In the past I have written a number of posts on the use of Custom Number formats including
Selective Chart Axis Formats
Custom Chart Axis Formats (Part 2)
A technique to quickly develop custom number formats
Chandoo has written about Custom Number Formats in:
Custom cell formatting in Excel a few tips tricks
Color Modifier
As part of these techniques you have the option to set the colors using the [Color] modifier
You can use a Custom format of: $#,##0;[Red]-$#,##0
10 Dollars will be displayed as $10
-10 Dollars will be displayed as -$10
Colors available include Red, Blue, Green, Yellow
However there is a much larger color palette available
Anybody who has or is still using Excel 2003 or prior will have a color picker which looks like this:
Well these 56 colors are all available and not just in Excel 95-2003 but in All Excel versions up to and including Excel 2013.
We have two methods to access these colors:
1. Using the Colors Name or
2. Using a Color Number.
Color Name
In Excel 95-2003 you can Right Click on a cell and change the Font or the Fill color
Simply select a color like below:
Note that a Green Color has been selected, the Dialog shows the name of the Color as Sea Green
To save you opening an early version of Excel here are all the colors listed above:
Top Row
Black, Brown, Olive Green, Dark Green, Dark Teal, Dark Blue, Indigo, Grey-80%
2nd Row
Dark Red, Orange, dark yellow, Green, Teal, Blue, Blue-Grey, Grey-50%
3rd Row
Red, Light Orange, Lime, Sea Green, Aqua, Light Blue, Violet, Grey-40%
4th Row
Pink, Gold, Yellow, Bright Green, Turquoise, Sky Blue, Plum, Grey-25%
5th Row
Rose, Tan, Light Yellow, Light Green, Light Turquoise, Pale Blue, Lavender, White
6th Row
Periwinkle, Plum, Ivory, Light Turquoise, Dark Purple, Coral, Ocean Blue, Ice Blue
Bottom Row
Dark Blue, Pink, Yellow, Turquoise, Violet, dark Red, Teal, Blue
To use these use the format $#,##0;[Color Name]-$#,##0
eg: [Blue Grey]$#,##0;[Sea Green]-$#,##0
This will display Ten Dollars as $10 and Negative Ten Dollars as -$10
Color Number
The Alternative method is to use a Custom Number Format and using the Color Number modifier like [Color Number]$#,##0;[Color Number]-$#,##0
[Color4]$#,##0;[Color3]-$#,##0
This will display Ten Dollars as $10 and Negative Ten Dollars as -$10
Once again to save you trialing each color you can see the effects of each color on a white and Black background below:
Warnings:
I haven’t tested it but I am sure the Color Names will be different in different language versions of Excel.
I haven’t tested these techniques on a Mac version of Excel but I am pretty sure these techniques should work.
Forward compatibility should be ok, but can’t be guaranteed.
12 Responses to “Analyzing Search Keywords using Excel : Array Formulas in Real Life”
Very interesting Chandoo, as always. Personally I find endless uses for formulae such as {=sum(if(B$2:B$5=$A2,$C$2$C$5))}, just the flexibility in absolute and relative relative referencing and multiple conditions gives it the edge over dsum and others methods.
I've added to my blog a piece on SQL in VBA that I think might be of interest to you http://aviatormonkey.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/lesson-one-sql-in-vba/ . It's a bit techie, but I think you might like it.
Keep up the good work, aviatormonkey
Hi Chandoo,
You might find this coded solution I posted on a forum interesting.
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming/680810-create-tag-cloud-in-vba-possible.html
[...] under certain circumstances. One of the tips involved arranging search keywords in excel using Array Forumlas. Basically, if you need to know how frequent a word or group of keywords appear, you can use this [...]
@Aviatormonkey: Thanks for sharing the url. I found it a bit technical.. but very interesting.
@Andy: Looks like Jarad, the person who emailed me this problem has posted the same in excelforum too. Very good solution btw...
Realy great article
"You can take this basic model and extend it to include parameters like number of searches each key phrase has, how long the users stay on the site etc. to enhance the way tag cloud is generated and colored."
How would you go about doing this? I think it would need some VB
Hi,
I found the usage very interesting, but is giving me hard time because the LENs formula that use ranges are not considering the full range, in other words, the LEN formula is only bringing results from the respective "line" cell.
Using the example, when I place the formula to calculate the frequency for "windows" brings me only 1 result, not 11 as displayed in the example. It seems that the LEN formula using ranges is considering the respective line within the range, not the full range.
Any hint?
@Thiago
You have to enter the formula as an Array Formula
Enter the Formula and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Not just Enter
Thank you, Hui! I couldn't work out how this didn't work
is there a limit to the number of lines it can analyse.
Ie i am trying to get this to work on a list of sentances 1500 long.
@Gary
In Excel 2010/2013 Excel is only limited by available memory,
So just give it a go
As always try on a copy of the file first if you have any doubts
Apologies if I am missing something, but coudn't getting frequency be easier with Countif formula. Something like this - COUNTIF(Range with text,"*"&_cell with keyword_&"*")
Apologies if I missed, but what is the Array Formula to:
1. Analyze a list of URL's or a list of word phrases to understand frequency;
2. List in a nearby column from most used words to least used words;
3. Next to the list of words the count of occurrences.