Using Arrays To Update Table Columns
We are creating a lot of reports everyday and these reports contain a lot of data which is presented in various styles as per the requirements. The data that allows us to create the reports is usually referred as raw data and in most of the cases is stored in hidden sheets.
I am sure you all are aware of a feature called as Excel Tables OR Structured References in Excel. Excel Tables is (in my opinion) the best way to store your raw data and put Formulas in the columns where necessary, this way you eliminate the need of a Cell Based Reference formula (example =SUM(B4:B50) and replace them with =sum(YourTable[YourTableColumnName]).
Another good feature of the Excel Tables is you just need to put the formula in 1 cell and it is replicated for that column by Excel.
Sometimes these formulas take a lot of time to calculate when we have really huge data points. In this scenarios it is better to have hard-coded values instead of the formulas to gain on speed.
In this post we will learn about how we can make use of Array’s to quickly populate the excel columns with the desired results before publishing our reports and other documents.
Here is a demo of what I mean:
Below is the code that allows us to add a new column to our data table and then taking input from the Date Time column provides us with the Week Of column.
Sub UpdateWeek()
Dim myarray As Variant
Dim theRange As Range, startCellRow As Long
Dim tempStr As String
Dim myNewCol As ListColumn
‘If our column already exists then delete it
On Error Resume Next
Worksheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“WeekOf”).Delete
‘adding our new column
Set myNewCol = Worksheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns.Add
myNewCol.Name = “WeekOf”
‘Selecting the first cell of the column that contains our dates
Worksheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“Date Time”).Range.Cells(2).Select
‘building a temporary Range address, this will be used to upload the entire range into the array
tempStr = ActiveCell.Address
startCellRow = ActiveCell.Row
tempStr = tempStr & “:$” & Mid(Sheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“Date Time”).Range.Cells(2).Address, 2, 1) & “$”
tempStr = tempStr & LastRowInOneColumn(Mid(Sheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“Date Time”).Range.Cells(2).Address, 2, 1))
‘loading the range into the array
myarray = Range(tempStr).Value
‘Looping through the array and converting each element to the relevant Week format
For i = LBound(myarray) To UBound(myarray)
myarray(i, 1) = Format(myarray(i, 1) – Weekday(myarray(i, 1), vbMonday) + 1, “ddd dd-mmm”)
Next
‘Setting the range address for our output column
Set theRange = Range(Cells(startCellRow, Worksheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“WeekOf”).Range.Column), Cells(UBound(myarray) + (startCellRow – 1), Worksheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“WeekOf”).Range.Column))
‘storing the values from our array to the WeekOf Column
theRange.Value = myarray
End Sub
Let’s Understand the code
We first delete the column if it is already existing to make sure we always get the new values as output. This is done by the below line of code.
Worksheets("Data").ListObjects("cs").ListColumns("WeekOf").Delete
Once we have deleted the column, we add it again as a blank column and change the name to “Week Of”.
Set myNewCol = Worksheets("Data").ListObjects("cs").ListColumns.Add
myNewCol.Name = "WeekOf"
After this we need to select the first cell of the column that contains the Date Time.
Worksheets("Data").ListObjects("cs").ListColumns("Date Time").Range.Cells(2).Select
Once we have selected the first cell of you Date Time column we then make use of the LastRowInOneColumn function to get the last row and create a range address. We use this range address to assign all the values contained in the Date Time column to an array.
tempStr = ActiveCell.Address
startCellRow = ActiveCell.Row
tempStr = tempStr & ":$" & Mid(Sheets("Data").ListObjects("cs").ListColumns("Date Time").Range.Cells(2).Address, 2, 1) & "$"
tempStr = tempStr & LastRowInOneColumn(Mid(Sheets(“Data”).ListObjects(“cs”).ListColumns(“Date Time”).Range.Cells(2).Address, 2, 1))
‘loading the range into the array
myarray = Range(tempStr).Value
Once we have loaded all the Date Time values into an array, we do a simple For loop to change the value in the array to the relevant Week Of
For i = LBound(myarray) To UBound(myarray)
myarray(i, 1) = Format(myarray(i, 1) - Weekday(myarray(i, 1), vbMonday) + 1, "ddd dd-mmm")
Next
We perform this operation on the same element and store the modified value in itself.
