Excel Chart: Title & Axis Tiles based on named range - excel

I thought this should work, but at times Excel has a tendency to make simple things complicated (or impossible).
I'm setting up a bunch of graphs. Because I anticipate I will have to translate labels at some point, I want to use named ranges for all my labels (then'll offset it for translation). There's VBA involved for other stuff already, so I kinda like to use name manager as much as possible. I think it makes things easier to maintain as well.
The problem arises when I try to set the Axis Titles, and the chart Title, as a reference to a cell that is a named range. I know I can set the reference to a CELL, by doing so entering in the formula bar while having the title selected something like:
=worksheetname!$A$1
However, let's say that my that cell is named graphlabel_waterpointY. I would like to do something like:
=graphlabel_waterpointY
Which fails. Upon diggin a bit, I found that I need to put the workbook's name before I can use the named range as such, like so:
=WORKBOOKNAME.XLSM!graphlabel_waterpointY
That works, however, I don't want the user to rename the workbook and later find that all the graphs titles show !VALUE instead of proper titles. Therefore I want some sort of flexible reference for the name of the workbook as well. I don't want to use:
=CELL("filename",A1)
& isolate the string there, because if the user has another workbook open that can fail as well. So I thought "well, since I'm already using VBA, I'll just set the workbook name in a cell upon workbook opening & have my formula for the titles reference it".
However, that fails as well. Even something like:
=META!$A$1!graphlabel_waterpointY
(assuming META!$A$1 contains the workbookname) will fail as well.
It seems dumb to me that I would have to hard-code the values. I'm aiming to have something translatable later on. Of course one can just do different version, but then it sucks to have to maintain 2 workbooks. Or I could settle for hard-coding the workbook names & have it said they can't change it. But that sucks as well.
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My solution as this point is the first mentioned, e.g. even if the cell has a named range, refer to it by its A1-style reference. Works but then I lose flexibility in the layout..... Maybe I'm being picky....

Related

How to break links from activesheet and replace formulas pointing to other sheets with values?

I am looking to do two things with one macro:
1) Break external links.
2) Change formulas parts pointing to other sheets to values.
I can find macros to break external links, there are a few methods to do that, but I have a great issue with the second point.
For example - if I have such formula in my active worksheet:
"=K6*34+Sheet1!A1"
I would like it to be replaced by this:
"=K6*34+25"
So, Sheet1!A1 reference should be replaced with its underlying value.
I cannot provide any sort of half-decently reliable code. I cannot find anything on the web either, as everything relates to breaking links and things on a workbook level, not a worksheet.
Why do I need this? I want to "break" one of the worksheets in the workbook and send it via mail. I can do every part of the macro except reliably finding and replacing references with values.
Ok, so you should define a load of names for cells that 'export' a value off a sheet. Then when you want to breakaway then you loop through the names and replace with a constant.
So this way you won't need to parse the formulae which (as has been pointed out) would be very difficult.

Excel - Change source of chart data depending on text in cell

I have one excel file in which I have multiple sheets with financial statements from different companies (called Databas.xlsx). The structures of these sheets are identical. Then I have another excel file that I wish to use to analyse these financial statements using charts. Thus, I must get data from the different sheets into my analysis file. Doing this from one sheet is no problem, as I can simply create a chart and mark the data I need from this sheet, so that the chart data range would be something like this:
=[Databas.xlsx]Kopparbergs!$C$3:$K$3
where "Kopparbergs" is the sheet name in Databas.xlsx. The problem I am facing is that I want to be able to change the sheet name that is put into this formula by writing the name in a cell (because that would enable me to change multiple charts at once). So just to clarify, in the formula written above, I want to be able to change the word "Kopparbergs" by writing text in a cell. If that is not possible, how would I accomplish this? That is, how do you create a chart that can change its content depending on a text in a cell that corresponds to a sheet?
So rather than using Indirect I think you need to use two named ranges for referencing when using a Chart.
This previous answer looks like a good guide to implement (not sure about etiquette of just copy & pasting previous answers so I'll just provide the link):
Dynamic chart range using INDIRECT: That function is not valid (despite range highlighted)

Specifying range in VBA macros

I am really new to VBA. SO this might seem a silly question for experts.
after researching the internet on how to put dynamic range for filters in excel considering a situation when your list might grow or shrink I stumbled on couple of ways. One of them is as the following.
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").AutoFilter Field:=46, Criteria1:="1"
I know the you can put two arguments to specify ranges and the second one is optional. In this particular I am just putting the first cell where my data starts. My questions are below:
does the code automatically select the active range based on the first specified cell?
Had my data started from "C5" would i still have to chose the argument as "A1"?
I am filtering out something from column 46. what does it matter where I specify my first cell? for example if I had chosen "C5" instead of "A1" how it would have affected my macro?
Let's say, I want to filter out something from column 2 ie, Field 2. But the argument for range I choose as "D5". How it would affect my macro code?
AutoFilter: A Small Study
Well, I was curious, too. So I studied it a little bit and created a
workbook where you can input the parameters of some of the arguments
of the AutoFilter method and just by clicking on a command button
apply the changes. The next click removes the filter.
The workbook also contains the results of the behavior when changing
by row. The same thing could be done by column.
Workbook
Download
(Dropbox)
The following image displays the initial state of the only worksheet in the workbook.
This I was most curious about: what would happen if I would filter in C8. There's a surprise.
There still remains a ton of unanswered questions, but this could get you started to investigate deeper.

