Sep
20

Opinion: Data Should Begin At R1C1

bigdata Excel, UI Design, Worksheets Add you comment

SNLFinal

In Coffee Talk on Satruday Night Live, Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers would hurl out “Discussion Topics”. Here are a few of my favorites:

  1. “The Partridge Family were neither partridges, nor a family. Discuss.”
  2. “The radical reconstruction of the South after the Civil War was neither radical nor a reconstruction. Discuss.”
  3. “The jelly bean is neither made of jelly nor is it a bean. Discuss.”

However, today’s topic is not about SNL or the radical reconstruction of the south. It is about Excel.

Today’s discussion topic:

In their landmark tome, Professional Excel Development, 2nd Edition, Bovey et. al. contend that Row 1 and Column A should be left empty (Bovey et. al. pg. 70). I posit that it is fine to use Row 1 Column A (R1C1) for tabs in the Data Layer of the Workbook – Discuss.

,