Analyzing 20,000 Comments

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On 14th July, evening 4:51 PM (GMT), Chandoo.org received its 20,000th comment. 20,000!
The lucky commenter was Ishav Arora, who chimed, “Like super computers…Excel is a super calculator!!!!” in our recent poll.

It took us 8 years & 15 days since the very first comment to get here. And it took just 1 year 7 months & 23 days to add the last 10,000 comments (we had our 10,000th comment on 21st November, 2010).

Chandoo.org 20,000 Comments - Analysis

Out of curiosity, I wanted to understand more about these 20,000 comments. So I downloaded our comment database, dumped it in Excel and start analyzing.

Understanding the comment growth

Although Chandoo.org has been around since 2004 July, we grew particularly chatty since 2009, when the site started becoming popular. If you look the time from first comment to now & plot total comments by date, this is how it looks. Each 1000 is highlighted (and 5,000s are marked in green).

Comment Growth by date - Chandoo.org comments

While it took us more than 5 years to get to 5,000 comment mark, the next 5k came in less than an year. Now a days, we are adding 114 comments every week.

Here is another chart, showing how many days it took us to get each successive thousand comments.

Days taken for each 1000 comments - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

Which months & days of week are popular?

Lets look at monthly trends of comments since 2008.

Comment trend by month - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

As you can see, All the months have seen growth since 2008 (and yoy for most months).

And when it comes to weekdays, Thursdays & Fridays are most popular with Chandoo.org commenters.

Comments by weekday - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

Who comments on Chandoo.org?

Between Hui & me, we have left 2,650 odd comments on Chandoo.org. The top 10 commenters have left a whopping total of 3,695 comments to date.

Lets look at how many comments are left by first time commenters vs. existing commenters.

Existing commenter is someone who has left a comment earlier with same email id.

# of comments left by first timers vs. repeat commenters  - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

As you can see, During first 10,000 comments, existing commenters used to rule. Now a days, about 40% comments are from new commenters.

Do newsletter subscribers comment?

We have more than 36,00 odd people tuned in to our newsletter. I wanted to know how many of them leave comments.

Comments by subscribers vs. non-subscribers - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

About 45% of comments are from Newsletter commenters. About 5% of our newsletter subscribers (2,055 people) actually comment. The rest are happy to read the newsletter and learn.

That means, on average, each newsletter subscriber adds 5 comments (where as non-subscribers add only 2 comments)

How much % of comments are from Top 10 commenters?

In the early days (for first few thousand comments), Top 10 commenters used to contribute 50% of comments. Now a days, their contribution is at 20%. This is because of the huge number of commenters we are adding every month. As our community grew, we have lots of people who are helping each other.

# of comments by Top 10 commenters vs. rest - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

Top 10 commenters – then & now

Here is how top 10 commenters fared since first 5000 comments. You can see how Hui raised to Top 2 from nowhere & how we lost some of the frequent commenters over time.

Who are the top 10 commenters and how they ranked over time - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

Where do the comments go?

In early days, comments are always on the latest articles. So if a post is one month old, it is quiet. But now a days, we are adding more comments on older posts than on new ones. Thanks to Google, people are discovering older content more and asking questions (or thanking us) there.

Comments on older posts vs. latest posts - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

Which posts attract most comments

Next, lets see which posts are most chatty. But looking at # of comments alone is not enough. So I added % of page views (out of total page views on Chandoo.org between a sample period of APR-JUN 2012) and yearly break-up of comments received since 2008. As you can see, some posts are like blips, they get lots of comments and then become quiet. These are often polls, one time messages (like congratulations, happy new year etc.). The other posts consistently attract a lot of comments because they are visited by hundreds of people every week.

PS: You can click on link to see the actual post.

What do the commenters say?

I have an in house metric to see what the commenters say. It is called as Awesomeness Quotient. It is very simple to measure. I check the comment text to see if any of these words are in it.

Love, awesome, wow, !!, great, incredible, super, fantastic, blowing, perfect, excellent

If so, I give the comment 1 point. Else 0 points.

Then, I add up all these points to see how many points we have over the total number of comments.

Comment awesomeness quotient - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

As you can see, we have been hovering around 45% awesomeness quotient since inception.

PS: If I had a $ every time, someone said cool, I would have 335 cool ones.

