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bdmccullough
The June issue of the journal Computational Statistics and Data
Anaylsis has published a collection of five articles on Microsoft
Excel 2007. In the past, the journal has published articles critical
of the accuracy of prior versions of Excel. Immediately below is a
quote From the introduction to the special section, followed by the
titles, authors and abstracts of the five articles.
Over the years, this journal has published many articles describing
the errors in Microsoft Excel, errors that raise concerns about
Microsoft's quality assurance procedures, at least insofar as Excel is
concerned. Hence it is perhaps worth comparing quality assurance in
Microsoft's Excel to quality assurance in its game division. A recent
issue of Wired magazine (Thompson, 2007) describes the way that
"Bungie", a Microsoft gaming subsidiary, tests one of its products, a
game called Halo3:
"Because it [Bungie] is owned by Microsoft, which launches dozens XBox
and PC games every year, Bungie has access to one of the most advanced
game-testing facilities ever built. [Bungie has] now analyzed more
than 3000 hours of Halo3 played by some 600 everyday gamers, tracking
everything from favored weapons to how and where - down to the square
foot - players most frequently get killed.
"Bungie doesn't just test its own games this way. It also buys copies
of rival titles and studies those, too, to see how Halo3 matches up."
It is difficult not to think that if Microsoft tested business
software the way it tested game software, then the statistical
functions in Excel would be as accurate as those found in any other
major software package. If that were the case, then none of the
articles in this special section would have been written.
(1) "On the accuracy of statistical procedures in Microsoft Excel
2007"
B.D. McCullough, David A. Heiser
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4570-4578
abstract
Excel 2007, like its predecessors, fails a standard set of
intermediate-level accuracy
tests in three areas: statistical distributions, random number
generation, and estimation.
Additional errors in specific Excel procedures are discussed.
Microsoft's continuing inability
to correctly fix errors is discussed. No statistical procedure in
Excel should be used
until Microsoft documents that the procedure is correct; it is not
safe to assume that
Microsoft Excel's statistical procedures give the correct answer.
Persons who wish to
conduct statistical analyses should use some other package.
(2) "The accuracy of statistical distributions in microsoft excel
2007"
A. Talha Yalta
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4579-4586
abstract
We provide an assessment of the statistical distributions in
Microsoft® Excel versions 97
through 2007 along with two competing spreadsheet programs, namely
Gnumeric 1.7.11 and
OpenOffice.org Calc 2.3.0. We find that the accuracy of various
statistical functions in
Excel 2007 range from unacceptably bad to acceptable but significantly
inferior in
comparison to alternative implementations. In particular, for the
binomial, Poisson,
inverse standard normal, inverse beta, inverse student’s t, and
inverse F distributions,
it is possible to obtain results with zero accurate digits as shown
with numerical examples.
(3) "Microsoft Excel's `Not The Wichmann-Hill' random number
generators"
B.D. McCullough
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4587-4593
abstract
Microsoft attempted to implement the Wichmann-Hill RNG in Excel 2003
and failed; it did
not just produce numbers between zero and unity, it would also produce
negative numbers.
Microsoft issued a patch that allegedly fixed the problem so that the
patched Excel 2003
and Excel 2007 now implement the Wichmann-Hill RNG, as least according
to Microsoft.
We show that whatever RNG it is that Microsoft has implemented in
these versions of Excel,
it is not the Wichmann-Hill RNG. Microsoft has now failed twice to
implement the dozen
lines of code that define the Wichmann-Hill RNG.
(4) "It's easy to produce chartjunk using microsoft excel 2007 but
hard to make good graphs"
Yu-Sung Su
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4594-4601
abstract
The purpose of default settings in a graphic tool is to make it easy
to produce good graphics
that accord with the principles of statistical graphics. If the
defaults do not embody these
principles, then the only way to produce good graphics is to be
sufficiently familiar with
the principles of statistical graphics. This paper shows that Excel
graphics defaults do not
embody the appropriate principles. Users who want to use Excel are
advised to know the
principles of good graphics well enough so that they can choose the
appropriate options to
override the defaults. Microsoft® should overhaul the Excel graphics
engine so that its
defaults embody the principles of statistical graphics and make it
easy for non-experts
to produce good graphs.
(5) "Teaching statistics with excel 2007 and other spreadsheets."
John Nash
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4602-4606
abstract
This article considers which activities in teaching statistics may be
suitable candidates
for the application of spreadsheets, and whether spreadsheets in
general and Excel 2007 in
particular are suitable for these tasks.
