This recording is for module three, session two using Microsoft Excel for data analysis and graphing. My name is Zachary Neal. I'm a doctoral candidate in the MSc department. Last year, I was the instructor of this course. One thing I noticed is that there's a few sophomores and juniors that are not too familiar with Excel, and they mostly use Google Sheets. Excel is a very powerful software and there's still a lot of aspects of it that I'm still learning myself. I spent a lot of time with it. But I think an important part of technical communication and your lab reports is the presentation of data. In this video, I'm going to show you how to better present data in more professional manner. There's some files associated with this video that should be on Canvas and also an assignment on Canvas that goes with today's session. Let me just double-check that we're sharing the right screen. I think we're sharing. I don't see the outline, so I'm getting nervous that I don't want to record the whole thing and not have it shared. All right. I guess I'll find out. We're going to start by making just some data, X and Y data and graphing that data, and it's something we'll just make up ourselves. We'll just make some sinusoidal curve. Let's start by making the X data in a column, the first column and we can start by adding some numbers. In Excel, if there's a pattern that you establish, you can extrapolate that pattern if you highlight the cells. It has to be at least two, I believe. Then in the bottom right-hand corner, you can click, hold, and drag that to extrapolate that pattern. We'll add some data points there. For the Y data, let's plot sine of the X and then also, let's multiply by pi. For a formula or function, we always start by using the equal sign. Then the formula will be sine, and then you can press Tab, and now I'll automatically select it, and then we're going to select the cell A2, and then multiply by pi. You can use 3.14 or you can just write out the function pi, and then open and close parentheses, and then finally just to close parentheses to close that function. Again, we can click and drag this bottom right-hand corner to extrapolate that formula, but you can also double-click on that bottom right-hand corner, and that will auto-fill the rest of the column, all the way down to the last filled row. That auto-fill function only works if it's right next to data. If I put this function over here, for example, and I try to auto-fill, it's not going to work, but I can still click and drag, so it's only if it's right next door. Let's add a graph now for this data. The data is not going to look so good to begin with, but we'll fix that later. Go to Insert tab, find the scatter plot, insert X, Y scatter plot, and we're going to use the straight lines with markers. I usually only use straight lines or markers. I never use the smooth lines. There might be certain situations where it's appropriate to use smooth lines, but I don't know when that is, so I always stick with the straight lines. We're going to select the data. If we click on the chart, it opens up a new tab, chart tools, and we'll go to Design, and select data. Now we're going to add a series. We can leave the series name blank, it'll just be Series 1. For X values, we can click and drag the X values to select the entire column. For Y values, we can do the same thing, or there's an easier way to do it. If we just click the first cell, now on the keyboard, for Windows this is, for Mac, I don't know what it is, you're going to have to look it up, sorry. But for Windows, it's Control, Shift, and then the down arrow. That's going to select all the way to the last filled row. We can also start from the bottom and say, Control, Shift, up arrow, it goes all the way to the first filled cell. But we don't want to include this header, so if you press Shift and then the down arrow, you can select the last cell as a reference. You can also do left and right if you want to select more, but that will work. Now our data doesn't really make sense right now, but we'll fix that later. Let's first adjust the plot and how it looks. Like I said, this is one thing that really I think students can improve on is how to present the data, because if it just looks like this, it doesn't look very appealing to the reader. Now one thing I've always learned is that charts and graphs should never have a title above the chart. I don't know where that rule came from, but I always stick with it. I guess you can imagine in a manuscript, if you're adding a graph to your lab report or a manuscript, you're always going to have a caption underneath the figure, like a figure caption, right? So there's no need for the title. Also, I don't like using the grid lines. I've never seen grid lines be used in published papers, and it's something that students commonly use, and I don't like the grid lines. There might be certain types of plots and data you might want to use grid lines. Again, this is all personal preference. There's no set rule how things are supposed to be. So whatever looks good to you, but this is what looks good to me. Another thing I like to do is move the x-axis to the bottom of the graph. I don't like having it right in the middle. Again, there might be some graphs that it does look good, but in this graph, in most of my graphs, I like to keep it at the bottom. To do this, we're going to select the y-axis, the vertical axis. We can right-click on the vertical axis and say, format-axis, and that will open up a new sidebar, or you can just double-click on it. That will do the same thing. Then on this format-axis sidebar, we're going to go to the horizontal axis crosses at, you can make it automatic, a maximum value puts it at the top, or axis value. I don't know why Microsoft doesn't include a minimum value because that would be very convenient, but we want to put it at the bottom of this graph. So we're going to put in an axis value that's a very large negative number, like that. The other thing I like to add is a solid border around this chart area inside this graph. So to do that, you need to click on the graph, and sometimes you need to click again on the inside in the chart area. So you have that chart area selected, or plot area selected, and then you can on this format plot area, you can just say solid line, or you can go to chart tools and go to format, and here's the same option for shape outline. I like to make it black. Now, the axes are a different color, so we need to click on the axis and do the same thing, go to format axis, we're going to do fill and line, and go to solid line, and make it black. Same on the