VBA work

[Sredni Vashtar]

Originally Posted by ronaldy27

Yeah I agree. I have the Excel Bible book but I just can't sit there and read it. When it comes to learning programming,

This is a terrible comparison. A VBA book >>>>> Excel book.

It will include tutorials and it will teach you some fundamental concepts that you will have a hard time mastering on your own, along with some best practices that are really important to pickup.

With that said, I am having a hard time finding a small, do-able project that I can do on my own...

Sure...

How about you find all the primes between 1 and a billion, and have them printed onto a spreadsheet? Then see if you can optimize the process so that it only takes a couple seconds to run...

Or How about a Mad Lib generator, where you write a Mad Lib and then it inserts random words? Or how about a game of poker?

OR OKAY, HOW about you create a VBA file that makes a flip book. Where it generates like 80 tabs, of an askii stick figure jumping up and down over and over again!

[Sredni Vashtar]

Originally Posted by Maphisto's Sidekick

A. Start with a list of 5-10 trios of latitudes/longitudes/time zones of places in the continental U.S. Use VBA to create a table showing sunrise/sunset times of those locations for the next 3 years. (Don't forget about DST; for fun include a location in those parts of Arizona that don't observe DST.)

OR generate a chart, that has a background color that is the actual color of the sky at different times.

And then create a "sun" using an area chart.

And then animate the chart using VBA to make the sun rises on the left side and sets on the right side while the sky changes color.

[campbell]

Originally Posted by Maphisto's Sidekick

I don't know too many VBA-literate actuaries who read a book.

I got started by recording macros and reading the help files. Google searches fill in the gaps.

Do you know me?

To be fair, YouTube didn't exist when I got started.

[campbell]

Bama Gambler makes some good points at the beginning of the sticky on learning VBA:

http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actu...ad.php?t=88423

[ALivelySedative]

Originally Posted by Sredni Vashtar

OR OKAY, HOW about you create a VBA file that makes a flip book. Where it generates like 80 tabs, of an askii stick figure jumping up and down over and over again!

Originally Posted by Sredni Vashtar

OR generate a chart, that has a background color that is the actual color of the sky at different times.

And then create a "sun" using an area chart.

And then animate the chart using VBA to make the sun rises on the left side and sets on the right side while the sky changes color.

I don't understand this trend...I took a MATLAB course in college in which the projects were largely centered around animation and graphics...things which I still don't really care to know about personally. I learned very little about linear algebra or legitimate mathematical applications in that course, and is probably why I still hate MATLAB.

[Sredni Vashtar]

Originally Posted by ALivelySedative

I don't understand this trend...I took a MATLAB course in college in which the projects were largely centered around animation and graphics things which I still don't really care to know about personally. I learned very little about linear algebra or legitimate mathematical applications in that course, and is probably why I still hate MATLAB.

That's hilarious. MATLAB animations! I must have the same sense of humor as your professor.

Although an animation of the sun is pretty stupid, I would argue that Chart-Object manipulation is one of the most common things to do in VBA.

Most of the time you don't really want to do your Math in VBA because you can do it in Excel. And then there's manipulating MS programs outside of Excel, but that is not a good beginner project because it can be tricky to understand the Objects.

[ALivelySedative]

Originally Posted by Sredni Vashtar

I suggested because
1) it's fun
2) It involves working some common Excel Objects, which IMO is the step between "make a simple copy-paste loop that calculates over and over again" and "automate that monthly powerpoint report".

Eh, fair point. But MATLAB is still stoopid.

[Sredni Vashtar]

Originally Posted by ALivelySedative

Eh, fair point. But MATLAB is still stoopid.

FACT.

[Maphisto's Sidekick]

Originally Posted by campbell

Do you know me?

To be fair, YouTube didn't exist when I got started.

Heck, Google just barely existed when they pried Lotus from my hands and started forcing me to use Excel.

I avoid YouTube. It's a black hole into which time gets sucked.

[ALivelySedative]

My boss still keeps his excel files in a folder titled 'LOTUS'.