There are plentiful examples of spreadsheet applications leading analysts astray. Believe all the scary stories. Spreadsheets can silently damage your data, converting numbers to dates or dropping leading zeros from what should be fixed-length identifier (where did the U.S. Zip Code 01002 go?).

The U.K. Lost 16,000 COVID Cases Because It Doesn’t Understand Microsoft Excel

The Reinhart-Rogoff error or how not to Excel at economics

For a set of best practices when working with data in spreadsheets, take to heart the advice offered by Data Organization in Spreadsheets. Please!