x-axis, make it black. Okay, so that looks pretty good. Now, the font, for some reason, the default is also this light gray. I want to make it black. So you can do that if you click, you can do it individually by clicking y-axis, and then the x-axis if you want different colors, or you click on the chart itself, the entire chart go to the home tab, and now you can change the font, let's make it black, and then also you can change the font or the size, and we're just going to let's increase it a little bit to 14 points. Okay. Next, let's add tick marks. So that's if you double-click on an axis and go to the format axis, then we want to go to the axis options and find tick marks, and these days I've been putting the tick marks on the outside, although sometimes I see people put them on the inside and that's fine. So I'm going to also include minor tick marks for the x-axis. Same for the y-axis, but no minor tick marks for that. Okay, so that looks good. Let's also add the axis titles. So go to chart tool, tools, design, and then you can add a chart element. So this is where you'll find other things like the axis titles, the data labels. Also, you can also add a secondary vertical axis. Maybe we'll do that. Maybe later I'll show that. Anyways, so let's add horizontal title and a primary vertical tile. Okay, and this will be x and it'll be pi. Let's insert a symbol for pi. You can do this if you go to insert and go to symbol, and you can find the symbol for pi under the Greek letters and insert. There's also a shortcut on windows, and all these symbols have different codes. So the shortcut for pi is if you press Alt, hold down Alt, and then two, two, seven, and then let go of Alt, and that will bring up the symbol for pi. So all the symbols have those shortcuts.  It makes it more convenient. Y-axis, we'll just call it Y for now. Okay. The other thing I would like to remove from the default graph is this outer line, or the outer border. I'll make it so you can see it a bit better. If we go to view, remove the grid lines. It has this light gray outer border, and I don't like having that present, especially if it's in a manuscript. So just click on the chart itself, and you can say under border, say no line, and that removes that line. So it looks a bit more clean that way. And then the last thing I like to do is change the aspect ratio of this chart. Okay, it's important. Consistency is very important. So you don't have to make it the same way I do, but if you make it the same for all of your charts and plots, it makes your entire report look a bit nicer. I like to use four by five, is what I've been using lately. Okay, so this looks pretty good. Now, I'll show you a way we can save this format so that you don't have to make it every time when you make a new chart. And that's gonna save you a lot of time. You can left click on the chart and then right click on the chart to and go to save as template. Okay, this will let you save it in a location. Let's see, I already have some, I'm gonna call this chart two, okay. And now, so the next time you make a chart, so let's insert another chart, okay. And instead of having to do all the formatting again, we can just apply the template we just made.  And now we can find the template we had just made. Chart two, okay. Now, one thing for some reason, it doesn't change, it doesn't save the aspect ratio. So that's one thing you have to change every time, but that's fine, it's not too bad. Okay, so that's very convenient, very fast way to apply the same format to all your charts and it's gonna make your reports look a lot better. Remember, consistency is very important, okay. But it can be however you like it. All right, now let's fix this data. So the objective of this demonstration right now is you're gonna make a sinusoidal curve and then also we're gonna add another curve on top of that, that's gonna use another function. Right now our X value, we need to make the step size smaller. So let's change it to 0 to 0.01, okay. And we're gonna apply this new pattern. So we can double click on this, it's gonna overwrite the pattern below it and go all the way back to the bottom, okay. So this is barely a quarter wavelength. Let's expand this so we can get more data points. Okay, so I'm gonna click these two at the bottom and then drag it so it's going to keep the formulas in those cells as I expand it. Let's go to 2.01, I believe. Something doesn't seem right, let's see. You can quickly go to the bottom of the cell if you double click on the bottom border of a selected cell, okay, that looks better. Okay, so we're going all the way to two pi basically, okay. But this doesn't update our series, right? If we look at our plot series, it's still selected what we had originally selected. So we can manually click and drag these all the way down, that's one way you could do it. You could go back to select data and edit the series to go all the way down, that's also fine. Another way we can do it that's probably faster is if we go down to the bottom cell row, this is row 202. So that's the number we want to remember and we're going to click on the series, that's going to bring up the formula in the formula bar and we're going to change the last cell to 202. So that way we don't have to click and drag anything, it's a bit faster, okay. So there's one period of our one wavelength of our sinusoidal curve. I'm going to change it now. We don't need the scatter plot anymore or that we don't need the markers anymore. You could manually just say go to marker and say no markers, that's one way you could do it or you can say change chart type and it's a change it to just the straight lines, okay. Okay, another thing I'm going to do is change the spacing for the secondary or the minor units. I'm going to change it to 0.25, okay, that looks good. So the objective right now is we're going to make a second curve, a second wave function. And what we want to do is make a triangular wave function and there's going to be some tools and tricks we can use to help us. One thing I want to show is I'm going to draw what I'm going to try to make.  