What is the most frustrating thing about excel?

[DataBlake]

For me it has to be it's inability to stop itself from crashing (at least 2016 version). Sometimes when i run a code that infinitely loops by accident i can kiss my progress goodbye because no amount of pause/break will save me ?
Among other things the fragility of my current "program" workbook is like trying to install a stereo system into a live bomb.
What about you? what grinds your gears?

 

[Joe4]

Probably the famed "floating-point arithmetic error": Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate result in Excel - Office

Sometimes when i run a code that infinitely loops by accident

I don't think I have done that one in years, but I don't really write too many loops anymore without ends.
If you might this happening more than once in a blue moon, you may want to re-consider how you are writing loops. There are many different ways of writing them, many of them which avoid this issue, and many times loops are not even necessary at all.

 

[DataBlake]

may want to re-consider how you are writing loops

if im being honest its usually when i'm real sleepy. I work with a bunch of products and have to use arrays of the sheets and a complex system of dictionaries. sometimes i forget to check a variable like UsedRange.Rows.Count for "ghost rows" and it ends up in a huge unintended loop that i cant let run for the entire day.

Lately i get crashes from running a lot of worksheet altering codes in my tests and then saving over my file instead of exiting without saving with a notepad of the changed modules.

tl;dr my IT department deems me too powerful for SQL and MS Visual Studio so i use VBA to create """Databases""" using dictionaries that load up on opening my project. So my workbooks are kind of explosive, but i back them up daily. (i understand excel was not made for these uses and abuses but it still seems fragile to me)

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

For me, two things:

I don't like the way I have to scroll sheets using the two arrows, rather than a scrollbar. I like the right-click option however that provides a sheet navigation dialog, but I miss the old way of scrolling.

I don't like the behaviour of CONTROL+TAB. If I have three or more books open then it seems to toggle only between two books. It didn't behave this way in pre 2016 versions, if I recall correctly. Maybe I just need to flip a switch somewhere to change the behaviour?

I will also echo what Joe mentioned. I recently had to describe the difference between two balances - one being derived in Excel and the other in TM1. The difference was purely resultant of precision! It's also not fun trying to explain how the precision difference has come about!

On the plus side - I recall similar topics over the many years that I have been frequenting forums. Suffice to say that many things that we used to gripe about are no longer issues, such as repeating key values in Pivot Tables and a range of formulas. In particular, I find TEXTJOIN tremendously helpful. Excel continues to grow in leaps and bounds!

 

[DataBlake]

I don't like the way I have to scroll sheets using the two arrows, rather than a scrollbar.

yeah i agree with this although i dont work with many sheets anymore

Excel continues to grow in leaps and bounds!

I agree it has come a looooooong way.

 

[FormR]

I don't like the behaviour of CONTROL+TAB.

- same here! A very annoying change.

 

[DanteAmor]

Sometimes when i run a code that infinitely loops by accident i can kiss my progress goodbye because no amount of pause/break will save me

You can use doevents in your tests, if you enter a loop, you could stop it. After the tests you could remove the line.
Check this:

VBA DoEvents - Automate Excel

In this ArticleVBA DoEvents ExampleDoEvents DangersWhen to use DoEvents This tutorial will discuss how to use the DoEvents command in VBA. The VBA DoEvents function temporarily pauses a running macro, giving Excel a chance to process key presses, mouse clicks, and other operating system...

www.automateexcel.com

 

[Oaktree]

For me, two things:

I don't like the way I have to scroll sheets using the two arrows, rather than a scrollbar. I like the right-click option however that provides a sheet navigation dialog, but I miss the old way of scrolling.

I don't like the behaviour of CONTROL+TAB. If I have three or more books open then it seems to toggle only between two books. It didn't behave this way in pre 2016 versions, if I recall correctly. Maybe I just need to flip a switch somewhere to change the behaviour?

I will also echo what Joe mentioned. I recently had to describe the difference between two balances - one being derived in Excel and the other in TM1. The difference was purely resultant of precision! It's also not fun trying to explain how the precision difference has come about!

On the plus side - I recall similar topics over the many years that I have been frequenting forums. Suffice to say that many things that we used to gripe about are no longer issues, such as repeating key values in Pivot Tables and a range of formulas. In particular, I find TEXTJOIN tremendously helpful. Excel continues to grow in leaps and bounds!

Agree on all fronts. I'm glad they finally added TEXTJOIN so we don't have to use MCONCAT from Laurent's morefunc.dll add-in! I just wish they would have switched the 2nd and 3rd arguments and make the 3rd default to something if omitted. Maybe it's just me, but I forget about the 2nd argument every time.

My biggest gripe for this list though is the common crusade Bill Jelen unsuccessfully led a few years ago to try to make Pivot Tables default to Tabular Form. The number of pivot tables I've ever wanted to be in something other than tabular form? Still zero.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

I just wish they would have switched the 2nd and 3rd arguments and make the 3rd default to something if omitted. Maybe it's just me, but I forget about the 2nd argument every time.

Regarding argument order, I suspect it's because the join range argument is a paramarray. Still, I share your frustration.

Now, I'm looking forward to TEXTSPLIT {hint hint}

 

[DataBlake]

i crashed excel.......again
but this time i was working on someone's help request so i didnt lose anything.

i rarely use formulas these days, but the advancements with them seem pretty nice.