Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [excel]

57 questions
25
votes
6 answers

How can I access Excel from my backend?

We have a lot of business logic in Excel files and we would like them to integrate in a web application (a Node.js web application). We don't want to rebuild the logic in a programming language. Instead, we would like to insert data into the Excel…
Martin Böschen
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19
votes
7 answers

Team member questioning moving from VBA to C#

Background Last year, I was asked to create a tool to be used for business planning for around 10 users. This was done on behalf of another IT team who "sub-contracted" the work to me, and due to the project deadlines being a little unplanned on…
i_saw_drones
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16
votes
4 answers

Workflow: Using binary document formats in Git without locks (moving from subversion)

We're a software consultancy with a multitude of projects for different customers. We traditionally use Subversion, but are currently considering moving to Git. A significant portion of the documents we produce are shared with our customers…
skrebbel
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13
votes
5 answers

What methods are available to show colleagues the advantages of a database+application solution over Excel?

I work in a company where there are Excel spreadsheets everywhere. As my colleagues are non-programmers, I'm sure they haven't contemplated that there might be a better/easier/more productive way of managing their data. Naturally, I advocate an…
boatingcow
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11
votes
3 answers

What is a good design pattern for generating an Excel (xlsx) file in code?

See my Update at the bottom for more. I occasionally have projects where I have to output some data as an Excel file (xlsx format). The process is usually: User clicks some buttons in my application My code runs a DB query and processes the…
user2023861
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11
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0 answers

Implement FBP / Dataflow programming in VBA?

Intrigued by Flow Based Programming a la J Paul Morrison. I wonder if one can implement FBP in Excel/VBA. I searched quite a bit for a Basic-Lang FBP implementation to no avail. I've looked at some FBP implementation details in Python but I'm not…
klausnrooster
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10
votes
2 answers

What is the justification for Python's power operator associating to the right?

I am writing code to parse mathematical expression strings, and noticed that the order in which chained power operators are evaluated in Python differs from the order in Excel. From http://docs.python.org/reference/expressions.html: "Thus, in an…
Pieter Müller
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9
votes
6 answers

Software solution from the 2000's, should I attempt to patch or remake the whole thing?

I was sent out to discuss a system that a certain company is currently using and what should be done with it. The company manufactures various carton displays. This system was developed to keep track of clients, orders and prices. Lots have happened…
ShadowScripter
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8
votes
2 answers

Is it OK to have a property of type COM object

I am developing a COM addin for Microsoft Excel, using VB.Net. I wrote a class to represent a worksheet that contains certain elements. Let's say for example it has a ListObject. I create a property for the ListObject like this: Public Class…
Excel Developers
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5
votes
1 answer

Need advice for approach for a web-based app that loads excel worksheet but exposes only the charts

I'm looking for suggestions on the Visual Studio approach to take for a web application that is in the conceptual stage. My environment has a lot of tools: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 64bit Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition Sharepoint…
John
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4
votes
16 answers

What is spreadsheet useful for?

I have been in computer business for 15 years in various roles (sysadmin, developer, researcher), and I have never encountered someone using excel for something more advanced than for formatting tables, or as an ad-hoc database that could have been…
zvrba
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4
votes
3 answers

Requirements engineering done in Excel and Word?

Throughout this semester my classmates and I had to do the pre-coding(?) phase of a project (requirements and such) as part of our Software Engineering course. The way our professor had us do it seems odd to me and I'd like your input. First we were…
Segmentation fault
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3
votes
2 answers

Is Excel data model as good as or better than Microsoft Access?

I'm working with several Excel worksheets and workbooks that need to consolidated or linked to each other. These workbooks will track client interactions for different team members. I did the initial consolidation in Microsoft Excel, but realized…
Jasterix
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3
votes
3 answers

Possible alternatives to excel as business logic implementation

I just started my internship as a computer science student. The project I'm working on is web based price calculation. Previously, the price calculation have been done in a quite huge excel spreadsheet, taking a ton of factors into account when…
Hiromi
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3
votes
2 answers

Reverse Engineering a Spreadsheet into a Model and Controller

I need some help with the approach to a specific project. We have a large excel workbook with a ton of worksheets. There are many user inputs, which formula fields pull, return, repeat. This all ends up in a final report. Each worksheet has…
ZAR
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