Batman doesn’t have to be the only one building cool and useful tools. One of the best ways for you to excel with Monarch is by building what Monarch calls “user defined functions“.

In and of themselves, they’re a fantastic feature of the product. But when you share your expertise with them with the rest of your group, alleviating them from the nitty-gritty details, you’ll be their hero.

All you need to do is get comfortable with Monarch’s linked objects features, available in V9. Being a fairly extensive topic, Datawatch felt that it was such a significant addition Monarch that it warranted separate documentation. You’ll find that there’s a very nicely written guide (a PDF file) available when you install Monarch.

Once you’re up to speed, give your fellow Monarch users a quick tour of how they can benefit from your hard work by instructing them how they can simply import the various Monarch objects that you’ve created into their models, or by creating links to your work in their models.

To The Bat Cave!

Be a super hero to your organization. Load up your utility belt with high powered custom functions, make them accessible to all, and you and your group will excel with Monarch.

It sounds like the system that they’re trying implement will likely have its own challenges once installed, as it offers literally thousands of canned reports.

Make the most of what you have. Stop working for your data. Make your data work for you. Excel with Monarch.

 Update: In a case of purely coincidental timing, Bob Cringley thinks that SAP is “Acting Squirrelly“.

With the long history of both Excel and Monarch, the challenge for me isn’t so much what to write about, as there’s so much than can be discussed, as much as it is choosing to focus on what it is that is interesting and useful to you.

To that end, I ask that you take a couple of minutes to help me make this site as good as you need it to be. Read a few questions, click a few buttons, and hopefully we’ll all be better for it. Sound fair? Even reasonable?

Great, you’re still here. Let’s begin then, shall we?

I hope this works (crosses fingers). This is my first crack at using a Wordpress plug-in. Hopefully it’ll perform as intended. Oh, if you see charts and no way to vote, click the Vote button. You should then see the buttons to select an answer to each question. OK, here we go then…

Like snowflakes, no two Monarch users are the same, so…

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

With a history of versions going back at least 15 years, we’re bound to be using different versions of the software. Realistically, not everyone upgrades regularly.

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Just as there are users with different versions, everyone has different abilities and comfort levels. What best describes you?

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

And since this is “Excel with Monarch”, we can’t ignore the other half of the equation.

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Just like Monarch, Excel has a long history. What chapter do you look at day in and day out?

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

There’s been debate online about the latest release. I personally haven’t had the pleasure yet, so I still don’t if I really want to move to it permanently or not, just yet. I’m sure that it’ll be forced upon me, likely sooner than later, but until then it 2003 for me. How about you?

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Finally, just as there are many, many topics to discuss relating to Monarch, Excel is just about limitless. That’s probably why there are so many web sites dedicated to Excel - like a big house party, there’s lots of room for multiple discussions.  But again, this exercise is about you, and to an extent the future of this particular site, so…

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

I once again thank you very much for your time and attention. That you continue to visit the site and recommend it to your friends and associates is very encouraging as this endeavor continues to regularly gain more readers in its relatively short existence. I believe that growth of the site indicates that you find it useful and interesting. Your input will help keep it that way, and then together we’ll focus on continuing to learn and excel with Monarch.

But there are a few additional resources to help you get the stellar results that ought to make a huge positive impression with your audience, and today we’ll take a look at some of them.

First, there’s another Excel blog on this very theme that is well worth your attention. Excel MVP Jon Peltier runs the PTS Blog focused tightly on the charting topic. Jon has run his “traditional” web site for some time, and always had excellent content there. Just a few months ago, Jon added a blog to the site and has been updating it very regularly with fantastic content ever since. Nice work Jon.

Next up is what looks like a great addition to Excel for your visual work. Over at BonaVista Systems you’ll find a collection of programs under the “MicroCharts” umbrella. Their MicroCharts are just that: small charts that pack a lot of punch in a very small space. Just like in the physical world, real estate is at a premium on the page or screen, and maximizing your use of it benefits you and your reader. Compare the sample MicroCharts to some of Mr. Few’s content.

There are also some wonderful articles on design on their site. They’ve just closed entry to an Excel dashboard competition, but haven’t posted the winners quite yet. I wish that I’d known about it earlier; I would have pointed it out to you.

Finally, if you’ve not yet heard of Tableau Software, go spend five minutes or so and watch their product tour. I won’t even try to elaborate on this software – just watch the tour. This is very much a case of “a picture’s worth a thousand words”. I’ve used their demo software and was very pleased with what I could accomplish without any assistance or even reading the online help. While I am not currently using the tool, with the little time I did have with the demo I’m already convinced that I can, and should, recommend it to you.