Dynamically reference cell in different workbook

I have two workbooks:
WorkbookToUpdate.xls
Workbook_for_20130901.xls
In the first workbook I have the following:
A1 ='[Workbook_for_20130901]Sheet1'!$C5
Now a month goes by and I want to update the first work to reference Workbook_for_20131001.xls without going cell by cell and changing the name of the workbook. My thought was to make the date portion of the workbook name a variable and simply change that variable, but that doesn't seem to be working.
EDIT: I don't want to use Excel's INDIRECT function because I don't want to open the reference workbook.
I found one solution to be Harlan Grove’s PULL function (code can be found here), which works similarly to the INDIRECT function except that it doesn't require the source workbook to be open. The other solution, which actually works out to be faster than the Pull function (its only downfall) is the one I was using originally - Good ol' "find & replace". I thought that that was slow, but after trying the Pull function, it's not too bad.
Another option is by changing the source through excel's Data links, but this doesn't allow you to choose which cells keep the old source and which cells use the new one (in my case, I need the old values as well).

Point to a relative other Sheet in Excel

I'm trying to find a way to from a Cell get the data from a cell in the Sheet that lies to the Left (down in the tray) of the current Sheet.
I know how to call to other sheets via
=Sheet1!A1
But now I need something best explained with
=Sheet[-1]!A1
Any ideas?
Using the tab order as a fundamental part of your calculations is a complicated and risky approach to Excel calculations. Excel offers many alternatives which you'd be better off using:
A simplified version of belisarius's suggestion is: =INDIRECT(A1 & "!A2") where cell A1 has the name of your datasource sheet and A2 has the name of your target cell in your datasource sheet. If you know the name of your sheet of interest (or can look it up in some way), use this method.
If you need to do this often, you might want to export the data into an actual database (i.e. MS Access). Then you can make standard SQL queries and import the results into your Excel file.
If you absolutely want to go the VBA route, then you'd have to write some code that:
3a. Grabs all the names of the active workbook and stores them in an array.
3b. Identifies the index number of the currently active workbook in that array. Subtract 1 from that index to get the sheet to the left.
3c. Gets the cell value from that sheet.
You can also get freaky with Named Ranges. In Excel 2003, go to Insert->Name->Define, add a new Named Range and you can use that name in your calculations instead of referring to the cell by row and column.
Edit
The whole Idea with this one, is that
you have the Sheets arranged, and are
able to move them around, and that
shall change the calculations. – Gnutt
1 hour ago
Please, please, don't do that. For starters, this isn't a standard method of interaction with a spreadsheet. Your end-users will likely be confused and may not even ask for clarification.
You'll want to explore the idea of data validation:
Using Data->Validation, make a drop-down menu listing all the sheets in the workbook (if the names of all the sheets are static, you can just hardcode them, otherwise, you'll need some VBA to pull them).
Then the user just picks the sheet of their choice and indirect() will automatically update everything.
Alternatively, you can also check out Tools->Scenarios. I don't know anybody who uses this feature, but you might be a good candidate for it. Basically, it lets you see the results of calculations using different datasets (i.e. "scenarios") so the user can go back and forth between them.
Using either of the 2 methods above, there's a good chance you can avoid VBA entirely, thus saving users that annoying warning message when they open your file.
=INDIRECT("Sheet"&TEXT(VALUE(MID(CELL("filename",A8),FIND("]",CELL("filename",A8))+1,256))-1,"#")&"!A1")
Caveats:
Your workbook must be saved previously
A8 may be replaced by a reference to ANY non-error cell
I know it's not seen here as good practice, but I want to do something similar. And it does replicate database functionality to an extent but I don't have the time or support to build one from scratch when there's something already half in place.
The reason I want to be able to do this is to create a summary table that links to all the worksheets in the workbook, and automatically extends if you insert a new worksheet. This is to manage a large sales / reporting spreadsheet with lots of different business units that all have the same structure (ie use the same worksheet format to report the same outcomes for different people. There is a high turnover. I want to have several summary sheets reporting different aspects of the source sheets. This is very time consuming to manage if recreating all of the tables each time.
You should be able to use the row() as an index marker to define the information that you want using something like REPLACE, OFFSET or INDEX but you can't as they only refer to 2D arrays.
Whereas Excel treats 3-D references as arrays for statistical functions it does not seem to do the same for reference functions. You might have SUM(sheetX:sheetY!A1) and be able to add a sheet in between, there is not (eg) a INDEX(sheetX:sheetY!A1,n) function. I've tried experimenting using these 2D functions as part of array formulas, and defining the 3D reference as an array or a named range... well it was worth a go :).
So I believe it's a valid action. I also believe there must be a way to do it, but for now I'm falling back on a UDF that has the risk of errors caused by calculation issues, or manipulating a Workbook_SheetChange function or similar. Or creating a single master sheet to control all the others which is populated by using a subroutine based on an array of all workbooks.
these functions work well for me. They get the worksheet index (the parent of
the range you call them with), add or subtract from that index, and then create
a range from that (relative) sheet and the address passed in.
Function relativeSheet(r As Range, iRelative As Integer)
Application.Volatile
relativeSheet = Sheets(r.Cells(1, 1).Parent.Index + iRelative).Range(r.Address)
End Function
Function prevSheet(r As Range)
prevSheet = relativeSheet(r, -1)
End Function
Function nextSheet(r As Range)
nextSheet = relativeSheet(r, 1)
End Function

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