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:
26 Responses to “Get busy this weekend, with OR XOR AND [Excel Homework]”
first solution for AND
The two numbers are in A1 and B1
= SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE (A1+B1*9*9, 9, 1), 8, 0)
regards
Stef@n
next solution for OR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;1)
regards
Stef@n
last solution for XOR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;0)
regards
Stef@n
Or you could make use of the VBA logical operators!
Define the following as custom functions
Public Function BITXOR(x As Long, y As Long)
BITXOR = x Xor y
End Function
Public Function BITAND(x As Long, y As Long)
BITAND = x And y
End Function
Public Function BITOR(x As Long, y As Long)
BITOR = x Or y
End Function
and then use them such:
A B =BITOR(A,B) =BITAND(A,B) =BITXOR(A,B)
0101 0100 0101 0100 0001
an another solution for AND
=1*SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;1;0);2;1)
note:
the binary numbers are in A1 and A2 !
regards
Stef@n
I was obviously playing hooky at the beach during the bit-wise math lesson – you lost me at “Understanding bit-wise operations” 🙂
After looking at the above solutions, I find my solution silly, but still:
For the following formulae,
Row 1: headers,
Row 2: OR
Row 3: AND
Row 4: XOR
Column 1: Input 1
Column 2: Input 2
Column 3: Result
OR
{=SUM(IF(MID(A2,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(A2),1)),1)+MID(B2,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B2),1)),1)>0,1,0)*10^(LEN(A2)-ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B2),1))))}
AND
{=SUM(IF(MID(A3,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(A3),1)),1)+MID(B3,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B3),1)),1)=2,1,0)*10^(LEN(A3)-ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B3),1))))}
XOR
{=SUM(IF(MID(A4,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(A4),1)),1)+MID(B4,ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B4),1)),1)=1,1,0)*10^(LEN(A4)-ROW(OFFSET($A$1,0,0,LEN(B4),1))))}
@Anup
Please don't consider your solution silly
Firstly, You are the 3rd person to submit an answer
Secondly, The best formula/function is the one that you know and understand.
I think I have a very tedious solution, which people won't have the patience to do except in small numbers.
I used the same problem setup as "Anup Agarwal"
AND =IF(AND(MID(B2,1,1)="1",MID(C2,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,2,1)="1",MID(C2,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,3,1)="1",MID(C2,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,4,1)="1",MID(C2,4,1)="1"),1,0)
OR =IF(OR(MID(B3,1,1)="1",MID(C3,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,2,1)="1",MID(C3,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,3,1)="1",MID(C3,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,4,1)="1",MID(C3,4,1)="1"),1,0)
=IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,1,1)="1",MID(C4,1,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,1,1)="0",MID(C4,1,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,2,1)="1",MID(C4,2,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,2,1)="0",MID(C4,2,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,3,1)="1",MID(C4,3,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,3,1)="0",MID(C4,3,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,4,1)="1",MID(C4,4,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,4,1)="0",MID(C4,4,1)="1")),1,0)
Sorry my last post was totally messed up
AND
=IF(AND(MID(B2,1,1)="1",MID(C2,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,2,1)="1",MID(C2,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,3,1)="1",MID(C2,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(AND(MID(B2,4,1)="1",MID(C2,4,1)="1"),1,0)
OR
=IF(OR(MID(B3,1,1)="1",MID(C3,1,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,2,1)="1",MID(C3,2,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,3,1)="1",MID(C3,3,1)="1"),1,0)&IF(OR(MID(B3,4,1)="1",MID(C3,4,1)="1"),1,0)
XOR
=IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,1,1)="1",MID(C4,1,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,1,1)="0",MID(C4,1,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,2,1)="1",MID(C4,2,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,2,1)="0",MID(C4,2,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,3,1)="1",MID(C4,3,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,3,1)="0",MID(C4,3,1)="1")),1,0)&IF(OR(AND(MID(B4,4,1)="1",MID(C4,4,1)="0"),AND(MID(B4,4,1)="0",MID(C4,4,1)="1")),1,0)
@stefan,
I just couldn't get your solutions to work.
01010101010 + 01010101110 = 02020210120
what am i doing wrong?
@anup
...I got yours to work!
@Stephen - I get the same, but Stef@an's second solution for AND does work (at least for the test cases I used)
@ Stephen / Rich
yes , you are right ! - only this works:
OR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;1)
XOR
=1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;2;0)
AND
=1*SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2;1;0);2;1)
@Stef@n - You're answer is really smart, I never knew about the substitute function before. Great Work!
Thx Michael 🙂
yes - it is simply easy 😉
if you add 1 and 1 - excel calculate 2
and then you have to substitute the 2 - new = 0 respectively 1
Here is a good resource for people wanting to learn binary and hexadecimal.
http://justwebware.com/bitwise/bitwise.html
Three that weren't asked for:
NOT
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,0,3),1,0),3,1)
EQV
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,0,3),2,3),1,0),3,1)
IMP
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,0,3),1,0),3,1),0,1),2,0)
(was using Daniel Ferry's bitwise file to verify against)
@ Kyle
Not only takes one parameter and inverts 0 -1 and 1-0
Took out the +A2
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,0,3),1,0),3,1)
Great solutions!
I'll add two:
NAND =1*SUBSTITUTE (A1+A2,2,0)
NOR=1*SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE (SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,0,2),1,0),2,1)
This will work for binary numbers of any size (although the text format mask will have to have as many zeroes as there are digits in the longest addend)
Assume binary #s are in C35 & C36, then add and format as text in C37:
=TEXT(C36+C35,"000000000000")
-sum- = 101112211112
AND - SUBSTITUTE 0s for 1s in -sum-, then sub 1s for 2s
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(C37,"1","0"),"2","1")
OR - sub 1s for 2s in -sum-
=SUBSTITUTE(C37,"2","1")
XOR - sub 0s for 2s in -sum-
=SUBSTITUTE(C37,"2","0")
Just wandered by:
AND:
=SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,1,0)/2
Clever, Shane. I like that.
[…] post http://www.excelhero.com/blog/2010/01/5-and-3-is-1.html for examples using Sumproduct, and http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/07/29/bitwise-operations-in-excel/ for examples using Text […]
Hi Chandoo,
I am not (yet) really into bitwise calculation, but I am looking for a way to speed up my vba calculation with very big numbers. Would is ben convenient to use bitwise notation for this?
Best regards,
Ronald (the Netherlands)
p.s. love your country!
@Ronald
I'd suggest asking this in the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Attach a sample file with an example of some data and describe what you want to achieve