In the world of software development, a “code smell” is an obvious indicator that often corresponds to a deeper problem in a system. Code smells are not bugs, but can reveal a codebase that is fragile or may be difficult to maintain in the long term. With a little bit of practice code smells are generally easy to spot, but understanding how to fix smelly code can take a lot of knowledge and experience.

Spreadsheets can be an incredibly powerful tool for quickly testing concepts, analysing data and visualising outputs, but their ubiquity and apparent ease of use often means they get taken beyond their point of efficiency. This talk presents five “spreadsheet smells” often seen in the wild, gives you the tools to quickly identify when things might be getting out of control and presents a few possible solutions for each.