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Spreadsheets for the Uninitiated
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Version:0.4Short link:
https://frama.link/spreadsheets-intro
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Date:2019-11-23
Work in progress, many sections are currently empty.
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Spreadsheet editors are fantastically easy to use for collecting data and computing basic statistics.
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As a consequence, they are widespread, and people will routinely claim that they know how to use them.
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That last statement is wrong, and everything else about spreadsheet editors is also wrong.
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This document tries to fix what might be by teaching you (again) the basics about spreadsheet editors.
Dilbert, by Scott Adams
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Google Sheets
Contents
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1. Basics
Basic stuff you should already know but most likely don't
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This document is written in Google Sheets because it is freely available and well documented:
2. Data
Good practices and formulas to count things or manipulate text
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3. Description
Descriptive (summary) statistics that everyone should know
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Google Sheets help pages
4. Visualization
How to represent data with bars, lines, tables and maps
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Google Sheets function list
5. Association
Simple ways to test relationships between two variables
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References
Further reading, whoch you should do but won't
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The help pages above are well written and contain many practical examples.
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Since you are going to use Google Sheets a lot, make sure to add them to your bookmarks.
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Warning
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Spreadsheets are as widespread and easy to use as they are error-prone.
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The genomics literature provides a tragicomical illustration of that (Ziemann, Eren and El-Osta 2016).
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Spreadsheet editors are also far less numerically accurate than professional statistical software.
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Trouble may arise with things like random number generation, floating-point arithmetic, or even least-squares estimation.
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Microsoft Excel (especially its old, unsupported versions) is at fault here, as are virtually all other spreadsheet editors.
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Since spreadsheet editors like Google Sheets are not open-source, such problems might go easily unnoticed.
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For an example review of the issues mentioned above, see McCullough and Yalta (2013).
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The simple take-away is: learn when to shift to safer and more capable software (see Briatte 2019a for advice).
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Feedback
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If you want to share comments or suggestions about this spreadsheet, please email me:
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f.briatte@gmail.com
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Please do not email me with a request to fix your spreadsheet or analyze your own data.
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Love letters to Excel should be addressed to Microsoft Corporation directly.
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