Ever wanted to calculate distance using Excel – between two locations (physical addresses)?
If we know the addresses, we can go to either Google Maps or Bing Maps and type them out to find the distance and travel time. But what if you are building some model (or calculator) and want to find out the distance, travel time, address points (latitude, longitude) and may be even distance matrix (given two sets of points, all distances between them)? We can use the public APIs from Bing maps or Google Maps to get the answer to our spreadsheet.
What you need:
- Free maps API from either Google Maps or Bing Maps
- Excel 2013 or above (we will be using WEBSERVICE() and FILTERXML() functions in Excel)
How to get the API Key from Google Maps or Bing Maps:
The API key process is somewhat technical and can be confusing. Plus for Google Maps API, you need to provide your credit card details (according to Google, you will not be billed automatically though). I made a small video explaining the process. Watch it below (or on our YouTube channel).
Using Excel to calculate distance & travel time between two points – Bing Maps API
As the process for getting Bing Maps API key is easy, let’s assume that is what you have.
Let’s say you have the api key in a cell named bingmaps.key
In this demo, we focus on calculating distance & travel time between one set of points, but you can use the ideas to calculate distance matrix for a range of points. For example, you can calculate travel time between all your warehouses and customer locations easily.
Start by creating a range of cells to capture origin & destination addresses. For Bing maps API, we need address to be broken in to below pieces.
Step 1: Fetch Latitude and Longitude for the addresses
Before calculating the distance, we need to know where on earth our addresses are. So we will use point lookup API to convert address to geolocation (lat&long). To do this, we call
http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations?countryRegion=$1&adminDistrict=$2&locality=$3&postalCode=$4&addressLine=$5&maxResults=1&o=xml&key=bingmaps.key
with our address.
Notice all $ symbols? Use SUBSTITUTE to replace them with actual location values.
When you call this URL using WEBSERVICE(), you will get an XML output (as our output parameter is o=xml, if you omit this, you will get json).
Sample output for this looks like below:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?><Response xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/search/local/ws/rest/v1″><Copyright>Copyright © 2018 Microsoft and its suppliers. All rights reserved. This API cannot be accessed and the content and any results may not be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner without express written permission from Microsoft Corporation.</Copyright><BrandLogoUri>http://dev.virtualearth.net/Branding/logo_powered_by.png</BrandLogoUri><StatusCode>200</StatusCode><StatusDescription>OK</StatusDescription><AuthenticationResultCode>ValidCredentials</AuthenticationResultCode><TraceId>_REMOVED_</TraceId><ResourceSets><ResourceSet><EstimatedTotal>1</EstimatedTotal><Resources><Location><Name>Phillip St, Johnsonville, Wellington 6037, New Zealand</Name><Point><Latitude>-41.22292</Latitude><Longitude>174.80164</Longitude></Point><BoundingBox><SouthLatitude>-41.2241799</SouthLatitude><WestLongitude>174.80136</WestLongitude><NorthLatitude>-41.22166</NorthLatitude><EastLongitude>174.80196</EastLongitude></BoundingBox><EntityType>RoadBlock</EntityType><Address><AddressLine>Phillip St</AddressLine><AdminDistrict>Wellington</AdminDistrict><AdminDistrict2>Wellington City</AdminDistrict2><CountryRegion>New Zealand</CountryRegion><FormattedAddress>Phillip St, Johnsonville, Wellington 6037, New Zealand</FormattedAddress><Locality>Wellington</Locality><PostalCode>6037</PostalCode></Address><Confidence>High</Confidence><MatchCode>Good</MatchCode><GeocodePoint><Latitude>-41.22292</Latitude><Longitude>174.80164</Longitude><CalculationMethod>Interpolation</CalculationMethod><UsageType>Display</UsageType></GeocodePoint><GeocodePoint><Latitude>-41.22292</Latitude><Longitude>174.80164</Longitude><CalculationMethod>Interpolation</CalculationMethod><UsageType>Route</UsageType></GeocodePoint></Location></Resources></ResourceSet></ResourceSets></Response>
From this XML, we need to extract the LAT & LONG values highlighted in blue. We can use FILTERXML() to do that.
