Posted on 08 November 2008
This article describes 3 ways of simulating multithreading in VBA using Excel.
One feature that I sorely miss in the VBA's integrated development environment (IDE) is the ability to do multithreading. I think part of that comes from having worked in my previous avatar with Java and C++.
In the past few days I’ve been thinking about ways in which one can ‘simulate’ multithreading in excel. (If you noticed, I said ‘simulate’ – you can’t actually multithread with vba – not atleast ...
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Posted on 07 November 2008
I mentioned in one of my previous articles that for data visualization to become truly interactive one may need to explore newer avenues. I was mighty impressed by this graphic
behind the results that appeared in USAToday recently.
Here’s why:
1. The authors (Analysis: Paul Overberg of USA TODAY and Robert Lang of Virginia Tech and Graphic: William Couch and Juan Thomassie, USA TODAY) ...
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Posted on 07 November 2008
Reading pivot tables using vba can be quite easy. Here are a few ways you can do it.
You may also want to read my previous article on
formatting pivots.
(Before you dive further, you may want to download this
example which will guide you through some of the steps in reading a pivot table data using vba)
The Pivot Table Hierarchy
Lets look at this peice of code:
Sub ListAllItemObjects()...
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Posted on 01 November 2008
A sure shot way of spreading some holiday cheer around the office is to send your colleagues regular excel workbooks/reports with a bit of mischievous vba code in it :-)
Here's my top 5 list:
1. Add a new menubar to excel. In my previous posts (
Get each of your spreadsheets a customized menu), I talked about how to add custom menus to your excel workbook. Well......let's say that with a ...
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Posted on 25 October 2008
There are three strong contenders competing for the market
share of the RIA (Rich Internet Application) development market - JavaFX, Adobe AIR and Silverlight. All three are aimed at the same market but carry strong influences of the parent company. Take Adobe AIR for example - Adobe hit it big with Flash a few years ago and is now used in more than 92% of all websites. Adobe makes its bucks by offering ...
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Posted on 24 October 2008
There has been ample supply of opinion polls and charts regarding the US presidential elections. I’ve been guilty of using Google Trends on this blog earlier. But over the past few days and weeks, the 24x7 in-you-face coverage of dresses, speeches, daughters/family, grand-fathers, great-great-great-grandfathers and anybody remotely in the vicinity of the candidates, has pushed me to a point where I am almost wishing that the election takes place over the weekend be spared the remaining weeks.
However a recent story ...
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Posted on 22 October 2008
USA Today came up with this nice graphic on flight cutbacks by airlines in 2008 compared to the year before. It essentially is a radial chart with a lot of interactivity thrown in.
I took a shot at doing this chart in Excel. I cut a lot of corners in the process (the defendant offers lack of data in his defence mylords :-)) but I think I came quite close to achieving some ...
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Posted on 21 October 2008
This week Sachin Tendulkar became the highest run getter in Test Cricket. There has never been another player of the game who has broken more records, won more fans and shown greater humility both on and off pitch than him. A true epitome of what sports is all about.....the spirit of playing hard and playing fair.
(Image courtesy: www.extramirchi.com www.i224.photobucket.com)
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Posted on 21 October 2008
This article shows three methods using which you can send email using VBA in Excel. You can download a
working example of sending email using vba in Excel here.
Excel allows you to create the best-in-class charts, work with large amount of data and data sources work with images, flowcharts and what not. And if that was not enough, you can use the inbuilt vba editor to automate sending emails from ...
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Posted on 18 October 2008
....I don't know what specific pleasure women derive out of decorating their hands :-) .....
After the damage was done (financially speaking) while she was busy admiring the result of a few hours of effort....I was thinking to myself...with that kind of money I could've added a bit more RAM to my box, changed the air filter,........
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Posted on 18 October 2008
Location: Hiranandani Mumbai
Best Approach: Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road
How to locate: Just look out for the colored flags atop the hill.
Address: Lake Meadows Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd.
Level One, Haiko Mall,
Hiranandani Gardens, Powai,
Mumbai - 400 076
Telephone : +91 22 65172735/36 Fax : +91 22 25797852
Opens: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on all days (now till 9:30pm)
Cost: Rs 140 for 4 laps, Rs 180 for 6 and Rs 250 for 10.
Overall the Hakone ...
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Posted on 18 October 2008
Heatmaps allow us to visualize the change in a particular variable over a certain period of time or area. I found some neat heatmaps that were worth sharing.
Person scanning a website
(Courtesy:
Tobii.com)
Change in economic indicators under each President
(Courtesy:
NY Times)
UV Levels across the globe on 18-OCT-2008
(Courtesy:
Temis.nl)...
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Posted on 18 October 2008
You think you've entered the right formula and yet you get the dreaded #N/A error on the sheet.....well....here are some useful tips to get you through the vlookup blues!
=vlookup(value_to_match, range_to_find_this_value, which_column_to_return , try_to_approximate_if_no_match)
(Delimited) text being compared to numbers
If you have imported data from a plain text file (a .txt file), your data may most likely have numbers which have been converted to string. Excel will still display the values ...
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Posted on 16 October 2008
By Ryan Paul | Published in www.arstechnica.com
Browser maker Opera has published the early results of an ongoing study that aims to provide insight into the structure of Internet content. Major highlights are:
1. Adobe Flash is used on roughly 35 percent of all web sites.
2. The XMLHttpRequest scripting mechanism, one of the cornerstones of Ajax, is used on roughly 3.2 percent of the indexed web sites. So Ajax is growing, though not commesurate to the hype surrounding it.
3. The study found ...
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Posted on 15 October 2008
Beating a distinguished field of writers such as Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture), Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies), Linda Grant (The Clothes on Their Backs), Steven Toltz (A Fraction of the Whole) and Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency), 33 year old Aravind Adiga won the Booker for his debut novel White Tiger.
Aaditya was born in Chennai, India and in Sydney, Australia. He went on to study at the Columbia University ...
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Posted on 15 October 2008
The Texas A&M University's department of entomology holds a yearly competition for images taken by their department followed by a public exhibition.
Check out the large size pic of a
red worker fire ant (Photographer: Freder Medina) and the
Monarch Butterfly (Photographer: Spence Behmer)
There are some good photographs at the microscopic level in the
Photomicroscopy category
...
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Posted on 13 October 2008
A problem frequently encountered with displaying multiple series with overlapping data points within a single line chart is that they just seem to entangle themselves. To get an idea of all the data point that a series represents, the user has to either mentally segregate it from the rest or click on it to highlight the particular line. The NY Times recently published a chart
How This Bear Market Compares that tries to solve this problem by highlighting ...
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Posted on 11 October 2008
......and sanity is going to prevail soon. I am an eternal optimist and my understanding is that the extreme volatility seen in the global markets signals that the capitulation is coming to an end. 6 months from today, we will looks back at this point and think what a fantastic opportunity it represented.
After the worst is over, the markets will return to a level ...
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