Editing Microsoft Excel (section)

=== Conversion problems ===
If text is entered that happens to be in a form that Excel interprets as a date, the text can be unintentionally changed to a standard date format. A similar problem occurs when a text happens to be in the form of a floating-point notation of a number. In these cases the original exact text cannot be recovered from the result. Formatting the cell as TEXT before entering ambiguous text prevents Excel from converting it.

This issue has caused a well known problem in the analysis of [[DNA]], for example in [[bioinformatics]]. As first reported in 2004,<ref name=ExcelAteMyDNA>{{cite journal|last1=Zeeberg|first1=Barry R|last2=Riss|first2=Joseph|last3=Kane|first3=David W|last4=Bussey|first4=Kimberly J|last5=Uchio|first5=Edward|last6=Linehan|first6=W Marston|last7=Barrett|first7=J Carl|last8=Weinstein|first8=John N|journal=[[BMC Bioinformatics]]|volume=5|issue=1|year=2004|pages=80|pmid=15214961|pmc=459209|doi=10.1186/1471-2105-5-80|doi-access=free|title=Mistaken Identifiers: Gene name errors can be introduced inadvertently when using Excel in bioinformatics}}</ref> genetic scientists found that Excel automatically and incorrectly converts certain [[gene nomenclature|gene names]] into dates. A follow-up study in 2016 found many [[peer review]]ed [[scientific journal]] papers had been affected and that "Of the selected journals, the proportion of published articles with Excel files containing gene lists that are affected by gene name errors is 19.6%."<ref name=ExcelAteMyDNAagain>{{cite journal|last1=Ziemann|first1=Mark|last2=Eren|first2=Yotam|last3=El-Osta|first3=Assam|title=Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature|journal=[[Genome Biology]]|volume=17|issue=1|pages=177|year=2016|pmid=27552985|doi=10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7|doi-access=free|pmc=4994289}}</ref> Excel parses the copied and pasted data and sometimes changes them depending on what it thinks they are. For example, [[MARCH2|MARCH1 (Membrane Associated Ring-CH-type finger 1)]] gets converted to the date March 1 (1-Mar) and [[SEPT2|SEPT2 (Septin 2)]] is converted into September 2 (2-Sep) etc.<ref name=bbcnewsexcel>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37176926|publisher=BBC News|location=London|year=2016|title=Microsoft Excel blamed for gene study errors|author=Anon|access-date=June 21, 2018|archive-date=November 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121204709/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37176926|url-status=live}}</ref> While some secondary news sources<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cimpanu|first1=Catalin|title=One in Five Scientific Papers on Genes Contains Errors Because of Excel|url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/one-in-five-scientific-papers-on-genes-contains-errors-because-of-excel-507582.shtml|website=[[Softpedia]]|publisher=SoftNews|date=August 24, 2016|access-date=August 24, 2016|archive-date=August 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825195333/http://news.softpedia.com/news/one-in-five-scientific-papers-on-genes-contains-errors-because-of-excel-507582.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> reported this as a fault with Excel, the original authors of the 2016 paper placed the blame with the researchers misusing Excel.<ref name=ExcelAteMyDNAagain/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://genomespot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/my-personal-thoughts-on-gene-name-errors.html|first=Mark|last=Ziemann|year=2016|title=Genome Spot: My personal thoughts on gene name errors|website=genomespot.blogspot.co.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160830135847/http://genomespot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/my-personal-thoughts-on-gene-name-errors.html?m=1|archive-date=August 30, 2016}}</ref>

In August 2020 the [[HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee|HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)]] published new guidelines in the journal [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] regarding gene naming in order to avoid issues with "symbols that affect data handling and retrieval." {{as of|2020}}, 27 genes had been renamed, including changing MARCH1 to MARCHF1 and SEPT1 to SEPTIN1 in order to avoid accidental conversion of the gene names into dates.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vincent|first=James|date=August 6, 2020|title=Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates|url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates|access-date=October 9, 2020|website=The Verge|language=en|archive-date=October 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009125307/https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates|url-status=live}}</ref>

In October 2023, Microsoft introduced a settings option that allows the conversion to be disabled.<ref>{{cite web|title=Microsoft Fixes Excel Feature That Forced Scientists to Rename Human Genes|url=https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-fixes-excel-feature-that-forced-scientists-to-1850949443|website=Gizmodo|access-date=October 25, 2023|language=en|date=October 23, 2023}}</ref>