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Re: Re: need advice on a solution



Long Wind <longwind2009@gmail.com <mailto:longwind2009%40gmail.com>> wrote:

I trade stocks. I put stock prices in file. Often I need compute PE
for each day. To cope with stock split, I need to recompute prices as
if  un-split. Sometimes to compute PE, I want to use average of the
last three years' earning

To complete these tasks

Solution 1: is it possible to use spreadsheet? OpenOffice or other?
and later
I'm rather confused.
Another user Ron just say the opposite.
Suppose stock prices in an array (or table or database)
and  annual earnings of 10 years in another array (or table or database)

to compute PE using average of last 3 years
is like writing a program

Can spreadsheet really do the job?
It's really a matter of how much data we're talking about. It's pretty easy (trivial actually) to make the value of any cell, the result of a formula based on the contents of other cells - and then to extend that to a row or column (i.e, the value of a cell in row C = f(cells above that cell).

If you're talking a page or two of data (say 10 stocks, 10 data points each, 2 dependent variables); and the data and outputs logically lay out in a tabular fashion - then a spreadsheet is far easier than anything else.

On the other hand, if you're talking 1000s or 10s of 1000s of data points, and complicated reports, then SQL and maybe a procedural language on top of it, is a better way to go.

Maybe if you offered a little more information about the input data set, the calculations, and what a report might look like - we could help you select the easiest path.

Miles Fidelman

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In<fnord>  practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra



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