Let's (for discussion purposes) say that I have x and y data in 2 columns. They're some measured data which, several times a day, a few of them are added (usually 4 times a day).
Now, I wish to plot y=f(x) (linear scale), but the problem is since data is constantly added to determine the number of points which will go in the plot. Always creating a new plot and then formatting it and all, is troublesome for ... reasons.
Is there a way to do this using excel's build in functions ? Should I use vba ? I tried googling, but I don't know what to search for. I'd appreciate any help on this, even if its just a point in the right direction.
Is there a way to tell excel, use all points in this column until you hit an empty cell ?
You can do this without any VBA. Jon Peltier has an example by Debra Dalgleish on his website:
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/DynamicColumnChart1.html
It can be pretty frustrating to Google anything related to Excel because there is so much junk out there, but I've found that if there's something "obvious" that you know shouldn't be so hard, one of the various "MVP" sites will have covered it.
Related
I apologize if the title is a bit vague. I am trying to create a calculator that takes into account how much "scrap" I have, how much is needed to resmelt it, and how many bars recieved.
Currently using:
(=if((amtOwned/qtyToSmelt)<1,,rounddown((amtOwned/qtyToSmelt)*barsMade))
Table and Formula
The problem I am having is you MUST have the QTY to Smelt. But the value returned includes partial quantities.
Ex. 125 Bottle Caps should equal 4 Bars total. Yet it returns 5.
How can i make the formula only account for increments of the bars recieved?
Thank you for any help, again i apologize if this isn't that clear. Im not exactly sure how to express my need in this situation.
I have tried messing around with the syntax and where every argument sits, even this formula is the most recent iteration of what i thought would be needed.
EDIT: I have tried using the TRUNC function and this seems to be working as I need it to. The formula now is:
=TRUNC((AMTowned/AMTneeded),0)*barsRecieved
=TRUNC((136/50),0)*2 This is returning 2 bars instead of 3. Which is exactly what I need.
It appears this is working by truncating the number first then multiplying it. So, 1.5 becomes 1 before being multiplied. This was my guess after doing more research. I had been searching for a while before I posted this but am glad to have learned what I have in searching for this.
There is a tool for auditing formulas. To see it go to Formulas > Evaluate Formula.
So here is you formula =IF((E3/C3)<1,,ROUNDDOWN((E3/C3)*D3,0))
Have you tried the calculation on your regular calculator? To me it is doing what you would expect. (125/50)*2 = 5
I am trying to create a compensation breakdown for each employee to show their financial health in the market. I found instructions on here from 7 years ago for a column chart that was similar to what I'm looking for.
However, is there a way to have a specific point highlighted on an area chart?
I've attached the chart that I currently have, as you can see the data point is not in the blue section like I'd like it to be. I've tried all sorts of formatting and cannot get it to work. Help, please!?
Sample chart with data point here
is there a way to have a specific point highlighted on an area chart?
No, area charts are sums, or counts (like histograms) or actual values. So, when you want to combine that with raw data, it won't work as you requested.
This only works if you have the same amount of data entries per data series. So, you need to have as many values for the blue area, as you have for the orange.
Thus, this is will not work. Also, from my understanding, you want to show where "Andy"'s salary is in relation to others (and the max/min/average).
I wonder if you could do this some other way? Establish what you want to convey with this chart, maybe we can find some alternatives.
But to merge two different sized series, not possible as far as I am aware (not in a way that it looks good).
I found instructions on here from 7 years ago for a column chart that was similar to what I'm looking for.
Would you mind sharing this? Maybe we can proceed further with that!
Edited:
after using Solver which Saulo Suggested I have managed to get excel sorting them in to groups up to 8 groups of 3. though am approaching troubles when going further ideally at this time I need to be able to do 18 groups of 3. but even with the same settings obviously adjusting for the increase in groups excel seems to belly up on the process and fails, any suggestions to adapt to this?
I am trying to figure out an easy and as accurate as possible without going too crazy with the math and formulas as I am basic with my excel coding (coding in general) to calculate the ideal groups of 3 based on rank and strength for a video game.
I want to pair the strongest with the weakest and then fill the gaps evenly for the 3rd person. so, that each team’s overall strength is the same roughly.
factors I have is a designated leader(rank) and an overall power level(strength).
doing this manually isn't too hard but trying to automate it is. any thoughts or suggestions would be amazing!?
something like this but automated which is where I am getting stuck, as I want to be able to add more players and adjust strengths as they come along.
Hope this makes sense.
Jordan, you have a classic situation to use "Solver". First of all, you have to make "Solver available in your Excel. Select Home -> Option -> Supplements -> Solver. Then, the solver button´s will be at the "Data" menu.
Solver is about solving a problem with especific conditions, changing specific cell, with specifc purpose. In your case, your purpose is creat teams with the minimal strength diference. A condition of your problem is that teams should have the same number of players. See how I organized the sheet.
Sheet
When do you open solver, the first field is "Seat Goal". Our goal (or purpose) is reduce the diference between teams as minimal as possible. So we selected the cell with the diference between teams. Then we have to tell to excel that our purpose is that cell have the minimal value (chossing "min").
Then we have to tell excel wich cells they can change values to achieve our goal. In this case, Excel can change the teams of player, so we select the cells with the teams.
Last we have to tell excel whats condition (or restrictions) of this problem. The first restction is that the total of player of team 1 is tree. The total of players of team 2 is, both, 3. Then we have to tell to excel what are the limits (superior and inferior) of values of variable cells. In this case, we chose superior or equal to 1, AND (other restrction) inferior or equal to 2.
