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RE: Data streams

• To: "Stephen E. Beller" <sbeller@n...>, 'Rick Marshall' <rjm@z...>, 'Bob Foster' <bob@o...>
• Subject: RE: Data streams
• From: "Bruey, Don" <don.bruey@t...>
• Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 08:44:31 -0500
• Cc: xml-dev@l...

I don't understand the attempt to compare the Excel XML export (which BTW
Excel calls "XML Spreadsheet") and CSV.  The purposes of the two formats are
completely different.

The XML Spreadsheet contains all the necessary information to reconstruct an
Excel spreadsheet, cell formatting, formulas, fonts, etc.  You can open this
XML file in Excel and it will display exactly the same
formatting/formulas/etc. as it would if you had saved the spreadsheet in the
native .xls format. 

CSV export outputs numbers.  No formulas, no formatting, no cell
assignments.  

Don


-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen E. Beller [mailto:sbeller@n...] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 8:20 AM
To: 'Rick Marshall'; 'Bob Foster'
Cc: xml-dev@l...
Subject: RE:  Data streams


The compression algorithm is the standard WinZip9.0 application.

And that's the actual structure.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Marshall [mailto:rjm@z...] 
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 8:04 PM
To: Bob Foster
Cc: Stephen E. Beller; xml-dev@l...
Subject: Re:  Data streams

Bob Foster wrote:

> I don't think so.c Did you look at the sample he posted?
>
> > Every one of the XML data elements had this tagging structure: <Row>
> >    <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">1</Data></Cell>
> > </Row>
> >
> > In contrast, the CSV had this structure: 1,
>
> Since the "more information" in the XML, precious little that it adds,
> is identical for every data value, the XML format has approximately 
> the same entropy as the CSV file. This looks more like a failure of 
> the compression algorithm.

whoops. do we know what the compression algorithm was? and was that 
really the structure or just a summary of the structure?

rick

>
> Bob Foster
>
> Rick Marshall wrote:
>
>> all you've done is shown that the entropy of the xml file is
>> significantly lower than the csv file. that would mean it carries 
>> significantly more information and as others have pointed out, when 
>> inspecting the xml, this is indeed the case.
>>
>> put another way the correct interpretation of your experiment is that
>> the ratio of the compressed file sizes points to a significant 
>> difference in information content. the csv file and the xml file 
>> aren't the same stuff.
>>
>> rick
>
>
>




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