concatenating with a DDE link?


Posted by Myles on August 01, 2001 10:42 AM

I would like to create a formula which inserts a value from a given cell into a working DDE link formula, along the lines of:

"=abDDE|BAR!'" & A1 & ";LEVEL'"

where A1 contains a symbol. For example if cell A1 contains the value "ART" then I need something that results in the creation of a working DDE link:

=abDDE|BAR!'ART;LEVEL'

Is this possible? I've got to do 40-50 of these on a daily basis and I'm pulling my hair out trying to automate this.

Thanks

Posted by Jerid on August 01, 2001 11:52 AM

I'm not sure I understand, but here goes nothing.

Is this what your looking for

=abDDE|BAR!' & if(A1="ART","ART","") & ";LEVEL'"



Posted by Myles on August 01, 2001 12:13 PM

Is anyone familiar with DDE linking in EXCEL?

Let me see if I can clarify this:
Simply typing
=abDDE|Bar!'ART;LEVEL'
into a cell results in an active dynamic data exchange feed from the program "abDDE" on the topic "Bar" providing the "LEVEL" on "ART" This formula is similar to the example given in Excel Help under the topic "About using a formula to link data from programs not on your computer"

My problem is that, as far as I can tell, this formula requires one to manually enter the symbol (in this case ART) for the feed to work. So simple concatenation doesn't work unfortunately (thanks for the attempt thought Jerid).

What I'm looking for I think is a work around that will generate a working DDE formula as above for a Symbol several columns to the left.

I am attempting to automate a worksheet which tracks data on approximately 40-50 such symbols at a time. I would like to make it as idiot-proof as possible so that anyone in my office can sitdown and type a series of symbols in a given column and get a live feed for each of these symbols without having to type in or worry about the DDE formula.

Whew... It's a lot less complicated than it sounds, and I have a feeling there's a simple solution.

Does anybody have familiarity with these DDE formulas?

Thanks for your help,
-Myles