Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#1

Post by lelf » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions
techcommunity.microsoft.com

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#2

Post by rajandatta » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:07 PM UTC

This is extremely significant to simplifying spreadsheets.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#3

Post by tgv » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

rajandatta wrote: post #2

This is extremely significant to simplifying spreadsheets.

Yes, but there is no mention of debugging. In the hands of Excel cowboys, this can become another foot gun.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#4

Post by bombcar » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

rajandatta wrote: post #2

This is extremely significant to simplifying spreadsheets.

I see it making spreadsheets easier to convert into code, too. Many “business programs” begin as a spreadsheet.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#5

Post by dsalzman » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:19 PM UTC

I hope they add an import and export function to this. Ideally you could sync these functions at an org level via O365.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#6

Post by bombcar » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

tgv wrote: post #3

rajandatta wrote: post #2

This is extremely significant to simplifying spreadsheets.

Yes, but there is no mention of debugging. In the hands of Excel cowboys, this can become another foot gun.

A number of bugs will be solved by moving to it (a copied function is typo’d in one cell, etc) and you can test it pretty easily in a cell.

Excel is basically a REPL with cells.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#7

Post by ryanmarsh » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

dsalzman wrote: post #5

I hope they add an import and export function to this. Ideally you could sync these functions at an org level via O365.

Then you need version control. Better to let the document be the boundary of consistency.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#8

Post by ryanmarsh » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

Does Google sheets let you do anything like this?

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#9

Post by geocar » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:26 PM UTC

I love the branding "custom functions without code" right before a bunch of code.

Reminds me how early word processors (the person, not the software) were convinced to program word processors (the software this time) just by calling the programs "macros".

I'm not joining Microsoft's beta program right now, but I'm curious if anyone knows the data type of a =LAMBDA?

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#10

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

They sort of already had this with the old style pre-VBA Excel macros.