With these visual additions to your current resources, you’ll see how you can communicate a lot of information to your audience, using the solid foundations you build every day as you continue to excel with Monarch.

Accurate Data: The Final Frontier

It’s tough enough sometimes just getting the data we need properly captured from within our reports and other source. But sometimes our data isn’t always exactly what we want it to be, at least in terms of type, and since some manipulations are easier to perform than one type than another, today we’ll examine the functions that allow us to convert from one data type to another.

Asc()

Every single character, number and symbol that you can type in a document and view on your computer (and some that you can’t see too), are stored internally by the computer as values. “Asc” is short for ASCII, an acronym for what essentially is referred to as the standard way that your computer converts characters to values to store and use in its memory. There are countless web pages (even entire sites) that can inform you about the ASCII values (or “ASCII table”), but one of the cleaner, more concise ones available just happens to be on the Datawatch support site.

One additional benefit of the table on the Datawatch page is that at the bottom you’ll find how all of this relates to the Monarch Utility program, and may well be the only official documentation on how to perform search and replace tasks with the Utility.

So what’s the big deal with converting letters and symbols and such into a decimal number, and what would you ever possibly need this for with Monarch? Have you ever seen odd square boxes, or symbols that don’t seem to belong, in a data file? With the Asc() function you can determine exactly what that thing is, and deal with it properly yourself, or tell the supplier of the data file exactly what bad data is being inserted incorrectly into your report.

CharToSeconds()

This function converts a string that looks like a time, like “10:09:36″ into the number of seconds since midnight, a numeric value.

Chr()

Chr() is the opposite of the Asc() function. Where Asc(”A”) returns 65, Chr(65) returns “A”. Chr() is great for inserting symbols like a carriage return: Chr(13).

CtoD()

This indispensable gem has been discussed on this site more than once already, to convert a Character field to a Date field.

DateToJulian()

This function converts a regular date field to a Julian date value. Some ERP systems built with Sybase or JD Edwards software seem to use Julian dates, or variants of them.

DtoC()

Opposites are at work again, this time reversing the CtoD() function, and returning a character string that looks like a date.

JulianToDate()

Anyone care guess what this does?

SecondsToChar()

Yet another opposite function, this time converting the number of seconds from midnight into a character string that looks like a proper time.

Str()

This function converts a numeric value into a character string. The function has a few optional arguments, which allow you to specify how long you want the string to be, the number of decimal place to round the value, and a character with which to optionally fill up any remaining space in the string.

Val()

The final function of this set is also the final opposite; this time converting a character string that looks like a number into a true numeric value.

Universal Translator

I often refer to Monarch, when introducing it to those unfamiliar with it, as a type of universal data translator; able to almost effortlessly convert data from one format or location to another. These functions really do extend the analogy, easily changing and translating raw data from one presentation into another. Use them wisely and you’ll live long and prosper, or at least excel with Monarch.

Today we’ll look at a special category of functions, known as, well, special functions. There aren’t too many, so this might be pretty quick.

If()

Just about every application that allows you to do any kind of analysis has an “If” function, and Monarch is no different. The format is If(condition, result if true, result if false). Incredibly simple, but simultaneously really powerful. If() doesn’t care what kind of data you use for the condition test, as long as it can properly resolve the condition. That means that these conditions are valid, and can be used in an If() function:

MyDateField < {2008-12-31}

ProfitAmount > 999

Left(FullName,3) = "Mr."

but these are not valid in an If() function:

MyDateField < "12/31/2008"

ProfitAmount = "Mr. Bob Smith"

Left(FullName,3) > 999

As well, you can include, or “nest” multiple If() functions together in one expression, such as:

If(ProfitAmount>0,If(ProfitAmount>500,"Great","Good"),"Poor")

In this example, a ProfitAmount of 300 would be “Good”, 800 would be “Great”, and -100, a loss, would be “Poor”.

IsEmpty()

The IsEmpty() function tests to see if a field is empty. I suspect that this is really meant to test character or memo type fields, but Monarch’s online help doesn’t specify that requirement. The function returns a numeric value, either one if the test field is empty, or zero if it isn’t. So if the field MiddleName is blank,

IsEmpty(MiddleName)

would return a one, but if the field held the value “Stephen”, it would return a zero. Close to the IsEmpty() function is…

IsNull()

Where IsEmpty() tests for (I suspect) an empty string, IsNull() tests for absolutely nothing. That is, there’s no value in the field at all. Since IsEmpty works well for character or memo type fields, I would use IsNull() exclusively on numeric or date fields. And just like IsEmpty(), IsNull returns a one when the test is true, and a zero when the test is false.

