Product Description
Learn more effective modeling techniques than ever before! VBA FOR MODELERS: DEVELOPING DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS USING MICROSOFT ® EXCEL shows you the easy way to automate methods and models and create special applications. You'll learn sophisticated techniques through a simple and clean interface, so there's no more long nights of trying to make it work. And because it works with Microsoft ® Excel, you'll be saving time while the program crunches all the numbers.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 17 reviews)

A Great Book I Refer To Time And Time Again

I have an earlier edition of this book (when it was only 35 bucks.) And it tells you just what you need to know about modeling with VBA, concisely and with clarity. The author's OR model examples nicely demonstrate how functionality can be built into a closed form modeling application.

Another reader lamented the lack of models applied to the physical sciences in the book. For those readers, don't worry about that. Anyone interested in modeling will be able to take the author's programmatic guidance and transparently apply it to models in their own domain.

The one tutorial I missed not having in the first edition are examples of calling external analytic engines using the Windows API. A common model development practice is to use Excel as the model management interface for the end user, and have VBA call an optimization or simulation engine to do the actual hard work. If that material is in the current addition, that would be a real plus.

But all in all - a great book I refer to time and again.

July 22, 2008

Very good book to learn VBA

In a class where learning VBA was a sink-or-swim endeavor, this book is a real life-saver.
May 14, 2008

VBA for Novice Modelers

This is not an advanced book. Most of the references are very generic in nature and utilize approaches that I've have used previously. I didnt get much out of this book.
October 28, 2007

Aimed at a very specific audience: avoid if you are not a management scientist!

I am a little surprised at the high rating that this book seems to get from the current 13 reviewers but, then again, these are probably memebers of the books target audience. When Albright refers to "modelers" in his title he is constraining the definition very tightly to those in the business world who develop models for "management science". This book has little to do with the more general concept of modelling as it might be found in the physical sciences, engingineering, the social sciences and anything else you can think of outside of management science.

What is good about this book is that it provides a fairly basic introduction to VBA in the first part in a nicely laid out fashion. It then goes on to develop example code targeted very specifically at the management science student or professional. I think this is an admirable approach and this book is probably very useful to the "management scientist" who wishes to learn VBA as it is implemented in Microsoft Excel. It is also quite nicely written. I think that within its target market this is a book that could be recommended. However, if you are not into business modelling or don't make extensive use of the Solver Add-In that ships with Microsoft Office then this book is probably not for you.

Again, I wish to emphasise that this book is very tightly focused on a particular type of VBA developer: i.e. the "management science" specialist who makes extensive use of spreadsheets. As I said, the introduction to VBA programming is well laid out but there are better texts and this one is really very basic (excuse the pun). The scope of the book is not broad so don't expect to learn a lot about much of VBA that does not fall within the fairly narrow constraints of business modelling.

For a general introduction to VBA programming that is far more wide reaching than this book try one of the editions of Walkenbachs "Power Programming with VBA". If you are already competent in VBA or VB programming and want a good reference book on VBA with excellent examples and a very far reaching scope then there is nothing better than the Wrox books by Bullen et al: my "Excel 2002 VBA" serves as an irreplacable reference bible even after 4 years and an upgrade to Excel itself.

I am not a "management science" professional. I have been developing a number of fairly extensive specialist VBA Add-Ins as a scientist/engineer for several years now and I can honestly say that this book taught me nothing new. I didn't actually find anything wrong in any of the text or code that I studied but from my point of view the code examples are highly repetetive and very simple (definitely aimed at the novice VBA programmer). Possibley a great book for management scientists wanting to learn VBA but others can find far better in terms of both introductory texts and advanced programming texts.

For mangement scientists wanting to learn VBA I would give this five stars but for all other Excel users, or potential users, of VBA I can only give it one star.
July 09, 2006

Gets your creative juices flowing!

The biggest problem that I see with learning VBA is not trying to figure out topics such as object hierarchy, syntax, or "if" statements (there are plenty of excellent VBA guides for that!) No, figuring out what to do with all of the "stuff" you just learned is the bigger challenge.

That is where Mr. Albright's book really stands out. While the first few chapters do provide some basic treatment of VBA, it's the other half of this book that really shines! Here you will find 16 full-blown programs that cover everything from industrial applications (process blending, product mix, production scheduling, etc.) to financial analysis programs (stock trading, portfolio optimization, etc) and much more.

In these 16 chapters is where you will learn to use all that "stuff." And not only use it, but get creative with it. Mr. Albright has done a brilliant job at not only walking through the code step-by-step, but also imparting to the reader the all important "why component." After spending some time with this book, you will undoubtedly be a better technical, and equally important, creative programmer.
April 14, 2005

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Practical Management Science (with CD-ROM, Decision Tools and Stat Tools Suite, and Microsoft Project 2003 120 Day Version)
by Wayne L. Winston, S. Christian Albright

Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft(R) Excel and VBA(R) (The Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series)
by Stephen Bullen, Rob Bovey, John Green

Excel 2003 Power Programming with VBA (Excel Power Programming With Vba)
by John Walkenbach

Excel 2007 Power Programming with VBA (Mr. Spreadsheet's Bookshelf)
by John Walkenbach

Financial Modeling - 2nd Edition: Includes CD
by Simon Benninga