Let’s say the output of WEBSERVICE is in cell C21.
We can use FILTERXML() like this:
=FILTERXML(C21,”//Latitude[1]”)
=FILTERXML(C21,”//Longitude[1]”)
This will give us both lat & long values.
How does FILTERXML() work? It takes the XML value in C21 and finds the first Latitude tag (hence [1]) anywhere (hence //)
You can use FILTERXML to test the status code for the response or other interesting bits too.
Step 2: Calculate distance between two geolocations
Once we have lat & long values for both origin and destination, we can call distance lookup API to calculate distance, travel time values.
The distance lookup URL is:
https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes/DistanceMatrix?origins=$1&destinations=$2&travelMode=$3&o=xml&key=bingmaps.key
For example, the distance lookup URL for above addresses is:
https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes/DistanceMatrix?origins=-41.22292,174.80164&destinations=-41.27868,174.77506&travelMode=driving&o=xml&key=$k
The output for this is an XML that looks like:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?><Response xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/search/local/ws/rest/v1″><Copyright>Copyright © 2018 Microsoft and its suppliers. All rights reserved. This API cannot be accessed and the content and any results may not be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner without express written permission from Microsoft Corporation.</Copyright><BrandLogoUri>http://dev.virtualearth.net/Branding/logo_powered_by.png</BrandLogoUri><StatusCode>200</StatusCode><StatusDescription>OK</StatusDescription><AuthenticationResultCode>ValidCredentials</AuthenticationResultCode><TraceId>_REMOVED_</TraceId><ResourceSets><ResourceSet><EstimatedTotal>1</EstimatedTotal><Resources><Resource xsi:type=”DistanceMatrix”><ErrorMessage>Request accepted.</ErrorMessage><Origins><Coordinate><Latitude>-41.22292</Latitude><Longitude>174.80164</Longitude></Coordinate></Origins><Destinations><Coordinate><Latitude>-41.27868</Latitude><Longitude>174.77506</Longitude></Coordinate></Destinations><Results><Distance><DepartureTime xsi:nil=”true” /><OriginIndex>0</OriginIndex><DestinationIndex>0</DestinationIndex><TravelDistance>8.96955555555556</TravelDistance><TravelDuration>7.29166666666667</TravelDuration><TotalWalkDuration>0</TotalWalkDuration></Distance></Results></Resource></Resources></ResourceSet></ResourceSets></Response>
Again, we can use FILTERXML() to extract the relevant bits (=FILTERXML(C32,”//TravelDistance[1]”) and =FILTERXML(C32,”//TravelDuration[1]”))
The default output values are in KM for distance and minutes for duration. You can change this to miles, hours etc. too by using extra parameters in the lookup URL. Please read the Bing maps developer documentation for more.
Distance & travel time in Excel – Google Maps API
Let’s say your Google Maps API key is in a cell named gmaps.key
This API is really easy to use compared to Bing maps (as we need to make just one call).
The request URL is:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/xml?origins=$1&destinations=$2&mode=$3&key=gmaps.key
For example, let’s lookup the travel time and distance between Microsoft & APPLE offices.
The sample URL is:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/xml?origins=1,+Infinity+loop,+San+Francisco,+CA&destinations=Redmond,+Seattle,+WA&mode=driving&key=gmaps.key
The response is XML (if you want json, then replace xml with json) like below:
<?xml version=””1.0″” encoding=””UTF-8″”?>
<DistanceMatrixResponse>
<status>OK</status>
<origin_address>Apple Campus, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA</origin_address>
<destination_address>Redmond, WA, USA</destination_address>
<row>
<element>
<status>OK</status>
<duration>
<value>47736</value>
<text>13 hours 16 mins</text>
</duration>
<distance>
<value>1379709</value>
<text>1,380 km</text>
</distance>
</element>
</row>
</DistanceMatrixResponse>
We can FILTERXML this response to extract the important bits like this:
=FILTERXML(C15,”//distance[1]/text”)
=FILTERXML(C15,”//duration[1]/text”)
Download distance calculator template
Click here to download distance, travel time calculator template to see all these formulas in action. You must enter your API key to get it work. Examine the formulas and XML formats to learn more about how these APIs work and how to integrate them to your spreadsheet models.
