show them. It takes effort they often don't need to expend for identical gain.

human nature. Go figure.

 

[FDibbins]

Logic. Few use it. Emotions are what drive people to do the silly things they do... feel too lazy, feel too bored, can't be bothered to learn, feel too pressured to attempt...

While those are very valid reasons, you left out 1...I am pretty good with formulas (self-taught) but just simply cannot get VBA under my belt (and believe me, I want to - to the point of paying for classes). My short term memory is not what it used to be, and I just keep forgetting what I have just done

 

[Rhodie72]

Maybe the rumour was started by gene researchers: Excel created major typos in 20 percent of scientific papers on genes.

It says: 'One mistaken gene conversion for example turns the gene symbol SEPT2, short for Septin 2, to “2-Sep.”'

Bwahahahaha, I love that! It's so funny!