A few weeks back I was asked “Is it possible to setup a control and then drag it down a range, so that it links to all the cells below it?”
The answer is, of course, No.
But it got me thinking about why not allow one control to control a number of cells.
This post describes the solution, One Control Three Cells.
But it could just as easily be applied to a larger group of controls in a much larger system.
I have attached a sample file demonstrating the technique: Download sample file
The Old
In the sample file select the Old worksheet.
Typically if you had 3 cells and wanted to add automation, you would add a control to each cell.
Here I have added 3 controls. Each Control in Column E controls the Cells value to the left of it.
Each Control is independent and has no relationship to other cells or other controls.
Each control is setup and linked as shown below to a single cell.
This whole setup has to be applied individually to each control and associated cell.
The Cell link: dialog above cannot have a range
Well it can hold a range, but it only links the control to the upper left cell of the range, C3 in the example above.
But this got me thinking, why not link the control’s Cell Link to a Named Formula, which would return the range based on say where the active cell was.
The New
Change to the New Worksheet.
Notice how we now have a single control next to the 3 cells we wish to control.
You can see that in action here
Lets first examine what has been setup, then we will work through how it works.
First, Goto the Name Manager in the Formulas, Name Manager tab.
There are 3 Named Formula setup
SelectedRow : is a direct Link to cell A1
ControlRange: is a direct Link to cells C3:C5
ControlLink : is a named Formula containing a formula =OFFSET(New!$C$1,SelectedRow-1,0)
Next Right click on the Control and notice that it is linked to the ControlLink Named Formula.
There is more, but lets follow this through first.
Cell A1 “SelectedRow” contains the value 4.
The Named Formula ControlLink has a formula =OFFSET(New!$C$1, SelectedRow-1, 0)
which evaluates to =OFFSET(New!$C$1, 4-1, 0)
which simplifies to =OFFSET(New!$C$1, 3, 0)
The offset of C1 by 3 rows and 0 columns is C4
so the Named Formula ControlLink =OFFSET(New!$C$1, SelectedRow-1, 0)
returns the address of C4
So the Control uses an Address of C4 when the value of A1 is 4
But we didn’t change cell A1 ?
I did say there was more, and the more is a small piece of VBA code, which does some checking for us and places an appropriate value in A1
Goto VBA by pressing Alt+F11
Double click on the Sheet1(New) object and you should now see the code in the Code Pane
This tiny piece of code is the secret behind what makes this technique work.
Lets look at what it does
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
If Intersect(Target, Range(“ControlRange”)) Is Nothing Then
Range(“SelectedRow”).Value = 0
Exit Sub
End If
Range(“SelectedRow”).Value = Target.Row
Application.CalculateFull
End Sub
The code is encapsulated in what is known as a Worksheet event.
Worksheet events, as the name implies, are events that occur on the worksheet.
In this case it is the SelectionChange event. That is every time you change the cell by clicking on it or using the keyboard arrows etc to change the active cell, this event is triggered and the enclosed code executed.
When the event is triggered the code starts and a variable Target is assigned to the new active cell. It is the Target of the events occurrence, ie: Your click on another cell.
The next piece of code handles what happens next
If Intersect(Target, Range(“ControlRange”)) Is Nothing Then
Range(“SelectedRow”).Value = 0
Exit Sub
End If
It basically says If the Target and the ControlRange Don’t Intersect then do the enclosed code
That is if the Target doesn’t intersect with the ControlRange, then set the SelectedRange cell A1 to 0
Then exit the subroutine
This is done so that cells that are selected whilst using the worksheet don’t interfere with the control.
But the important thing is what happens if the Target and ControlRange do intersect
The code says If there is not an intersection do what is inside the If / End If statements
If Intersect(Target, Range(“ControlRange”)) Is Nothing Then
Range(“SelectedRow”).Value = 0
Exit Sub
End If
But if the two ranges Do Intersect, the code simply passes over the included code and continues past to the next code.
The next code is
Range(“SelectedRow”).Value = Target.Row
Application.CalculateFull
This is where the SelectedRow cell A1 is assigned the value which is the Row number of the Target cell.
That is if we click in a cell in the ControlRange, the SelectedRow is assigned the value of the Target cells Row.
The worksheet is then calculated. This simply forces the named Formula to update.
Then the VBA finishes executing.
When the Worksheet was recalculated just above, the LinkedCell was updated.
Now when a user presses the Spin Button Control, it will use the new value in the LinkedCell named range as the Link cell and update the value of the cell according to whether you pressed the Up or Down arrow.
