How Microsoft Excel Changed The World

Microsoft discontinued PerformancePoint Planning, and the roadmap looks a bit blurry for Analysis Services.  Data Mining is going to the cloud, and Reporting Services will most likely be integrated permanently into Sharepoint.  Sharepoint could go to the cloud, leaving Excel on the desktop (or in the cloud) to take over the full suite of BI responsibilities at Microsoft.

An interesting article about the humble beginnings of Excel, the world’s most ubiquitous BI tool, on its 25th Anniversary.

As for Excel, Klunder still considers it a powerful tool. But he harbors no illusions about how it can be abused. “It’s the same thing with PowerPoint—Excel lets things look professional, and people assume there’s substance behind it.”

How Microsoft Excel Changed The World

And my favourite uses of Excel:

http://www.eeggs.com/items/8240.html

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2008/11/happy-thanksgiving.html

SELECT SUM(...) is non-deterministic when adding the column-values of datatype float | Microsoft Connect

For those of you using float expecting precise decimal values from SQL Server when performing aggregate functions or multiplication/division, don’t. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-point_arithmetic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_numbering_formats

One recommendation for storing monetary values is to use the Money data type. 

http://sqlcat.com/technicalnotes/archive/2008/09/25/the-many-benefits-of-money-data-type.aspx

Apparently this helps with performance during Analysis Services data loads, if currency type is selected in Analysis Services to match the data types.  (getting rid of implicit conversion to double)

However, if you need to do any kind of basic math or rounding, money is not a good fit.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming/browse_thread/thread/a544f732b84257dd/8926f7fa31fa4832?hl=en&lnk=st&q&pli=1

Use decimal with the precision you need to get a correct answer, or use float and always round your results.

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic544518-9-1.aspx

Note that PerformancePoint Planning and cube writeback uses float data type, which can cause rounding and comparison issues. 

SELECT SUM(...) is non-deterministic when adding the column-values of datatype float | Microsoft Connect