[daoboy]

"Excel's default behavior is to convert certain text entries into dates. It makes sense for general spreadsheet use, but not for geneticists. Genes, like Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1, are given alphanumeric symbols (MARCH1) as a shorthand for their full, complex names. When a scientist would input "MARCH1" into an Excel spreadsheet, the software would automatically interpret this as a date and convert it to "1-Mar"[...]For a long time, Microsoft's position was that this was a niche issue affecting a small number of users"

To be fair, this really is a niche issue. For all that I agree with the frustration for Microsoft's terrible behavior in so many other respects, it's hard to fault them for not being immediately responsive to something like this.

[zzo38computer]

I think it does not make sense even for general spreadsheet use; it would be better to specify the type explicitly. (I also think a "zoned spreadsheet" would be better, although sometimes compatibility might still be needed with existing spreadsheets so a zoned spreadsheet cannot be the only implementation.)

[nolroz]

Ok, sure. Now open this .csv

[fsflover]

Do you really think that auto converting MARCH1 to a date even helped anybody? Who is writing dates like this?

[bundie]

The option to turn off the auto conversion stuff, should have been shipped way before 2023.

[bigstrat2003]

That's not really a counter argument to what was said. Daoboy said (and he's right!) that MS hasn't done anything because the behavior impacts very few users, not because it benefits very many users.

[wolvoleo]

It's also less helpful because it's not very deterministic. A year is a short time and when it rolls over it will pick the current year even when you may have wanted last year.

[gus_massa]

I do from time to time, mostly for home budgets. I'm surprised every time it works.