My 10 computer skills learning during COVID-19

What skills I learned during COVID-19. 

I am restricting only to computer related skills. 

1. VBA. I had learned it already. Starting using it again and improved my VBA skills a bit.

2. Python 2.7. I learned it on Ubuntu with its built-in all purpose editor. 

3. Linux and writing shell scripts on Ubuntu. Also learned to upgrade Ubuntu version. 

4. Python3. I bought a new Windows laptop and learned the entire Data Science Stack. Key components were pandas, Matplotlib. 

5. Excel power query. Learned "M" language. 

6. Power BI. Learned DAX expression language. 

7. Power Shell and its scripts. 

8. MacOS. Learning the new MacOS. 

9. 2FA. Setting up two factor authentication, on all important web accounts, which is must these days. 

10. Google App scripts. I started it in 2015, but couldn't take it forward. I started it again. I wrote a script yesterday to create calendar entries from Google Sheets. 

The real challenge is what do I do with it? I am working on finding the answer. 

A quick way of CSR Reporting II Using Excel SUMPRODUCT

Example of SUMPRODUCT function in Excel used for an example from Social Sector. 

Continuing from my previous blog post. I have added a date column. 

Now your manager wants to know the spend on covid relief related activities for January to March of 2021.

You could easily answer the question using SUMPRODUCT function. The expression will look like =SUMPRODUCT(Table1[Amount]*--(Table1[Date]<DATE(2021,4,1))*--(Table1[Date]>DATE(2020,12,31))*--(ISNUMBER((SEARCH("covid",Table1[Purpose],1)))))

The answer is Rs 4,25,000.

I had converted the range in to Excel Table before using it.  

To check if your answer is correct, filter the Date and Purpose column as shown below. Our answer matches and it is correct.

10:59 03-09-2021

CSR Reporting I Using Excel SUMPRODUCT

Example of SUMPRODUCT function in Excel used for an example from Social Sector. 

Let us assume, that as a funding company your donations for a month are as per the table given below. 

Amount in Rupees	Description
25,000	Covid Relief - PPE kits
10,000	Covid Relief - Grocery kit
40,000	Covid Relief - Grocery kit
20,000	General Donation for healthcare activities
44,000	Medical Assistance
3,50,000	Covid relief activities
10,000	General donation
6,000	Monthly aid
89,600	50% advance for supply of medicines
5,00,000	Covid relief activities
4,980	Supply of groceries to tribal children
5,00,000	Relief activities for Covid
49,450	Scholarship
22,166	Scholarship

Your manager wants to know the spend on covid relief related activities for that particular month.

Now let us find out how SUMPRODUCT function can do the conditional sum. The Excel SUMPRODUCT function multiplies ranges or arrays together and returns the sum of products.

The expression to use is =SUMPRODUCT(Table1[Amount]*--(ISNUMBER((SEARCH("covid",Table1[Purpose],1))))). Where the dataset has a name of Table1.

If the term covid is found, the search function returns a number indicating its position. ISNUMBER function then would return True. The double negative forces True and False to 1 and 0 for doing the multiplication. Then the addition. 

=SUMPRODUCT(Table1[Amount]*(ISNUMBER((SEARCH("COVID",Table1[Purpose],1))))) is similar to the above formula. 

Thus, to recap, wherever the word covid is found, the function returns “True”, and the corresponding amount is multiplied by 1. All such amounts are added. The search term “covid” is not case sensitive. You can use “COVID” as well. The answer is Rs 14,25,000. 

Similarly formula =SUMPRODUCT(Table1[Amount]*--(ISNUMBER((SEARCH("Scholarship",Table1[Purpose],1))))) can be used to calculate donations given as Scholarships. The answer is Rs 71,616.

In my next blog, I will add another dimension of time to calculate the conditional sum.

13:26 01-09-2021

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