So for example, here's an example of what I want to make. Change this, make it a little bit bigger, okay. So now that I've inserted it onto the chart, if I move the chart around, you see the shape stays with its original position. If I did not select the chart when I was inserting a shape, for example, like this, if I just went like this, and now if I move the chart around, that shape doesn't stay with it. So make sure it's selected before you insert a shape. Anyways, so what I want to make is this triangular wave function like this. So it goes up to the maximum amplitude and then it switches direction and it's just a straight line like this, okay. That's what I'm going to try to make as a second series. It's a bit more difficult than you might think. I had to take a bit of time preparing this and there's probably, there's many different ways you can do it. There might be an easier way than I'm going to show, but we'll do this together. So let's first make just a straight line. So just y equals mx plus b, okay. And we want to make this first line here. So the slope is going to be, let's see, it's rise is one, it's run is 0.5, so it's one over 0.5, so the slope is two. So we're going to just say two times x, okay. And we'll leave b alone for now, okay. And now let's add a second series. I think, you know, you could go to design and select series, but I think you just expand this like that. Pretty, pretty simple. Or you could do it as, oops. You go to select data, add another series, okay. Let's delete these lines. Okay, so what our objective is, is that we want it to switch direction. We want the line to switch its slope, to make it a negative slope once it reaches this point, okay. So we'll use a function to switch its slope. We can do this, let's make a separate column for the slope for m, okay. So we're going to start off with a slope of two, and we'll just, we'll just expand that, how about that? Like that, let's change this formula. So it's y equals two times x, okay. So that doesn't change anything. But when we get to a certain point, we want to change the sign of m, okay. So we're going to use a function here. We're going to use the if function, okay. So we're going to start on the second row. Press equals and type in if, all right. And this, it will tell you what it does, checks whether the condition is met, returns one value of true and another value is false, okay. So what we want to check is basically the derivative or the slope of this sine curve. So when it's positive slope, it's going to have a, our line is going to have a slope of positive two. And when it turns into negative slope, we'll have a linear slope of negative two, okay. So pretty simple. Let's do if and to find the slope, we're just going to take the difference between the current number and the previous y value for this function here. So it's, we need to add an extra parentheses. So b three minus b two, okay. If that is true, excuse me, I don't have a condition. So if this is greater than zero, and if that's true, we're going to add a comma now. If that's true, what we should do is just return a value of two. Or in this case, this is going to be the previous value because it's going to continue the same slope. But if it's not true, if it's less than zero, then we should, excuse me, I think I got ahead of myself. Return a value of two, if it's not true, return a value of negative two, all right. So if it's positive slope, it'll be two. If it's negative slope, it'll be negative two. So let's expand this now, this formula, and we'll see what that gives us, okay. So it's starting to take shape. Kind of the salt, salt, salt tooth pattern, where the sinusoidal curve has positive slope. So we have a positive linear slope and then it has this change. But the problem is, is that our b value and mx plus b is still zero. So you see all these lines, they coincide with the zero. So what we need to do is shift these values so that they start where they left off. And that's a bit more difficult to do. And you might have, like I said, there's probably different ways we can do this. I think what I found an easy way to do, instead of messing with b, I'm just going to say, let's do y equals mx minus k, for example. And that will let us shift this periodic function, right? So let's make a column for k. Let's see. And we might have to kind of do some guess and check because I kind of forget how to do it. Let's do, so k is going to be changing with x because we want to, at different x values, it's not going to be the same all the time. So let's see. I'm going to have to pause it real quick so I can get my notes. All right, sorry about that. I had to look at my notes to remind me. So what we need to do is shift this periodic function at this point to the right, a period of one pi. All right, because if you imagine, if you extrapolate this line continuing out for this function, it intersects zero and then it also intersects over here at point, negative point five. So we need to add, instead of minus k, I think it's going to be plus k, a period of one pi. But once we get to this point, not at the beginning, but only when we get to that point. So that point, when we get there, let's see, we're going to have another if statement. Let's start with zero here. Say if, and what's our test going to be? We're going to get to this point when the M changes, okay? So if our slope is equal to the slope previously, then we return the same k value. We don't want k to change because it's the same. But if the slope is different, so when it goes from two to negative two, then we need to change k. We need to add a period of one pi. Let's see. I think I actually haven't tried this one yet. So let me try, let me just try this. We're going to say the previous value plus pi. It's a little bit different from what I had in my notes, but I think it'll work. So let's expand that. And now we need to change our y equals mx plus b or plus k here to include the k. So I'm going to put parentheses here and say plus k value. Okay, and let's see if that works. That did not work. Okay, let me, I might have to go back and see. Maybe it's minus, minus pi. I'm going to have to go back to my notes, excuse me. Okay, I'm back. I figured it out. I figured it out where I went wrong. So I was trying to add pi, but remember the x-axis is not in units of, I mean, it's in units of pi. So it shouldn't have been pi. It should have been one over pi. What I'm trying to say is it should have been just one, not pi. So let's see if that works. If I expand that, there we go. Okay, so now we have this triangular function and we showed how to use the if function to get to that periodic function. The assignment on Canvas that you guys will have that's similar to this is not as difficult as the triangle curve, but you should be able to use the if function to accomplish it. So you take a look at that, it'll be fairly simple. So now we'll move on to the next part, which will be graphing some XRD data and a typical way we can graph XRD data to make it look good. The file should be on Canvas and I have it as a text file.  