Most frequent words in the comments

The most frequent word in our comments is Excel, used 4,650 times. The next frequent word is thank used 4,554 times. I guess that sums up what commenters say nicely.

Here is a list of 64 59 most frequent words (arranged by frequency and alphabetical order).

Note: Each sparkline has its own axis maximum. You cannot compare frequency of one word with another by looking at their heights.

Note 2: If you want this info with same axis maximum for all, click here.

Frequent words in comments - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

Comments vs. Posts

Here are 2 tag clouds, one for the content in posts & the other for comments. Can you guess which is which?

[click here for larger version]

Text in comments vs. text in posts - wordle word cloud - Chandoo.org 20,000 comment analysis

The left one is for comments.

Interesting Trivia

  • 51% of comments are made with in one week after an article is published.
  • We add 4% more in 2nd week, 4% more in next 2 weeks. That is, only 59% of comments are made with in one month of writing an article.
  • We get 70% comments between 8AM-8PM (GMT). The busiest hours for commenting are 1PM & 5PM GMT
  • Since 1st Jan 2010,
    • We had 7 quiet days (days with 0 comments).
    • And on 4 days, we received 100 or more comments
    • We got 17 comments on Christmas & New year days
  • The longest comment was 11,274 characters long by Ronald on 2nd June, 2010.
  • There are 5 comments with more than 5,000 characters long.
  • For every legitimate comment, we get 20 spam comments. So since Jan 2008, our spam filters have blocked 417,104 spam comments.

How these charts are made?

At least 5 cups of coffee, 2 hours of thinking, several hours of SQL, VBA, Pivot & SUMIFS, an hour of formatting & conditional formatting and may be 10 minutes on Wordle.net.

I am unable to share the actual Excel file with you as there is lots of sensitive data (email addresses, IPs etc.) and the file is too heavy – 30 MB at last count.

Do you comment on Chandoo.org?

If you have never left a comment, now is your time. Go ahead and lose your comment virginity. It feels awesome to share your thoughts with rest of us.

And if you are a commenter, well, you have my love & good thoughts. Go ahead and say something more. You know I am all ears to hear what you say.
Go ahead and leave a comment. Next stop, 30k.

Thank you

Thank you so much for taking time to learn from Chandoo.org. Special thanks to 7,278 of you who left a comment on Chandoo.org ever.

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40 Responses to “Looking up when the data won’t co-operate (case study)”

  1. Sumit Bansal says:

    Nice Trick.. Clever use of cell references

    Here is a formula I tried to create:
    =SUMPRODUCT(((NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH(L5,B4:H14))))*1),(B5:H15))

    It takes care of Caveat #1 (can handle text), but Caveat #2 remains.

  2. PeterB says:

    In situations like this, I will often use VBA to restructure the data (2 columns: dates and values) on to a new worksheet. I can then use this 'clean' source for data analysis (formula or pivot table).

    =SUMPRODUCT(((NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH(L5,B4:H14))))*1),(B5:H15)) and complex formulae in general are all very well but when you come back to them in a few weeks / months time, it is not at all easy to see what they do and what the limitations are.

  3. Somendra Misra says:

    Hi Chandoo,

    I had used this type of cell ref. various times while calculating average.
    But for the situation here try below formula . Note this is an array formula and must be confirmed with Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

    =SMALL(IF(MMULT((L5=B4:H14)*IF(ISNUMBER(B5:H15),B5:H15),{1;1;1;1;1;1;1}),MMULT((L5=B4:H14)*IF(ISNUMBER(B5:H15),B5:H15),{1;1;1;1;1;1;1})),1)

    Regards,

  4. Somendra Misra says:

    Hi, I think Using SEARCH in here will create a problem say there is a text like SUN and another text SUNLIGHT both result will be added by SUMPRODUCT.

    Regards,

  5. Elias says:

    Array option.

    =SUM(IF(MOD(ROW(B4:B14),2)=MOD(ROW(B4),2),IF(B4:H14=L5,B5:H15)))

    Regards

    • Michael (Micky) Avidan says:

      @Elias,
      Nice approach.
      Although not requested - the formula I suggested closes all possibilities.
      Criteria: _____ Value to retrieve:
      Date__________ Numeric
      Date__________Textual
      Textual________Numeric
      Textual________Textual
      While your formula copes with only the 3 first combinations.
      Michael (Micky) Avidan
      “Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
      “Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
      ISRAEL

      • Elias says:

        @Michael,

        Sorry but I don’t understand your point. I believe the challenge was to return the summary of a given date. What is your really volatile formula doing that mine is not?

