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0 pointsfoobiekr1y ago0 comments

neither of those are useful for the next stage of analysis.

0 comments

Csv is much more useful than Excel.

Pdf is much less useful.

CSV is undefined and the edge cases are very ugly. It is compatible until the import fails silently and makes a mess of the data.

I also cannot contain formulas. Only data.

If your process can read and write to Excel it is a much better defined format.

nradov1y ago

CSV is fully defined in RFC 4180. Of course that standard is only informative and some vendors don't implement it correctly.

https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4180.txt

Spooky231y ago

CSV is a simple data interchange format. Better than excel in that context.

PDF is the canonical way to preserve formatting where that is important. A court document electronically filed in PDF in 1999 is identically rendered today. The source .doc or WordPerfect file is not.

foobiekrOP1y ago

Only if the thing consuming it can consume formulas.

afiori1y ago

can you make graphs in a CSV?

fuzzfactor1y ago

Not exactly, I like to graph "xSV" data as it is streaming in to the PC, with processing before displaying and filling the cells with the filtered data. You can choose which functions you want to apply before data hits the cells and let the cells do their magic after that. Pretty much a real-time live graph, other than a little latency.

After data collection (or during), then output can be made in any format you would like. In addition to what anybody would want to print right off the spreadsheet.

The XLS(X) file forms a database and UI, contains a copy of the input macros and output macros, and you save the whole thing every time which backs it all up (over and over and over again) in a form that anybody can open anywhere with a PC that only has Windows & Office. And whoever opens it will be right up to speed as good as they can be with whatever abilities they have using Excel alone.

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