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May 3 2017 09:17pm
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Two considerations:
1. good for working with Microsoft Excel
2. generally useful, worth-while language to learn

Question: Which programming languages should I consider? Does one stand out above others?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


My background & purposes:
I used to program with C++, I don't remember much about the language in specific. I understand programming in general, but I need to learn from the ground up.

Extra info if you need it:
I want to be able to automate some of the things I do in excel. I have to write projects, but the features within excel are inconvenient sometimes. For example, linking cells between tabs can get messy. Various things come up, and I'd like to be able to write my own custom scripts to handle very specific needs for odd projects.
I also just want to be able to program for fun. If anything comes to mind, I'd like to be able to do it. I realise one programming language might not fit every need -- but I'd like to pick a good one to commit to for now.

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on May 3 2017 09:42pm
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May 3 2017 10:15pm
VBA vs. Python vs. ????
C sharp?

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on May 3 2017 10:26pm
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May 4 2017 02:31am
From reading everything, i'd take a guess at python perhaps?
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May 4 2017 02:38am
What do you mean with "good for working with Excel"?

C# has good support for Excel. But if you want to do programming inside Excel, VBA is pretty much your only option.
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May 4 2017 04:43am
Python has great libraries for working with CSV files like excel files.
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May 4 2017 09:59am
Quote (Mastersam93 @ May 4 2017 05:43am)
Python has great libraries for working with CSV files like excel files.


I agree.
Python is my favorite and makes it really easy to read/write csv files (excel files)
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May 4 2017 07:08pm
Thanks guys.

So I'm really interested in:
- Python
- VBA
- C Sharp

Each for their own reasons. I think I'll pick two (but I'll start with one).

Which is best to do these things with excel (for personal use):

- Create a menu interface which can be used as the central command system which links between excel (multiple excel files), the user (me), and word or text files as well. The menu interface is where commands would be made.
- Read excel so that I can do reads/writes of existing files. For example, I'd like to design my own conditions for reading journal entries. Or for reading a trial balance. Since formatting can range, I'd need to be able to read positioning, and all details about each cell (ex. if it's part of a table, and so on and so forth). If I edit that excel file instead of just pull the data, I'd need to be able to read a full range of information.
- If I'm writing a fresh excel file, I'd need full access to all commands. If I pulled information from an excel file, I'd like to be able to sort, analyse, etc, and then write according to my specification.


The core of what I want to start is basic ways of reading and storing information (the way I want to store it). From there I want to add on ways to read information conditionally, ways to sort information within my own system, and various macroscopic tasks.

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on May 4 2017 07:11pm
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May 4 2017 07:23pm
The other question: Can any of the three options be utilised in Mac OS X (with Excel)?

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on May 4 2017 07:23pm
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May 5 2017 06:06am
Quote (Canadian_Man @ May 4 2017 08:23pm)
The other question: Can any of the three options be utilised in Mac OS X (with Excel)?



Python can be.
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May 6 2017 07:29pm
Quote (Leevee @ May 4 2017 03:38am)
What do you mean with "good for working with Excel"?

C# has good support for Excel. But if you want to do programming inside Excel, VBA is pretty much your only option.


This. If you're dealing with Excel you should be doing so in C#. The old way was VB so don't both with that unless you need to.
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