Wise Owl blogs written by Andrew Gould (page 1 of 5)

Disabling Screen Updates in Excel VBA

Posted by Andrew Gould on 26 November 2015

You can give your VBA code a performance boost by simply turning off screen updating while your code runs. This blog explains how to achieve this and how to create a basic timer to test the results.

Installing the Microsoft Date and Time Picker for VBA

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 February 2015

Some versions of Windows don't include the very useful Date and Time Picker control. This blog explains how to install the mscomct2.ocx file to get it back!

Free C# training

Posted by Andrew Gould on 31 October 2014

This blog serves as the main index for our complete tutorial on programming in Visual C#. You'll find links to all of the articles, videos and files that you'll need to follow the tutorial.

Pivoting Data in SQL Server

Posted by Andrew Gould on 09 June 2014

Using the Pivot operator in SQL Server allows you to create basic pivot tables from your query results. This blog teaches you how to create simple, static pivots, crosstab-style tables and exciting, dynamic pivot tables.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 13 - Playing Sounds

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 April 2014

This part of the tutorial explains how to add sounds to the game using a Windows API function.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 12 - Managing Game State

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 April 2014

This part of the tutorial implements a state system to make it easier to determine what actions to perform each time the game updates.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 11 - Detecting Collisions

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 April 2014

In this part of the tutorial you'll learn how to make the game detect collisions between the bird and the obstacles.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 10 - Creating Obstacles

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 April 2014

This part of the tutorial shows you how to add obstacles to the game and how to make them move across the screen.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 9 - Creating the Game Sheet

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 April 2014

This part of the tutorial explains how to generate a game worksheet using code to define the playing area.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 8 - Using Class Modules

Posted by Andrew Gould on 24 April 2014

This part of the tutorial introduces the concept of class modules and shows you how to use them to organise your code.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 7 - Creating Sprites

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the tutorial describes how to draw simple images using a worksheet as the canvas. You'll also see how to include the images in the game.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 6 - Detecting Player Input

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the tutorial describes how to respond to keys pressed by the player. You'll learn about the Application.OnKey method and the GetAsyncKeyState Windows API function.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 5 - Starting and Ending the Game

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the tutorial adds a basic menu system with ActiveX command buttons to start and stop the game.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 4 - The Game Timing Loop

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the tutorial describes how to set up a timing loop which allows the game to update continuously.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 3 - Windows API Functions

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the tutorial describes how to make use of Windows API functions to extend the power of Excel VBA.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 2 - Basic Workbook Setup

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the tutorial describes how to setup a basic workbook ready for you to start coding the Flappy Owl game.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Part 1 - Introduction

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This part of the Flappy Bird in Excel VBA Tutorial introduces you to the Flappy Owl game and provides download links and instructions to get it running in Excel on your machine.

Flappy Bird in Excel VBA - Tutorial Index

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 April 2014

This is the main index page for the Flappy Bird in Excel VBA tutorial. Here you can find links to all of the articles which comprise the tutorial.

Triggers in SQL Server

Posted by Andrew Gould on 27 November 2013

Triggers are special stored procedures that execute automatically in response to certain events in a database. This blog explains how to create three types of trigger in SQL Server: DML, DDL and Logon triggers.

Transactions in SQL Server

Posted by Andrew Gould on 11 October 2013

This blog examines how to use Transactions in Microsoft SQL Server to allow you to control when data changes are committed to the database. You'll also discover how you can rollback transactions, effectively giving you the chance to undo changes to your data.