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Utilizing Excel's turing capabilities to create Conway's 'Game of Life'
The Background It's been said with Lambda (and LET and a wealth of functions in 365) Excel has become 'turing-complete'. To quote the article linked below: "You can now, in principle, write any computation in the Excel formula language." https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/lambda-the-ultimatae-excel-worksheet-function/ The Challenge I thought it would be fun to create Conway's 'Game of Life' in Excel 365 to see how far I could push things. Conway's Game of Life - Wikipedia The rules are simple: A 'cell' has up to 8 adjacent cells (less if the cell is on the edge of the board). A 'neighbor' is a cell with a 1 while a 'dead' cell is empty. An 18x18 board Multiple iterations Bigger boards! more (it's relaxing to create new shapes and designs) The Approach My first thought was to use MAKEARRAY because I could use 'r' and 'c' coordinates and there would be no stacking. I devised a recursive function that worked for 1 iteration but failed on subsequent iterations because the use of TAKE/DROP was slowly shrinking the board! The revised approach is essentialy a recursive MAP that uses 3 arrays: the input matrix, the 'r' array (row numbers) and the 'c' array (column numbers). It's my way of using r/c without using MAKEARRAY. For Discussion I welcome any improvements to the existing function and any different approaches someone may have to creating Conway's Game of Life. Conway Lambda follows: Conway =LAMBDA(matrix, iterations, IF( iterations = 0, matrix, Conway( LET( height, ROWS(matrix), width, COLUMNS(matrix), r_arr, SEQUENCE(height) * SEQUENCE(, width, 1, 0), c_arr, SEQUENCE(height, , 1, 0) * SEQUENCE(, width), CheckNeighbors, LAMBDA(lattice, r, c, LET( RCx, LAMBDA(row, col, IFERROR(CHOOSECOLS(CHOOSEROWS(matrix, row), col), 0) ), N, RCx(r - 1, c), NE, RCx(r - 1, c + 1), E, RCx(r, c + 1), SE, RCx(r + 1, c + 1), S, RCx(r + 1, c), SW, RCx(r + 1, c - 1), W, RCx(r, c - 1), NW, RCx(r - 1, c - 1), compass, VSTACK(N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW), neighbors, SUM(compass), IF( AND(lattice = 0, neighbors = 3), 1, IF( AND(lattice = 1, OR(neighbors = 2, neighbors = 3)), 1, 0 ) ) ) ), MAP(matrix, r_arr, c_arr, CheckNeighbors) ), iterations - 1 ) ) )
Excel filter search removing previous filter selections, MacBook
Copied from a Reddit post, which describes my problem perfectly: "I have a data set and I want to filter for a series of values in a specific column, say Albert, George, Quellan, and Zelda. My issue is that when I start filtering by name the filter automatically reverts to "Select All" or "Select All Search Results" So I will Search "Albert" and select it, then clear the search and the filter will be back on "Select All" I can search "Albert" and apply the filter, which works for seeing just Albert, but then when I search "George" I run into the same problem. If I search "George" it deselects "Albert" What works is scrolling through and finding each name manually, but there are many names so this is a bit inefficient. Does anyone know what is happening here? Is there some setting I can change so that I can just search each name, select it, then end up with all the names selected?" https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/sq0oa5/excel_filter_search_removing_previous_filter/?rdt=36084 Does anybody know a solution for this? Thanks in advance, Frederik J.
Pulling data from different sheets into a summary sheet
How can I pull employee data from different sheets into a live-updating summary sheet? I have 5 groups of employees — A, B, C, D, and E — with their names listed across 5 separate sheets (one for each group). I’d like to create a summary sheet that displays all employees and the groups they belong to. Sometimes employees change groups. Is there a way for the summary sheet to update automatically when those changes happens?
Find and replace mystery
I am attempting to replace all the occurrences of "$23" within a formula with "$43" [I'm not using the quote marks in the box]. Every single time, it replaces it with "$34" instead of "$43". For troubleshooting, I tried: Find "23" replace with "43" - it worked correctly. Find "$23" replace with "$6300" just to see if a different 'replace with' value would have a different outcome - it still replaces it with "$34" I have another find and replace in the same cell and same formula where I am replacing "$18" with "$38" - it works just fine! I do not have the SUBSTITUTE formula anywhere in this cell. I read somewhere that SUBSTITUTE could affect find and replace. I am stumped. If it matters, the "$23" I am trying to replace is within a SUMPRODUCT formula. I am using 365.SOLVED - Hyperlink function works as Flash Fill but not as Dynamic/spill array
Hello all, I have tracker logs that I'm comparing to my bank and have solved all the issues so far, except for how to spill my Find & Go To hyperlink function. I have a complex formula in range $I$3 that will list all mismatches (bank transactions that are not in tracker and tracker logs that are not in bank) via spill and a data validation list in range $J$3:$J$1000 to select an action from. In range $K$3, I need a spill formula that will search the import sheets for the amount shown on the mismatch list, for each mismatch, then go to it upon click. In range $K$3:$K$1000, I currently have individual formulas that will check if the mismatch contains "Bank" and if so will display a hyperlink that extracts all text then reads the amount as a value, then matches it to the Tracker Import sheet. Otherwise, it will display a hyperlink that does the same thing but matches it to the Bank Import sheet. Logical Test (checks if it contains "Bank"): Value if True (creates hyperlink to the mismatch amount on the Tracker Import sheet): Value if False (creates hyperlink to the mismatch amount on the Bank Import sheet): This works perfectly fine but when I do it as a spill formula, the links either don't work or take me to the incorrect sheet/cell. Formula (Flash Filled range $K$3:$K$1000 - working): =IFERROR(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("*Bank*",I3)),HYPERLINK("#'Tracker Import'!"&ADDRESS(MATCH(VALUE(LEFT(I3,FIND(" ",I3)-1)),'Tracker Import'!$D$2:$D$1000,0)+1,4),"View Log"),HYPERLINK("#'Bank Import'!"&ADDRESS(MATCH(VALUE(LEFT(I3,FIND(" ",I3)-1)),'Bank Import'!$F$2:$F$1000,0)+1,6),"View Transaction")),"") Formula (spill from range $K$3 - not working): =IFERROR(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("*Bank*",I3:I1000)),HYPERLINK("#'Tracker Import'!"&ADDRESS(MATCH(VALUE(LEFT(I3:I1000,FIND(" ",I3:I1000)-1)),'Tracker Import'!$D$2:$D$1000,0)+1,4),"View Log"),HYPERLINK("#'Bank Import'!"&ADDRESS(MATCH(VALUE(LEFT(I3:I1000,FIND(" ",I3:I1000)-1)),'Bank Import'!$F$2:$F$1000,0)+1,6),"View Transaction")),"") Notes: • Range 'Tracker Import'!$D$2:$D$1000 is an Amount column that lists logs from my Spending Tracker. This range is just values. • Range 'Bank Import'!$F$2:$F$1000 is an Amount column that lists transactions from my bank statement. This range is just values. • If the Mismatch List says an amount is not found in the Bank, that means it's an existing amount in the Tracker that shouldn't be there, and vis versa. I would highly appreciate any solution to make my current formula a spill formula. Thank you!