Once we have all these done, we need to define the Output range, that is where we need to the Week Of values to be stored. This is done by using the Range and Cell functions.
Set theRange = Range(Cells(startCellRow, Worksheets("Data").ListObjects("cs").ListColumns("WeekOf").Range.Column), Cells(UBound(myarray) + (startCellRow - 1), Worksheets("Data").ListObjects("cs").ListColumns("WeekOf").Range.Column))
'storing the values from our array to the WeekOf Column
theRange.Value = myarray
And lastly we assign all the values stored in the array to the new range address we have create above.
Download Demo File
Click here to download the demo file & use it to understand this technique.
What about you? Do you use them often? Please share your experiences, techniques & ideas using comments.
If you are new to VBA, Excel macros, go thru these links to learn more.
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About Vijay
Vijay (many of you know him from VBA Classes), joined chandoo.org full-time this February. He will be writing more often on using VBA, data analysis on our blog. Also, Vijay will be helping us with consulting & training programs. You can email Vijay at sharma.vijay1 @ gmail.com. If you like this post, say thanks to Vijay.
37 Responses to “Quickly Change Formulas Using Find / Replace”
Chandoo,
this is a really cool stuff what I use quite often. In addtion this method also could be a good choice to switch the reference type of the formulas from relative to absolute or vice versa. (just simply replace the $ in the same way).
Andras
@Andras: you are right, we can use find / replace to change references, reference types etc. Now, only if they had regex in find/ replace, we could so much more 🙂
@Tony Rose: Thank you. This is very useful and powerful feature. I even use it for cleaning up data. While formulas are good, they are not the solution for every problem. Often when I need more powerful cleanup / changing, I copy paste the stuff to text editors like notepad++ and then use their find/replace to do the dirty task.
What if i have to change the formula from ='Analysis'!C1 to 'Analysis 1'!C1?
I tried doing it using Find /Replace but could't. Encountered some errors.
And is there a way to change this using VBA???
Hi,
Did you ever get a reply to this?
Thanks
Ollie
to make your life easier, suggest you to avoid (Space) in worksheet names whenever possible. Consider (underscore) instead.
As the first formula wouldn't have the single apostrophes (since there's no space) need to include that in replace. So, search for:
Analysis
and replace with:
'Analysis 1'
This could be the most useful tips I've seen in a while. I use this all the time and can instantly change 400 formulas with a few clicks. Like so many other functions in Excel, I don't know what I would do without this one.
Keep 'em coming!
[...] on formulas: 5 areas where mouse kicks keyboard’s butt | Edit formulas in bulk using Find / Replace | Excel Formulas Online [...]
THANKS BRO
You, sir, are a god among men...
This is really cool. Your just save me hours of work. Thanks.
Thanks so much for this fix! It saved me tons of work. I'm muddling my way through and this really helped!
Oh... My... God!
This tip just saved me about 2 hours every month! I can't believe how easy it is to use. Now, can somebody tell me who I should call to get a refund for the previous 100 hours I spent manually changing formulas cell by cell?
Thanks so much!
THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
You saved me hours, I had a sheet that has more than 500 formulas, and i needed to replace the year in all of them, you saved me hours
Awesome info on replacing cell addresses in formulas. I have never heard about Ctrl+` before. Thank you!
I have something inside a formula like:
=sum(A1, A2*10) all over I now need to get rid of the *10 {=sume(A1, A2)} I thought to use the find replace trick above but with a blank in the replace but it then outputs just zeros. I thought I could trick it by doing *1 but then it just turns into =*1) with none of my references. Does anyone have an idea how to do this?
The Ctrl+ trick is cool.
@T
Instead of replacing with a blank try replacing
*10)
with
)
Thank you! This literally will save me hours and hours of time, and that's without losing my sanity in the process!
I have Sheet(1), Sheet(2), Sheet(3), etc ... Sheet(100).
Then there's a summary tab where I want to recap information on all those different sheets. Is there anyway to create a formula on the Summary tab to get ='Sheet(1)'!B$29 copied down for all 100 sheets without having to change each sheet # within the formula by hand?