So if your report has a field where a date is optional for a specific record or transaction type, you can test to see if a date exists for a record before you do a calculation with that date. Let’s suppose that you need to calculate a due date of 30 days after an invoice date, when an invoice date exists, that is. The formula would be:

If(IsNull(InvDate,CtoD("","m/d/y"),InvDate+30)

CtoD(”",”m/d/y”) properly returns a null value to a date type field.

The last two functions in the “special” category are:

Rand() and RandEx()

They both generate a random integer value. Rand() gives you a value between zero and 32,767. RandEx() goes considerably higher; from zero to 4,294,967,295. Random number generators have many practical purposes, but honestly, I rarely use them. In fact, I use Rand() from time to time for creating data from scratch in Excel, but I really don’t recall having ever used either of the random functions in Monarch.

That’s a Wrap

As I said at the top, the list of functions in Monarch’s “special” category of is pretty short. But mastering these functions, especially If() in it’s multiple instance version, can be key in your ability to excel with Monarch.

File()

The File() function returns the full path and filename of the report from which your record was extracted. While this is a pretty straightforward function, and you might wonder why you would ever need to include text like “D:\Reports\Shipping Report.txt” in your data, there are times when I find it absolutely indispensible.

I like to keep my historical data handy, effectively creating mini data warehouses. I like to create topic folders for these mini data warehouses. For instance, I might have an AR folder and a Shipping folder. Within each folder I’ll store reports representing the monthly activity for that topic, as this makes it much easier to extract periodic data which can easily analyzed graphically.

When you store many instances of a report within a topic folder, you need to organize your reports a little. My convention is to start with the topic name, like Shipping, and always include a three letter month and a four digit year, along the file type extension, like “Shipping Jun 2008.prn”. At a glance I know what the file is, and for what period the report was run. Additionally, your report may or may not include data that you can extract to determine a period. And if that’s not troublesome enough, you may share my situation, in which the date that appears in the report isn’t actually properly representative of the actual fiscal period.

So my solution is to extract the period from the filename. Since I know that I will always use a “.prn” (or “.txt” extension, I know that the last four characters in the filename will be an extension. Further I know that I’ll always use a “mmm yyyy” structure just before the extension. That’s seven characters, plus the four for the extension, for a total of 11 characters. So using a Right(File(),12) on “D:\ReportsShipping\Shipping Jun 2008.txt” will give me “Jun 2008.txt” regardless of the category name. Changing that slightly to Left(Right(File(),12),3), I get “Jun”. To get the year, Left(Right(File(),8),4) will return “2008″. Put it together with a “/1/” string in the middle, and you get Left(Right(File(),12),3) + “/1/” + Left(Right(File(),8),4).

Finally, using all of that as the input for a CtoD function, like:

CtoD(Left(Right(File(),12),3)+"/1/"+Left(Right(File(),8),4),"m/d/y")

and you get a valid period in your data that you’ve derived from your filename.

ID()

I find ID() to be a bit of an odd one. It returns the number of the report from which your record was extracted. As you open multiple reports in Monarch simultaneously, Monarch assigns a value of 1 to the first report opened, and adds one to each successive report. In all these years, I’ve yet to find a use for this. Have you?

Line()

The Line() function returns the line on which this record appears in the report. You can get some odd looking, yet accurate, values with Line() when you’re using filters.

Page()

Similar to Line(), Page() returns the page number of the report from which the record was extracted. From time to time I’ve taken advantage of the Page() function when building filters. Some times data appears on the first page of a report that gets captured by an extraction template (based on the trap created in the template), but I didn’t necessarily want that part of the data set. Rather than playing with the trap to somehow exclude that bit, I’ll use the Page() function and filter out all the page one data (Page()<>1).

Recno()

Recno() returns the sequential detail record number, starting at 1. If your data set has 100 records, and your filter only returns three records, you may see 7, 43 and 89 as the only values returned.

Rowno()

Rowno() is similar to results of the Recno() function for some reports, but the notable, and useful, exception is that Rowno() isn’t affected by filters. If your filter returns 100 records, Rowno() will return 1 through 100.

