jimnms
07-18-2004, 08:26 PM
DOH! http://www.pbase.com/image/31506658/original.jpg
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Friday 16th July 2004 12:17 GMT
Genetic research is being hampered by a smart formatting function in Excel, according to US researchers.
The problem, which can cause medically important genes to be hidden from view, is widespread, and has affected some public databases, including the gene expression data on the NCBI LocusLink database in the US, the researchers say.
The errors are introduced because some genetic identifiers look very like dates to Excel. If the spreadsheet is not properly set up, it will convert an identifier, such as SEPT2 to a date: 2-Sep. The conversion, the researchers say, is irreversible: once the error has been introduced, the original data is gone.
"A little detective work traced the problem to default date format conversions and floating-point format conversions in the very useful Excel program package," they write. "The date conversions affect at least 30 gene names; the floating-point conversions affect at least 2,000 if Riken identifiers are included."
Full Story... (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/16/excel_vanishing_dna/)
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Learn from the mistakes of others, you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Friday 16th July 2004 12:17 GMT
Genetic research is being hampered by a smart formatting function in Excel, according to US researchers.
The problem, which can cause medically important genes to be hidden from view, is widespread, and has affected some public databases, including the gene expression data on the NCBI LocusLink database in the US, the researchers say.
The errors are introduced because some genetic identifiers look very like dates to Excel. If the spreadsheet is not properly set up, it will convert an identifier, such as SEPT2 to a date: 2-Sep. The conversion, the researchers say, is irreversible: once the error has been introduced, the original data is gone.
"A little detective work traced the problem to default date format conversions and floating-point format conversions in the very useful Excel program package," they write. "The date conversions affect at least 30 gene names; the floating-point conversions affect at least 2,000 if Riken identifiers are included."
Full Story... (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/16/excel_vanishing_dna/)
_____
Learn from the mistakes of others, you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.