How do I create an inverse normal distribution function in MDX? This would be the equivalent of the NORM.INV() function in Excel.
It's not a very good architecture, but it possible to call Excel functions from MDX in Analysis Services Multidimensional instances. I say it's not a good architecture because you have to install Excel on the server and there's some question about what version of Excel you have to install. My notes say that installing Excel 2003 or later should work but I haven't tested those notes in about 10 years. I suspect Office 365 install of Excel will not work. If you get it working then you will see an excel.exe process fire up as SSAS runs Excel functions out-of-process.
The list of Excel functions which are supported are not well documented. The doc I have is from Analysis Services 2000 but I am fairly certain was still accurate per my testing as recently as Analysis Services 2008 (and is probably currently accurate still in Analysis Services 2017 and above).
Anyway, if you get this working, then the following MDX calculated member should work, I believe:
create member CurrentCube.[Measures].[test] as NormInv(0.908789, 40, 1.5);
Incidentally, if you expand the Assemblies folder under your SSAS instance in SSMS, you will see an ExcelMDX assembly which I believe is the bridge to Excel. That comes pre-installed.
Another option is that the DAX language has a NORM.INV function which will have much better performance characteristics as it's natively implemented. It appears this function is available in Analysis Services 2019 per the dax.guide website and I suspect that means a DAX query against a Multidimensional model would be able to use this function like:
evaluate row("My NORM.INV Calc",Norm.Inv(0.908789, 40, 1.5))
Related
I have recently observed an issue regarding my data in a column that I use to perform data validation on my spreadsheet.
So There is nothing wrong with the formula, neither is there anything from with the use of data validation.
It should be looking for duplicate entries, which works quite fine.
The issue is that it no longer recognizes input made from a smartphone using the excel app.
so what i did was to retype cell text field from my PC and it worked perfectly.
Is there a way that I can continue using this technique (Data validation) without having to re-enter data from a PC in order for it to process?
Certainly! Yes, that is possible.
But... with all the possibilities in today's world, is your current strategy the one that is the best for you?
That is something I cannot answer for you.
That is something I cannot enumerate for you.
But... There is something that I can introduce to you.
PowerQuery
PowerQuery was a free add-on for Excel 2010 and 2013 and it has been baked directly into Excel for more than half a decade. So, if you're using the mobile app then you probably have a modern version of Excel with PowerQuery right at your finger tips.
Your first step if to determine how you want to make your data available for Excel to get. Go to the Data Tab on the ribbon and review your options in the "Get Extetnal Data" group.
It doesn't matter if free data is your Creed and your most intimate moments are publicly available through your raw data feed. Or if paranoia is the reason why you constantly drive around the block scraping SSIDs before squirreling them away to SQL server for detailed analysis. Or if you're using a USB cable to transfer photos to your PC because your mom walked in on you without knocking and was so disgusted by what she saw on your desktop that you're banned from the family LAN... For life. None of that matters because Excel can connect to your data in so many ways that one of them will be perfect for you.
There is a sense of familiarity when Importing your data into PowerQuery. It's not unlike following those timeless MS Wizards; but nothing like the uncanny sensation of being dropped into the PowerQuery editor. It is simultaneously the same as Excel and different from Excel and it may be the closest you ever come to visiting a parallel universe. Many of the same tools are available but they behave just slightly differently. And in some cases, like the Text To Columns tool, it is light years ahead of Excel and you will find yourself cursing at MS for not using it as a replacement for the old tool.
When you're done transforming your data, you'll have a tight clean table. But the real prize, is that you have fully automated pipe from source to product .
I figured that the phone user included extra spaces when inputting the data.
So i Used the TRIM() function which takes care of the extra spaces between, before, or after each word, and that did the job.
Therefore the major error was that there were additional spaces that was not recognized in the tested data.
I have a data set of about 1 million employer names. These names are from a free-form text field so they include misspellings and variations in the way they are inputted (e.g. "Amazon" .. "Amzaon" .. "Amazon.com" .. "Amazon Web Services" .. "AWS").
I want to either A) group these 1 million so I have a somewhat accurate sense of how many unique employers are in the data set or B) be able to find all variations of any given employer.
So far, I've been using the data in Tableau, then filtering on "employer name" and searching all variations of the name I can think of. But it's tedious and I'm pretty sure I'm leaving many out.
I've also used the fuzzy add-in for excel but it hasn't worked that well on misspellings, special characters...
Tableau just isn't suited for doing this kind of analysis straight out of the box, and I would highly recommend doing some pre-processing on your data before putting trying to build a workbook around it.
Like another commenter said, you could look into using Tableau Prep Builder for a one-time transformation on your data set, but if you wanted to automate this process it costs extra to add functionality to whatever Tableau Server installation you have.
If you're familiar with Python or R (and the integration between Tableau Server and those services is supported by your organization), you could look into building a script to run the transformation real-time, but it probably won't be too efficient.
