The Data Integrity Analysis add-in for Excel is a very powerful tool for analyzing spreadsheet integrity within Microsoft Excel 97 software onwards.
Excel Data Integrity Analysis is most likely to be used for two main purposes: 1. To assist in checking a workbook for integrity and for errors in logic and content, and 2. To help a user understand and find their way around a workbook created by a different author.
The Excel Data Integrity Analysis add-in is essentially a tool that runs across worksheets and changes the appearance of each cell based on its contents. This allows you to see at a glance whether cells contain a formula, text, or a number, or result in an error (this default option can be switched off). So it is easy to understand how a worksheet is constructed, irrespective of the actual values displayed.
The Excel Data Integrity Analysis add-in consists of two basic tools:
A tool to analyze, and
A tool to reset.
You can clearly see which cell is a number and should be a formula since it is colored as the other numbers (yellow = text, blue = number, green = formula).
FACT: Users believe that there is only an 18% chance that their completed spreadsheets contain errors, but 86% actually did contain errors. [Panko R & Halverson R 1996 'Spreadsheets on Trial: A Survey of Research on Spreadsheet Risks'].
