My friend tried to stump me, but he didn't say I couldn't use you guys to
find an answer...so here it is:

He has this summary data on one worksheet (but with MUCH more data
columns/rows):

Symbol 9/14/2006 9/15/2006
ACG -2.22% -2.09%
ADF -9.79% -10.39%
ADRA -0.51% 0.03%
ADRD -0.41% 0.04%
ADRE -0.63% -0.03%
ADRU -0.56% 0.07%
ADX -14.39% -14.35%
AFB 7.38% 7.58%


and this is on the other worksheet:

ACG
Enter symbol here

-2.24%
Returns the average


obviously, the formula he has in the lower box (where result populated
is -2.24%) is: =AVERAGE(Data!3:3)

Very basic, I know. So I called him after he sent the email to find out why
he's making a mountain out of a molehill. Obviously he could summarize the
data on this worksheet simply by calculating the averages on the source
worksheet and just using the =Cell() formula to return the results in a more
readable format.

He does, however, (and as I suspected) want to bring in a lot more than just
averages (SDs, variances, etc., etc.). Basically, he wants to type in a
symbol and have it return a bunch of data. He has it figured out one way
with an array formula, but with over 1000 symbols, and market data dating
back to early 2006, it is obvious he has way too much data. He did, of
course, tell me that the array formulae did take forever, so on to plan B.

I have some ideas, but I have other stuff I need to be working on, so I just
figured I'd come to the place where I've always been helped with Excel
(immensly!).

Basically, he just wants to be able to type in a symbol (a market ticker
symbol, but not for regular stocks, they deal with closed-end funds) - and
have it return some summary data. As I said before, he's starting with
"averages" but wants to apply the formula that I (well, "we") come up with
in order to return other types of data.

I did tell him right off the bat that this is an obvious and definite
application for Microsoft Access or SQL Server (or any DB app.), to which he
agreed. But his company is just a 2 man operation, and he doesn't have the
time to learn how to develop and implement one (a db), nor the funds to have
somebody else do so.

Also, if you have any comments, every time I bring up how he should be doing
this stuff on a database, he brings up "Filemaker Pro" - does anyone
professionally use that app.?

Thank you very much in advance all. You guys and gals have been absolutely
WONDERFUL with helping me with Excel over the years!! I really appreciate
it.

Best Regards:

Greg Purnell
jgpurnell13 - at - verizon.net