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uvontheterrible [S] 15 points ago +15 / -0

I love how they try and pretend this is somehow due to a flaw in Excel, when in fact it's simply that the inept government workers who are responsible for covid reporting are not using the tool correctly.

It's hard to trust any of the covid numbers.

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stripperlover 3 points ago +3 / -0

macros and functions are oh so hard hahahaha

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LikeAWombatScorned 3 points ago +3 / -0

And you have to be a Rocket Surgeon to use a real database!

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TruthyBrat 2 points ago +2 / -0

Bingo!

And Andy Macdonald gets it, from a Tweet in the source article:

Excel is not a database Excel is not a database Excel is not a database Excel is not a database Excel is not a database

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stripperlover 3 points ago +3 / -0

unfortunately most people treat it like it is

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SBOJ_JOBS 3 points ago +3 / -0

Govment werkers r not top notch. Govment werkers r not top notch. Govment werkers r not top notch...

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Siteless_Vagrant 5 points ago +5 / -0

That's what happens when you hire diversity over qualified.

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SisterCovfefe 4 points ago +4 / -0

According to Public Health England, 15,841 cases between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 weren’t uploaded to the government dashboard, because the column limits on an Excel spreadsheet reached its maximum size.

sounds like a design issue, not an Excel issue (hint: use rows for individual records and columns for fields next time)

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Scuffers 1 point ago +1 / -0

what fffing moron did that?

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SisterCovfefe 3 points ago +3 / -0

I'm speculating, but I honestly can't think of another scenario where one would run out of columns.

I used Excel in conjunction with Access, though, and both can store millions of records. Maybe a power user could chime in.

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SimpleMan 4 points ago +4 / -0

Correct. It is best to use Excel as a visualization tool with a database such as Access. For a system on a country level of this importance SQL with some reporting tool, maybe MS reporting services would be better. Pathetic to be excel only and doing it wrong in any case. And then the socialists want to enlarge the goverment take more responsibility for service delivery from the private sector. This is a great example of why socialism DOES NOT WORK!

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Scuffers 2 points ago +2 / -0

Your likely not wrong..

Pre-97 you could legitimately run out of rows, current versions I'm not sure there is a limit?

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SimpleMan 3 points ago +3 / -0

They distributed cases accross columns instead of rows.

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Litecola 2 points ago +2 / -0

Concur; have also seen self-proclaimed experts set up one math function ( not even formula! Function!) per column or row, in between data 🤪

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deleted 3 points ago +3 / -0
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Mr_Pink 2 points ago +2 / -0

Oh no, some of the made up numbers are missing from the made up list!

Now my faith in the UK government has dropped from 0% to...well, still 0% actually.

Now if they got something right, that would be news.

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deleted -1 points ago +1 / -2