So for text files, they're easy to load into Excel. If you just open Excel, let's see, open the text file. Here's the XRD example data. You can just open it directly as a text file. But when you do this, so you can eliminate, the text file is usually eliminated. The columns are usually separated by, you know, whether it's commas or spaces or tabs. In this case, it's tab deliminated. So you say next, they finish. So that's one way you can open the data. You can also just click and drag the file itself. Let me bring that over. So here's my folder, the example data. You can just click and drag the file itself and into Excel and that will open it as well. But when you do that, if you're opening from a text file, the Excel will still think that it's text data or save it as a text data. So right away, you need to save as a different type of format. So right now it's saving it as text and that's not going to save any of your graphs if you make any graphs or it's not gonna save any of your functions either. So you need to make sure you save it as Excel before you start making graphs and functions, okay? All right, so this is some example data from my research. It's a material called Prussian white, which is an iron cyanide material. But in any case, in this experiment, I had doped it with manganese, or I added manganese to the synthesis to see how that would change the phase and then other things as well. So I have three XRD patterns for these three different samples and I want to graph them all in the same graph but also I want to separate the data so it's easy to analyze or easily to visualize the differences between the different patterns. So we're going to insert the graph and we've already made, I'm just use straight line scatter plot. We've already made our template, okay? So we can go change chart type, go to templates and I have one for XRD but we'll use the one we've made together, chart two, okay? I'm going to change the aspect ratio again. So it's four by five, which is my personal preference. Let me make this, I can make this a little bit bigger so you guys can see it, okay? All right, XRD data is very straightforward. All right, you just need to add the series. So this will be, we'll select the cell for the series name MN0, the zero doped, zero percent manganese. So X values is the two theta values and then the Y values are the intensity values, okay? So very straightforward. Oh, let me change it back to just straight line without markers. So there's XRD data. I'm going to change the X axis. So this was between 10 and 70 degrees two theta. Some, you might want to add extra white space on the either end, that's fine. I like to not have it, okay? Like that. The X axis for XRD data is two theta and this is in degrees, okay? And then I'm also going to change the minor the tick mark spacing. So format axis, axis options, minor units, let's make it a divisible by five or 20. There we go. The Y axis for XRD data is intensity. Intensity. And when we compare the units are probably like counts per second or something like that. But typically with XRD data, we don't even include the Y axis unless you're making some sort of like you wanna make some comparison up about the intensity which I've never seen before. I'm sure you could use it, but so instead we use something called arbitrary units. I mean, and we just get rid of the Y axis altogether. We don't need the Y axis. It doesn't give us any information really, right? All we need to do is visually inspect the different heights of the peaks, okay? Now let's add the other series. So last time I just clicked and dragged. This time I'll manually add it. So there's MN 5% X values or the same X values. Again, you click the last cell, control shift up arrow brings it all the way to the top and then hold down shift and then down to bring it down one, okay? And then 10% Manganese doped control shift down arrow and then select the last one, control shift up arrow and then shift down one. So there's our three plot, our three patterns. So there's a bit of, I wouldn't say manipulation. That's usually a bad word, but a bit of manipulation we can do to change how we see this data. First we, for XRD data especially and then for your session on XRD, you're gonna receive some results towards the end of the quarter and you should do this, what we're doing here, which is normalization. There's many different types of normalization functions. This one is called unity-based normalization. What we're gonna do is gonna set the minimum value to zero and the maximum value to one and we're gonna do that for all of them. And it's a good way to compare different things that are similar. So in this aspect, we wanna maybe compare the ratio of intensities between the two, the three different patterns. So we're gonna call this normal. All right, we'll actually, this is MN zero. We'll call this normal. Okay, so we're gonna normalize these values. Let me insert a gap between here, okay? So the function, the formula for normalizations is pretty simple. Let me write it out so it's clear. Let me add a text box here. Okay, so the formula for normalization is just gonna be X, X prime is equal to the original value X minus X minimum. Okay. Oh, by the way, if you're not familiar with this, this formula, this equation tool on Word document, also here, if you press Alt equals, you can insert, oops, when you're typing, you can insert a equation. You can also insert it, if you go to insert, you see equation right here is what I'm using. So it makes it convenient to type some things. Here, divided by, and now it's, I believe it's X maximum, minus X minimum. So that's the formula for normalization, okay? So we'll do that for each of these columns. So we'll say equals, we'll parenthesize, this value minus, and here's a formula, minimum, M-I-N, and then for minimum, we need to select the entire column, okay? So we select this first value, control shift, down arrow, close that. Let's go back to the top. So we're doing the minimum values there, oops, sorry. Divided by maximum is a function of X. The formula, the same values. And now I can just look up here is where I'm typing, minus the minimum, I've been minimum minus maximum. We're gonna have to, I guess we're gonna find out. I forget, okay. Now, there's gonna be a problem when I auto-fill these. Well, first let me move it over because, oh boy, I shouldn't have had this here, oops. That's not working, why not? When I auto-fill this, it's not gonna be correct, and we'll take a look here. If I click this, you'll see that my minimum and maximum series also shift down with it. So we want to make it so it's locked in with this range of values. So to do that, we need to add in, we can