When I started my Data Science and Analytics course a week ago, I expected to spend most of my time learning programming languages and building machine learning models.Instead one of the first tools we were introduced to was Microsoft Excel. At first, I wondered why a spreadsheet application was so important in a Data Science course, especially because I initially thought it was just something that accountants used. After just one week of learning it, I am starting to understand why. So, what even is Excel? At its core, it is a spreadsheet tool where you work with rows, columns, and cells to store and organize data. That is the simple version. But after one week, I am starting to see that it is also a place where raw, messy data can actually start to make sense, and also how that data is eventually used in decision-making Real-World Uses I Did Not Know About 1.Cleaning up messy data One of the first things that surprised me was how much of data analysis is simply just fixing bad data.…