Category Archives: Excel

I have been analyzing seemingly random fuse failures in different products. The failing fuse is similar to the unit shown in Figure 1. My analysis has shown that the fuses are failing because of damage they are sustaining during the manufacturing process. In my analysis report, I was asked to list each product that experienced a fuse failure and to list how many days each product was in service before the fuse failure occurred. Continue reading →

While working on a test report for an aircraft manufacturer this week, I needed to convert a large number of number lists to strings of dashed ranges. For example, suppose you are given a list {1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10}. Converting this list to a dashed set of ranges means generating the string "1-3, 5, 6-8, 10." Figure 1 shows another example with an optional prefix added to each number. Continue reading →

I have been using Excel's DATEDIF function for years to determine the age of items in years, months, and days. I did not know that the function was unsupported and had issues until I ran into a bug last week. Because much of my personal work involves dates, I need to have an accurate age calculation function for use in Excel and Power Query. In this post, I will discuss a DATEIF workaround that I found online (Figure 1) and a Power Query age calculation function that I wrote based on a concept from Imke Feldmann. My workbook is available here for those who are interested. The workbook shows how I tested the routine by comparing it with the DATEDIF workaround results. I tested the boundary conditions and then random dates. The results agreed with the DATEDIF workaround of Figure 1 and an online date calculator. Continue reading →

In this post, I will use Power Query )PQ) to gather (aka web scrape) the US Medal of Honor (MOH) recipient names, rank, service, and conflict from a website called the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (CMOHS), which states that there have been  3505 MOH recipients. They have a beautiful website with the records stored on 140 ages with 25 names per page and one page with 5 names. Normally, I would use Python to scrape a large number of web pages but I am trying to use PQ more because my customers all have Excel. My approach as a contractor is always to work within the existing infrastructure of my customers. A copy of my workbook is available here. Continue reading →