spreadsheets on S Anand

My first LAMBDA in Excel

Sat, 06 May 2023 04:53:37 +0000

Ever since Excel introduced the LAMBDA function, I've been itching to use it in real life. I got my first chance today.

We track the skill index of our different teams (consulting, analytics, technology, etc.) like this:

Team	Skill Index	Apr-23
Consulting	0%	0%
Analytics	33%	33%
Technology	72%	72%
etc.

The "Skill Index" column should pick the LAST value. If Apr-23 is filled, use that. But if May-23 is also filled, use that.

I needed something like a =LASTVALUE(range) formula. But none exists.

A good alternative is this formula to get the last non-empty cell:

=LOOKUP(2,1/(range<>""),range)

So, I followed the instructions to create a function in the Name Manager (Ctrl+F3)

... and simply fill in =LASTVALUE(H6:S6) and the like in the "Skills Index" cell.

The LOOKUP formula is confusing. My aim is to confuse our team less. But I wonder if they'll start Google-ing for this LASTVALUE formula no one ever heard of, and get more confused 🤔.

The virtues of a second screen

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 12:00:00 +0000

The virtues of a second screen.

So now, while I am editing this article on my main screen, the screen beside it shows the outline or earlier draft I am working from – and, sometimes, Web sites or other documents I keep referring to.

When I edit photos, the second screen lets me compare the copy I am working on with the original, or shows tool palettes and thumbnails of other images, and I can blow up panoramic shots for closer viewing (though with a bar down the middle, like the central pillar of an old car’s windshield).

When I am shopping on the Web, my two screens let me compare products.

When I work on tables or spreadsheets, I can see all the columns at once. When I expect important messages, I keep my e-mail program open on the side monitor while I work on something else.

Comments

Umasuthan 22 Apr 2006 5:44 pm: With so much dependency on IT in our day-to-day work, as the author points out even 2 screens wouldn’t be sufficient. True. â€˜Ease of useâ€™ has become a major issue in IT systems. That reminds me. Did u check the ‘Reveal’ and ‘Firefox Showcase’ plug-ins for Firefox?
Saurabh 22 Apr 2006 6:12 pm: Does anyone use Maxthon also?
S Anand 23 Apr 2006 4:37 pm: First time I’d heard of it, actually.
ravi 24 Apr 2006 2:00 am: anand the links ask for registration??!!
S Anand 24 Apr 2006 6:46 am: Yeah, but it’s a free registration. www.BugMeNot.com might be able to provide you with a username and password.

How I buy gadgets

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:00:00 +0000

I’m a cautious gadget freak. I love buying gadgets, but think a lot before buying them. Invariably, I use spreadsheets to help me decide. I try to buy only those gadgets that are right for me at the cheapest possible price, and I look at two things: features based on usage and breakeven.

Usage-driven buying

I pick the features I want based on my usage. For example, when I bought my first mobile, I listed the my most likely uses for the phone:

I’m in the car (e.g. 2 hr drive to airport), and want to catch up
Emergency calls (means, carry the phone always)

So I need high battery life (at least 2 hours). I need low weight, if I’m going to carry it around. I don’t need colour display or MMS for my usage pattern. Then I ran through all available mobile phone options, filtered them against my criteria, and picked the cheapest (Nokia 3310).

Another example was my digital camera. The reason I wanted one was:

I can take a lot more photographs and print only those I want
For low light shots, take multiple snaps, so at least one will be OK
I can just take one snap and print it, and not have to complete a roll

So my camera should be light (to carry around and take lots of snaps), have a high ISO rating and flash (to work well in low light), and needn’t have much memory (I transfer it to my laptop pretty quickly).

Having identified such features, I compared models (Internet / visit shops) in 2002.