Try experimenting with Tableau Prep Builder - the companion tool that comes with your Tableau Creator license. It has a group feature that is designed for just these problems.
In Prep Builder, you’ll just need to connect to your data, add a cleaning step, and then add a group to your cleaning step.
I'm trying to use fuzzy lookup to match a list of correct names with a set of "dirty" names. But apparently vba only uses one core of my processors and it takes too much time because I am using it on at least 5000 names.
Here's a link to the fuzzy code: https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/195635-fuzzy-matching-new-version-plus-explanation.html#post955137
I also researched about "multi-threading" solutions for VBA and I found that there's no native way of doing it but someone found made an alternative using some scripts.
Here's the link for the multithreading vba script tool: https://analystcave.com/excel-vba-multithreading-tool/
Now, all I need to do is to integrate the lookup code to this multithreading script so that it will speed up the processing of this function. I am assuming that this is possible right?
Can someone help me with this? I only learned VBA through googling and reading other codes but this vba multithread tool is quite complicated for a beginner like me.
Thank you very much!
I'm not qualified to address the multithreading, but about your speed issue: are you running the code directly on the spreadsheet?
A better method is to import the entire table or range into an Array, and run the code on it there while it's in computer memory. It runs MUCH faster there. Then paste the results into the spreadsheet.
Here's some info on pulling the data into an array:
Creating an Array from a Range in VBA
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/ArraysAndRanges.aspx
You'll have to fiddle with the rest of your code, but basically you'll treat the array as if it were a table.
Below is an excerpt from Microsoft website. I believe their C# based add-in Fuzzy Lookup for MS-Excel is multi-threading based and much faster than the code you provide. Why to re-invent the wheel when we have a better option available.
The Fuzzy Lookup Add-In for Excel was developed by Microsoft Research and performs fuzzy matching of textual data in Microsoft Excel. It can be used to identify fuzzy duplicate rows within a single table or to fuzzy join similar rows between two different tables. The matching is robust to a wide variety of errors including spelling mistakes, abbreviations, synonyms and added/missing data. For instance, it might detect that the rows “Mr. Andrew Hill”, “Hill, Andrew R.” and “Andy Hill” all refer to the same underlying entity, returning a similarity score along with each match. While the default configuration works well for a wide variety of textual data, such as product names or customer addresses, the matching may also be customized for specific domains or languages. The following libraries are required and will be installed if necessary:
.NET 4.5
VSTO 4.0
How can I get a list of linked work item IDs for a set of work items?
Excel-hosted queries preferred. API Sample is acceptable.
Direct DB table query is acceptable (read-only and unsupported of course!)
Many thanks in advance! -Zephan
MORE INFORMATION
UPDATE: No answers for my original Q so broadening scope of acceptable answers as follows:
Answer for TFS2015 (migrating very shortly) or TFS2013 (potentially useful for TFS2015) is preferred over TFS2010
Coding acceptable if there are any APIs or PowerShell cmdlets (MS or community).
Connecting directly (read-only!) to TFS DB tables is acceptable (source tables and related relationship link table names). Yes, directly referencing TFS DB tables is VERY unsupported, read-only, and "AT YOUR OWN RISK." Still beats having to manually copy/paste data or reconstruct list of links in Excel.
ORIGINAL QUESTION & DETAILS
My team uses TFS2010 (soon 2013 or hoping 2015) and VS2010-2015. I need to support traceability reports and analyze/quantify our coverage of ~300 Test Case work items linked to ~400 Requirement work items. Direct Link and Tree queries are close but don't give me related links on the same row as parent work item. Many thanks in advance for your suggestions and any related code fragments.
Example:
3 test cases (Test1, Test2, Test3)
4 Requirements (Req1, Req2, Req3, Req4)
For simplicity let's just use TFS work item IDs to represent each TestN and ReqN. In actuality, I have a keyword to identify my validation requirements (separate from the 1,000's of other requirements in this Team Project). The only Test Case WI I care about for this problem are those linked to one or more Validation Requirement trace-ability.
Scenarios:
1:1 (simple) Test1 is linked to Req1
1:2 (1:n) Test2 is linked to Req2 and Req3
2:1 (n:1) Test3 (and Test2) are both linked to Req3
0:1 (Requirement missing Test coverage) Req4 has no test case links
I have a good coverage gap query by creating a Direct Link query for all Requirements then set "linking filters" to Only return items that do not have the specified links.
Desired output (all tests with list of related work items):
|Test1 | Req1 |
|Test2 | Req2, Req3 |
|Test3 | Req3 |
For row #2 I am OK with other separators or even entire list using same separator (.CSV or TAB delimited).
Skip right to answer now if you have a tidy answer. If not then I added considerable RELATED RESEARCH info below to help kick-start an idea that fits the need! Especially since this hasn't been discoverably solved in the last 5 years :-).
RELATED RESEARCH (loooong but may be useful)
1. Visual Studio Queries
Flat Queries should support a list of linked items out-of-the-box... but it does not. RelatedLinkCount field is handy for knowing if there are any links to chase, but that's it for flat queries.
