Ok, this could be a good chance for a few of us to meet up. I’ve booked my place, have you?!
Inaugural UK Office User Group Event
Also check this out!
March 2007
Reporting and Analysis
There are many different definitions of reporting and analysis.
I was interested to read what Zack at Juice Analytics had to say on the matter. To paraphrase, reporting is for things we know well and are predictable where as analysis if for things that are unknown and erratic. Now I’ve only looked at the slides (check them out there good!) so I may have missed the context, but that’s not really the point.
The point is that to me reporting is the process of getting the data on to the screen or paper, digging it out cutting it up that sort of thing. Analysis to my mind, is the process of trying to find out what the hell is going on and why! Business intelligence (a now out of date phrase I believe!) it therefore the process of bringing reporting and analysis together and giving it to the information user who uses it to make decisions.
That’s how I see it any road. (aka: Just my 2 cents!)
I think Zacks’ and my views are both valid, although slightly different. I wonder what other views of reporting and analysis there are?
VBA, SQL, Dates and Strings – the habits we form.
I've just built a dashboard with a bit of SQL. I've not done much for a while but I soon remembered that I have to pass dates very carefully.
SQL now accepts quite a lot of date formats, but as far as I know the American MM/DD/YY is still the standard of DAO? I think SQL server may now have YYYY/MM/DD as the standard.
Personally I always pass dates like this DD/MMM/YYYY, this work fine into an Access DB and that's what I've always used.
I also notice that I tend to pass string variables like this
C++:
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"HAVING (((tblWorkedTime.BDM)=" & Chr(34) & sPerson & Chr(34) & ")
Why I don't use a signal quote?
C++:
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"HAVING (((tblWorkedTime.BDM)='" & sPerson & "')"
I don't know, because I always pass "fixed" string that way very strange.
And then there's the other thing with SQL code, why so some of use the:
C++:
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sSQL = "SELECT..........................."
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sSQL = sSQL & sSQL " FROM..........................."
While others use (the more natural?)
C++:
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sSQL = "SELECT..........................." & _
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" FROM..........................." & _
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" WHERE..........................."
Does anyone do differently? Are there any flaws in these (my) methods? I guess I picked these habits up because they where used in the books I read while I was learning them, but I don't know if there really the best methods?
The best chart in the world Ever!
Sometimes I trawl the internet trying to find new ideas. Quite often it's charts and graphics that I'm looking for. This stopped me dead in my tracks and I had to post about it.
Phenomenal! Talk about pointless!
Soucre: http://www.infosoftglobal.com/FusionCharts/IS/Demos/Literacy/Index.html