•1 min read•from Microsoft Excel | Help & Support with your Formula, Macro, and VBA problems | A Reddit Community
Do you use VBA regularly or have you moved entirely to Power Query and formulas?
Our take
In the evolving landscape of Excel, many users are reconsidering their reliance on VBA for automation. With the rise of Power Query and dynamic arrays, some professionals find these tools meet most of their needs. While VBA remains valuable for specific tasks like automating reports or generating custom emails, the question arises: is it time to shift focus? For those immersed in data-heavy roles, what does your current workflow look like?
I have been using Excel for years and VBA was always my go to for automation. Lately I have been seeing more people say they barely touch VBA anymore because Power Query and dynamic arrays cover most of what they need. I still use VBA for things like automating reports across multiple files or generating custom email bodies from data. But I am wondering if I am behind the curve. For those of you who work in data heavy roles, what is your current workflow? Do you still use VBA regularly or have you replaced it with other tools? Curious if I should be spending more time learning Power Query and the newer formula features instead of maintaining my VBA skills.
[link] [comments]
Read on the original site
Open the publisher's page for the full experience
Related Articles
- I’ve been using Excel more lately and I’m trying to understand some of its more advanced features without making everything overly complicatedWhen working with data that has multiple conditions or needs to update automatically, what are the most efficient functions or tools to use? for example, is it better to rely on formulas like XLOOKUP and FILTER, or are there built in tools that handle this more cleanly? Also, how does excel handle performance when formulas start getting longer or more complex? Is there a point where using too many formulas slows things down significantly? What are the best built-in features in Excel for handling complex data in a simple way? submitted by /u/icepix [link] [comments]
- Get more from Power Query in Excel with these little-known capabilitiesIf you use Excel or Power BI to work with data, you’ve likely encountered Power Query - and may already rely on it regularly across desktop and web. It pulls data together, cleans it up, and prepares it for analysis. But beyond those familiar tasks, Power Query includes several capabilities that can make solutions more flexible, scalable, and easier to maintain. Get more from Power Query in Excel with these little-known capabilities submitted by /u/beyphy [link] [comments]
- how did you improve your workplace's legacy vba macros?I recently transitioned to a non-clinical role in a public health care system. part of the on-boarding was a 12 page, 20 step tutorial on how to 'do the macros'. The workflow simplified is: - Get source data from EHR/BI - Open the excel online (microsoft 365) "Daily Review" workbook in the desktop ms excel. (hopes and prayers it doesn't crash) - copy data (columns of patient ID, demographics, medications... you get the idea) from EHR, paste into this Daily Review - run macro (click a button) which cleans, filters, applies conditional formatting i think - save - go back to excel online and resume editing there. The VBA code was created (not sure if it was written coz it has no documentation) by a colleague who is on extended mat leave. I can see a lot of 'modules'. Can't tell which is active. There are probably lots of historical decisions. The daily review file with its many many sheets is saved in multiple locations in case newcomers like me or others break it by accident. I am told we can't change anything like move a column closer to the beginning coz well we can't. I don't know VBA but could probably figure it out if I watch a tutorial on it. I am linux user and know basics of C, python and make good use of my claude code with the pro subscription but never really worked with spreadsheets. I am wondering if anyone was in a similar situation and how you managed it. Is moving to office scripts (typescript) a viable alternative? Any other life improving tips would be appreciate it. Or maybe I should just give up and focus the energy elsewhere? submitted by /u/Neat-Badger-5939 [link] [comments]
- What repetitive data tasks are you still doing manually?Lately I've been working a lot with CSV files from different sources (banks, exports, random tools), and I keep running into the same issue: - inconsistent column names - messy date formats - duplicate / empty rows I end up fixing things manually more often than I’d like, even though I know it should be automatable. I’ve tried Power Query and some scripts, but it still feels like there are always edge cases that break the flow. Curious — what’s a repetitive data task you still do manually even though you know it shouldn’t be? submitted by /u/CodigoSinBugs [link] [comments]
Tagged with
#Excel alternatives for data analysis#generative AI for data analysis#natural language processing for spreadsheets#real-time data collaboration#data visualization tools#data analysis tools#big data management in spreadsheets#conversational data analysis#Excel compatibility#intelligent data visualization#workflow automation#enterprise data management#big data performance#Excel alternatives#data cleaning solutions#rows.com#AI formula generation techniques#self-service analytics tools#machine learning in spreadsheet applications#business intelligence tools