@Brigitte
If you have a list of the sheet names in A2:A100
In B2: =INDIRECT("'"&A2&"'!$B$29")
Copy down
or if you don't have a list of the sheets names you can make it up on the fly
=INDIRECT("'sheet("&ROW()-1&")'!$B$29")
Copy down
Thanks for the suggestion. However, I copied your formula right back to my file and it didn't work. So I did it another way. I put the tab/cell reference in one cell and then did an =INDIRECT() to capture that information.
K2="'Sheet("&L2&")'!B$29" which has a value of 'Sheet(1)'!B$29
B2=INDIRECT(K2) which now has a value of 40 (contents on Sheet(1).
Thank you!!!!
Thank you ..
Hi, Out of all the formulae, I wish to replace the formula which has generated 0 value with blank space? I am unable to do it with find and replace function,
Please suggest.
Thanks.
Chandoo, you literally just saved me about 2 hours of work. I had a document with a daily report in two formats. The second formate just linked to all the appropriate cells in the other format (different sheets). This was 180 references that needed to be changed and I had to make this for a 4 week period (aka 28 different sheets at 180 references to change per sheet).
Thanks so much.
I have tried this way and without using the Ctrl-` formula view
Either way, I am trying to do something simple, but it won't let me.
I have a bunch of cells with a simple math formula like
=-(0.5*20)
various values in each cell, multiplied by 20
I simply want to change the multiplier globally from 20 to 25. But when I tell it to find *20 and replace it with *25, it replaces the entire cell contents with *25, rather than just replacing the *20 portion of the cell contents.
Can anyone assist with this? Seems so simple, but Excel isn't letting me do it.
Search/Replace 20 or 20) with a cell Reference eg A1 or A1)
Then put the value 25 in A1
By using a * in the search it replaces all the text
how to find a specific cell's value in a column & replace replace it with another cell value i actually need a method to replace a data in ca column and replace with the value i have in a specific cell can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range to where i need to find and the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with the find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location.
please help.
how to find a specific cell’s value in a column & replace replace it with another cell's value.
i actually need a method to find a specific cell's data in a column and replace it with the value i have in a specific cell.
can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range from where i need to find the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with.
find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location.
please help.
how to find a specific cell’s value in a column & replace it with another cell’s value.
i actually need a method to find a specific cell’s data in a column and replace it with the value i have in a specific cell.
can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range from where i need to find the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with.
"find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location."
in more than 100 sheets in entire workbook
please help.
This is a great tool, does anyone knows an easiest way??
I'm working with a system that has over 59000 references... so every time the replace all is activated. I lose an entire day.
i actually needs to find cell number "D12" in column "D" and replace with Cell Number "B8" for example
find what = Cell Number "D12" John McNamara
find Where = in Column "D"
Replace with = Cell Number "B8" Bieber D'Souza
Replace Range = Column "D"
In which Sheet = All Sheets in Work Book (more than 100 Sheets)
Note: in every Sheet Cells Number "D12" & "B8" containing Different Employ Name but the find rang and replace rang are same in every sheet and find what cell number and replace with cell number are same also.
please help!
thank you. saved lot of time.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Hi, I am trying to figure out how to use RE to find and replace several values in a column. Using find and replace does not work because of the values I am working with. I have a column with hundreds of rows that have a description of several operating systems and other info, which looks like this: Windows Server 2008 R2 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide; Windows 2008 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide; Solaris 10 10 SPARC SECURITY TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE; and Windows Windows 2003 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide.
I need to be able to find and replace (or basically curtail the descriptions) to be Windows 2008 R2; Windows 2008; Windows 2003; and Solaris 10. BUT when I run find and replace with just *2008*, it finds every instance, including the ones with R2 at the end. I need it to only change the ones with 2008 to Windows 2008 and the ones that have 2008 R2 to Windows 2008 R2. I know it is possible, but I have no clue on how to write a macro to do this.
Thanks for your help,
Gerard
Wickedly efficient workaround. Excel really is a powerhouse program, all you have to do is dig into it. Ctl ~ exposes the formulas, and Ctl H allows for the multi edit. Brilliant, Chandoo!