| > You can't even count on the data being in the same place over the 52 weeks, since they would have added and removed data points over time. > I can just save it as a .py file and run it as a scheduled task on a virtual computer forever. This is rather naive and short-sighted. Do you think the spreadsheet guy is moving data points around because s/he's bored at work and is screwing around with no purpose? No, the business requirements change, so he needs to update the spreadsheet to incorporate the new rules and/or data. Which is exactly what you'll need to do with your python program, otherwise it also will break and/or produce incorrect results. Simple example: calculate available vacation days. Last year company policy was simple, use it or lose it. Just subtract days allotted minus days used in the calendar year. This year company policy allows for up to 5 to be rolled over. Now we also need to know how many were available last year, how many were used, how many could be rolled over. Your Python program importing from SQL query, CSV, data warehouse report... totally breaks now that the data source has 5 columns instead of 2. Claiming you can build a program in Python or any other language and run it "forever," in the context of a business, makes the whole comment lose any credibility. |
He was talking about avoiding manual weekly data copy-paste errors by writing code to do it in a predictable format.
I think you assumed that they meant the code would never have to be changed again, when they were actually talking about being able to standardize the data update process.
I don't think they said anything about never having to change the code, just that running a software process saves each user from manually pasting data every week.