add in dollar signs in front of these coordinates here, B and four. If you insert a dollar sign, it's gonna lock the row or column in place. So if I just do it before the B, it's gonna lock the column. And if I do it in front of the number, it's gonna lock the row. Another thing you can, a shortcut is if you press F4 on Windows, you can cycle through the different options for locking the cell. So I'm gonna go to all of these and press F4 so that it locks it in place for that reference. And now I'm gonna auto-fill and then it should, you see it keeps it referenced to this entire range without moving. And the only thing that moves is the reference cell we're manipulating the data with. Okay, and we'll do the same thing. So if I auto-expand it to the right, it's gonna keep that formula. But you see, because I locked it into this reference, it doesn't change, so I'd have to drag it over. Or what I could do is go back here, instead of locking both the column and the row, I can say just lock, what do I wanna lock? Just lock the column, excuse me, just lock the row and not the column and then I can move it over like that. Okay, okay. So these should be the normalized values. Remember, this is normalizing it between zero and one. So the minimum to the maximum values. Okay, and we're just gonna shift this over. It shouldn't really change much at all. They were already more or less normalized. So normalizing is an important tool and you'll use it towards the end of the quarter when you look at XRD data. You should be able to use it and get a better idea. And on your assignment for this part, you'll need to normalize. Okay, next we want to offset these patterns. So we can see them better. So I'm gonna have another column here. And we're gonna offset each one by a bit. So a certain value. So we'll say 0.201.2 and 2.2 is our offset value. And then we'll say take this value and add this offset value. And remember we can press F4 to lock this cell in place, this reference in place, press F4 to add the dollar signs. Okay, and we can expand that. In fact, remember I said just lock the column and don't, or just lock the row and don't lock the column. That way we can expand it that way like that. Okay, so now they should be offset from each other. Let's look, let's see what that looks like. I'm gonna move this over. Okay, so now this is starting to look good, right? You have a good representation of all three on one plot. You can obviously see the differences when we dope it with increasing dopant value, I think, right? I haven't looked at this data in a long time. Maybe it was the opposite actually. Anyways, so that's what you can do is normalization and then also offset. And that's an important tool you should use for your future lab reports and on the assignment that goes with this video. Okay, all right, there's one more thing I can show, but it's a bit, I don't like using it too much. It's a smooth exponential smoothing of the data. And like I said, this is kind of falling in lines of, well, maybe it's data manipulation and you should be a bit careful when you try to do these things because you don't wanna leave out any important details. By manipulating the data. Okay, so I'm gonna make another column and for exponential smoothing, the equation's pretty straightforward, but Excel makes it so you can do it all automatically. And I actually, I forget the equation, so we're gonna have to find it. If you remember, let's see. And I remember it's not available by default when I'm trying to find here. Okay, here it is, data analysis. If you go to data, you might have to add this in manually if you go to options and then you can add it to customize ribbon, you can add this data analysis. There's a bunch of different functions that has, but one of them is, let's see, exponential smoothing, okay. Because you can see, maybe there's some types of data that has a lot of maybe noise that's not too important. It's okay to smooth out. Like I said, you need to be careful when you do start doing these manipulations. So the input range will be the values of our original data. So let's put this all the way. Oh, it doesn't let me do the shortcut. So I'm gonna go all the way down. Okay, the damping factor, I'm gonna put in 0.9. Let's do 0.9, I can always change it later. And then output range, it's right here. Okay, and let's say, okay, see what happens, okay. And then, so we see, you know, it makes it so the first value is not acceptable. Second value is just this first value here. And then it starts this formula where it multiplies. You know, you can see what it does, but this is what we wanna copy here. So we're gonna expand this over and then expand that down. And that should be smoothing for all three of those. Let's see what it looks like. Okay, so you see how it smoothed, but it did change the intensity a bit.  But again, be careful how you use it. Looks fine. I think it looked fine before actually, but I just wanted to show you this tool here. So that's exponential smoothing and data analysis with Excel. Okay, I think there's one more thing I can show. And this is a bit more advanced and I don't have any assignments to go with this. So this is just for your own benefit. I know Luna and Adam have been teaching some other data analysis softwares, the Python and the other, I'm actually myself, I'm not too familiar with those. I'm only familiar with Excel, but they're very, I've heard they're very powerful tools. Excel also has a version of like coding, kind of like similar to MATLAB. I'll briefly show it because it does take a bit of time to learn. So let me just open a new sheet here. This is a macros and more specifically VBA, which stands for visual basic, visual basic for applications is the type of the coding language that Microsoft Excel uses to make these macros. And I have used this, if you typically we get datasets that are really large and maybe we wanna graph a certain portion of it. And so we can make this code that automatically finds where we wanna graph and automatically plot. But, so this is the developer tab. By default, I don't think you have it. So you have to go to options and add it in your ribbon at the developer tab. But this is why I just wanted to briefly show is visual basic. And if you open that up, it opens a new window and here is where you can make your code to make a macro. Okay, a macro is basically just a program that's gonna execute some sort of whatever code you have. And you can, a easy way to get introduced to visual basic and macros is by recording the macro and doing something in Excel and see what it outputs. So I'm just gonna do a quick example. So