CPSC 130
Computing With Spreadsheets
List Management and Macros
Week 7
Outline
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List and Data Management
Database Issues
In closing …
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
2
List and Data Management
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Recall the data hierarchy:
• fields
• records
• files
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Working with Excel lists (aka files)
Converting data to information
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
3
A Data Hierarchy
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Bit
Character, string and number
Field
Record
File
Database
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
4
Information from Lists
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Manipulating lists
Filtering lists
• Similar to database query features
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Summarizing lists with pivot tables
• Similar to database report functions
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
5
Feature Creep
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Now we have facilities for sorting,
input, etc., as well as a means to
deal with multiple worksheets.
We get something approaching a
database management system
(DBMS), without having a one.
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
6
Database Issues
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Database - a collection of data that is:
• persistent
• too large to fit into main memory
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Database Management System - a
system that maintains and provides
multi-user access to a database, and
whose operation is:
• efficient
• convenient
• safe
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
7
Database Issues, cont.

When to use databases (and not
Excel):
• Large data sets
• Formed input and output
• Arbitrary and complicated queries
• Multiple users
• Security
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CPSC-135 covers databases
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
8
“All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death, no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
[98]
Poems
5/29/2016
T. S. Eliot, Choruses From ‘The Rock’, Selected
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964), p. 107.
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
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What is a macro?
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•
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A set of instructions telling Excel what
commands to execute
Written in Visual Basic for Applications
(VBA)
Recorded with the Macro Recorder
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Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
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Recording a macro
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NameAndCourse macro
Shortcut key
Record macro
Stop recording
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Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
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Elements of a Macro
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Sub/End Sub
Comments
Variables
Properties
With Statement
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and Aaron Armstrong
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Step Into
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Executes one command of the macro
Other debugging commands available
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and Aaron Armstrong
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Personal Macro workbook
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Opened every time Excel starts
Only on your machine
Always accessible
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and Aaron Armstrong
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User interaction functions
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InputBox
MsgBox
Example: modifying another macro
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and Aaron Armstrong
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The If Statement
Sub Pepsi()
ActiveCell = _
InputBox("Enter something interesting")
If ActiveCell = "Britney" Then
MsgBox ("Try Pepsi")
Else
MsgBox ("Try Britney")
End If
End Sub
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
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The Do Statement
Sub Redden()
Range("A4").Select
Do Until ActiveCell = ""
Selection.Font.ColorIndex = 3
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Loop
End Sub
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden
and Aaron Armstrong
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