Anaylsis has published a collection of five articles on Microsoft
Excel 2007. In the past, the journal has published articles critical
of the accuracy of prior versions of Excel. Immediately below is a
quote From the introduction to the special section, followed by the
titles, authors and abstracts of the five articles.
Over the years, this journal has published many articles describing
the errors in Microsoft Excel, errors that raise concerns about
Microsoft's quality assurance procedures, at least insofar as Excel is
concerned. Hence it is perhaps worth comparing quality assurance in
Microsoft's Excel to quality assurance in its game division. A recent
issue of Wired magazine (Thompson, 2007) describes the way that
"Bungie", a Microsoft gaming subsidiary, tests one of its products, a
game called Halo3:
"Because it [Bungie] is owned by Microsoft, which launches dozens XBox
and PC games every year, Bungie has access to one of the most advanced
game-testing facilities ever built. [Bungie has] now analyzed more
than 3000 hours of Halo3 played by some 600 everyday gamers, tracking
everything from favored weapons to how and where - down to the square
foot - players most frequently get killed.
"Bungie doesn't just test its own games this way. It also buys copies
of rival titles and studies those, too, to see how Halo3 matches up."
It is difficult not to think that if Microsoft tested business
software the way it tested game software, then the statistical
functions in Excel would be as accurate as those found in any other
major software package. If that were the case, then none of the
articles in this special section would have been written.
(1) "On the accuracy of statistical procedures in Microsoft Excel
2007"
B.D. McCullough, David A. Heiser
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4570-4578
abstract
Excel 2007, like its predecessors, fails a standard set of
intermediate-level accuracy
tests in three areas: statistical distributions, random number
generation, and estimation.
Additional errors in specific Excel procedures are discussed.
Microsoft's continuing inability
to correctly fix errors is discussed. No statistical procedure in
Excel should be used
until Microsoft documents that the procedure is correct; it is not
safe to assume that
Microsoft Excel's statistical procedures give the correct answer.
Persons who wish to
conduct statistical analyses should use some other package.
(2) "The accuracy of statistical distributions in microsoft excel
2007"
A. Talha Yalta
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4579-4586
abstract
We provide an assessment of the statistical distributions in
Microsoft® Excel versions 97
through 2007 along with two competing spreadsheet programs, namely
Gnumeric 1.7.11 and
OpenOffice.org Calc 2.3.0. We find that the accuracy of various
statistical functions in
Excel 2007 range from unacceptably bad to acceptable but significantly
inferior in
comparison to alternative implementations. In particular, for the
binomial, Poisson,
inverse standard normal, inverse beta, inverse student’s t, and
inverse F distributions,
it is possible to obtain results with zero accurate digits as shown
with numerical examples.
(3) "Microsoft Excel's `Not The Wichmann-Hill' random number
generators"
B.D. McCullough
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4587-4593
abstract
Microsoft attempted to implement the Wichmann-Hill RNG in Excel 2003
and failed; it did
not just produce numbers between zero and unity, it would also produce
negative numbers.
Microsoft issued a patch that allegedly fixed the problem so that the
patched Excel 2003
and Excel 2007 now implement the Wichmann-Hill RNG, as least according
to Microsoft.
We show that whatever RNG it is that Microsoft has implemented in
these versions of Excel,
it is not the Wichmann-Hill RNG. Microsoft has now failed twice to
implement the dozen
lines of code that define the Wichmann-Hill RNG.
(4) "It's easy to produce chartjunk using microsoft excel 2007 but
hard to make good graphs"
Yu-Sung Su
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4594-4601
abstract
The purpose of default settings in a graphic tool is to make it easy
to produce good graphics
that accord with the principles of statistical graphics. If the
defaults do not embody these
principles, then the only way to produce good graphics is to be
sufficiently familiar with
the principles of statistical graphics. This paper shows that Excel
graphics defaults do not
embody the appropriate principles. Users who want to use Excel are
advised to know the
principles of good graphics well enough so that they can choose the
appropriate options to
override the defaults. Microsoft® should overhaul the Excel graphics
engine so that its
defaults embody the principles of statistical graphics and make it
easy for non-experts
to produce good graphs.
(5) "Teaching statistics with excel 2007 and other spreadsheets."
John Nash
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 52 (10), 4602-4606
abstract
This article considers which activities in teaching statistics may be
suitable candidates
for the application of spreadsheets, and whether spreadsheets in
general and Excel 2007 in
particular are suitable for these tasks.