What advantages are there to using Microsoft Excel?

Answer 1

You can easily do calculations without having to do them by hand.

It is widely used so your work is compatible with what other users may be using.

It is very versatile, so it gives a huge range of features.

With a little training, you can use it; with lots of training you can do a lot more.

Answer 2

Patrick Burns

Some people will think that the "addiction" in the title is over the top, or at least used metaphorically. It is used literally, and is not an exaggeration. Addiction is the persistent use of a substance where that use is detrimental to the user. It is not the substance that is the problem -- more limited use may be beneficial. It is the extent and circumstances of the use that determine if the behavior is addictive or not.

Spreadsheets are a wonderful invention. They are an excellent tool for what they are good at. The problem is that they are often stretched far beyond their home territory. The overuse of spreadsheets is only too common. The recent focus on operational risk may be one impetus for breaking some of the addiction. In particular, compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley will eliminate some spreadsheets (that should be eliminated).

I know there are many spreadsheets in financial companies that take all night to compute. These are complicated and commonly fail. When such spreadsheets are replaced by code more suited to the task, it is not unusual for the computation time to be cut to a few minutes and the process much easier to understand.

The technology acceptance model holds that there are two main factors that determine the uptake of a technology: the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease-of-use. Perception need not correspond to reality.

The perception of the ease-of-use of spreadsheets is to some extent an illusion. It is dead easy to get an answer from a spreadsheet, however, it is not necessarily easy to get the right answer. Thus the distorted view.

The difficulty of using alternatives to spreadsheets is overestimated by many people. Safety features can give the appearance of difficulty when in fact these are an aid.

The hard way looks easy, the easy way looks hard.

The remainder of this page is divided into the sections:

Spreadsheet Computation

The Treatment Center (Alternatives)

If You Must Persist

Specific Problems with Excel

Additional Links

Spreadsheet Computation

The goal of computing is not to get an answer, but to get the correct answer. Often a wrong answer is much worse than no answer at all. There are a number of features of spreadsheets that present a challenge to error-free computing.

AMBIGUITY OF VALUE AND FORMULA

A key feature of spreadsheets is that a cell can be both a formula and a value. This is the great strength of spreadsheets. When something is made simple enough, it often becomes very powerful -- this is such a case.

While this double meaning of cells gives spreadsheets their appeal, it also has negative qualities. Primarily the problem is that some cells have hidden meaning. When you see a number in a cell, you don't know if that is a pure number or a number that is derived from a formula in the cell. While this distinction is usually immaterial, it can be critical.

The leading example is sorting. When rows are sorted, usually it is desired to sort the numbers as they are. However, it will be the formulas that are sorted. To humans the numbers are the primary thing, and the formulas are just something in the background. To the spreadsheet the formulas are primary, and the numbers are mere results.

Exercise: create a column of calls to a random function ("=rand()" in Excel). Now sort those cells.

This clash of viewpoints can end in tears. If the double meaning always made a difference, then errors on account of this would probably be quite rare. Since usually it doesn't matter, errors due to this can go unnoticed. (There is no guarantee that the errors will always be as obvious as they usually are from sorting.)

DATA EXTENT

It is extremely common for data to be added to a spreadsheet after it has been created. The augmentation of data can go wrong, rendering a correct spreadsheet incorrect.

For example, the new data may not end up in the range of some formulas.

DATA CHECKING

The evaluation of a formula either works (in which case a valid value is put into the cell), or it fails (resulting in an error value in the cell). Given the nature of spreadsheets (and humans), there is a tendency to favor few errors. Hence, for example, the convention of zero values for strings in numerical functions.

Good results depend on the user knowing that some of the cells are different than others and taking into account how they are treated. In practice this is hard to guarantee.

There should at least be a warning mechanism that can be inspected. The warning (in this example) would give a count of the unexpected types of data and state how they were treated.

DATA STRUCTURE

When the data for an application naturally have the structure that spreadsheets impose, then correct results are likely. If the data have a more complex structure, more errors can be expected. Complex data (for example, statistical or mathematical structures) demand a convention for placement of the components. In practice the most common convention is higgledy-piggledy.

