Comments on: Data types 2 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/data-types-2/ Simon Murphy on professional spreadsheet development stuff Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:50:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Adam Vero http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/data-types-2/#comment-11634 Adam Vero Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:24:03 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=585#comment-11634 The idea of stopping you from adding sterling to dollars, or pints to metres is great, but for more complex formulae it would break down. There's absolutely nothing wrong with multiplying kg by m and dividing by squared seconds to give a force, and various other concepts such as number of customer complaints (unitless) per million dollars of product sold. I guess that would just mean you could not use them in all cases. It could be implemented so you could define the units for a cell and if that cell had a formula it would only accept precedent cells of the same unit [or none?] Cells with values in would not be affected, and you could create formulae in cells with no units applied which used values from cells with and without units applied. I suppose as long as this was a warning and did not stop you mixing then it would be OK. (using the same interface as the current warnings for things like numbers in text format or formula different from row above) The idea of stopping you from adding sterling to dollars, or pints to metres is great, but for more complex formulae it would break down.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with multiplying kg by m and dividing by squared seconds to give a force, and various other concepts such as number of customer complaints (unitless) per million dollars of product sold.

I guess that would just mean you could not use them in all cases.

It could be implemented so you could define the units for a cell and if that cell had a formula it would only accept precedent cells of the same unit [or none?] Cells with values in would not be affected, and you could create formulae in cells with no units applied which used values from cells with and without units applied.
I suppose as long as this was a warning and did not stop you mixing then it would be OK. (using the same interface as the current warnings for things like numbers in text format or formula different from row above)

]]> By: Al Gill http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/data-types-2/#comment-11380 Al Gill Tue, 13 May 2008 14:58:52 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=585#comment-11380 Actually, the way I read the responses was that most of us know what type we expect - but we also know that users often produce the unexpected so have another line of defence in VBA (or C# or whatever). Agree with trying to keep validation out of formula cells. Ambivalent about units. AJG PS I'm also a big fan of reading in data from wksheets and faking arrays for speed purposes - clients frequently insist on data being held in XL rather than a dB so you're stuck trying to make it as fast as possible with what you've got. Actually, the way I read the responses was that most of us know what type we expect - but we also know that users often produce the unexpected so have another line of defence in VBA (or C# or whatever).

Agree with trying to keep validation out of formula cells. Ambivalent about units.

AJG

PS I’m also a big fan of reading in data from wksheets and faking arrays for speed purposes - clients frequently insist on data being held in XL rather than a dB so you’re stuck trying to make it as fast as possible with what you’ve got.

]]> By: Charlie Hall http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/data-types-2/#comment-11373 Charlie Hall Thu, 08 May 2008 16:49:41 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=585#comment-11373 I like the concept of units - and would use them if they were available - I guess it would be good for a user to override them in some way (possibly with a visible indicator) if they really needed to get around a limitation induced by the units. It would also make spreadsheets stronger from a audit/review perspective, which would be important for critical spreadsheets. --charlie I like the concept of units - and would use them if they were available - I guess it would be good for a user to override them in some way (possibly with a visible indicator) if they really needed to get around a limitation induced by the units. It would also make spreadsheets stronger from a audit/review perspective, which would be important for critical spreadsheets.

–charlie

]]> By: Jayson http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/data-types-2/#comment-11366 Jayson Wed, 07 May 2008 23:46:49 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=585#comment-11366 Whenever I use data validation I try to keep it out of formula cells. Now that I've said that, it's also not realistic to think that I try to guess what every user is going to do with the file and where they might be placing their formulas. Whenever I use data validation I try to keep it out of formula cells. Now that I’ve said that, it’s also not realistic to think that I try to guess what every user is going to do with the file and where they might be placing their formulas.

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