Product	Price	Size	Flash	Mpx	Zoom	Mem	Comment
Kodak DC3400	16500		Y	2	2x		No – 2x zoom not enough
Canon S10	20000	Small	Y	2	2x		No – 2x zoom not enough
Sony DSC P50	20000		Y	2	3X	4MB	No – too little memory
Nikon 775	19000	Small	Y	2	3x	8MB	OK
Fuji FinePix 2600	15000	OK	Y	2	3x	16MB	OK
Olympus D-230	15000	Small	Y	2	None	16MB	No – No zoom
Nikon 885	27500	OK	Y	3	3x	16MB	Too little manual control
Canon G1	40000		Y	3	3X		Too expensive
Sony DSC S85	40000		Y	4	3x	16MB	Slow shutter
Canon G2	45000		Y	4	3X	16MB	Too expensive.
Olympus C4040	45000		Y	4	3x		Too expensive

I finally picked the Fuji FinePix 2600.

Breakeven

I had a normal camera. Would a digital camera be economically worth it? For a normal camera, the roll costs Rs 2.5 (Rs 90 / 36 shots), developing costs Rs 2.8 (Rs 100 / 36 shots), and each print costs Rs 5. Total cost per photo: Rs 10.3. I don’t need prints, I see pictures on the computer. The digital camera cost me Rs 20,000 including customs duty. So I break even when I take about 2,000 pictures. That sounded feasible, so I switched to digital in 2002. (I’ve taken about 2,800 snaps since.)

For similar reasons, I also decided I didn’t need a colour printer. Given my expected usage, it would have cost me Rs 34 for a single 4" x 6" colour photo printout. I could get the same at a shop for Rs 8.

Recently, I bought a DVD writer. DVDs cost about the same as CDs in bulk. (I bought a 100 DVD pack for 14 pounds, and 100 CDs for about the same.) A DVD stores 6 times as much as a CD. So for every DVD I burn, I save the cost of 5 CDs, about 70 pence. A DVD writer cost 50 pounds. So after burning about 70 DVDs, I’d break even. Once I’m through with my pack of 100 DVDs, I’m guaranteed breakeven. (I’ve burned about 25 DVDs till date.)

Tracking

I don’t stop there. After buying, I track my usage. Where I’ve done a breakeven, I try to track quantitatively. Otherwise, I track my usage pattern (high / medium / low). So far, my best return-on-investment has been on my webcam and mic, followed by my digital camera, CD writer, video camera and DVD writer. The worst have been my TV tuner card (I didn’t really record many movies), and my second mobile phone (turned out I didn’t really use GPRS).

I once started doing this sort of analysis for my clothes, but stopped… maybe I was carrying this a bit too far…

Comments

Dhar 28 Mar 2006 8:24 am: You probably know it already, but using a camera at high ISO rating will give you grainy pics. Instead try using low shutter speeds, low aperture with a good tripod.
Dhar 28 Mar 2006 8:25 am:

I once started doing this sort of analysis for my clothes, but stopped.
Dhar 28 Mar 2006 8:26 am: Thank God for that! Using a spreadsheet for analysing what clothes to purchases! You are an uber-geek.
Arun 28 Mar 2006 11:19 am: Holy cow!
S Anand 28 Mar 2006 1:39 pm: Yeah, I stick to low ISO with a pocket tripod these days. I do wish there were a camera that would work at night without a tripod!
Ashwin 28 Mar 2006 6:57 pm: Olympus or Sony cybershot 7.2 MP(DSC P200) which is better? can any one suggest which is an all rounder in performance?
Dhar 4 Apr 2006 5:51 am: For camera’s that work at night, try those with Optical Image Stabilizers. I believe Lumix is one of the inexpensive cameras that features OIS.
Philip Wilkinson 27 Nov 2006 6:33 pm: wow - that’s impressive. I think you qualify for being a Crowdstorm Elite member if you’re interested!
Eating more for less | s-anand.net 19 May 2011 7:26 pm (pingback): […] that add less calories per gram. Usually, when browsing stores, I check these manually. But being a geek, I figured there’s an easier […]

Excel shortcuts

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Excel shortcut keys via AutomateExcel