        Regards

        • Michael (Micky) Avidan says:

          @Elias,
          I didn't say that the challenge differs from what you just mentioned/aimed to nor that your formula doesn't provide the requested result.
          Please read my previous comment again and focus on the last combination (TEXT / TEXT).
          I, myself, always try to provide a global Formula that is capable to handle all sorts of data.
          Michael (Micky) Avidan
          “Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
          “Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
          ISRAEL

          • Elias says:

            @Michael,
            I see your point, but you are missing the below points if you are trying to cover all sorts of data.

            What happened if the lookup value does not exist?

            Do you want the first, second, summary, concatenation of the values if the look value is repeated?

            See they are too many possibilities to be cover with just one formula.

            Regards

  6. Michael (Micky) Avidan says:

    1) The range: B4:H15 was named: RNG.
    2) The following Array Formula was "retrieved from my sleeve" and I hope it can be shorten.
    3) The formula seems to take care of BOTH(!) caveats.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    =OFFSET(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(SMALL(IF(RNG=L5,ROW(RNG),""),1),MOD(SMALL(IF(RNG=L5,(ROW(RNG))+COLUMN(RNG)/10),1),1)*10)),1,)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Michael (Micky) Avidan
    “Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
    “Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
    ISRAEL

    • Elias says:

      @Michael,

      Check what happened with your result if you type 41927 in D5.

      Regards

      • Michael (Micky) Avidan says:

        Correct. Didn't predict that.
        Will find time to work something out.
        Michael (Micky) Avidan
        “Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
        “Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
        ISRAEL

      • Michael (Micky) Avidan says:

        @Elias,
        Let's hope the following Array Formula "closes all open doors".
        Again - it has nothing to do with your formula which works fine as long as the 3 first mentioned combinations are concerned.
        -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        =INDEX(RNG,LARGE(IF(RNG=L5,MOD(ROW(RNG)-1,2)*(ROW(RNG)),""),1)-2,(MOD(SMALL(IF(RNG=L5,(ROW(RNG))+COLUMN(RNG)/10),1),1)*10)-1)
        -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Michael (Micky) Avidan
        “Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
        “Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
        ISRAEL

        • Elias says:

          Ok, if you insist. The following will cover all the scenarios you listed. However, I’ll never recommend/use such of formula.

          Defined names:
          rDat = $B$4:$H$15
          rRow =ROW(rDat)-MIN(ROW(rDat))+1
          rCol =COLUMN(rDat)-MIN(COLUMN(rDat))+1
          rInc =MOD(rRow,2)=MOD(MIN(rRow),2)

          L6=INDEX(rDat,MAX(IF(rInc,IF(rDat=L5,rRow)))+1,MAX(IF(rInc,IF(rDat=L5,rCol))))
          Array Enter

          Regards

        • Frank says:

          @Michael,

          unfortunately, your array formula still seems to return wrong results (eg 3-Nov).

  7. Magda says:

    If data are organized like in the example, ie. looks like a calendar, the INDEX formula seems quite simple:
    =INDEX($B$4:$H$15,ROUNDDOWN((L5-B4)/7,0)*2+2,MOD((L5-B4),7)+1)

    • Marc says:

      Yours is effectively the same as what I just came up with, and I believe this is the optimal answer to this particular problem.

      My solution, before I saw yours:
      =OFFSET(B5,QUOTIENT(L5-B4,7)*2,MOD(L5-B4,7))

      OFFSET will work for an arbitrary list size, but INDEX might be easier to read.
      QUOTIENT does the round and division in a single step.

  8. XOR LX says:

    If there's an improvement over Elias's solution then I for one can't see it.

