Not that I have friggatriskaidekaphobia or anything. But since today is Friday & 13th, lets put our Excel skills to test and find out when the next Friday the 13th is going to be.
(trivia: Check this for some interesting facts about Friday the 13th)
Finding Next Friday the 13th using Excel Formulas – Approach 1
Lets say, you have a date in cell C3, and you want to find out when the next Friday, the 13th is going to be starting the date in cell C3.
The first approach I can think of is pretty straight forward.
We list all the 13ths in a column and find the next 13th which is also a Friday. For this,
- In cell E3, we write =MONTH(C3)
- In cell F3, we write =YEAR(C3)
- We use these 2 cells to refer to the month and year of the starting date.
- Then, we write in an empty cell =DATE($F$3,$E$3+ROWS($A$1:A1),13) – lets say this cell is E5
- This gives us the 13th date of next month, from the start date in cell C3.
- Now, lets drag this formula and fill it down, for say, next 100 cells to get next 100 13ths.
- The ROWS($A$1:A1) portion generates continuous numbers from 1 thru 100 and thus we get next 100 13ths.
For more on this technique, read – Using ROWS() to generate a series of numbers
Once all the 13ths are listed, in an adjacent column, we can use WEEKDAY() formula to see if the 13th is a Friday – WEEKDAY(E5)=6
This column will have a bunch of TRUE & FALSE values.
Now to find the next Friday the 13th, we just look for TRUE value in this column (say F5:F104) use it to derive the date.
So this formula =DATE(F3,E3+MATCH(TRUE,$F$5:$F$104,0),13) should give us the next Friday, the 13th.
Break up of above formula:
- MATCH(TRUE,$F$5:$F$104,0) tells us the position of first TRUE value (ie first Friday, the 13th in our list)
- DATE(F3,E3+Match value, 13) gives the date of next Friday, the 13th
- Remember, F3 contains the year and E3 the month of starting date you entered in C3.
Finding Friday the 13th, 2nd Approach
While above approach works fine, it requires a few helper columns. So I got thinking, how can we write a one shot formula that gives us next Friday, the 13th date?
First the formula:
This is an array formula.
{ =DATE(YEAR($C$3), MATCH(TRUE, WEEKDAY(DATE(YEAR($C$3),MONTH($C$3)+ROW($A$1:$A$100), 13))=6,0) + MONTH($C$3),13) }
Scary formula indeed. We may have to coin a word for fear of long excel formulas – doubleXLformulaphophia.
How does this formula work?
Before understanding the portions of this formula, we need to understand the approach.
This formula uses similar thinking as of earlier formula. Just that it shrinks all those helper columns to an array and works the magic.
To find next Friday, the 13th, we need to list down next few 13ths and check which one is a Friday. Since Excel lookup formulas always return the first match, we find the first such Friday.
Parts of the formula:
- To get the next 100 13ths, we use, DATE(YEAR($C$3),MONTH($C$3)+ROW($A$1:$A$100), 13)
When used in an array formula, this gives us the 13th days of next 100 months.
(aside: technically, we do not need next 100 months. As per Wikipedia, the maximum gap between successive Friday, the 13ths is 14 months. more)
Also, note that we are using ROW() formula, not ROWS(), as we want all the row numbers for first 100 rows as an array.
- Once we have these 100 dates, we just check for their Fridayness with, WEEKDAY(100 dates))=6
This formula returns a 100 TRUE & FALSE values. TRUE, whenever the date is a Friday, FALSE, when it is not.
- Then, we find the first TRUE value (ie first occurrence of Friday, the 13th in next 100 months) with, MATCH(TRUE, next 100 dates’ Fridayness, 0)
This gives us the position of next TRUE value.
- Finally, we use that to construct the date of next Friday, the 13th – DATE(YEAR($C$3), MONTH($C$3) + first TRUE value, 13)
And that is how we find the next Friday the 13th based on the start date in cell C3.
Important Note:
Both approaches only search for Friday, the 13th starting next month of the date in C3. If C3 has a date prior to 13th and the 13th of that month is a Friday, the 13th, it would not be considered. For example, if you enter 10-JAN-2012 in C3, both formulas would find next Friday the 13th as April 13, 2012 not Jan 13, 2012.
Download Friday, the 13th Example Workbook
I have made a colorful (and almost gory) download workbook. Even if you do not want to learn this, I suggest downloading the file, for fun!
Click here to download the Friday, 13th calculations workbook & play with it.
Bonus: It has homework too!
Your Homework
Finally some homework to wrap up this week.
Write a formula to find the maximum gap between consecutive Friday, the 13ths in next 5 years, from a starting date in cell C3.
Please post your answers in comments so that we all can learn.
Checkout more Formula Forensics
Once in a while, we take a complex real world (or as in this case, gory world) problem and write an equally scary formula. Then, we go great lengths breaking it down and explaining it. We call this as Formula Forensics. Much like forensics in CSI, without ultra zoom & hot chicks. You can check out some of our recent adventures here:
- Using an array formula to count maximum occurrences of a text
- Counting specific words in a multi-cell range
- Extracting a list of items from a larger list by criteria
- … More formula forensics
PS: It is also Hui’s birthday today. Lets wish him many more years of fun, happiness & Excel craze.
PPS: Finding his next birthday is going to be simple, we just write =DATE(2013,1,13) 😛
31 Responses to “Beautiful Budget vs. Actual chart to make your boss love you”
Would be considerably easier just to have a table with the variance shown.
