VBA for Modelers: Developing Decision Support Systems Using Microsoft Excel

by S. Christian Albright

Book Overview

Help your students master both basic and advanced skills in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), the programming language for Microsoft Office, with this essential tool. Chris Albright�s VBA... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0534380123
• ISBN13: 9780534380120
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: South Western Educational Publishing
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Tells you just what you need to know

This book is excellent for the person who simply wants to expand their ability to use Excel without becoming a VBA expert. Most books on VBA seem to be written for computer professionals who, for example, seem to want to know about every data type that can be handled before learning anything else. Most of us would rather just learn how to do the things we need to do. This book uses this much more useful route (for ordinary folks)and tells us how to do the basic kind of stuff that we need to do (and that isn't at all obvious how to do): Key topics are accessing data in a range of a worksheet, outputting data to a range, writing a function, etc. etc. It only tells you what you need to know and it explains it all clearly. I had banged my head against a wall before finding this book and it answered all my questions and dissipated all my frustrations. I've recommended it to many of my friends.

The best book to learn VBA programming for Excel

I looked through some 5 rated books on the subject before and after buying this book. Honestly, this is just simply THE BEST. It introduces to the reader basically all the concepts you need to learn to start writing VBA code for excel. It is just excellent, because there is both theory and very practical examples. You do not need to know anything about programming to start this book. Only thanks to this book (the other books that I tried to read where just useless for me) currently I am writing VBA codes in excel, which allowed to decrease routine works with excel at work from several hours to a matter of several minutes. It is really fascinating. If you do not know much about VBA programming in Excel. This is the book to get. Reference books such as Excel 2002 VBA: Programmers Reference are not useful, because they are references, they do not really teach unless you know what you are looking for. Before buying this book I tried Advanced modelling in finance using Excel and VBA. No comparison.

Perfect for the Excel user

I started reading this book because I was interested in creating decision support systems for Microsoft Excel. Because of time constraints, i did not get to read the whole book. However, the first 6 or 7 chapters of this book have helped me grasp the basics of VBA perfectly. I have saved a great many hours (spent previously doing repetitive mind-numbing tasks in excel) by writing a few simple lines of code (and remember, I have very little programming experience). I hope to learn even more by reading the whole book, but trust me, this book is worth its price, just for the first few chapters

Simply the Best!

This book provides the necessary knowledge for building advanced systems for quantitative analysis in Excel.It covers all relevant aspects of programming with VBA which are necessary for building a decision support system and introduces the concepts by examples often found in the book "Practical Management Science" from Winston and Albright. From a didactic point of view the structure is very good because the first examples are easy to understand while the later ones are quite sophisticated. All in all it is an excellent textbook for teaching graduate MBA students who are interested in programming and have a good background in management science.

A VBA for Excel Jewel

VBA for Modelers by Albright is a jewel. The author, who's other books include Practical Management Science: Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications and Data Analysis & Decision Making with Microsoft Excel among others, targets this book for those with little or no programming experience. Forget the Excel VBA coverage in books like Benninga's Financial Modeling or Advanced Modeling in Finance Using Excel and VBA by Jackson and Staunton. Each of these books has strengths but their coverages of VBA is considerably more disjointed and sketchy. At best, Benninga and Jackson and Staunton can be said to "demonstrate" how VBA can enhance financial modeling in Excel, while providing little in the way of quality instruction on VBA.Albright's strength is concise, effective language supplemented with numerous examples and an ample number of extended exercises which enable readers to solidify and extend understanding. Chapters 1-13 are a quality VBA primer for readers with little or no programming experience. A distinguishing feature of the book is the coverage in Chapters 14-30 where specific applications are demonstrated and extended. The real strength of this book is that it is written by a fine educator who develops understanding in a systematic and effective fashion. With some work on the reader's part this book provides rewarding results.