    Perhaps a non-CSE version which would also mean that only two references (B4:H14 and B5:H15), as opposed to three (B4, B4:B14 and and B5:H15), would require manually amending should the data range change, i.e.:

    =SUMPRODUCT((ISEVEN(ROW(B4:H14)-MIN(ROW(B4:H14)))*(B4:H14=L5)*B5:H15))

    I suppose we could make it a single, uniform range reference:

    =SUMPRODUCT((ISEVEN(ROW(B4:H14)-MIN(ROW(B4:H14)))*(B4:H14=L5)*OFFSET(B4:H14,1,,,)))

    which might be more appropriate should we e.g. wish to use a Defined Name for our range, i.e.:

    =SUMPRODUCT((ISEVEN(ROW(Rng)-MIN(ROW(Rng)))*(Rng=L5)*OFFSET(Rng,1,,,)))

    though whether that compensates for the extra, volatile function call is something to be debated.

    Regards

  9. Mahir says:

    I have tried something and then my Excel workbooks got shut down. Maybe that was too much?

    Anyway here is what I've tried:

    =SUMPRODUCT(INDEX(B5:H15;IF(ISEVEN(ROW(B5:H15));ROW(B5:B15)-ROW(B5)+1);{1\2\3\4\5\6\7}))

    Guess that was wrong? Would this approach work anyway?

    Looking forward to learn something from you Excel Experts.

  10. XOR LX says:

    @Michael Avidan

    As it stands that is not a very rigorous construction.

    You say "I, myself, always try to provide a global Formula that is capable to handle all sorts of data", which is a wonderful philosophy, but isn't it at least as important that we ensure that our formulas are independent of the row and column references of the data range in question, so that, should that range change, we do not have to re-work our solution?

    What happens with your formula, for example, if RNG is instead re-located one row down, from B4:H15 to B5:H16?

    When a formula is reliant upon the addition/subtraction of certain constants within the formula, which themselves are necessarily dependent upon the specific rows/columns in which the data lies at any given time (e.g. the -1 in MOD(ROW(RNG)-1,2)), then that formula is not a very flexible one.

    Hence the reason for my choice of a slightly longer construction:

    ROW(B4:H14)-MIN(ROW(B4:H14))

    which ensures that this part of the calculation is not dependent upon the precise location of the data range within the worksheet, and so will give correct answers even if that range is re-located.

    Regards

  11. Haz says:

    {=OFFSET(B4,MAX((B4:H15=L5)*ISODD(ROW(1:12))*ROW(1:12)),MAX((B4:H15=L5)*ISODD(ROW(1:12))*COLUMN(A:G))-1)}

    • Haz says:

      Non-array formula:
      =INDEX(B4:H15,SUMPRODUCT((B4:H15=L5)*(ROW(B4:H15)-ROW(B4)+1)*ISODD(ROW(B4:H15)-ROW(B4)+1))+1,SUMPRODUCT((B4:H15=L5)*(COLUMN(B4:H15)-COLUMN(B4)+1)*ISODD(ROW(B4:H15)-ROW(B4)+1)))

      Using one range (B4:H15), one reference (B4), one lookup value (L5) and no INDIRECT or OFFSET.

  12. MF says:

    My trial with defined names:

    DateRange
    =$B$4:$H$4,$B$6:$H$6,$B$8:$H$8,$B$10:$H$10,$B$12:$H$12,$B$14:$H$14

    Position
    =RANK('lookup problem'!$L$5,DateRange,1)

    L6
    =OFFSET(B4,ROUNDUP(Position/7,0)*2- 1,IF(MOD(Position,7)=0,6,MOD(Position,7)-1))

  13. Jeff Weir says:

    I'd probably just run with something like:
    =SUMPRODUCT((B4:H14=L5)*(MOD(ROW(B4:H14),2)=MOD(ROW(B4),2))*B5:H15)
    ...which is basically the same as Elias' but without the IFs

  14. Bermir says:

    The opposite of elegant but it works...

    =INDEX(B4:H15,IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:B14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,C4:C14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,D4:D14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,E4:E14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,F4:F14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,G4:G14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,H4:H14,0),0)+1,IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:H4,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B6:H6,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B8:H8,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B10:H10,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B12:H12,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B14:H14,0),0))

    • Bermir says:

      =INDEX(B4:H15,
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:B14,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,C4:C14,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,D4:D14,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,E4:E14,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,F4:F14,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,G4:G14,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,H4:H14,0),0)+1,
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:H4,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B6:H6,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B8:H8,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B10:H10,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B12:H12,0),0)+
      IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B14:H14,0),0))

