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Ireland’s Diarmuid Early wins world Microsoft Excel title

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280 points 1659447091 | 1 comments | 20 Dec 25 19:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jasonthorsness ◴[20 Dec 25 20:28 UTC] No.46339351[source]▶
The descriptions of the problems make it sound a little like algorithmic puzzles but your only tool is Excel instead of some programming language… Excel is pretty amazing in what you can do; I’ve regretted having to use Google Sheets for the last few years.
replies(2): >>46339417 #>>46339574 #
shagie ◴[20 Dec 25 20:56 UTC] No.46339574[source]▶
> but your only tool is Excel instead of some programming language

There is little difference between (if (> a b) c d) and =IF((A1 > B1), C1, D1)

Excel is the most widely installed functional programming language IDE.

replies(2): >>46339688 #>>46341440 #
OoooooooO ◴[20 Dec 25 21:13 UTC] No.46339688[source]▶
Change the language of your Windows system to anything but English and then open your Excel file with formulas again.
replies(4): >>46339854 #>>46339904 #>>46343696 #>>46346481 #
mmooss ◴[20 Dec 25 21:36 UTC] No.46339854[source]▶
ok, what happens? (I'm not messing around on my system right now ...)
replies(1): >>46340289 #
shrx ◴[20 Dec 25 22:34 UTC] No.46340289[source]▶
Localization of formulas. On my system, all parameter-separating commas have to be replaced with semicolons.
replies(1): >>46341087 #
mmooss ◴[21 Dec 25 00:27 UTC] No.46341087[source]▶
That is shocking. Excel is used by every international organization, probably. How do they manage the localization?
replies(1): >>46341624 #
phinnaeus ◴[21 Dec 25 02:10 UTC] No.46341624[source]▶
Maybe the files store the formulas in an intermediate format that can be localized by the client
replies(2): >>46342086 #>>46342496 #
1. shagie ◴[21 Dec 25 05:34 UTC] No.46342496{6}[source]▶
That sounds correct. This issue would be when the decimal separator matches the argument separator. In that situation =IF(A1 > 42.1, B1, C1) would be equivalent to =IF(A1 > 42,1; B1; C1)

The possibility of incorrect parsing of equation with a variadic function that contains a decimal number in the equation.

However, this is a localization as even the functions change names.

https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/1flsvyu/separator_co...

    It’s just a locale setting as to which is applied. If you use English (US or UK) then your argument separator will be a comma. If you use other languages, then a semi colon will apply. You’ll find most guidance online referring to English language functions and comma separators, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter. If you ship a spreadsheet to me that you wrote in German functions and syntax that contains:

    =SVERWEIS(X2;A:C;3;0)
    I’ll open that and find

    =VLOOKUP(X2,A:C,3,0)
This suggests client localization that is rendered differently with different language settings.