COMMAND HISTORY

A history of the actions that were taken to achieve a result can be used to help verify the quality of the result. If the result is not right, the history can shed light on what went wrong. It seems largely impossible to get a serviceable history from the use of a spreadsheet (though some attempts are being made).

COMPUTATIONAL VOLATILITY

In general it doesn't make any difference how many times a formula is evaluated. Usually the only thing of interest is that the computation of the spreadsheet is complete. There are a few cases, though, where the number of computations is significant.

You may come to appreciate this if you try to sort random numbers (with their formulas intact). Applications involving random numbers are not suited to spreadsheets. In order to be able to verify results, random operations should be reproducible. It is extremely hard to assure reproducibility in spreadsheets.

SUMMARY

When there is separation between functions and data, it is possible to refine the functions so that they work on all data of any size. In spreadsheets, where there is no such separation, it is easy for bugs to creep into the calculation on any use of the spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets are appropriate when both the data and the computations are simple. The chance of errors grows dramatically with the complexity of the spreadsheet.

The Treatment Center (Alternatives)

There are three major uses that spreadsheets are put to: as a database, as a computational engine, and as a graphics engine.

DATABASE

Many organizations have at least begun to rationalize the use of spreadsheets as databases. Relational databases provide a more structured and secure environment in which to hold data. What may be called vectorized databases, such as Xenomorph and Kdb, are even more powerful -- though seldom would these replace spreadsheet operations. A variety of database programs exist, both commercial and open-source.

COMPUTATION

Perhaps the best alternative to spreadsheets for their computational function is the R language. R is a version of the S language that was first created at Bell Labs. Though this is often thought of as just being for statistics, that is not true. It was designed for computing with data -- precisely what spreadsheets are used for.

R has many advantages over spreadsheets when the computation or data structure is non-trivial. Some of its qualities are discussed in An Introduction to the S Language (which has a somewhat statistical orientation). R is open-source and freely available from The R Project . On Windows and several other platforms you can install and start to use R in just a few minutes. R runs on a wide variety of computers (and is remarkably similar on all of them). A very brief introduction to using R (with a spreadsheet perspective) is A Guide for the Unwilling S User .

Many people will gasp in horror at the thought of using a programming language instead of a spreadsheet. The fact is that a spreadsheet is a programming language -- it is just one that you are used to. There will assuredly be a period of learning and frustration. However, that period may well be shorter and less traumatic than you imagine. The gains in productivity can quickly be very large.

GRAPHICS

There is no reason why a spreadsheet can not produce good graphics. Such is not the case with Excel however -- more on this is given below. If the spreadsheet that you are using does not produce useful and pleasant-looking graphics, then you can use R for this task as well.

If You Must Persist

If you must persist in using spreadsheets, then you should observe good spreadsheet practice and you should have a formal process to verify the quality of your spreadsheets.

Some sources to get you pointed in that direction are:

Spreadsheet Research

Stop the Subversive Spreadsheet which appears on the website of the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG) .

Producers of spreadsheets could take some actions to help prevent bugs. For example, they could create visual cues that clearly distinguish pure values from values that depend on a formula, and add better visual cues for different forms of data.

Answer 3

excel helps us to make our calculations faster and we can draw conclusions faster by making graphs, pie charts. The layout of Rows and Columns makes it very useful for Accounting calculations and bookkeeping. The columns can be summed for a total or added to other columns. The data can be sorted easily. This is useful for lists of addresses and other type of data banks.

Answer 4

The advantages of Excel spreadsheets include being easy to work on with others, portability via mobile and app versions, the ability to deal with lots of data, and the ease of use to make effective comparisons. Excel spreadsheets are versatile enough to be used for budgeting, invoicing, planning, reports, flyers and more.

Answer 5

They are different products for different purposes. Unless you define the scope of the question, it makes no sense. Excel can automatically calculate square roots and word can not.

Answer 6

They can perform amazing spreadsheets and it is very efficent at formulas

Answer 7

As compared to what?