Yesterday I saw a tweet from @JanWillemTulp,
Happy Holidays! https://t.co/iAnKXJq20a Generate your own data snowflake based on your seasonal greeting! pic.twitter.com/RHi5bLBqSF
— @JanWillemTulp@vis.social /@jwtulp.bsky.social (@JanWillemTulp) December 21, 2015
That got me thinking…? Why can’t we make a snow flake pattern in Excel?
This is what I came up with.
Download Excel Snow Flake Maker
Click here to download the Excel workbook. Press F9 to make another pattern. You can also make pentagonal snow flakes. They are very rare, so go easy on them 🙂
Snow flakes in Excel? How…
I am a little too lazy to explain the calculations behind this. But here is the gist. Examine the calc tab in download workbook for more.
- Let’s assume we have regular hexagon with unit radius (r = 1)
- We calculate the vertices of a regular hexagon (x=sin θ & y = cos θ, where θ = {60,120,180…360})
- Then we rotate the hexagon by random degrees (between 3 to 21) on both sides, shrink r by an arbitrary fraction (20% to 80%) and calculate new vertices. Say these are (x1,y1), (x3,y3)
- We also calculate the vertices of original hexagon when r is multiplied by a random number (between 1 and 3). Say this is (x2,y2)
- Now we have 3 points for each vertex of the hexagon
- (x1,y1) – original hexagon rotated by random degrees to right and shrunk
- (x3,y3) – original hexagon rotated by same random degrees to left and shrunk
- (x2,y2) – original hexagon expanded by a random factor
- We then draw a line connecting the origin (0,0) to (x1,y1) to (x2,y2) to (x3,y3) and back to origin – (0,0)
- We repeat this process for all vertices
- We now have a teeny tiny snow flake.
- When you repeat steps 3 to 7 few more times and overlay all these shapes one on top, we get a nice looking snow flake.
The logic is similar for pentagonal snow flakes. We just use different θs in step 2
Enjoy your snow flake, or the real snow if you live in a colder country. Alas, in Vizag, this winter has been a mild summer. So I am going to imagine snow while lounging under fan with a book in my hands.
Happy holidays.
PS: For more visualization fun this holidays, check out Madelbrot fractals in Excel, 3D Dancing pendulums and Excel fire works.
11 Responses to “Fix Incorrect Percentages with this Paste-Special Trick”
I've just taught yesterday to a colleague of mine how to convert amounts in local currency into another by pasting special the ROE.
great thing to know !!!
Chandoo - this is such a great trick and helps save time. If you don't use this shortcut, you have to take can create a formula where =(ref cell /100), copy that all the way down, covert it to a percentage and then copy/paste values to the original column. This does it all much faster. Nice job!
I was just asking peers yesterday if anyone know if an easy way to do this, I've been editing each cell and adding a % manually vs setting the cell to Percentage for months and just finally reached my wits end. What perfect timing! Thanks, great tip!
If it's just appearance you care about, another alternative is to use this custom number format:
0"%"
By adding the percent sign in quotes, it gets treated as text and won't do what you warned about here: "You can not just format the cells to % format either, excel shows 23 as 2300% then."
Dear Jon S. You are the reason I love the internet. 3 year old comments making my life easier.
Thank you.
Here is a quicker protocol.
Enter 10000% into the extra cell, copy this cell, select the range you need to convert to percentages, and use paste special > divide. Since the Paste > All option is selected, it not only divides by 10000% (i.e. 100), it also applies the % format to the cells being pasted on.
@Martin: That is another very good use of Divide / Multiply operations.
@Tony, @Jody: Thank you 🙂
@Jon S: Good one...
@Jon... now why didnt I think of that.. Excellent
Thank You so much. it is really helped me.
Big help...Thanks
Thanks. That really saved me a lot of time!
Is Show Formulas is turned on in the Formula Ribbon, it will stay in decimal form until that is turned off. Drove me batty for an hour until I just figured it out.