Data logging with excel

Logically Proven .

Thursday, 26 February 2015

How to create a LOG file in excel and access — VBA

Welcome to Logically Proven blog.

This post demonstrates how to create a log file in excel or access using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code.

Consider a scenario, the application is logging the user details into the log file who are accessing the application.

Here is application may be excel or access which is located in the network location which is accessed by the multiple users.

The log data contains the application name, who are accessing the application and the application accessed date.

In the below example I am considering the excel application which logs the data into the LOG file. The application appends the data to the LOG file every time the application is accessed.

Achieving this functionality by logging the user details when the workbook is opened.

So, the workbook open event code looks like this —

LogInfo is the sub-routine which saves the application name, user name and the access date of an application.

If the log file doesn’t exist, the application creates automatically at the run-time. But the path should be valid and exists otherwise the application runs into error. And make sure the application is having the permissions to create and write into the log file.

This method takes one argument which is the message that you want to write into the log file.
This method appends the log message every time the application is accessed.

This way the application logs the user details who are accessing the application. You can add the same functionality in many cases for example when user modifies something in the excel or access database you can trigger the code to save the user details and what modifications did.

LOG file is very useful to analyse the application. So keep logging your application.

Please write your comments if you find anything is incorrect or do you want to share more information about the topic discussed above.

Logically Proven
Learn, Teach, Share

Computer Science graduate, Techie, Founder of logicallyproven, Love to Share and Read About pprogramming related things.

Источник

How to make an external log using Excel VBA?

The code has been updated to reference the changes below.

This log system create an external document for Excel called Log.txt, it will create a line in the log.txt file that looks like this:

11:27:20 AM Matthew Ridge changed cell $N$55 from ss to

This will not tell you if someone entered a new line of code into the sheet, but if the code demands an answer, it will tell you what cell that answer is in. This codes below should work for both Mac and PC systems combined. If people find it doesn’t please say.

This code was created with the help of people here, and other forms, so I can’t take sole proprietorship of the document, but I can take ownership of the concept. So thanks to those who helped, without this there now wouldn’t be a viable logging system for Excel in my opinion 😉

BTW, before anyone freaks out and asks where does this code go, it isn’t obvious to the general/new end user. You need to go to the Developer Tab open it up, click on Visual Basic, and when the new window opens look for Microsoft Excel Object; under that folder should be your workbook. You can either put it under ThisWorkbook or inside any of the sheets by double clicking on the sheet you want the code to be in.

Once the sheet is open on the right panel, you will see Option Explicit, if you don’t it is best if you activate it by making sure the Require Variable Declaration is checked. This is found at the Visual Basic window again, and follow this path:

Tools-> Options -> Editor.

If it is checked then you have no worry, if not then you check it. Option Explicit is a good thing for you code, it forces you to declare variables, which is a good practice to begin with.

After it is verified, you can copy the code below to either paste it in your Workbook, or a specific sheet depending on your needs.

Version 2.01

As time goes by, I will attempt to update this code to add more features to it as I deem fit.

Again thanks to all that helped, it is greatly appreciated to make this possible.

Источник

Windmill Software Ltd
Data Acquisition Intelligence

Connect Sensors and Instruments to Excel

Windmill software collects data from instruments and devices connected to your PC. We have a range of drivers for many types of equipment, and now offer our newsletter subscribers free software to log data from instruments connected over RS232, RS485, Modbus and TCP/IP. This means that you can connect these instruments to Excel.

Using Excel you could average readings over time or a number of sampling points; calculate control outputs; or put data directly into reports. You can collect data with the Windmill Logger trial or free ComDebug application, and after collection has finished import it into your Excel spreadsheet. Alternatively you can transfer live data, using dynamic data exchange.

Importing Logged Data into Excel

The easiest way to get data into Excel is to open a logged data file after collection has finished. Windmill Logger can periodically close one data file and start another without pausing data collection, so no need to interrupt your tests or experiments to see the data.