just X and Y and let me get some X data real quick and we'll show that. And like I said, this is a bit more advanced and even I spend a bit of time just learning how to do it myself. So here we have some X values and what I wanna do is record a macro that would do some kind of data analysis, right? So I'm gonna say record macro, this is macro one. Okay, and I say, so now we're recording. So whatever I do, the program VBA is gonna record these actions. So let's say, take this cell, take the X value, multiply, let's do, multiply by two, whatever, okay? And then also expand it all the way down. All right, very simple. And then we want to stop recording in the bottom left here, there's a stop button say stop recording. So now what we can do, let's say you had some kind of experiment and you get your data, right? So let's say this is your data and you wanna do your data manipulation or whatever to your data, but you have a lot of this so you don't wanna do it, spend all the time. So what you do is make a macro for the data analysis and you go to macros and say run my macro one and it's gonna automatically fill it out for you. Now, I mean, this is a very simple case where I just, you know, a very simple example but you can imagine the power you have, especially recording just gets you started but if you're able to learn how to code, so here's the code for this workbook, go to modules. And this is what I just recorded, right? So this is the type of language you would have to learn to do some more advanced manipulations. All right, okay. I was able to find some of my old data to demonstrate how these macros work and some of my VBA programming. So this is an example of the battery data, a galvanostatic cycling. So it's like charging and discharging a battery. So this is like data straight from the program but like I said, I might have tens of batteries that I need to analyze and I don't wanna bother going through it manually. So I make a program that will automatically graph the data for me. And specifically I wanna graph different cycles. I might have hundreds of cycles and I just wanna look at, you know, so here's where I put my cycle. I say, let's look at the first cycle is cycle zero and cycle 20, for example. Let me show you what the program looks like. So here's the VBA code. So I made all of this and it will look through the data and I made this years ago so I don't really remember exactly what it does but it's gonna look for a certain cycle and then collect that data and plot it. Okay, so like I said, if I had to do it manually, I'd have to go through all this data, find out, you know, what cycle number it's on and then plot it manually, which is a bit of, takes a bit of time. So instead what we're gonna do is, you know, use this code and we can run it right from here. So I'm gonna say run, okay, and there it goes. So there's the plot it creates, right? And I could make a different plot. Let's say we get five, 10, 15 cycles all together. Let's do it again as an example. Say run, and there's even more, okay? So there's just an example of, you know, how powerful this software is that most people don't even know we can do these sort of things. And like I said, it takes a long time to learn. I mean, this is basically computer programming. You need to learn the language, but you shouldn't be too discouraged. There's a lot of online resources that help you, you know, figure out what functions you need to use. It's a bit different than what we've been talking about on Excel, but this is an extension of Excel and other Microsoft applications. So again, this is visual basic for applications and you can use that to make a macro to help you with data analysis, but it takes a bit of time. Anyways, so thanks for listening. There's an assignment on Canvas. Your TA should help tell you about it. A very simple assignment actually. And if you have any questions, feel free to email me. I look forward to seeing you in person. All right, bye.


Wall behind grandma's dresser holds the key to solving two-year-old missing person's case. It's September in rural Illinois, and police officers are searching a family home for Ricky Chekevdea. At this point, the young boy hasn't been seen for almost two years, meaning, sadly, he could well have met a terrible fate. There seems to be no sign of Ricky in the property either, as the cops initially come up empty-handed. But before the officers write the tip off as a dud, they notice something very strange about a dresser against one of the walls. And what they ultimately discover sends shivers down their spines. Ricky was the child of Michael Chekevdea and Shannon Wilfion, who had always had a troubled on-and-off relationship. The arguments apparently didn't even stop when the couple's son was born in 2002. But amid all the turmoil, the parents still managed to work out an agreement to share custody of their boy. And Michael was seemingly close to his son, even if he wasn't always at home. Back in 1982, you see, he had joined the Illinois Army National Guard in West Frankfurt, close to his hometown of Royalton, Illinois. Then, soon after Ricky arrived, Michael had found himself deployed to Iraq. But the serviceman hardly forgot about the child he had waiting for him back in the States. He even had a portrait of himself and Ricky commissioned while he was overseas. Then, in 2004, Michael returned to Illinois, where his problems with Shannon continued. Allegedly, she regularly refused to let Ricky spend time with his father, thereby violating the terms of their joint custody agreement. And in 2007 the situation took a shocking turn for the worse. That fall, a court date had been set to discuss Michael's visitation rights to his son. But Shannon failed to show. Faced with a difficult decision, the judge decided to therefore grant Michael temporary custody of the boy. Before the ruling could take effect, however, Shannon and Ricky suddenly disappeared. In November 2007 Shannon and Ricky were officially listed as missing people. Then in December that same year, a warrant was issued for Shannon's arrest. It soon became apparent, however, that things weren't quite so clear-cut as they may have seemed. In fact, it emerged that Shannon and her mother, Diane Dobbs, had both accused Michael of abusing Ricky in the past. Had Shannon run away with her son to protect him from the alleged abuse? Diane certainly seemed to believe so. And while police searched for Ricky, she focused her attention on a smear campaign against Michael, her daughter's former partner. Just three miles away from Michael's home, Diane stuck placards in front of her own house. On