Recently, I had a peculiar problem. I have a list of zip codes and I wanted to find out nearest zip codes for each of them.
Now, If I wanted to find out near by zip codes for one area, I could go and search in Google. But, how to do it for dozens of them?
Today, lets understand how you can use Excel (that’s right) to do this automatically. We will be using Excel 2013 for this.
A little background – Excel 2013 Web Formulas
In Excel 2013, Microsoft has introduced 3 powerful new formulas. These will help you fetch & parse XML / HTML data from web. The formulas are,
- ENCODEURL: to encode web URLs (replaces special characters in URLs with % codes like space becomes %20, / becomes %2F etc…)
- WEBSERVICE: connects to a webservice / website and fetches response as XML / HTML.
- FILTERXML: extracts a portion of XML/HTML using specified XPATH.
Using these formulas and web services, we can quickly fetch near by zipcodes for any input value.
Step 1: Find a web-service that can tell us near by zipcodes
I am sure there are many web sites that can offer a service like this. After searching a while, I came across a website called as geonames.org which has many webservices around address / zip code search. The service I have used is,
This service is available as XML & JSON. Since Excel 2013 formulas only process XML data, I went with XML service. The service API url is this:
http://api.geonames.org/findNearbyPostalCodes?postalcode=ZIPCODE&country=US&radius=15&username=UNAME&maxRows=10
ZIPCODE is where you enter the zipcode from which you want to find nearby zipcodes
UNAME is where you enter your user name for geonames.org. Click here to register with geonames.org.
Step 2: List all original Zip codes in a column
This is simple. Just paste all original zip codes in a column.
Step 3: Write WEBSERVICE Formula
First enter the API URL in a cell like B1. (Make sure your user name is included in the service url)
Now write WEBSERVICE formulas so that we can fetch XML listing for each of the zip codes. Assuming zip codes are in A3:Ax, in adjacent column write =WEBSERVICE(SUBSTITUTE($B$1,”ZIPCODE”,A3))
And drag it down to fill down the formula for all zipcodes.
Step 4: Write FILTERXML formulas
Now that we have full XML corresponding to each zip code, we need to parse this XML to extract the nearby zip code numbers. The original XML looks something like this:
To extract the zipcodes alone, we need to use FILTERXML formula.
FILTERXML takes 2 inputs – XML text, Xpath.
XML text is what WEBSERVICE has generated.
XPATH will tell Excel, which portion of XML to extract.
What is XPATH?
If you imagine XML as a tree, then XPATH is the language you use to tell how to navigate to a certain node in that tree. Since XPATH is a complex world, I think explaining all the syntax & nuances can be hard. So I will leave you with 2 useful links.
So what is the XPATH for nearby zip code.
As you can see in above image, the response from geonames has 10 code nodes, each containing one zip code (in the postalcode child node).
If we write =FILTERXML(b3,”/geonames/code/postalcode”) we will get all the postalcodes as an array.
Since Excel cannot show arrays in cells, it will show one of the 10 values.
So we need 10 cells to show these 10 zip codes. Once you have 10 cells, you can use either INDEX formula or alternative XPATH syntax (/geonames/code[1]/postalcode for first code, ../code[2]/.. for second code etc.) to extract all the 10 zip codes.
Things to keep in mind
Web formulas (WEBSERVICE formula to be specific) can be really slow depending on your net connection and webserver speeds. Since for most data, we do not need a live connection once the data is fetched, it would be good idea to replace WEBSERVICE formula with results once you have the XML.
Also, working with XPATH can be frustrating if the source XML is not correctly formatted or you are not familiar with right XPATH commands. In such cases, use SUBSTITUE or Text formulas to strip away un-necessary portions of webservice text before feeding it to FILTERXML.
Last but not least, Web formulas are compatible only with Excel 2013 or above. So you need to replace all formulas with results when emailing the workbooks to colleagues who are using older versions of Excel.
Download Example File – Finding Nearby Zipcodes
Click here to download the Excel workbook. Play with it to understand how the formulas are working. Please note that this file is protected as I do not want you to use my username for geonames.org.
