How can anyone know whether Excel is giving the right answer to anything that is more complex that one can do in one’s own head? I mean if I had to check every formula and function, I don’t need Excel, but couldn’t there be a bug that someone missed that returns an erroneous result in specific situations? That could be potentially catastrophic depending on what the data and results were used for.
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Let’s say I’m building a spreadsheet to look up some data in another sheet. Something I’ve done frequently and can often generate long complex formulas in a cell.
When typing that formula out, I don’t just write the entire thing. Often I will write one segment and check what I expect the answer to be. Add a bit more code and re-check. Repeat until you have the final code.
And if you’ve written it well, using the correct notation, now I can just drag that long complex formula where I need it and be guaranteed it will work as I expect it to. But instead of writing the same formula 50 times and possibly messing up one instance, I’ve done a bit of pre-work to ensure everything functions right. Copy and paste 50 times or drag to fill and I’m done.
There is no magic. It either works or it doesn’t. And 99% of the time if it doesn’t its something the user typing the formulas or entering the data did wrong.
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