them, moreover, she handwrote accusations that Michael was a child abuser. Apparently, she also distributed flyers in the local community, even going so far as to hand them out at Michael's church. Naturally, perhaps, Michael began to suspect that Diane knew something about Ricky's disappearance. She nevertheless permitted the police to conduct a search of her property, though, and yet they found no sign of the missing boy. For two years, then, Ricky's location remained a mystery, although Michael continued to suspect that Diane knew more than she was letting on. Then in 2009 police received a tip-off that led them back to Diane's house once more. So, on September 4, they arrived at the two-story property in a rural area of Franklin County, I-L. And while Ricky was initially nowhere to be seen, their search eventually led them to take a look behind a dresser that was pushed up against a wall. When officers moved the dresser aside, moreover, they discovered a hidden hole cut into the wall. Yes, now that the piece of furniture had been removed, the opening was revealed. And when the investigators peered into the darkness within, they witnessed a truly terrible sight.  Apparently, they could not even stand up inside the secret room, which was just four feet tall. Had Ricky really been kept hidden in this environment for two whole years? Alarmingly, the chamber was just 12 feet long and only five feet wide. As the boy, now six, was taken into custody, those present experienced a heartbreaking view. We let him out of the patrol, car, and he ran around like he'd never seen outdoors. Master Sergeant Stan Diggs from the Illinois State Police Department was reported as saying, It was actually very sad. He was very happy to be outside. He said he never goes outside. In light of the discovery, police arrested Shannon on charges of felony child abduction, while Diane faced charges of aiding and abetting. However, while out on bail, Diane invited the television show Good Morning America to hear her side of the story. According to Diane, the secret room had already been there when she originally purchased the house some 14 years previously. Furthermore, she claimed that it was used for storage and that she had only thought to hide Ricky there once she saw that police were closing in. When asked by an interviewer in 2009 about how long Ricky had spent in the secret room, Diane replied, In two years time, maybe five minutes. In fact, she claimed that her grandson had enjoyed total freedom during the years that he had spent in her home. My grandson had the run of the house, Diane continued. When we were outside, we would go fishing. We would do weenie roasts. We've done fireworks on the 4th of July. He's helped me plant my flower garden in the back. He's got his own garden in the back. However, when reporters spoke to Diane's neighbors, they discovered that Ricky had seemingly never been spotted outside the home. Sadly, the police who rescued Ricky echoed this sentiment, too. Apparently, it was obvious to them that the boy had had little contact with the outside world. Just hours after appearing on Good Morning America, then, Diane was re-arrested. Meanwhile, Ricky was placed with one of Michael's relatives while the case was investigated. Surprisingly, Ricky is in good spirits, reported digs.  On September 19, 2011, Shannon pleaded guilty to the charges against her and was fined $1,500 and given two years probation for her role in Ricky's abduction. Michael, meanwhile, was granted permanent custody of his son. And the next year, he retired from the military to focus on being a single father to Ricky, hopefully finally finding the peace that his family have long sought. But while Ricky's terrible ordeal may be over, he isn't the only young boy to have vanished in similarly bizarre circumstances.  In the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, a young teen is hard at work in the yard of a comfortable home. That boy is Gregory Jean Jr., and as his neighbors look on, they have no idea that he has been missing for four long years. Ultimately, however, he manages to leave a trail of clues pointing to his whereabouts, and his extraordinary story is unraveled at last. Back in 2010, Gregory was living with his mother, Lisa Smith, in Orlando, Florida. His father, Gregory Jean Sr., was not married to Lisa, and the pair were living apart. Nevertheless, they had established an informal agreement that saw Gregory Sr. send funds to help Lisa care for Gregory Jr. and his brother, Samuel. Although his parents were no longer together, Gregory Jr. made every effort to stay in contact with his father. Each day, when he came home from school, he would speak to Gregory Sr. on the telephone. And despite the family troubles, he admitted that he loved his dad. Then, that year, everything changed. By that time, Gregory Sr. was living in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. He had married a woman named Samantha Joy Davis and started another family. However, he seemed to still want to be a part of Gregory Jr. and Samuel's lives, and so the dad suggested that they make a trip to see him in Georgia. Together, Gregory Jr. and Samuel traveled more than 400 miles to see their father and meet his new family. However, something went wrong. By the time that the visit was over, Samuel had returned home to Lisa, but Gregory Jr. was nowhere to be seen. When Gregory Jr. failed to appear, Lisa informed the Orlando court services, but for reasons unknown, she did not notify the police. Consequently, for the next four years, Gregory Jr. remained missing. And although Lisa spoke to her son on one or two occasions during that period, she had no idea where he was living. Finally, on November 28, 2014, Gregory Jr. contacted Lisa out of the blue. Apparently, he had been able to get hold of a cell phone and send a message to his family, who had never stopped looking for the boy. So, armed with the address of where her son was located, Lisa got in touch with the police. Soon, then, police arrived at the address, a comfortable, single-story property with a garage on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. However, there was no sign of Gregory Jr. to avoid detection. It seems that Davis had ordered the boy into the garage, where he had apparently been made to hide behind a false wall. Luckily, though, Gregory Jr. would not be kept down. When police failed to find him on their first visit, the boy contacted his family again. This time, moreover, Lisa was able to tell them exactly where to look. So as her son texted updates, Lisa guided the authorities directly to his hiding place. At