It’s the Function of the Function

The importance of the various functions available isn’t so much what the function actually does, in and of itself, but more how you can use it creatively to achieve something that isn’t immediately obvious. Use your imagination and a little experimentation, and you’ll excel with Monarch.

The problem was that the date in the report appeared in the form of 01-Oct-07, and she wanted 10-01-2007. She’d been trying to use, correctly, the CtoD function, but kept getting null values no matter what she did.

I supposed that she was really close to a possible solution. If she was indeed using CtoD(RptDate,”m/d/y”), where RptDate is a character field, then Monarch would indeed return a null value. A subtle change to CtoD(RptDate,”d/m/y”) yields 10/1/2007.

The date is correct, but that’s not the exact format she wanted. To get that, with leading zeros for both the month and the day numbers, it takes a much more complex formula:

Right("00"+Trim(Str(Month(CtoD(RptDate,"d/m/y")))),2) + "-" + Right("00"+Trim(Str(Day(CtoD(RptDate,"d/m/y")))),2) + "-" + Trim(Str(Year(CtoD(RptDate,"d/m/y"))))

This formula uses the basic date conversion formula as above, but extracts out the day, month and year values, adds leading zeros with some string conversion and manipulation functions, and ties them all together with a couple of dashes.

Just a few minutes later, a member of Datawatch’s online Monarch Forum asked another date related question. In this case, the character date appeared as mmm-yyyy, and once again, CtoD was returning null values.

CtoD needs three values in order to convert to a date: day, month, and year. If you’re missing any of them, CtoD will fail in every case. This means that you’ve got to supply what’s missing yourself to make it work.

Since the report itself didn’t include a day value, then the day number that we supply the CtoD isn’t really important; it’s just an arbitrary value to make the function work. To make sure that your formula works for every month, you could pick the 15th or the 28th, but in situations like this you’re probably better off with choosing the first of the month.

A possible formula to resolve this challenge is as follows:

CtoD(Left(RptDate,3)+"/01/"+Right(RptDate,4),"m/d/y")

Again, string manipulation functions play a role as we pull off the left and right sides of the report date, and add our own day number in the middle, and the “m/d/y” tells Monarch what format to expect in our final string.

Today’s the Day

Monarch includes quite a number of date related functions, and we’re sure to explore them further in the future, but the thing to keep in mind is that sometimes they need a little help from you to get you the right results. Do some more homework today on Monarch’s functions and you’ll soon feel that you can excel with Monarch.

In fact, the process is so repetitive that you’re sometimes finding it almost, well, boring.

Don’t you wish you could have the computer do the work for you? Wouldn’t it be great if you could program it to do your work for you? Of course it would, but there’s one teeny problem: you’re no programmer, right? You don’t know a bit from a byte.

That’s OK. Really. Don’t worry.

The crew at Datawatch made Monarch so that you can give it instructions when you start it up, and it’ll do what you tell it. You don’t even have to click your mouse.

It will open the report you want, apply the right model to it, and send your extracted data to the file you want.

All of this is done with something called “command line parameters”. While it’s all documented in the online help, the process of creating this kind of automation is new to a lot of people, even experienced Monarch users, and they often struggle with this work.

So I thought I’d help.

Introducing Another Exclusive, and Free, Utility

ExcelWithMonarch.com, the web’s first and only site devoted exclusively to Monarch and Excel users, is proud to introduce the ExcelWithMonarch Monarch Batch File Generator (about 1.5MB). This is an Excel file specially programmed to assist you in building small batch files with which you can control your Monarch work.

You can run the batch file by double-clicking on the batch file name that the Generator creates (the name, and location, of the batch file is up to you). This will essentially automate a specific job that you do with Monarch.

You give the program some basic information about the name and location of your data source, your model or project files, the details about how and where you want to store your extracted data (along with other optional data), and with a click of a button the program will make a batch file with which you can control Monarch automatically.

Technical Details

Being an Excel file with program code, there are some specific steps that you must perform before you can use the program on your computer. Those steps are detailed in the file, so I encourage you to carefully review the note included in the file.

The Monarch Batch File Generator has been designed to scan your Monarch model and project files for certain information, namely runtime parameters and project exports. This permits you to assign values to up to three runtime parameters, and either all of the defined project exports you’ve created, or specify up to ten individual project exports by name.

I’ve purposefully left the program code unprotected so that curious and adventurous readers can explore it and possibly use it as a learning tool. Please do not modify the code. The program is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives Works license, and your use of the program constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms of the license. Thanks.

