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Microsoft to Silently Remove the CONCATENATE Function from Excel, Offers Paid Alternative: CONCAT

posted by martyb on Monday November 26 2018, @02:32PM   
from the putting-it-all-together dept.

deimios writes:

If you've ever tried to use the CONCATENATE function in Microsoft Excel to merge the values in a range of cells, you know it doesn't work unless you add each cell to the function, one by one.

You might have noticed the following message in the support article for CONCATENATE:

Important: In Excel 2016, Excel Mobile, and Excel Online, this function has been replaced with the CONCAT function. Although the CONCATENATE function is still available for backward compatibility, you should consider using CONCAT from now on. This is because CONCATENATE may not be available in future versions of Excel.

Meet the alternatives: CONCAT and TEXTJOIN

for CONCAT and TEXTJOIN:

Note: This feature is not available in Excel 2016 unless you have an Office 365 subscription. If you are an Office 365 subscriber, make sure you have the latest version of Office.

While it is admirable that Microsoft is finally fixing some of the idiosyncrasies of its software, I fear the future will bring a level of fragmentation unseen since the office 2003 to 2007 switch.

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Original Submission

• Re:fixedRe:fixed (Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Monday November 26 2018, @07:31PM (3 children)

  by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday November 26 2018, @07:31PM (#766562) Journal

  > LibreOffice Calc is a poor substitute for Excel for anything beyond relatively simple spreadsheets

  For instance, if "relatively simple" means anything less than a billion cells, and LibreOffice can handle that, while Excel can handle a billion plus another few thousand, ....

  I think you've stumbled across another reason we don't see a lot of these Excel to Calc conversions. In a lot of these business cases, Excel is not the proper tool for the job in the first place.

  So when you finally decide to replace these Excel solutions you realize a database is actually the proper tool and migrate to that instead of just another spreadsheet.

  Parent

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• Re:fixedRe:fixed (Score: 4, Interesting) by krishnoid on Monday November 26 2018, @10:14PM (2 children)

  by krishnoid (1156) on Monday November 26 2018, @10:14PM (#766660)

  I think you've stumbled across another reason we don't see a lot of these Excel to Calc conversions. In a lot of these business cases, Excel is not the proper tool for the job in the first place.

  So when you finally decide to replace these Excel solutions you realize a database is actually the proper tool and migrate to that instead of just another spreadsheet.

  *We* know that. You also know that business uses spreadsheets as a common denominator across multiple departments with a gradual learning curve. Maybe a database-backed spreadsheet would see some adoption?

  Parent

  • Re:fixedRe:fixed (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday November 26 2018, @10:36PM (1 child)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday November 26 2018, @10:36PM (#766672) Journal

    Well yeah, cause "We" are the ones who get called in for the replacement when Excel finally becomes too painful to maintain.

    I've replaced a LOT of spreadsheets in my career and it's never been with a different spreadsheet.

    Parent

    • Re:fixed(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday November 27 2018, @12:33AM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday November 27 2018, @12:33AM (#766725)

      I somehow overlooked the "finally replace" part in your text. That totally makes sense.

      Parent