More examples of WEBSERVICE():
- Finding nearest zip codes using webservice() and filterxml()
- Integrating WEBSERVICE() with trip planner spreadsheet [Microsoft blog]
Made something cool with WEBSERVICE()?
Did you make something cool and fun using WEBSERVICE() and FILTERXML()? Please share the ideas and tips in comments section.
35 Responses to “Quick and easy Gantt chart using Excel [templates]”
"Please share your experiences and ideas using comments"
For those willing to go VBA, XL can do far more w/Gantt Charts. Compare to PapaGantt. https://sites.google.com/site/beyondexcel/project-updates/papagantt-thebigdaddyofxlganttcharts
While making PapaGantt was neither quick nor easy, using PapaGantt is both, not just for displaying Gantts, but for scheduling tasks as well.
is it possible to get a xls(m) file ?
instead of a zip-file with .xml-files ?
i cannot open it with excel :/
Regards
Stef@n
@Stef@n
Try saving the file and then open from Excel as opposed to opening directly from the post
Also try this link: http://img.chandoo.org/pm/quick-gantt-chart-template.xlsx
Thanks very much for this workbook idea.
To slightly up-scale functionality I added:
1. conditional format for when the cell value =2 to be red which could be used for critical path or other activity highlighting needs (milestones perhaps)
2. conditional format for when the cell value =c to be green which could be used for showing activity progress
3. conditional format for the same range where formula =DATE(YEAR(D$5),MONTH(D$5),DAY(D$5))=TODAY() and set custom to ;;; and cell fill colour to a light blue. This will highlight today down the whole table to allow quick assessment of activity progress to plan. Anything not green upto where the date indicator is shows activity is behind the plan. Opposite for tasks ahead of the plan.
(There is probably a better way to get the same result but this works for now. If there is please post for us to share.)
Hope this made enough sense.
Also, thanks Craig for the link. I'll have a better look soon.
Regards,
Darren
Hey Chandoo,
I actually made one of these for a friend of mine but added an extra level of automation.
Rather than putting in 1 on all the dates the activity occurs, I added a column for start and end date of each project. Then I used formula along the lines of :
=IF(AND(DateAtTop >= Start Date, DateAtTop <= End Date),1,"")
Then used the same conditional formatting where 1 was coloured.
I thought this was a nice touch, especially if a project lasts for many days.
Let me know what you think 😉
Lucas
P.S. First time I've posted here, love your work btw!
Hi Lucas... welcome to the comments and thanks for your first of many comments.
I like the idea. In fact, it was one of the first Excel tricks I ever learned (to use conditional formatting to automate things like this). See this (written almost 6 years ago)
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/03/13/want-to-be-an-excel-conditional-formatting-rock-star-read-this/
and scroll-down to the tip on gantt charts. 🙂
I liked this approach and tried adding it into the Conditional format via Formula = statement. It workd fine with just the AND statement but then I realised you need the "1"'s to calcluate the duration.
I then put the whole IF statemnt in but it hasnt worked. Any thoughts?
Ta
Hi Lucas and Darren,
I tried the conditional formatting but I really don't succeed in getting the solution. Do you have a template of this?
Thanks in advance
Br
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[…] via Quick and easy Gantt chart using Excel [templates]. […]
Excellent, thanks for this tip and expample.
I had a monthly reporting template very similar to this, but was done in excel which needed more manual inputs.
I used your exmaple and updated my monthly group reporting plan.
I further devided the day into 4 quarters to make it easy for us to followup on different tasks.
Now, I just have to update the start date, and everything gets udpated by itself in fraction of a second.
Thanks once again. love your daily udpates.
Wow.. glad to hear that.
