Excel

Leading Zeros in Excel vs. Modern CSV

Everyone knows that disappearing leading zeros in Excel is a problem, yet Microsoft never bothers to address this. It is a giant headache, but Modern CSV will never ever ever do that to you, promise! Here are some visual aids with bad fake data. Excel hides leading zeros Modern CSV always shows them Leading zeros in all their glory (oh yeah, plus Modern CSV has a dark theme, which Excel doesn’t because Excel is old). Adding leading zeros in Excel Now, what if you want to add leading zeros in Excel? Say, every number should be 10 digits long and...

Why Excel Sucks and Modern CSV is Awesome (at least for CSVs)

Using Excel for CSV files is like using Word for developing code. You could do it if you like suffering and mostly program in Malbolge, but for everyone else, it’s just the wrong tool for the job. Let’s first cover the main functionality Excel has that Modern CSV does not: Figure plotting Formulas Macros Pivot Tables Individual cell formatting (font, color, etc.) Embedding pictures, videos, etc. As a general spreadsheet tool, Excel is great when you need these things, but it’s a poor tool for dealing with CSV files. Here are the main complaints people have about it: Automatically formats...