Direct Link queries give a list of all direct links, but the related IDs are on rows below the parent work item. I am seriously considering creating a formula to look on the next X rows to build a list of IDs, but this would be fragile especially when over 3 requirements are linked to same test. Still might solve 80% of my tracing needs.
Tree Queries also show links, but on different rows. Additionally they tend to follow just one link type. Ideally I will need list of User Requirements linked to Functional Requirements linked to Test Case(s).
2. Tools / Plug-ins
SmartExcel4TFS (eDEVTech, http://www.modernrequirements.com/smartexcel4tfs/) has 3 reports it supports, but none get me the core data I need in easily used format. At least it is FREE if you have an MSDN Premium subscription.
Requirements to Tests Trace Matrix is super-interesting. Alass, right now I need to go the other way (Requirements linked to a given test case). Also it merges cells and has sub-sections that are hard to manipulate I think. (I may revisit this option though.)
Intersection Traceability Matrix report is WAY too wide for a full 300 x 400 grid :-O.
Work Item Decomposition Matrix also didn't give me desired contents. (though frankly I've forgotten this report layout from when I checked ~1 month ago.)
3. TFS API calls
I have actually avoided this route in favor of native Excel solution... but if I can get an example of Excel VBA code (or other code with link to calling within Excel) I may go this route. At this point I don't have time to dig into rolling my own... but this would be cool assuming performance is acceptable.
Relevant API/code fragments:
Retrieving TFS Results from a Tree Query (Blogs.msdn.com 2012.02.22) - Looks like this would get me the data I need, but it is not in Excel so I'd need a bridge example of some sort calling this within Excel.
Retrieving work items and their linked work items in a single query using the TFS APIs (stackoverflow.com 2012.01.12) - Also looks very promising, but not connected to Excel. Gives hints for 2 level and 3 level nested links and performance consideration (don't make second call for each item returned!)
Retrieving work items using the Team Foundation Server API (pwee167.github.io 2012.09.18) - Excellently written introductory walkthrough blog posting to learn how to build an (ASP.Net MVC3) app that calls TFS APIs to run Flat or Tree queries. Start here if writing C# (which I could do but don't have time/justification unless easy example to integrate with Excel).
How can I query work items and their linked changesets in TFS? (stackoverflow.com 2011.05.10) - I don't need changesets but this has VB code to instantiate new TfsTeamProjectCollection which might work directly in Excel VBA (assuming proper reference is found and added)
var projectCollection = new TfsTeamProjectCollection(
new Uri("http://localhost:8080/tfs"),
new UICredentialsProvider());
OK, that's everything I have gathered on this problem. Please help contribute with the missing magic tool/snippet or follow the info above to build that last bit I have not had time to prototype & debug. Many thanks in advance!! -Zephan
We have a SharePoint 2007 deployment which will have a substantially large document library. My client wants the ability to export this library to an Excel spreadsheet, but specifically wants the ability to divide the spreadsheet into several worksheets based on a specific field. Is this possible to accomplish in WSS 3.0, through the object model or otherwise?
There is a out-of-the-box Export to Spreadsheet, but it does not appear to support automated subdivision of the list items into separate worksheets. I do not know if Excel Services that come with MOSS are capable of it, but we do not have MOSS so we cannot consider it an option for now.
EDIT
It seems that by mentioning "out-of-the-box", I am implying that I'd prefer something quick and simple. Let's dispel that. I do a lot of heavy work in the object model. I only mentioned the Export to Spreadsheet because that's the only available method I know of off-hand, and its options are limitted. So I am comfortable with all manner of work level that can be suggested.
I should also note that keeping the list linked with the spreadsheet is undesired. We want to be able to download the spreadsheet as a reference. Because of the number of people who will be working on the list, it would be absolute chaos to try and synchronize all of the linked files. My client has agreed that it'll be easier to handle obsolete copies than to try some synchronized system.
The solution also needs to be deployable. So things which do not tailor to an individual site are best.
You won't be able to do this OOTB. You will have to write some code to iterate through the records of the list either using
The SharePoint OM - Better performance and richer API but has to run on a Web Front End
The web service - Can run on any machine
Then you can build up the Excel spreadsheet either by
Using the Excel object model (aka Automation) if this is a quick kludge running from a workstation - but excel wasn't designed to be used from an unattended server and/or high volume so you may also want to look at
A 3rd party component such as SpreadsheetGear to generate the Excel spreadsheet files.
A good bet is to quickly create views for your items (using filters as you want) mirroring your desired worksheets and then export those views into excel. Those views update with the list and you can manually grab new versions later. Still manual but OOTB and no excel hacking needed.
I posted this on SharePoint Overflow. One of the answers I received there was very useful, regarding the utility of the Open XML SDK. Thank you to those who answered... I looked over your suggestions. My client has decided to go through with this one on account that it does not cost money to implement (as Spreadsheet Gear or datapresentation's plugin would).