I’m a big user of Google Sheets, the web-based spreadsheet.  Although I use Excel at work (who doesn’t?), I prefer Sheets at home.  It’s online, it’s easy to share with others, and it does everything I need.  I’ve tried switching over to Apple’s Numbers, which has the unique ability to place multiple table-like spreadsheet blocks on a page, which eliminates the tedium of adjusting column sizes or getting into grid formats.  But I keep coming back to Sheets.  Habits die hard.

I find I’m still learning some of the things the app can do.  Here are some of Sheets’ more obscure corners.

Percentages to Fractions

Recently, I was curious if it was possible to convert a percentage to a fraction.  In other words, if cell A1 is “25%”, can cell B1 be a formula that displays “1/4”.  And if A1 changes to 16.6%, have B1 change to “1/6,” etc.  Can this be done?

Yup.  Here’s B1:

=IF(A1="", "", TEXT(A1, "# ?/?"))

Example:

Pretty slick.  The precision depends on how many question marks you use after the slash.  As specified above, its’ limited to one-digit denominators.  If we change the formula to:

=IF(A1="", "", TEXT(A1, "# ?/??"))

then we get more precision:

Mini Graphs

Google Sheets has all kinds of charts, but less well known are its mini graphs, called sparklines.  These are mini line charts that fit in a single cell.  Here’s an example:

When In Rome…

Arabic numerals are one of those technologies that should show up on the Civilization VII Tech Tree because they’re a huge step forward.  If you disagree, try this experiment.  Take two Roman numerals (for example, MCMLVII and XXI) and try to add them without mentally using Arabic numerals.  If I tell you the numbers are 1957 and 21, you can do it in your head (1978), but I bet without Arabic numerals you’re going to be manually counting up or cheating.

However, Roman numerals are still useful.  Maybe you’re looking at the copyright of an old movie, trying to sort Super Bowls, or trying to figure out which Leo is now Pope.  Google Sheets has you covered with the ROMAN() function:

And if you want to go in the opposite direction:

And you can even solve that problem I posed:

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.