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Keystone-Technologies / keystone-technologies.github.io

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Spreadsheet Reports #42

Open s1037989 opened 8 years ago

s1037989 commented 8 years ago

Problem

This is likely a solved problem.

Spreadsheets are great and are capable of a lot. Especially when you start taking advantage of the extra capabilities like scripting. I imagine this is all possible with scripting (why shouldn't it be) but this problem seems so commonplace that creating a full blown set of scripts just seems overkill... Surely there's an easier way.

Example Situation:

I'm working a problem for Becky's BNT Wellness programs. She tracks all kinds of data through the data that people submit (I sat up 9 times) and data that she takes (you weigh 82 pounds and are 133 inches tall). This data comes in at all rates, never consistently -- you never know what you're going to get when.

As a simple example, what is someone's BMI at any given time? BMI is function of weight and height. We can't know your BMI at all times because we don't know your weight and height at all times, but we can say what your BMI was at the last known time of data. But when a function has multiple data points and the data points are taken inconsistently, you have to grab the latest ones, perhaps each from a different date. And what about when you want to search for latest data points for the purpose of this BMI function but only within a certain date range? And then you want to see what the change in BMI is from the start to end.

All of this should be pretty simple to do, but I can't figure out how to do it with basic spreadsheet functionality. I also couldn't figure out a good way to operate it through spreadsheet scripts, but I'll admit by knowledge is severely limited in this area.

  1. Is it possible to do with basic spreadsheet functionality?
  2. Can solving this problem be made generic enough (i.e. no scripting necessary) so that it can be sold as an add-on for spreadsheets?
  3. If it's not the best use of spreadsheets, how to handle it?

    Proposal

Stop using computers to make your life easier -- they actually make your life far worse.

Mayfieldtechnologies commented 8 years ago

This should be relatively simple to script in Excel using native formulas. Lets plan to meet and discuss the details.