On Step 3, how do you "Add budget and actual values to the chart again"?
There are a few ways to do it.
Easy:
1) Copy just the numbers from both columns (Select, CTRL+C)
2) Select the chart and hit CTRL+V to paste. This adds them to chart.
Traditional:
1) Right click on chart and go to "select data..."
2) From the dialog, click on "Add" button and add one series at a time.
One more way to accomplish it is just select the columns into chart. Press Ctrl+C and then press Ctrl+V
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work for me in Excel 2010. The "Var 1" and "Var 2" columns cannot combine two fonts to display the symbol and the figure side-by-side.
Secondly, there is no option to Click on “Value from cells” option when formatting the label options. The only options provided are Series Name, Category Name or Value.
@TheQ47... the emoji font also has normal English letters, so if you use that font, then you should be ok. I am assuming your computer doesn't have that font or hasn't been upgraded for emoji support.
Reg. Excel 2010, you can manually link each label to a cell value. Just select one label at a time (click on labels, wait a second, click on an individual label) and press = and link it to the label var 1 or var 2.
I am using excel 2010, please explain how to apply Step 12
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Hi Neeraj,
"Value from cells" option is only available in Excel 2013 or above. In older versions, you have to manually adjust the label value by linking each label seperately.
Read this please: https://chandoo.org/wp/change-data-labels-in-charts/
Sir, you are just awesome.
Your creativity has no limit.
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Hi Chandoo,
I just found your website, and really love it. It helps me a lot to be an Excel expert 😉
Currently I am facing with a problem at step 11:
Var1 Var2
D30%
A5%
B0%
B4%
B7%
C10%
C13%
D27%
I42%
Though at mapping table, I used windings, here formula uses calibra. How I can change it? I am able to change only the whole cell. In this case numbers will be Windings too.
Thanks for your help!
Hi Mariann... Welcome to Chandoo.org and thanks for your comment.
If you wanted to use symbols from wingdings and combine them with % numbers, then you need to setup two labels. One with symbol, in wingdings font and another with value in normal font. Just add the same series again to the chart, make it invisible, add labels. You may need to adjust the alignment / position of label so everything is visible.
[…] firs article explains how you can enhance your charts with symbols. You can simply insert any supported symbol into your data and charts. To some extend you can […]
You're a good person, thank you to share your knowledge with us, I will try to do in my work
Great visualization of variance. My question is that is this possible in powerbi?
How would you go about it?
HELLO, WHY CANT I FIND VALUES FOR LABELS IN EXCEL 2013
Dear chanddo sir,
What to do if we have dynamic range for Chart. How this will work. can you able to make the same thing works on dynamic range.
Sir Chandoo,
Good Day!
First, I'd like to say that I am very grateful for your work and for sharing all these things with us.
I tried to do this chart but it seems that the symbols don't work with text (abs(var%),"0%") unless we keep the Windings font style.
The problem is, it converts the text into symbol as well and you wont see the 0% anymore. I'm using Windows 7.
WOW - Segoe UI Emoji
This is the greatest discovery for me this month 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Here's my two-cents:
https://wmfexcel.com/2019/02/17/a-compelling-chart-in-three-minutes/
Sir This is awesome chart, and very easy to made because of your way to explain is very simple , everyone can do. Thank you
one problem i am facing, I hv made this chart , but when i am inserting data table to chart it is showing two times , how can i resolve this
in this chart when i am adding new month data for example first i made this chart jan to mar but when i add data for the apr month graphs updated automatically but labels are missing for that new month
Hi Renuka,
Please make sure the formulas for labels are also calculated for extra months. Just drag down the series and set label range to appropriate address.
So I am playing with the Actual chart here - but amounts are bigger than your - you have 600 as Budget - my budget is 104,000 - is there a way to shorten that I am unaware of
thank you - I LOVE YOUR SITE
Thanks for the tips and tricks on Excel. In the Planned versus Actual chart examples, you use multiple values (ex. multiple Categories in above). How can this be done when we have only 1 set of values? For example if I have only this:
Planned Actual
SOW Budget 417480 367551
How can I create a single bar chart like the one above?
Thank you Chandoo.
This one is just perfect for my Quarterly Review presentation on Operational Budget against Actual Performance for the Hospital I'm currently working with.
Just Subscribed today (10 minutes ago)
Is there a way to make the table of data into a pivot table to be able to add a slicer for the graph due to many different categories and months?
Hi, I tried to modify you template with something appropriate for me, and I found a problem. this template was modified by me started with excel 2010, then 2016 and finally 2019. Same thing - somehow appear an error - or didn't show the emoticons for positive percentage or doubled the emoticons for some rows. I suspect to be from excel. if is need it I can sand you my xlsx for study. Please help if you can.
Hi Chandoo,
Could you please check the Var Formula in Step1. You have mentioned budget-actual and when i did this i got different values but when reversed like actual-budget i got the actual value what you have demonstrated in step1.
Please share your view.
This is a great chart (budget vs. actual). However, in trying recreate it, I cannot color in the UP Down bars individually, and they all become formatted with the same color. I'm using Office 365. Look forward to the feedback.
Thanks.
Dan
pls explain in detail step 7
While in the Excel sheet you have used following formula for Var
Var = Actual - Budget
But
in the note, you have written
Var = Budget - Actual
Good Presentation and Data information.thank you so much chandoo.