this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 135 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates

Sometimes it’s easier to rewrite genetics than update Excel

Aug 6, 2020

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates

[–] wischi 70 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Best thing is, they introduced some settings to turn that auto-conversion off and they don't work 🤣 can't make that stuff up.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean, I know of a Microsoft product that allows for a batch import of data provided in an Excel file. You need to use their template file. Which, when used, automatically formats all dates the American way, ignoring your locale settings. Depending on which date is first encountered on import (e.g. which date you entered in the first line) then designates whether the whole file is imported with dates read as MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY.

You start your list on January 1st? It will import everything as MM/DD/YYYY then. You start you list on e.g. January 22nd? DD/MM/YYYY it is then. Good luck getting that import running without errors...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

MM/DD/YYYY

DD/MM/YYYY

Both of these are the wrong way to format dates.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago

Nothing works in Excel. Excel will do what it wants.

But that doesn't stop the MS support and a thousand stupid people from claiming "oh, you just have to format it as text, are you dumb or what"...

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