I had to change the site name from “Pointy Haired Dilbert” to “Chandoo.org”. While the change is triggered due to an email from Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert Strip, I have been mulling the change for a while and I think this is the right time for it.
I had a strange email in my inbox when I woke up on May 3rd. The subject said “From Scott Adams”. I was half-asleep at that time. So I thought this must be an email from one of the readers or customers. I opened it and read half way thru the mail before realizing that it was from Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert Cartoon Strip. I shook my head in disbelief and re-read the email a couple of times before I understood the message. Scott said,
Hi Chandoo,
I’ve been following your success for some time via my Google Alerts (it
sends me all Internet references to Dilbert). When you were small I was
ignoring your use of Dilbert and “pointy-haired” in your name, but now I
think we have to have this discussion.Obviously there’s a trademark issue with any commercial use of the name
Dilbert, as it is an obvious trade on the goodwill I created in the
trademark. And even the pointy-haired part seems a bit unfair.I have to have this sort of conversation to prevent “dilbert” from slipping
into the public domain. I’m sure you understand.So with that in mind, can you suggest a solution? I like what you’re doing,
and wouldn’t want to impede your momentum, but a name change is due.Scott Adams
Of course Scott is being very fair and sweet. I never really thought my site would become even mildly popular. But as the site grew I had an inkling of suspicion that something like this would happen. But I brushed aside my feelings under the header of “that is just insane”.
At the moment I didnt know what to do. I couldn’t afford Dogbert, the evil consultant to advice me a name like “Duhflushtech inc.”
My immediate ideas for a new name for this blog were equally lame like,
- Six Pack Simpson
- Pointy Haired Chandoo [PHC]
- Excel @ Work [already tested and found lame]
Then it stuck me like a stroke of sumproduct. Why not just call the site by what it already is – Chandoo.org.
After a few minutes, it made a lot of sense,
- The site url is Chandoo.org
- People already see that in Google Search, Other blogs linking etc.
- My nick name is Chandoo, so loads of people already call me that.
- There would be very little confusion for a new visitor as they dont see the unrelated “pointy haired dilbert” on the site when they come looking for moving average calculations.
- It would help me build brand Chandoo instead of borrowing it from Dilbert.
Then I emailed back Scott this,
Hi Scott,
Thanks for your email. I am both thrilled and little worried to get this email.
But I totally understand your intentions and support you. My idea is not to step on Dilbert’s domain, but just a play with words. I have a solution for this:
* I will replace the “pointy haired dilbert” in my webpage titles, logo and future posts and just call it “chandoo.org”.
* I will have to keep the wording “PHD”, “pointy haired dilbert” in already written articles as it is too cumbersome (there are over 1000 posts). But this should not be a problem as the words are inside the posts and not part of title, page headers. (removal of Pointy haired dilbert from titles is automatic).
* I will make an announcement explaining why the change is happening and have a sidebar link “where did the dilbert go?” for a few weeks just so that people who visit once in a while don’t feel lost.
…Thanks,
So, What are the changes and how they affect you?
- The blog, forums and formula pages have new logos. The look and feel of the site hasnt changed. Just the logos. Check them out to get familiarized with what is new.
- The wording “Pointy Haired Dilbert” has been removed from most places on the site. But there will be some references to it in past articles and content.
- Try calling me Chandoo when you comment or refer to me. You can of course call me PHD or pointy haired dilbert or even bumbling bumble bee as it is your choice. But I would prefer Chandoo.
What has not changed and will not change:
- The spirit of community. We will continue to be a community of excel users who have passion, eagerness and a sense of humor.
- The Feed URL for the site will remain http://feeds2.feedburner.com/PointyHairedDilbert.
- The facebook fan page url will remain http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pointy-Haired-Dilbert-Chandoo/31468481118 [I will try for a vanity url and see if the migration is possible]
- My hair (and the familiar logo of my hair standing up).
What do you think of the changes?
I have been attached to the PHD so much. It is hard to let that go. I am sure I will make mistakes and refer to my blog as PHD when writing emails or replying to comments.
But I also see a lot of positives in letting the PHD go. It will let me build brand Chandoo and keeps my site simple and clean.
PS: I named the site PHD because I was both an engineer and an MBA. I was transitioning from Engineer to manager when I started this blog.
PPS: You have a rocking weekend. I have more exciting and awesome excel stuff for next week, as usual.