Final
This code can be applied to any number of controls as well as to complex ranges
If you wanted to control the values in the 9, dashed green, cells shown below highlighted
You would change the formula for ControlRange to
ControlRange : =New!$B$8:$B$10,New!$C$11:$C$13,New!$B$14:$B$16
Comments:
What do you think about this technique?
Let me know in the comments below:
12 Responses to “29 Excel Formula Tips for all Occasions [and proof that PHD readers truly rock]”
Some great contributions here.
Gotta love the Friday 13th formula 😀
Great tips from you all! Thanks a lot for sharing! bsamson, particularly you helped me on a terribly annoying task. 🙂
(BTW, Chandoo, it's not exactly "Find if a range is normally distributed" what my suggestion does. It checks if two proportions are statistically different. I probably gave you a bad explanation on twitter, but it'd be probably better if you fix it here... 🙂 )
Great compilation Chandoo
For the "Clean your text before you lookup"
=VLOOKUP(CLEAN(TRIM(E20)),F5:G18,2,0)
I would like to share a method to convert a number-stored-as-text before you lookup:
=VLOOKUP(E20+0,F5:G18,2,0)
@Peder, yeah, I loved that formula
@Aires: Sorry, I misunderstood your formula. Corrected the heading now.
@John.. that is a cool tip.
Hey Chandoo,
That p-value formula is really great for a statistics person like me.
What a p-value essentially is, is the probability that the results obtained from a statistical test aren't valid. So for example, if my p value is .05, there's a 5% probability that my results are wrong.
You can play with this if you install the Data Analysis Toolpak (which will perform some statistical tests for you AND provide the P Value.)
Let's say for example I've got two weeks of data (separated into columns) with the number of hours worked per day. I want to find out if the total number of hours I worked in week two were really all the different than week one.
Week1 Week2
10 11
12 9
9 10
7 8
5 8
Go to Data > Data Analysis > T-Test Assuming Unequal Variances > OK
In the Variable 1 Box, select the range of data for week 1.
In the Variable 2 Box, select the range of data for week 2.
Check "Labels"
In the Alpha box, select a value (in percentage terms) for how tolerant you are of error.
.05 is the general standard; that is to say I am willing to accept a 95% level of confidence that my result is accuarate.
Select a range output.
Excel calculates a number of results: Average (mean) for each week's data, etc.
You'll notice however that there are two P Values; one-tail and two-tail. (one tail tests are for > or .05), the number of hours I worked in week two is statistically equivalent to the number of hours I worked in week one.
So here’s a way you might want to use this. You put up a new entry on your blog. You think it’s the best entry ever! So you pull your webstats for this week and compare it to last week. You gather data for each week on the length of time a visitor spends on your website. The question you’re trying to prove statistically is whether there’s an average increase in the amount of time spent on your website this week as compared to last week (as a result of your fancy new blog post). You can run the same statistical test I illustrated above to find out. Incidentally, it matters very little to the stat test whether the quantity of visitors differs or not.
Anyhow, the Data Analysis toolpack doesn't perform a lot of stat tests that folks like me would like to have access to. In those cases I have to either use different software, or write some very complicated mathematical formulas. Having this p-value formula makes my life a LOT easier!
Thanks!
Eric~
Fantastic stuf..One line explanation is cool.
Thanks to all the contributors
OS
Take FirstName, MI, LastName in access (you can fix it to work in excel) capitalize first letter of each and lowercase the rest and add ". " if MI exists then same for last name:
Full Name: Format(Left([FirstName],1),">") & Format(Right([FirstName]),Len([FirstName])-1),"") & ". ","") & Format(Left([LastName],1),">") & Format(Right([LastName],Len([LastName])-1),"<")
I teach excel, access, etc etc for a living and i have my access students build this formula one step at a time from the inside out to show how formulas can be made even if it looks complicated. Yes I know I could just do IsNull([MI]) and reverse the order in the Iif() function but the point here is to nest as many functions as possible one by one (also I illustrate how it will fail without the Not() as it is)
Extract the month from a date
The easiest formula for this is =MONTH(a1)
It will return a 1 for January, 2 for February etc.
if in a column we write the value of total person for eg. 10 if we spent 1.33 paise each person then how we get total amount in next column and the result will in round form plzzzzz solve my problem sir................... thank u
@Anjali
If the value 10 is in B2 and 1.33 paise is in C2 the formula in D2 could be =B2*C2
If the values are a column of values you can copy the formula down by copy/paste or drag the small black handle at the bottom right corner of cell D2
kindly share with me new forumulas.
How to convert a figure like 870.70 into 870 but 871.70 into 880 using excel formula ? Please help.