<story><title>Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>collyw</author><text>The real question should be would it be cheaper to replace it with a proper solution (probably something custom built application written by a software engineer).&lt;p&gt;Excel&amp;#x27;s ease of use is it&amp;#x27;s downfall. It is the worlds most popular database, despite not actually being a database. I have wasted countless hours dealing with Excel where something else should have been used. I built a database for a friend recently, I think 75% of the work was cleaning the existing data from the excel to get it into the database.</text></item><item><author>koliber</author><text>They are costing money. No doubt.&lt;p&gt;At the same time, the business world runs on Excel. How much money is Excel making?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve done my share of cursing at Excel at various jobs. At the same time, I am grateful for the quick and easy way it allows me and many others to manipulate data. It&amp;#x27;s unfair to just cite the costs of using Excel without acknowledging the benefits it brings.</text></item><item><author>totaldude87</author><text>All previous major spreadsheet screwups were costing money (largest being $6 billion in losses due to a excel formula mishap) , but this one is playing with lives :(&lt;p&gt;5 – London Olympics Oversells Swimming Event by 10,000 Tickets&lt;p&gt;4- Banking powerhouse Barclay’s accidentally bought 179 more contracts than they intended in their purchase of Lehman Brothers assets in 2008. Someone hid cells containing the unwanted contract instead of deleting them.&lt;p&gt;3-utsourcing specialists Mouchel had to endure a £4.3 million profits write down due to a spreadsheet error in a pension fund deficit caused by an outside firm of actuaries&lt;p&gt;2- Canadian power generator TransAlta suffered losses of $24 million as the result of a simple clerical error which meant they bought US contracts at higher prices than they should hav&lt;p&gt;and the Biggest one is. -&lt;p&gt;Basic Excel flaws and incorrect testing led to JP Morgan Chase losing more than $6 billion in their London Whale disaster.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;floatapp.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;5-greatest-spreadsheet-errors-of-all-time&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;floatapp.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;5-greatest-spreadsheet-errors-o...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dageshi</author><text>People start using excel when the requirements are unknown, they use excel to understand the requirements while still being functional. To build a &amp;quot;proper solution&amp;quot;, you frontload all the requirement discovery to build a system which only you or another developer will be able to update&amp;#x2F;change.&lt;p&gt;We blame excel, but excel is really just being used for prototyping and nobody takes a decision at a certain point to move on from that prototype.</text></comment>
<story><title>Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>collyw</author><text>The real question should be would it be cheaper to replace it with a proper solution (probably something custom built application written by a software engineer).&lt;p&gt;Excel&amp;#x27;s ease of use is it&amp;#x27;s downfall. It is the worlds most popular database, despite not actually being a database. I have wasted countless hours dealing with Excel where something else should have been used. I built a database for a friend recently, I think 75% of the work was cleaning the existing data from the excel to get it into the database.</text></item><item><author>koliber</author><text>They are costing money. No doubt.&lt;p&gt;At the same time, the business world runs on Excel. How much money is Excel making?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve done my share of cursing at Excel at various jobs. At the same time, I am grateful for the quick and easy way it allows me and many others to manipulate data. It&amp;#x27;s unfair to just cite the costs of using Excel without acknowledging the benefits it brings.</text></item><item><author>totaldude87</author><text>All previous major spreadsheet screwups were costing money (largest being $6 billion in losses due to a excel formula mishap) , but this one is playing with lives :(&lt;p&gt;5 – London Olympics Oversells Swimming Event by 10,000 Tickets&lt;p&gt;4- Banking powerhouse Barclay’s accidentally bought 179 more contracts than they intended in their purchase of Lehman Brothers assets in 2008. Someone hid cells containing the unwanted contract instead of deleting them.&lt;p&gt;3-utsourcing specialists Mouchel had to endure a £4.3 million profits write down due to a spreadsheet error in a pension fund deficit caused by an outside firm of actuaries&lt;p&gt;2- Canadian power generator TransAlta suffered losses of $24 million as the result of a simple clerical error which meant they bought US contracts at higher prices than they should hav&lt;p&gt;and the Biggest one is. -&lt;p&gt;Basic Excel flaws and incorrect testing led to JP Morgan Chase losing more than $6 billion in their London Whale disaster.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;floatapp.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;5-greatest-spreadsheet-errors-of-all-time&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;floatapp.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;5-greatest-spreadsheet-errors-o...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>altacc</author><text>I find people often use Excel (or Access if they&amp;#x27;re brave) when they have a known problem and can visualise the solution in something they know, like Excel. The crucial factor is implementation time. They can open an Excel and start work immediately, or wait weeks or months going through a lengthy and complex IT procurement process that will take from their budget. So in most cases starting with Excel is a no-brainer. Same reason why a lot of stealth IT gets implemented.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s often only after years of a business using what has become sacred &amp;amp; business critical Excels, that somebody suggests formalizing it into software. In a business with an IT function, or a consultancy looking for business, it should always be somebody&amp;#x27;s job to find these Excels and replace them with something more robust.</text></comment>