Ok. Now we have a problem with specif goal, changing the value of specifc cells, with specif restriction. Now solver can work. Then choose the method of soluction "Evolutionary", Honestly, I do know the diference between the methods, but my experience is that evolutionary method works better than the others.
I recomend reading the excel tutorial on solver. At first, all of us think that is too dificult, but believe that is simpler than it seems.
I've done some Googling for each of my issues but haven't found exactly the results as I wanted. Things I need to be done doesn’t probably include any macros/VBA skills, just basic knowledge of Excel.
Now to my spreadsheet. I'm a Dota 2 player and I like statistics. I like it that much that I'd like to keep track of my achievements and results. Only problem is that the game tracker sucks and to get great information in web you have to pay for it, so I decided it's time for me to create my own spreadsheet to track my skills.
I don't know which place is the best to share my spreadsheet but I uploaded it to Estonian uploading host, link is here. I will also provide with pictures so you don't have to download anything.
This is what it looks like in general:
Problem number 1: The left table, or column has 1000 rows. In web design it's possible to make elements fixed depending on the scroll, I'd like to use similar feature here. If the table gets scrolled down, the right table (area with games, bonus and graph) will get scrolled down with it.
Problem number 2: Average MMR. I'd like to show average MMR after each entry depending on the first entries. Right now there's avg MMR for J4:J8. The calculation for J8 looks like this: =AVERAGE(C4:C8). For J7 it looks like this: =AVERAGE(C4:C7). I'd like to do this for all my 1000 rows, but I don't want to type it out. If I try to drag down from the corner, it will continue with C5:C8, C6:C9 etc (so it changes the starting point)
Problem number 3: Under longestGame there's currently Date and Hero. This should show the Date and Hero of which the longest game occurred. I tried to do this with LOOKUP function but it required table to be in ascending order, which I don't want. For current, 44,22, there should be Storm Spirit and 14.06.2015.
Problem number 4: Graph. I'd like to display three series on graph - MMR, average MMR and game length (time). The problem is, that MMR and average MMR will be in the numbers on 3000-7000 but the game length will only be probably in timeframe 20:00-120:00. Maybe it's possible to add two sets of values to the Y axis or maybe set Time series maximum 200:00 and minimum 0:00 and create graph according to this. I'm really stupid making graphs and I haven't figured out a clever way yet.
Problem number 5: Graph again. Right now I have to set the series for the graph. I've currently set it to C4:C54 (so 50 rows). I'd like it to move around a bit and by that I mean that if there happens to be C55-th game then the graph would start from C5:C55 and move along (so it'll count 50 last games).
I'm in a benevolent mood so rather than downvoting your question, because it is not really suitable for this forum I'm going to give you some hints and guidance. The numbers below correspond to the problems in your question.
Excel permits more than one window to be used on the same workbook -
so one window can show the data and one the summary.
Find out about absolute and relative cell addressing - its a valuable bit of knowledge for anyone serious about Excel and it will be of use in solving your problem.
Find out about the MATCH function. You can use this to find out which row of your table contains the longest game, shortest game, max MMR, min MMR by matching an element from the summary on the right (cols M onward) against the appropriate column table on the left. The find out about the INDEX function - this can be used to pull the values in the columns for Hero and Date which correspond to a specific row (such as the row containing the longest game, shortest game, etc). Search INDEX MATCH and find out why using these two functions in combination is often preferred to using the VLOOKUP function
Persevere - there are graph options available to do what you want and the only way to really learn is to go through the pain of trying them out, failing and working at it until you succeed.
Set up an area of worksheet to hold the 50*3 table of data for your graphs. Find out about the COUNT function and think how it might be of use in determining which rows of the data table map to the 50 rows of graph data. Then think about how to populate the graph data table using one of the functions mentioned above. Incidentally, C4:C54 is actually 51 rows, not 50.
I have an optimization problem that I try to tackle with solver. Among others, one decision variable is a cell containing a date. Based on a time series, Solver should pick the optimum point in time. However, while it changes the other decision cells, it never changes this one! I even tried dropping the other decision variables (holding them constant) - still no change.
To help you have a lock into my problem, I created and attach an Excel sheet (here: download link) with a simplified problem, where from a time series of stock prices Solver should pick the date with the highest price. (I am aware that this particular problem could easily be solved with the MAX formula, but my real optimization problem is much more complex and wouldn't allow for this solution.)
Solver still doesn't change anything at the initial date value - even in this very simplified setting!
From a mathematical point of view, the present problem could be characterized as a (non-linear) step function, where particular points in time (on the x axis) correspond to different prices (steps, on the y axis).
Is there any tricks involved to get solver to handle time (date) values?
If you have luck to find the right set of Solver settings to make it get to the correct solution (which would be Jan 10, 2009), I'll be more than happy to hear about them.
Edit: I found out that non-linear problems with non-smooth discontinuous functions (like this problem, which is basically a staircase function) are generally difficult to tackle by any (non-)linear optimizer. Can someone savvy in the matter help me reformulate the problem in a solvable way. I found a similar topic on stack overflow with a suggested solution (see first answer), but don't know how to apply it to my problem.
Thanks,
Steve
I got your spreadsheet to solve in Excel 2010, by adding the constraint $C$7 >= $C$13, and using the Evolutionary Method. You can probably figure out the Math method you mentioned, but you may need to do it in VBA instead of the Solver dialog.