Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you think is the difference between Excel formulas and code?
Using an inbuilt Excel formula vs creating a formula with VBA?
But they're both code.
Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
81–90 of 112 posts
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#82Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they're both code.
If you agree to the statement that any accountant which uses Excel formulas to do bookkeeping is also a software developer, then yes, you and OP are correct.
Why do you think you have to be a 'software' developer to write code though?
Lots of people write code, using lots of applications and devices - spreadsheets, MATLAB, database queries, it's all code.
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#84I don't understand the point of this function, when Excel already has Power Query. It doesn't seem like anyone who is literate in functional programming would want to use this, and anyone who isn't up to it wouldn't either. One of the most annoying things about Excel is it has so many parts apparently designed by people or groups that didn't talk to each other and didn't have a grasp of all the rest of it, let alone…
Nobody at MSFT talks to their counterparts. I cringe every I have to copy and paste between Teams, Outlook and OneNote. There have to be internal customers there with the same problems.
One that threw me for a loop recently was the spell check dictionary and suggestions.
Mess up in Outlook, you right click and it gives a couple suggestions. It'll call out the typo right after you finish the word.
Mess up in Teams? It'll wait until you finish the next word (charitably, giving you a second to figure it out?) then will suggest a different word than Outlook would.
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#85Naive but serious question: couldn't Excel create a special / hidden sheet for lambda functions, thereby allowing them to be easily written on multiple lines, with some kind of standard formatting, then calling a lambda from a cell would be of the form: =LAMBDA(global_function_name, [cell_input_1, cell_input_2, ...]) Wouldn't this be a cleaner design? Trying to deal with cells whose formulas are way too long to be pu…
You can create a multiple line formula. Alt+Enter when editing the formula.
If I'm writing a longer formula that's going to be tough to read, I make it multiple lines and add spaces at the start of the lines for indentation. Makes readability so much better!
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#86This has to be an April Fools, it's just posted early and we're talking about it late. It's not real right? right?
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody at MSFT talks to their counterparts. I cringe every I have to copy and paste between Teams, Outlook and OneNote. There have to be internal customers there with the same problems.
One that threw me for a loop recently was the spell check dictionary and suggestions. Mess up in Outlook, you right click and it gives a couple suggestions. It'll call out the typo right after you finish the word. Mess up in Teams? It'll wait until you finish the next word (charitably, giving you a second to figure it out?) then will suggest a different word than Outlook would.
It seems like they are long past the days of a CEO being able to say “Make this stuff work together.”
I’m still impressed with their renewal as a company. Rare for a stagnant tech firm to come back.
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#88Coming up next: Excel Lambda back-end experimental support on LLVM. (Just a joke)
Excel is a very useful tool for many non-programmers employees. With LAMBDA they can have a more expressive system without the need to touch VBA, JS, PQ M language, nor jump to Python.
Are we able to generate side-effects with it? Like poking the value of a cell?
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#89Naive but serious question: couldn't Excel create a special / hidden sheet for lambda functions, thereby allowing them to be easily written on multiple lines, with some kind of standard formatting, then calling a lambda from a cell would be of the form: =LAMBDA(global_function_name, [cell_input_1, cell_input_2, ...]) Wouldn't this be a cleaner design? Trying to deal with cells whose formulas are way too long to be pu…
You can create a multiple line formula. Alt+Enter when editing the formula. If I'm writing a longer formula that's going to be tough to read, I make it multiple lines and add spaces at the start of the lines for indentation. Makes readability so much better!
A good tip there for folks to help readibility. I also love to paste in really crazy formulas here to really see them in a well formatted mode in the cell.
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they're both code.
If you agree to the statement that any accountant which uses Excel formulas to do bookkeeping is also a software developer, then yes, you and OP are correct.
> If you agree to the statement that any accountant which uses Excel formulas to do bookkeeping is also a software developer
They are as much a software developer as they are a writer because they write e-mails; a presenter because they present the annual accounts to the CFO; and a cleaner because they put away their mugs at the end of the day (usually.. hopefully..)
You don’t have to be someone because you sometimes do something that other person also does.