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| Advanced Excel Essentials |
I set out to write a book on the essentials of Excel development—that is, a book that concisely presents many of the development principles and practices I’ve discovered through my work and consulting experience.
But whether on purpose or by accident, this book has become something considerably more than that. Indeed, another name for this book could be A Contrarian’s Guide To Excel Development. You see, this book will push back against the wisdom of other terrific Excel books, including my favorite book, Professional Excel Development
(Addison-Wesley 2005). To be sure, the information in those books is terrific, and whatever merits this book might achieve, it will likely never come close to the impact of Professional Excel Development.
At the same time, much of the information in these books, I believe, is somewhat dated. For instance, let’s take the case of Hungarian Notation. Hungarian Notation is a variable naming convention encouraged by virtually all Excel development books. Even if you’ve never heard of Hungarian Notation, you’ve likely seen and used it, if you’ve ever looked at or learned from example code. It basically says a variable’s name should start with a prefix of the variable’s type. For instance, lblCaption, intCounter, and strTitle are all examples of Hungarian Notation: the lbl in lblCaption tells us we’re working with a Label object; the int in intCounter tells us we’re working with an integer type, and the str in strTitle tell us we’re working with a string type. If you’ve done any VBA coding before, this is likely not new information.
You might not know this, however: most modern languages have all but abandoned Hungarian Notation. Microsoft’s .NET style guidelines, for instance, even discourage its use. More than a decade has passed since Microsoft last recommended Hungarian Notation. I argue that it’s time for a more modern naming style, which I introduce in Chapter 2.
But this book is concerned with more than just naming conventions. I argue that we should change the way we think about development. Previous books have placed significant emphasis on user interface with ActiveX objects and User Forms. This book will eschew these bloated controls; rather, this book will show you how to develop complex interactivity using the spreadsheet as your canvas. You’ll see that it’s easier and provides for more control and flexibility compared to conventional methods from other books. In addition, I’ll place less emphasis on code and a stronger emphasis on formulas (Chapters 3, 4, and 5). Many books have narrowly defined the principles of advanced Excel in terms of VBA code. But formulas can be powerful.
And often they can be used in place of VBA code. You might be surprised by how much interactivity you can create without writing a single line of code. And how much quicker your spreadsheet runs because of it.
This book is divided into two parts. Part I (Chapters 1-5) deals with concepts that are likely already familiar to you. Specifically they concern VBA code and formulas—but I present these concepts in new ways. Part II makes up the last four chapters of the book (Chapters 6-9). These chapters apply concepts from Part I to a real-world example product I built in my consulting experience. Futhermore, in Part II, you’ll learn how to input form data without making your spreadsheet bloated. You’ll also apply some data analytics used in the field of management science.
However, if you learn anything from my book, it should be that the process of development never stops. The most important skill you’ll need is creativity. Just as I saw different ways to approach a problem than my predecessors, so too should you analyze what’s being presented to you. Undoubtedly, you’ll find even better approaches than I did. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my approaches, but what’s important is that you understand them, so you can see what works, what doesn’t, and why. Because you won’t become an advanced Excel developer through rote
memorization of the material presented herein;
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