Hi,
In 1990ths I deadly needed an algoritm to get an amount in words. It was quite a complicated task, because there are cases and genuses in russian. I eventually did it with INDIRECT. I said Wow! and began to build workbooks for different purposes. The objectives were: less input data, more calculations, less different kinds of files.
When did you feel something like that?
Also in the 1990s when I managed to create a complex formula using nested VLOOKUPs that mimicked the rather complicated conversion equation used by examination boards to convert raw examination marks to UMS (Uniform mark Scale) points. It was one of those Eureka! moments. I have further refined it since then as I have learnt better ways of doing things, but that was the moment when I felt the power of Excel and the sense of empowerment it gave me.
Ali
Enthusiastic self-taught user of MS Excel who's always learning!
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It is a fun to review first steps in Excel. It is like to see photos from childhood.I have further refined it since then as I have learnt better ways of doing things
There used to be three of us working all day to do the Trial Balances, after about a year it was just me, and I had it done in the morning, leaving the afternoon for other duties. That was also in the 90's but I used VBA. I drove the NC with my left hand and the PC with my right!
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Late hit: I have used Excel for a very long time, since at least 1990, after having gained a certain amount of expertise in Lotus 1-2-3. I have always found it invaluable and learn more every year.
But it was when I took a graduate course in forecasting and modeling that I found out about VBA. That was around 2003, and when the professor clicked a button and all of a sudden more rows of data just appeared out of nowhere I was blown away. I am a software development manager and knew several languages so it was not hard to learn VBA. But knowing VBA is not enough--I still learn new things about the Excel object model all the time, and that's what makes it so powerful.
Anyway, that's when I realized that Excel could do almost anything.
I've used Excel for ages, but it wasn't until I got to this job about 10 years ago and watched co-workers struggle with, run a query, copy and paste, enter this formula, copy it down, put a filter on it, copy and paste results into another page ... remake the charts because the dates changed ...
One of these reports had 33 pages of work instructions! I lost count of the steps when they exceeded 100. That's when I decided there had to be a better way for these people. The work instructions are now limited to Push Button, check results.
My philosophy is to let Excel do as much of the "heavy lifting" as possible and then sew and bolt the pieces together with VBA. So I make extensive use of MS-Query (I have an easy process to write SQL "on the fly"), Excel tables, named ranges and pivot tables.
My other friend is the Windows Task scheduler that I use to run reports overnight (I have an "industrial" process for this too). A report that takes 4 hours for the queries to run on Monday morning, takes less than an hour Sunday night - and it is there on my desk first thing in the morning.
Like 6JazzStringer, I have previous programming experience dating; mine dating back to the punch-card era: from Fortran to COBOL to C. I still get "the willies" with how VB plays so "fast and loose" with data types
One spreadsheet to rule them all. One spreadsheet to find them. One spreadsheet to bring them all and at corporate, bind them.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but a sample spreadsheet is more likely to be worked on.
Wasn't until 2010 or so I started using Excel extensively (though I used it for graphing in late 90's as lab tech). First few years was just basic data entry and calculations.
Then I learned about PivotTable in 2013. It really opened up my eyes.
I ended up liking data analysis so much, changed career path and became full fledged data analyst.
Hi CK76,
A great majority of jobs advertised for "Data Analyst" role require knowledge and experience in Python, R language and SQL. IMO, many people who use excel are not aware of VBA and probably get away with Pivot table, and some basic excel's functions. You come across vague terms in job descriptions, like advance excel, but it does not mean lot in practical sense. A person who has skills in Python, R and SQL could easily get away by claiming to have an advanced excel skills, but not the other way round. One can easily test Python and R skills, but not excel. I have had few excel test, but the hardest question I faced was Index and Match. Yes, it is a great tool for millions of people and small businesses. I believe excel is not the right tool and frowned up by big businesses.
A size of business is not the point.Originally Posted by AB33
Nobody asks an applicant if he/she can write. Like math is a native language of science Excel is almost the same. If people followed simple principles, quite a lot of coders (and us here) were out of job.
These principles:
-number is number, string is string, do not mix them
-date is a number
-a formula, not a value
-the first thing is data (layout, calculation), embellishment is not important
Well, it does matter as big businesses tend to have "Big Data"
and all do analysis of this data in Excel?
I find most companies/execs misuse the termWell, it does matter as big businesses tend to have "Big Data"
Oh, I just meant Excel turned me toward data analysis. I use SQL, PHP, Java, R etc in my role.A great majority of jobs advertised for "Data Analyst" role require knowledge and experience in Python, R language and SQL.
At any rate, you'd be surprised how many company still use csv export and Excel to do report and financial analysis (just recently finished eliminating manual reports at one company).
And many list Excel skill as one of primary skill set requirement. But I agree, most company don't know how to test for Excel skill.
One bank's test just tested for your skill in beautifying charts really, and nothing about data structure/transformation.
Which I believe is foundation for any data analysis. Like tim said, many coder/analysts would be out of job if everyone knew
Edit: In my opinion, Excel's primary advantage to other tools is ease of use and it's flexibility. However, many companies do not treat it like other software and lacks proper training for it's employees.
Last edited by CK76; 05-06-2017 at 11:48 AM.
The problem I have with Excel for anything non trivial is the sheer amount of spaghetti people can produce without any real way of checking changes. There isn't any real comprehensive way of doing source control and checking changes. Inevitably when the workbooks go wrong, you're tasked with fixing them with no means of understanding what was changed, by who and when (and often how long it has been broken) - it makes any sort of auditing a nightmare.
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