Sorry, Geeks, Microsoft Excel is Everywhere
I absolutely hate Excel. It's not the number crunching that's the problem. Database -> Excel, Excel -> Database issues are almost unavoidable. In 2 months of working with SSIS packages, I encountered every one of these problems (I'm not the original author of this rant):<p>"Anyone who has worked with a database in a professional capacity for more than 20 minutes should have a list of at least 10 reasons why Excel is a monster. These probably include:<p>1. The way it butchers postal codes that start with a leading zero, like the town I grew up in (Granby, MA 01033 USA)<p>2. Dates of any kind<p>3. Serial numbers that have leading 0's (see #1)<p>4. The JET database driver for Excel. One large WTF.<p>5. SQL Server Integration Services Excel datasource. WTF squared.<p>6. The f-ing "just put an apostrophe" workaround. WTF.<p>6. a. The equally effective "format as text before you paste" workaround. Gives the illusion of working, only to break later.<p>7. Save as CSV, then reopen the CSV in Excel. Lots of magical things happen there.<p>8. While on the topic, CSV files, which are a whole WTF on their own.<p>9. The Jet database driver's "type guess rows" registry entry. WTF factorial.<p>The root of all this: Excel makes things that look like tables, and tables are useful for data. There is no other program that is as widespread AND makes things that look like tables, so people use Excel to make tables of data. And it's in fact really, really bad at that. It was designed for ad-hoc numerical analysis and got appropriated as a database loading and reporting tool.<p>I think it's actually damaged the GNP of whole nations, this Excel program. It'd be interesting to know how badly."