Hi Prahlad,
Can you share ur template even i am looking for similar kind of template .where i want day duration ,split in hrs and each task effort represented in hr spent by each resource .
Thanks
savi
Hi Chandoo,
Can you guide on preparing an indian version of the captioned sheet. We have saturdays working :-(, and only one day weekly off on sunday.
Regards-Prajay
Hi Chandoo,very useful post.i need gantt chart for inventory module.
[…] Quick and easy Gantt chart using Excel […]
Hi.
Really usefull post. I would like to know if i can also include weekends.
Thank you
Hi Chandoo, thank you for the great job, I was wondering if you can customize this sheet for Inventory planning purposes?!
thank you indeed
This was so helpful. ive been through about 10 different tutorial type things and this has to be the best so far, helped me out a great deal. and now my boss is happy i can make gantt charts!
thanks
This's a great post, thanks for sharing
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the excel tutorial. I wanted to make a simple modification, however it will cause issues with the duration part. I created another rule/cell marked 2. For my project I want to show a projected timeline and then an actual timeline. The issue is that the duration is being logged for when I enter 2, which I want to be projected and not actual. Will you please assist in letting me know how I can create a duration for both project and actual on the same line?
Thank you,
Steven
Showing vertical line between every week is very useful for me, I used to do it manually. Thanks so much!!
But how about, my gantt chart included Saturday & Sunday, and I want to show the vertical line after Sunday, could any expert teach me how to fix it. Thanks again.
This was so helpful - thank you! I had a bit of trouble with the end of the week conditional formatting over-writing the filled cells but switching the order of the rules sorted it out. Needed to put together a gantt chart quickly for an important bid at short notice and this was just the job - thanks for taking the time to post it. Much appreciated.
This is the first time I'm reading a tutorial that actually makes sense 🙂 This is absolutely great, with only one minor issue I can't seem to figure out on my own. How do I include weekends in (or instead of) the Workday formula? Thank you!
[…] This template I made myself but I inspired from Chandoo.org. […]
Hi,
Sometimes I must work at weekends - it is possible to modify the dates so that you can include Sat + Sun as well?
Thanks,
H
Nice gantt chart template chandoo, simple but useful
Thank you so much for this excellent guide! I have adapted this to show scheduled activities at multiple project sites weekly over the course of the year, including active and proposed work. With just a tiny bit of tweaking to your tutorial, I was able to create a chart that suited my needs perfectly!
Thank you very much for idea sharing .very innovative workday formula is showing 5 days but i want 6 days , is there any other option plz reply..
i got it friends..
=WORKDAY.INTL(F4,1,11)
hhhhhh
@Somnath
I also like the structure using =WORKDAY.INTL(F4,1,"0000001")
where each day is a 0 or 1
Hi thanks a lot for the tuto!! It helped me a lot!!
But can you tell me how can I add a vertical line representing today on it?
@Cynthia
Open the template
Select D7:DS26
Goto Conditional formatting
New Rule
Use a Formula
=D$5=today()
then set the format as a Red Right Hand Border only
Apply
Do not select stop here for the rule
Hi Chandoo,
I purchased your Project Management templates a month ago and have not had the chance to thank you for the great templates. Thank you!!!!! It has saved me a lot of time creating and re creating templates. Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of customization but it's not that bad. I am now in the process of customizing my GANTT which my boss thinks is too granular. He doesn't want to see a weekly grant. Only the months should be showing. I have researched and researched but to no avail. Do you have any examples I can look at?
Hi Chandoo,
thanks so much for all your tips on Gantt Table.
I'm actually building one at the moment and want to use the conditional formatting. However, I always get into trouble with that when I have to add new lines. I don't know the final size of my table yet and I eventually also want other people to be able to work with it.
Conditional formatting tends to "split up" into various "applies to" ranges when you insert a new row or copy and past values from somewhere.
I'm sure you've come across this issue already... So far I couldn't find a feasible solution to this. I was wondering if you had an idea / suggestion for me?
Thanks so much!!!
Nadine