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Ask HN: Why Does Excel Default to Scientific Freaking Notation

8 points by Alupis ↗ HN
When is the last time someone actually wanted Scientific Notation in their Spreadsheet?

Why on earth does Excel default to Scientific Notation for all large numbers?

How many errors can be attributed to Excel converting GTIN's, serial numbers, tracking numbers, event id's and worse into complete gibberish.

Excel Team - What gives!?

7 comments

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sp332
Numbers in Excel are limited to 15 digits, no matter what notation. If you want a number-looking string yo be a string, you can quote it with a leading ' .
Alupis
Everyone knows how to wrestle Excel into cooperating, but that's the point - you shouldn't have to.

I would posit there's a near zero likelihood that someone copy/pasting a, say 21 digit number, wants it to automatically convert to Scientific Notation and lose data.

Excel should do the least astonishing thing when someone is working with data. If it cannot handle 15+ digits, it should assume a string, not a broken number.

scantis
Check out EXCEL induced genome renaming.

Like the northern star, a refusal to waiver under any persuasion.

FunkHose
Then you’d have someone complaining they can’t perform math on the numbers they just posted into Excel.
thfuran
There is no universally least astonishing thing for something with usecases as varied as excel. But I suspect that treating numbers as text is close to maximally astonishing.
pestatije
> for all large numbers

There's your answer. Not every Excel user is in accounts

bediger4000
The one that bugs me is when ISO8601 format dates (yyyy-mm-dd) somehow mysteriously turn into floating point numbers.

At least half of Excel usage happens because Word is so pitifully inadequate at formatting text in tables.