 |
Spreadsheets
(Excel, OpenOffice Calc, ...)
While highly successful for accounting-related tasks, spreadsheets are generally poorly suited to all but the most basic scientific and technical applications. With their focus on simple arithmetic operations and business graphics, spreadsheets do not support vast areas of computational, analytic, graphical and presentational functionality that have become standard in modern scientific and technical computing.
Mathematica not only provides full technical functionality, but also has a rich interface optimized for technical work. With their rigid tabular interface, spreadsheets refer to data by cell positions, and do not provide readable formulas. Mathematica's document-centered interface immediately allows clear input and presentation of formulas, full display and management of calculation history, as well as structured outlining, inline dynamic graphics, and complete formatted text.
Taking full advantage of modern computing environments, Mathematica's unique design is completely scalable, making it simple to do small calculations, yet also readily supporting huge datasets and complex procedures. With its easy-to-write high-level language, ability to import hundreds of standard data formats, as well as immediate state-of-the-art interactive graphics, Mathematica allows you to get started with the same ease as a spreadsheet, yet provides a full, professional environment that consistently spans all levels of computational work.
Spreadsheet-Like Features in Mathematica:
- Tabular data entry and output capabilities »
- Full coverage of numerical mathematics functions »
- Immediate generation of 2D and 3D plots »
- String and date computations »
- Broad statistics and data analysis functions »
- Immediate editing and updating of results
- Strong worldwide user base
Key Advantages of Mathematica Compared to Spreadsheets:
- World's largest integrated web of computational capabilities
- Broad capabilities for science and engineering as well as business and finance
- State-of-the-art 2D and 3D graphics, with dynamic interactivity »
- Full high-quality math functions, with complex numbers, extended precision, etc. »
- Input and output of formulas in traditional math notation »
- Document-centered interface maintaining full calculation history »
- Full word-processing and document preparation capabilities »
- Easy-to-read scalable high-level language for arbitrary programming »
- Fully automated table layout for arbitrary data, text, graphics, etc.
- Automatic resizing and rebalancing of columns in tabular input
- Computational aesthetics for automated optimization of complex graphics
- Full built-in state-of-the-art constrained nonlinear optimization »
- Complete support for non-numeric symbolic formula manipulation »
- Import and export in hundreds of standard and specialized formats »
- Integrated access to all standard database systems »
- Built-in access to financial data-streams, curated geospatial data, etc. »
- Fully integrated instant interface creation system »
- Full professional development environment with debugging, profiling, etc. »
- Fully compatible on Windows, Mac, Linux and other systems »
Interoperability with Spreadsheets:
- Import and export of XLS, CSV, ODS, SXC, DIF, etc. »
- Mathematica Link for Excel available for full Excel integration »
- Dynamic linking to .NET, VBA and other languages »
Interesting Tidbits:
- Upgrading from spreadsheets to Mathematica is particularly common among financial analysts
See Also Analyses On:
Send a suggestion to the Mathematica analysis team