× The internal search function is temporarily non-functional. The current search engine is no longer viable and we are researching alternatives.
As a stop gap measure, we are using Google's custom search engine service.
If you know of an easy to use, open source, search engine ... please contact support@midrange.com.



On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Richard Schoen
<richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yep, un-typed data bad :-)

Might be a good idea to put the data into MS Access instead of Excel.

Then the data can be fully types and converted correctly when it's read back.

Well, Excel DOES have explicit types. It has Unicode text, and it has
(basically) double-precision float. It absolutely does NOT mix these
up. It is true that distinguishing between numbers meant as dates and
numbers not meant as dates is dependent on the formatting.

I believe the misconception that Excel somehow mixes up character and
numeric values comes from the way Excel *loads* untyped data. It has
what amounts to a regex-based parser (the same kind of thing that
everyone else seems to try to build for themselves) to guess the type
when the data source does not have explicit types.

This is a completely and utterly separate issue from how Excel *stores* data.

John

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This thread ...

Replies:

Follow On AppleNews
Return to Archive home page | Return to MIDRANGE.COM home page

This mailing list archive is Copyright 1997-2024 by midrange.com and David Gibbs as a compilation work. Use of the archive is restricted to research of a business or technical nature. Any other uses are prohibited. Full details are available on our policy page. If you have questions about this, please contact [javascript protected email address].

Operating expenses for this site are earned using the Amazon Associate program and Google Adsense.