1. In Excel, from the File menu select Open.
2. Select «All Files» as the file type.
3. Choose your Logger *.wl file from the Windmill folder. (Or your WM Collect file if using the Microlink 840 Data Logger.)
4. Excel will recognise this as a tab separated value file. Use the default options offered by the spreadsheet for importing the data.
5. Save the data as an Excel file.

Example of data logged by Windmill being analysed in Excel

Acquiring Live Data in Excel

Windmill 7 lets you aquire live data in Excel using DDE. Just copy and paste data links which will continually update with live values. For more sophisticated tasks you can use a macro to grab data from Windmill. Some examples are given below

Copying and Pasting Live DDE Data Links

The Windmill DDE Panel lets you copy and paste live data into Excel.

1. In DDE Panel, press the Copy to Clipboard button
2. Choose the type of information you want to copy: data values, channel names, data units, alarm settings, etc.
3. Move to Excel and select Paste Special from the Edit menu.
4. Choose to paste as a link. Continually updating live data will appear in Excel.

For more sophisticated tasks, or to log live data in Excel, you can use macros.

Using Macros for Analysis and Control with Excel

Excel offers you analytical capabilities and lets you calculate control values to send back to the hardware.

To try out data acquisition into Excel

1. Load Windmill DDE Panel and start collecting data from your instrument.
2. Load Excel with a clean sheet, and then choose Record New Macro from the
   Tools > Macro menu. Create an empty macro and then copy and paste the example macros given below into it.

We have three example macros. The first reads data from one channel, for example the current temperature reading. The second shows how to send data to an analogue or digital output. The third reads data from all instruments’ channels.

Reading data from one channel

To read data from one channel called Chan_00 and place it into a cell in the spreadsheet, create the following VBA code. (A channel holds one type of data. For a laboratory scale, you might have one channel holding the current weight. For a GPS receiver you might have two channels: one holding latitude and one holding longitude.)

Sending Data to an Analogue or Digital Output

Reading Data from All the Instruments’ Channels

This macro repeatedly samples data from all the instruments’ channels and stores the data in the Excel worksheet (by default Sheet 1). When the macro is run the operator chooses how many times to sample all the channels, and the interval between taking sets of samples. The macro loops until the required amount of samples have been collected. Make sure DDE Panel is running before starting the macro. You can quickly check DDE links by Copying them to Clipboard in DDE Panel and using Paste Special in Excel, before running the macro.

Another good macro for logging data, this time only logging when new data arrives, is given in Issue 56 of Monitor. Many more example macros are given in our Excel Tips and Tricks page.

Data Acquisition Example

In the example below Excel is reading data from the Windmill DDE Panel and storing it in cells B4 — B8. These cells are updated automatically whenever DDE Panel takes new samples, at which point Excel calculates the average and standard deviation and stores them in cells B10 and B11.

Источник

How to Transform Data in Excel (Log, Square Root, Cube Root)

Many statistical tests make the assumption that datasets are normally distributed.

However, this assumption is often violated in practice. One way to address this issue is to transform the values of the dataset using one of the following three transformations:

1. Log Transformation: Transform the values from y to log(y).

2. Square Root Transformation: Transform the values from y to √ y .

3. Cube Root Transformation: Transform the values from y to y 1/3 .

By performing these transformations, the data typically becomes closer to normally distributed. The following examples show how to perform these transformations in Excel.

Log Transformation in Excel

To apply a log transformation to a dataset in Excel, we can use the =LOG10() function.

The following screenshot shows how to apply a log transformation to a dataset in Excel:

To determine if this transformation made the dataset more normally distributed, we can perform a Jarque-Bera normality test in Excel.

The test statistic for this test is defined as:

JB =(n/6) * (S 2 + (C 2 /4))

• n: the number of observations in the sample
• S: the sample skewness
• C: the sample kurtosis

Under the null hypothesis of normality, JB

You actually describe two kinds of functionality here — logging and reporting.

Excel file is by no means a realtime data storage. It’s suitable for reporting, but not for logging.

I would suggest accumulating data somewhere else, for example in a relational database or just in csv files, depending on your reliability and scalability needs, and aggregate the excel files for closed time periods, for example: dayly, hourly, every minute.