  15. HF says:

    Named Range
    rownum = SUMPRODUCT(('lookup problem'!$B$4:$H$14='lookup problem'!$L$5)*ROW('lookup problem'!$B$4:$H$14)*ISEVEN(ROW('lookup problem'!$B$4:$H$14)))

    Formula
    =OFFSET($A$1,rownum,MATCH(L5,INDIRECT("$B"&rownum&":$H"&rownum),0))

  16. Venky says:

    How about SUM(IF(B4:H14=L5,B5:H15)) with array..it should work

  17. xen says:

    Sorry, Chandoo, you can't find stuff this way in every possible scenario.
    What if 2014-10-01 sales would equal 41.927 ? Which is serial number for 2014-10-15 ? SUMIF would fail to retrive correct answer. And your example data suggest that such number is possible in your table.

    It's better not to search through dates and numbers at the same time.

    If I'd solve a problem like this, it'd reformat table first so I get one column with dates and the other with numbers.

    In this case, formula to form date column would be:
    =INDIRECT(ADDRESS((INT((ROW()-4)/COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+1)*2+2;MOD(ROW()-4;COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+2;4;1))
    and numbers would be the same formula with sight adjustment (+3 instead of +2 at the end of first argument):
    =INDIRECT(ADDRESS((INT((ROW()-4)/COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+1)*2+3;MOD(ROW()-4;COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+2;4;1))

    And now you got two columns that you can safely use for searching!

  18. xen says:

    Oops, sorry, you actually mentioned that it doesn't work if number=date! I missed that part 🙁

  19. Vad says:

    ={OFFSET(A1,SUM((B4:H14=L5)*ROW((B4:H14))),SUM((B4:H14=L5)*COLUMN((B4:H14)))-1)}

    Works for all data... the solution I got for indirect looks little lengthy

  20. Rajesh says:

    I want to count last 20 records of a person, whose marks is greater than 2 and grade "manager". ....

    Assume A1 has got names (James, John...etc...)
    A2 "Manager"

    A3 "2"

    Someone please reply

  21. Rajesh says:

    I want to count last 20 records of a person, whose marks is greater than "2" and grade "Manager"

    Assume A1 "geroge" A2 "Michael" A3 "George" etc...name can found anywhere in the rows

    B1 "Manager" B2" clerk"

    C1 "2" C2, "4"

    please reply

  22. Marc says:

    Simplest I can come up with. No limitations for either 1 or 2. This does assume dates are an ordered list with 7 per row, and 2 rows per set. Assuming this is always true this will work for an arbitrary long list of dates.

    =OFFSET(B5,QUOTIENT($L$5-$B$4,7)*2,MOD($L$5-$B$4,7))

    • Michael (Micky) Avidan says:

      @Marc,
      Nice approach - however, as there are no "Negative Dates" - try:
      =OFFSET(B5,INT(L5-B4)/7)*2,MOD(L5-B4,7))
      ——————————————————————————-
      Michael (Micky) Avidan
      “Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
      “Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
      ISRAEL

  23. Vijaykumar Shetye says:

    =OFFSET(B4,ROUNDUP((L5-41911+1)/7,0)*2-1,MOD(L5-41911,7))

    B4 has been used as reference cell for OFFSET().

    FOR ROWS:
    ROUNDUP(....,0) gives the integer value of a division. In case of presence of a remainder, ROUNDUP will add 1 to the Quotient.
    As opposed to ROUNDUP(), the INT() or QUOTIENT() functions eliminate the remainder.

    41911 = 01-Sept-2014, the first date in the data.

    *2 has been used because there are 2 columns per set of data.

    /7 has been used because there are 7 columns per set of data.

    For columns
    MOD(L5-41911,7))

    Vijaykumar Shetye,
    Panaji, Goa, India

  24. Awais says:

    This is how i did it

    {=INDEX(B4:H15, MAX((L5=B4:H15)*ROW(B4:H15))-2, MAX((L5=B4:H15)*COLUMN(B4:H15))-1 )}

  25. Paul says:

    Here's my solution:

    =INDEX(B4:H15,MATCH(1,MMULT(--(B4:H15=L5),TRANSPOSE(COLUMN(B4:H15)^0)),0)+1,MATCH(1,MMULT(TRANSPOSE(--(B4:H15=L5)),ROW(B4:H15)^0),0))

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