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Programming blogs from Wise Owl (page 1 of 7)
Showing blogs 1-20 (out of 133)
How to use a $ symbol to introduce a string expression, and fill in the blanks
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 December 2017
Introduced in Visual Studio, string interpolation allows you to linking different C# expressions contained in curly parentheses, with everything preceded by a dollar sign. This blog explains how to use this handy new short-cut.
How to get Excel to read out cell values on calculation
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2016
A short blog explaining how you can get Excel to read out values in cells every time that you recalculate a worksheet.
In SSMS, how to add multiple aliases to tables using the ALT key
Posted by Andy Brown on 23 March 2016
It's only a small thing, but … this blog shows how you can click and drag with the ALT key held down, then type to apply a table alias to lots of tables simultaneously.
Common Table Expressions are even better than I'd realised, as this blog shows
Posted by Andy Brown on 01 February 2016
CTEs (or Common Table Expressions) allow you to divide complicated queries up into two or more simple discrete tasks, as this blog explains.
A short blog listing many ways to create aliases for columns in SQL
Posted by Andy Brown on 01 February 2016
It's not often that this owl learns new things about SQL when giving a course, but when I do, I like to share my new knowledge! This blog shows a new way to create aliases for columns in SQL.
Referring to a range using square brackets
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 December 2015
This short blog shows that there is a third way to refer to a range, other than using the RANGE or CELLS keywords.
This blog explains the lesser known but better Excel VBA InputBox function
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 December 2015
There are two ways you can display an input box using Excel macros: the standard VBA InputBox function, or the much better (but lesser known, at least by this blog's author) Application.InputBox function.
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!
How to insert ActiveX controls after CANNOT INSERT OBJECT message
Posted by Andy Brown on 29 January 2015
When using Excel, we owls have had problems inserting ActiveX objects after recent security updates. Here's a solution which worked for us!
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.
Programmatically searching websites using VBA
Posted by Andy Brown on 19 September 2014
I've already pinched (with permission!) the ideas of Fergus Cairns to explain ways to run automatic searches on popular websites like Google; this blog gives an update on the same topic.
How C# beat VB to take the programming language crown
Posted by Andy Brown on 13 June 2014
This blog explains why Wise Owl have gone over to the dark side, and now program in C#
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.