last, then, officers discovered a grateful Gregory Jr. and took him away from his father's house. That same night, Lisa got in her car and drove all the way to Atlanta to collect her long-lost son. Hence, accompanied by her daughter Tracy Gervel, she had an emotional reunion with Gregory Jr., then 13. But as television cameras captured the outwardly happy scenes, the awful details about Gregory Jr. s alleged ordeal began to emerge. According to him, things had seemed normal at first. Apparently, Davis told him that the arrangement was better for his father financially and that his real mom did not want him to return home. During that first year, Gregory Jr. was even enrolled at middle school in Atlanta. But events at his father's house soon took a turn for the worse. In contrast to the comforts that his step-siblings enjoyed, Gregory Jr. was made to sleep on a makeshift bed in the garage with only a flimsy cover for warmth. Moreover, that was only the beginning. It appears that Gregory Jr. was also refused food and subjected to physical abuse. And in a truly humiliating move, the boy was apparently not even allowed to use a proper toilet. She made me go to the bathroom in a bucket, he told MailOnline in 2014. And they would all watch me. It was embarrassing. Instead of enjoying his childhood, then, Gregory Jr. was compelled to live as little more than the family's domestic help. I felt like a maid, he said. I had to clean the house and yard, and if there was even a leaf out of place my stepmom would beat me with a stick. According to Gregory Jr. He wasn't even allowed to watch television with the other children. Instead, he was punished for imagined infractions and made to read the dictionary and copy out lists of words. Heartbroken at his situation, the boy apparently spent his nights crying, determined nevertheless to one day make his way home. In an attempt to escape, Gregory Jr. confided in a counselor at school. However, when authorities arrived at the family's home, Davis seemingly hid the evidence of the abuse. And despite her prior conviction for child cruelty, by all accounts she was believed. Furthermore, as retribution for talking to the authorities, Gregory Jr. was withdrawn from school. Apparently, Davis even prevented him from enjoying Christmas with the rest of the family. Although he still received presents, they were given to the other children to enjoy. Strangely too, although Davis' neighbors sometimes saw Gregory Jr. working outside the house, they never catoned on to what was allegedly happening behind closed doors. He kept that yard immaculate, one of them told CBS Evening News in 2014. There was no evidence of distress and it didn't seem like he was reaching out, like, oh please help me. Still, thanks to his quick thinking, Gregory Jr. is now back in Orlando with Lisa and their family, all of whom are delighted to have the boy home. And happily, it seems that the feeling is mutual. Whatever anyone else gets for Christmas I don't care, Gregory Jr. told Mail Online. This is my Christmas present to be back with my family. Meanwhile, Gregory Jr.'s father and stepmother are, according to most recent reports, awaiting trial for their alleged role in the boys ordeal. Yet, incredibly, he harbors no bad feelings towards the pair and insists that he doesn't want either of them to end up in jail. Instead, the teenager is focused on living his own life and plans to help others by becoming a lawyer.


Why is Fortnite so hated? One of the biggest complains are definitely the unbalanced items Epic added. For example, Planes, The Sword, and mechs. This chart shows the decline of players from seasons 7 to 10. The items caused people to make memes which made hate towards Fortnite so cool and funny, not to mention all the sweats who grind 24x7, who just make the game unplayable. In chapter 2, there are less memes and nothing is too overpowered. But everyone still hates it because Epic hasn't added anything for a whole two months. Not to mention they release OG skins like Noggops and Recon Expert. At this point, Fortnite competitive is also hated because of all the bugs and slugs. To be honest, Fortnite deserves this because they don't think about the community and they think it's all a joke. They add whatever they want and fix the issue once everyone already quit. I explained more on why Fortnite doesn't feel the same episode in the card description and end screen. I don't think there will ever be less hate towards Fortnite because of these issues and uh yeah, thanks for watching.


Rihanna broke the internet when her pregnancy news came out and that is not the thing, y'all her exes, Majorly Chris Brown and Drake have been dragged into the mix. It is also rumored that Drake has unfollowed A$AP Rocky and Rihanna. That's being petty. They said more on the gossip segment. Rihanna made headlines last week when her pregnancy news came out. She and Habu A$AP Rocky are expecting their first child and somehow Rihanna's exes got dragged into the news. Mimms started making rounds online about how Chris Brown and Drake are disappointed by the pregnancy announcement. What has it that Drake even unfollowed A$AP Rocky and Rihanna on Instagram? Expected new music, the regular album Rihanna was supposed to release but I guess we will have to wait longer to get that now because Amini Rihanna or A$AP is on the way and we are equally excited about that as well. It's like rapper Diana Bahati is not about to quit the industry despite all the negativity she received when she officially became an artist. She has released two songs since her announcement which have been doing well on YouTube. Themtachana to compose the released yet another song titled Mubaba where she has featured an artist by the name Vinny Flavor. Diana has also started her recording label titled Diana Be Entertainment and her first sign is Vinny Flavor. Amini made the announcement on her IG right before the release their new song. I wonder what else she has in store for us because she keeps surprising us. Talk about being in a relationship for too long without having the desires of your heart met and finally meeting someone who fulfills those desires. That is the love story of Lilian Nganga and Juliani who tied the knot at a private wedding ceremony last week. A photo of the ceremony was making rounds online and it came as a huge surprise because the two have had such a tough time being together especially because Lilian's ex was allegedly causing problems to them. Neither Juliani nor Lilian have made the official announcement. All we know is that love is a beautiful thing and their story is indeed a beautiful one.