Last night I got an email from Joshua, one of our readers with the subject – Hard Excel problem. Hard?!?, at this stage of summer, the hard problems seem to be (in no particular order),
- Lack of good quality mangoes to eat
- Intense heat and humidity
- Lack of good quality mangoes to eat
Yes, I like mangoes.
Any how, back to Joshua’s email, So I got curious and read it. He is facing an interestingproblem.
I have a very difficult inquiry I am hoping you might be able to solve…
Is there a formula (i.e., without using VBA) that will look at another columns values and provide a new sequential number (i.e., reordered) when the value changes; however, keep the same sequential number for the duplicates?
Below is a table with two columns. […] I now need to rank order those cluster groups. Since cluster 12 appears first it would get a value of ‘1’ and all of the cluster 12’s should now be a ‘1’. Since cluster 4 appears next it would get a rank of 2, etc…
Well, it is an interesting problem for sure. But hard problem, it isn’t. For really hard problems, refer to my list above.
So how to generate the sequence numbers?
Logic: If a value is already listed, we fetch corresponding sequence number. Else, we generate a new sequence number.
Implementation: Simple, we use VLOOKUP.
Assuming the cluster values are in column B, from B4 onwards, in C4, write
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(B4,$B$3:C3,2,FALSE), SUM(MAX($C$3:C3),1))
Let’s examine the formula.
VLOOKUP(B4,$B$3:C3,2,FALSE) portion: This one looks value in column B and tries to find corresponding sequence value in column C.
SUM(MAX($C$3:C3),1) portion: Gives us next sequence number
IFERROR(VLOOKUP(…), SUM(…)) portion: This does the magic of choosing either existing sequence number or generating a new one.
For more, read about VLOOKUP and IFERROR formulas.
Sequence number generation – Example spreadsheet
Play with the sequence number generation spreadsheet embedded below or Click here to grab a copy of the file.
How would you generate the sequence numbers?
Its your turn to take a crack at the hard problem. How would you solve it? Go ahead and share your answers in the comments.
More hard problems – solved:
Hard problems are not new at Chandoo.org. We take lob vlookups and sumproducts regularly to crack them. Here are few examples:
9 Responses to “Show forecast values in a different color with this simple trick [charting]”
While this works in a pinch, it clearly "lightens" the colors of the entire chart. Depending on where you use this, it will be blatantly obvious that you don't know what you are doing and present a poor looking graph.
Why not separate the data into different segments when charting and have as many colors as you have data points? You might have to create a new legend and/or repeat the chart in "invisible ink", but it would be cleaner and more consistent when new or updated data becomes available.
While I think I agree that doing it "properly" via a second series is preferable, I don't necessarily agree that making the entirety of the "future" (data, gridlines, and even the axis) semi-transparent is "poor looking". I think it could be seen as adding more emphasis to the "future-ness" of the forecast data.
In short, it's another tool for the toolbox, even if it's never needed.
Simply and clever 🙂
Quick & effective, cool. thanks.
I always use the dummy series.
Nice little trick, thanks very much!
Two sets of data better. Control is much better.
You can use the same chart next month to see what is actual and what is forecast.
To use this trick, I think grid lines has to be removed, that will make the graphic much more sharp.
to be honest, i dont understand why there is needed to do this way... in this case horizontal lines will be pale as well. then why a just can't change the color of the line partly???
Great tutorial. Thanks for the tutorial!