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Showing posts from February, 2023

Displaying Mathematical Equations

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When I wrote on implementing Standard Error formula using LAMBDA, I used  CodeCogs Equation Editor webservice. Since then I have been trying a few other solutions. I put together this table for comparison. Renderer Engine Input Output Format Strong Points CodeCogs WebService LaTeX Image WYSIWYG Equation Editor Katex JavaScript MathML, TeX, and AsciiMath HTML+CSS, SVG, or MathML Fast rendering unlike MathJax and AsciiMath MathJax JavaScript MathML, TeX, and AsciiMath HTML+CSS, SVG, or MathML Widest browser compatibility AsciiMath JavaScript AsciiMath HTML+CSS, SVG, or MathML Easy to write equations, format like Excel equations. Here are some examples of a Quadratic Equation Renderer Quadratic Equation Example

Formula Name Manager Limit: ~2084 Characters

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While trying to implement a LAMBDA function I found myself unable to paste my formula into the Formula Name Manager. My first thought was that the LAMBDA has a character limit. But further investigation showed it was related to the Formula Name Manager, specifically the Refers to: field. Also it is not  related to the Name or the Comment field. Tweaking my formula the maximum number of characters is about 2084. Whitespaces are counted. This includes carriage returns and tabs. So, when implementing LAMBDA with the Formula Name Manager, do remember to keep your formula as concise as possible, but don't be too sloppy with variable names and indentation. That said, go edit your LAMBDA in your DC-DEN! Update: The Comment:  field limit is 256 characters.

Descriptive Statistics summary with LAMBDA

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One function in Excel that I find useful is the Descriptive Statistics from the Analysis Toolpak Add-In. At a glance I see a summary of the sample data. However I also find it cumbersome to use. It requires you to add-in Analysis Toolpak - not loaded by default. I wonder why Microsoft choses not to pre-load in Excel even though it has been available since Excel 2000 (maybe even earlier?). It launches a dialog. Recently, this becomes an issue as it unavailable in Excel Web. It returns a static result, not an auto recalculating function, i.e. the result is not updated if and when the data is updated. Of the 3 reasons above, I find the last most annoying. While field/laboratory sample data does not change after collection, but input data from external sources can be changing frequently. Any report based on external sources would have to be painstakingly updated manually. So in this blog, I will create a Descriptive Statistics function with LAMBDA that would recalculate automatically just
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  Recently I saw some Travel facts and figures for the Lunar New Year 2023 . The table for the Top Five Destinations (see above) was interesting but difficult to digest. Would it be possible to summarise this? Would it be possible to make this table more comprehensible at a glance? It may mean turning this table into some form of a diagram. A network diagram or Sankey diagram would probably do the job. But what if Excel was the only that I had? This would be challenging. Converting Table Information into Data Table above presents nominal data. There are a number of options to convert it into numerical data. Using Excel, it was easy to auto-calculate a count of the mentioned countries. Frequency is the number of times the country is mentioned in the Table. A simple COUNTIF  formula gave the results instantly. The Ranked is a weighted preference of destination. I put an arbitrary weightage of 5, 4, .., 1 for Top 1, Top 2, ..., Top 5 in reverse order respectively. As an example, if Thai