If you absolutely need to add many items to different excel sheet at runtime, you can use Microsoft OleDb driver:

        const string connectionString =
             @"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Extended Properties=Excel 12.0 XML;Data Source=C:sourceMyExcel.xlsx;";
        using (var conn = new OleDbConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();

            foreach (var sheet in new[] { "sheet1", "sheet2", "sheet3" })
            {
                using (var cmd = new OleDbCommand())
                {
                    cmd.Connection = conn;

                    try
                    {
                        cmd.CommandText = "CREATE TABLE [" + sheet + "] (id INT, datecol DATE );";
                        cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
                    }
                    catch (Exception) // TODO: find better way to determine existing sheet
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Can't create {0}", sheet);
                    }
                }

                for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
                {
                    using (var cmd = new OleDbCommand())
                    {
                        cmd.Connection = conn;
                        var datecol = DateTime.Now;
                        var id =  i;
                        cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO [" + sheet + "](id, datecol) VALUES(@id,@datecol);";
                        cmd.Parameters.Add("@id", OleDbType.Integer).Value = id;
                        cmd.Parameters.Add("@datecol", OleDbType.Date).Value = datecol;
                        cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
                    }
                }
            }
            conn.Close();
        }

In this article, we’ll explore how to use Microsoft Excel for data-logging using the RIO Pocket PLC and an Ethernet connection. I’ll explain the steps necessary to get from a blank spreadsheet to a useful data logging application in about 15 minutes.

There are a few things needed for this to work. The first thing is a RIO-471×0 (although any DMC motion controller with Ethernet capability will also work) and the second thing is to install GalilTools($195) or GalilTools-Lite (free).

After installing GalilTools software, you should assign an IP address to the RIO. In this example, I’m using 10.0.6.47 but you should assign an IP address that is compliant with your network settings. After assigning an IP address – connect up to the controller in GalilTools to verify that communication is working.

Part 1: A Simple Application

We’ll start with a simple example of sending a command to query the built in “TIME” variable on the controller. This variable is constantly updated inside the controller to reflect a running time in milliseconds. To get this value, we need to send down the string “MG TIME” and that tells the controller to return the value of TIME.

To do this, turn on the View -> Toolbars ->“Control Toolbox”

and make sure you are in “Design Mode” by enabling the icon on the far left.

Next, add a button to your Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the button icon and dragging it on to your spreadsheet. Right Click on the button and choose Properties. Modify the Properties to name the button and give it a caption.

Your sheet should look something like this:

Now, double click on the button and the Visual Basic Editor window will pop up. Go to Tools-References and enable the checkbox for “Galil” as shown below.

If there is no Galil checkbox, click “Browse” and choose the file C:Program FilesGalilGalilTools-x86libIGalil.tlb. Click OK.

Now add the following text to your Button Click Function:

Private Sub GetTIME_Click() Dim g As New Galil.Galil g.Address = "10.0.6.47" 'Connect to IP address of RIO Pocket PLC Sheet1.Cells(4, 4) = g.Command("MG TIME") 'Send Command MG TIME End Sub

But replace the IP address with the IP address of your RIO unit. Go back to Sheet1 and click the icon on the Control Toolbox to “Exit Design Mode”. Now click on the button and you should get a value in cell D4 like this:

You can build an entire application from the simple steps shown above to achieve an interactive user interface to the RIO. This simple example allows you to send commands and receive responses via an Excel spreadsheet. However, for a data logging application – this just isn’t going to cut it so Part 2 of this article is going to look at some more advanced features such as accessing the internal Data Record of the controller. So go grab a cup of coffee because you’ll want to be awake for the next part.

Part 2: Using the Data Record

Now that we’ve gotten the Excel spreadsheet communicating to the controller, its time to grab some data! Create a new Excel workbook and follow the same steps as Part1 to add a button named GetDataRecord and include the Reference to IGalil.tlb. For all Galil controllers, there is a «snapshot» of all the internal values that can be sent out at a regular interval. This snapshot is called the DataRecord and you can see exactly what values are stored by looking at Chapter 3 in the User Manual of the controller. The code below runs a loop that grabs all the values from the DataRecord and stores them into successive rows of the Excel spreadsheet.