Test, Test and Test Some More

The program has been thoroughly tested (I have spent more hours on this than I care to think about), but if you discover any problems please let me know and they’ll be addressed as soon as possible, as much as I can with the software and environments which I have available.

I’ve used the program on a few computers with the Windows XP and Vista operating systems. I have only Excel 2003 with which to develop and test, so you’re on your own if you’ve got something else. Sorry, but for now, that’s the best I can do.

Of course, if you have some programming expertise and have the ability to contribute (that is, volunteer your time and efforts) to improve the program, that would be most welcome. Contact me about how you can help.

Acknowledgements

No man, nor project, is an island, so I have some thanks to pass along.

First, thanks to my family for allowing me the time to devote to this admittedly self-imposed challenge. It definitely became more than I initially envisioned.

The program makes use of some code published by Microsoft Excel MVP’s Chip Pearson, and Ken Puls, and little bit on accessing help files (thanks guys!).

I began developing this program in earnest some time ago, and I am exceedingly grateful to Nick Osdale-Popa for his fantastic help in getting the program off to a solid start.

Finally, to the many others who also assisted or otherwise contributed in many ways in getting this thing launched: Cheers, and thanks!

This Tool is Not a Cure-All

As much as I wish I could tell you that this little program will solve all of your Monarch troubles, realistically it just won’t.

You still need to create good Monarch building blocks.

You still need to create good Monarch models, optionally with filters and runtime parameter calculated fields.

You still need to create project files with well defined exports.

You still need to give the Monarch Batch File Generator the right inputs in order to get the right output.

Final Notes

On my XP systems, the program feels very integrated with Monarch, in that it detects where the Monarch program is located on the computer, and it uses the favorite folders for reports, models, projects and exports, as defined in the Monarch folder options.

Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for my Vista system, so some compromises had to be made. It still works very well, but it doesn’t quite have that “integrated with Monarch” feel you get when using the program on an XP box.

Well, I suppose that it’s time to let go of it now. All I can do is all I can do. It might not be absolutely perfect in every possible way, but if this utility program helps one single user such as it is, then I’ll be happy.

If you didn’t click the ealier links, download it now: Monarch Batch File Generator.xls (about 1.5MB). Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

I really do hope that you find this to be a useful addition to your toolkit, as you continue to excel with Monarch.

My little utility program began its life as such a simple idea. Then I started working on it (even before I launched this blog), and a little later shared it with a few fellow users who provided some good input. They saw a somewhat bigger vision for it than I did initially. And that was good, as the program is better for it, I think.

Then I gave a live demonstration with a somewhat built up skeleton, and realized that I needed to revamp the whole interface because what existed wasn’t as intuitive as I believed it to be.

When the functionality was pretty good, and the whole thing looked and felt pretty good, I tried making it as accessible as possible for users of different operating systems and different versions of the application software.

In the end I have made some compromises in the interest of “getting it done”. This is version 1, after all, and if one day it merits further development or progression, then I’ll look at what’s needed and see what I can do about it. So I decided to force myself to simplify what was becoming (at my own hand) far too complex.

I’m nearing the end now. It’s almost in a position where I can share it with you.

Monstrous Scope Creep

It’s funny how this really does resemble working with both Excel and Monarch.

You often start out with a vision in your mind of what it is that you want to accomplish. Then you do whatever it takes to get the basics done. Later, requirements for additional functionality are conceived, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes it’s a “wouldn’t it be nice if” type of thing.

With Monarch, the basics are to get the existing data out of where it currently resides and into another format. That’s easy enough, most of the time. Then you look for ways to add value to your data; ways that your organization can benefit even more from what you can acquire and gather. This might include adding calculations or integrating external data, or even exploring different ways to summarize the data so as to gain new insight into the story your data is trying to tell you.

With Excel, your basic worksheet often takes on a life of its own, as various users of your information add more and more levels of complexity, either within the single sheet or integrated with other sheets in the same file or other files. You might even find that you need to introduce macro programs into the file, or enhance macros that already exist. This can be a real challenge if you didn’t create the code originally.

Finally, you’ve got the optimal model (for today anyway) with an Excel file that uses the data you’ve generated with Monarch. The end result gives you a tool that Monarch cannot achieve on its own.

One of the last steps in building your efficient system might be to automate your Monarch work, but many feel that automation is a complicated step that is out of their reach or ability.

Not necessarily. Stay tuned. If I’ve done what I wanted to do properly, I can help you tame the monster somewhat and simplify the complex, and you’ll soon have another way to excel with Monarch.