24 Responses
I’d suggest simply using the subtotal function and filtering the data using the Win/Loss column. You get the same results and the formula is more comprehensible.
@John
That is one option.
There are times however when you want to see the whole data table or a filtered subset and still want to produce summary reports against an unfiltered field.
Is there a particular reason why you are using a comma and the unary (–) operator for the second array in the SUMPRODUCT formula? It seems to work the same if you were to string the arrays together using the asterisk (*). The advantage is that SUMPRODUCT treats the entire string of arrays as a single array.
@Mathew
Your correct, There is no difference.
I thought it may have been easier to explain this method.
Is there a way to do this on a large set of data? As in ~100,000 rows? When I try I get an error because the formula becomes too long. It says the max length of a formula is 8,192 characters. Excel 2010.
How do I incorporate a specific text within a cell for the second array. For instance, – -(C7:C13=”Apple”)
when I chose a specific text the formula does not work.
@RB
I am not sure what is the issue as if I use the sample data in the post the following work fine
Count:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)), –(C7:C13=”L”))
Sum:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)),(C7:C13=”L”)*(D7:D13))
You may want to check that there are no leading or trailing spaces in your list of Apples
I should have given a better explanation. Heres my situation. I have a column with cells filled with names like Column 1, Column 2, Pier 1, Pier 2, etc. If the cell just contained Pier and searched for that it works. But because it has other characters in the cell its not recognizing the pier. So how can I extract specific characters of a string of text in this formula?
Hopefully this was a better explanation
Hello-
This formula works pretty well for me except that it slow down excel and prevents some of my macros from working. I was wondering if there was a way to program this in VBA so that excel isn’t always trying to recalculate it. I would like to use a push of a button to get it to run then paste in a cell.
Thanks!
I am trying to sum filtered data in a column, but would want to ignore the negative values in the column. How to go about doing this?
@Akshay
Why not just add a filter to that column to only show the values greater than zero?
The negative values are required for reporting purposes, but their effect on the total is distorting the required output. Please advise.
@Akshay
I’d suggest making a post in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Attach a sample file to simplify the task
I have this working for counting and summing, however, I have a list and for the second array, I need a criteria. That is, I’m looking for b13:b200=”01.??.??” or =left((a1,2) or something like that. These types of criteria matches do not appear to work as I get a blank as a result.
Thanks!
@Bob
As your formula b13:b200=”01.??.??” looks like you are trying to check the first day of the month of the range
What about trying Day(B13:B200)=1
Hai Experts,
i understood this formula well and working fine in MS Excel 2013
but when the same am trying to place in google Spreadsheet it shows error as
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 2014, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
Can anyone please help me how would i get it done in Google Spread sheet
or is there any other formula as a substitute for this.
Thank you very much.
thanks for providing this.. but why does excel keeps on prompting Circular referencing in cell D3?
@Vivek
I don’t know
I just downloaded the file and it is working fine and not showing that error
Goto the Formulas, Calculation Options Tab and check that Calculation is set to Automatic
What version of Excel and Windows are you using ?
I know that this forum is for MS Excel, but I am trying to help someone who is working in Google Sheets. The below formula works in Excel but Google Sheets returns:
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 39000, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
This is the same problem asked by Srichirin above. Does anyone know if there is a formula for Google Sheets that will replicate what MS Excel does?
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($C$6:$C$39500,ROW($C$6:$C$39500)-MIN(ROW($C$6:$C$39500)),,1)),- -($C$6:$C$39500=H1),($D$6:$D$39500))
Trying to find a SUMPRODUCT formula that counts the word Closed by date for the last 7 days in a filtered list.
=COUNTIF(M:M,”>”&TODAY()-7) works ok for unfiltered count Column M contains Closure dates (blank if open) and Column L is Status Open or Closed
@ Terry
Please ask the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Please attach a sample file to ensure a quicker more accurate answer
I used this formula and worked like a charm! But, now I’ve been requested to use it but adding not one but two criteria in the same formula. For instance the sum I was doing added negative and positive numbers. I’ve been asked to use the exact same formula but adding that only positive numbers were considered… any idea on how to do this?
How exactly do you do sum filtered cells when two criteria are need not just one?
Thank you so much brother literally I have been struggling since morning to get the sum of the filtered category, however, after reading your blog attentively i got my solution, so thanks a lot once again.