In your Code View window, add the following code:

Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) Private Sub GetDataRecord_Click() Sheet1.Range("A1:BH100").Clear 'clear spreadsheet 'Make sure to add the Reference to IGalil.tlb under Tools - Add Reference 'Security level in Excel should be set to Medium to allow macros Dim g As New Galil.Galil g.Address = "10.0.6.47" 'Connect to IP address of RIO Pocket PLC Dim i As Integer i = 1 For j = 0 To 60 'For loop to list sources and the units Sheet1.Cells(1, j + 1) = g.sources(j) Sheet1.Cells(2, j + 1) = g.Source("Units", g.sources(j)) Next j j = 0 Dim DataRecord As Variant 'Data starts at row 3 and we are collecting 25 samples For i = 3 To 50 DataRecord = g.record For j = 0 To 60 'gets each datapoint Sheet1.Cells(i, j + 1) = g.sourceValue(DataRecord, g.sources(j)) Next j DoEvents 'allows user to do other things during loop Sleep (25) 'sleep for 25 msec Next i End Sub

The first statement just declares a Sleep function. The GetDataRecord_Click() subroutine is what runs the code to grab the RIO datarecord and display it to the screen. Adjust the values of the For loop to the desired number of samples and the Sleep timer can adjust the desired sample rate.

Clicking on the Button should fill up Sheet1 with data like this:

The next step is to take advantage of the many chart & report functions of Excel that display the data in a format that’s easier to read. Here’s an example of graphing the analog output while it is performing a sine wave. The dmc code used to generate the sine wave on the analog output is located under the I/O section of the sample code library here: http://www.galil.com/learn/sample-dmc-code

(Click to see video)

As a last step, for Excel to allow the VB code to run, the Macro Security level needs to be set to «Medium». To do this, go to Tools -> Macro -> Security…. and then click on the «Medium» level as shown here: Although using Microsoft Excel does have its limitations, the big benefit of using this method to build a data-logging application is that it is quick and easy and allows the user to be generating graphs from their I/O in just a few minutes.

Welcome to Logically Proven blog.

This post demonstrates how to create a log file in excel or access using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code.

Consider a scenario, the application is logging the user details into the log file who are accessing the application.

Here is application may be excel or access which is located in the network location which is accessed by the multiple users.

The log data contains the application name, who are accessing the application and the application accessed date.

In the below example I am considering the excel application which logs the data into the LOG file. The application appends the data to the LOG file every time the application is accessed.

Achieving this functionality by logging the user details when the workbook is opened.

So,  the workbook open event code looks like this —

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    LogInfo ThisWorkbook.Name & " opened by " & _
        Application.UserName & " " & Format(Date, "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm")
End Sub

LogInfo is the sub-routine which saves the application name, user name and the access date of an application.

LogInfo sub-routine :

Sub LogInfo(LogMessage As String)

    'set path and name of the log file where you want to save
    'the log file
    Const LogFileName As String = "D:LogDataLogFile.LOG"
    Dim FileNum As Integer
    
    FileNum = FreeFile ' next file number
    Open LogFileName For Append As #FileNum ' creates the file if it doesn't exist
    Print #FileNum, LogMessage ' write information at the end of the text file
    Close #FileNum ' close the file

End Sub

If the log file doesn’t exist, the application creates automatically at the run-time. But the path should be valid and exists otherwise the application runs into error. And make sure the application is having the permissions to create and write into the log file.

This method takes one argument which is the message that you want to write into the log file.
This method appends the log message every time the application is accessed.

This way the application logs the user details who are accessing the application. You can add the same functionality in many cases for example when user modifies something in the excel or access database you can trigger the code to save the user details and what modifications did.

LOG file is very useful to analyse the application. So keep logging your application.

Please write your comments if you find anything is incorrect or do you want to share more information about the topic discussed above.

Logically Proven
Learn, Teach, Share

Karthik Byggari

Author & Editor

Computer Science graduate, Techie, Founder of logicallyproven, Love to Share and Read About pprogramming related things.