Do you use Excel Web formulas?
Although Excel 2013 includes only 3 web formulas, they can let us do several interesting things. I am playing with them often to see what additional uses we can put them to.
What about you? Have you used Excel 2013 web formulas? What is your experience like? Please share using comments.
More on using Excel to get data from web
If you often need data from external websites for your Excel analysis work, check out below articles too:
25 Responses to “Display Alerts in Dashboards to Grab User Attention [Quick Tip]”
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which could also provide another piece of information.
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which can also provide another piece of information.
For Excel 2007, your formula should do the same as the Excel 2003 version, so that non-alert rows are blank - if they are 0, the unnecessary green icon will show
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !!! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
The Complete formula [Don't Know how it got cut ]
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
PS : Use in single line [I have split it to avoid cuts 😉 ]
Hi Chandoo..
why it is not displaying the complete formula..
anyways here is the balance
"=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153), IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155), IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))"
@Rohit... your formulas are fine. Just that the width of comment area is fixed and hence my website is cropping it at 640pixels. I just edited your formula and added few white spaces so that it wraps nicely.
Very good idea btw.. kudos!
Hi,
Maybe just go for 'bold' ; 'underline' or 'italic' to draw the users attention? Those methods (if those can be called methods) are used cross media type (books, journals, blogs, billboards, ...) to guide the readers eye to valuable information.
Just a basic thought
@Tom.. good idea..
[...] has a very nice writeup on how to add such alerts to dashboard sheets. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Divide your data set into workbooksHow to enforce [...]
Hi Chandoo,
You certainly grabbed my attention! although I wasn't sure what my brother (Suresh) and cousin (Shyam) were doing right, and I was doing wrong? 😉
I love your blog btw - Many thanks for all your hard work in unravelling the secrets and mysteries of Excel!
Best regards
Ramesh
I thought I saw an advertisment for a book about learning excel called excel himalaya or something. It cost about 35.00 us money but seemed to have the things I need to have my admin assistant to start to use. I was hoping to start with this book and then send her to school if she shows some interest and aptitude. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks
Great web site and information!!!!
@Jeff... checkout http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/08/25/excel-everest-review/
thanks, your website is awesome!
[...] Alerts to highlight focus areas [...]
[...] There are lots of numbers in this dashboard. I would suggest adding few more visualizations like showing indicators or applying conditional formatting or replacing a table with a chart. This would reduce the [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo
Firstly thanks for all the cool tips on how to use Excel better.
I am new to the site and have a question which you may be able to assist with but dont know if these comment boxes are the best way of asking ?
I am looking at assets and trying to calculate the depreciation total by taking a year (say 2010) adding the expected life of the asset (say 10 years) then comparing that to a future date (say 2015) using an IF statement. The calculation in normal is - IF((year in col B (2010) plus 10years)>year 2015, add a years depreciation, otherwise leave blank). The converted date value does not appear able to add 10 years in order to compare it to 2015. Am I missing something ?
I use the “IF” Statement in conjunction with Conditional Formatting in MS Excel to give verbiage to alert one of a required action, dependant on a review date. This makes a visual stimulus, plus it clues one as to what the conditional format is trying to warn you about and what follow-up actions are required.
Wow, I'm really impressed with dashboards. I had no idea this stuff was even possible with excel. I'd like to offer an interactive dashboard to my customers, showing analytics of their data. I have a .pdf file with the datapoints. I'd like them to enter the data on my website, and be able to see their data. Is something like that possible.
Hi Chandoo,
I've recently purchased the package for both templates.
In the portfolio dashboard,under the calculations worksheet, I'm attempting to change the date range in the gantt chart to show only the range of the project that starts in late 2013. How do I do this?
Thanks
Adam
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo,
I'm new at Excel Dashboard and found your blog really useful and helpful! It's very nice of you that you dedicate your time to do this.
Could you please explain how can I use Alerts based on dates on a Dashboar?
For example, if a target date is coming closer to the actual date, the alert is yellow or red.
I'd really appreciate some help!
Thank you
Where can I download the file Excel of Averall Statistics ???
Thanks a lot.