Rating: 
Summary: A VBA for Excel Jewel
Review: VBA for Modelers by Albright is a jewel. The author, who's other books include Practical Management Science: Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications and Data Analysis & Decision Making with Microsoft Excel among others, targets this book for those with little or no programming experience. Forget the Excel VBA coverage in books like Benninga's Financial Modeling or Advanced Modeling in Finance Using Excel and VBA by Jackson and Staunton. Each of these books has strengths but their coverages of VBA is considerably more disjointed and sketchy. At best, Benninga and Jackson and Staunton can be said to "demonstrate" how VBA can enhance financial modeling in Excel, while providing little in the way of quality instruction on VBA.Albright's strength is concise, effective language supplemented with numerous examples and an ample number of extended exercises which enable readers to solidify and extend understanding. Chapters 1-13 are a quality VBA primer for readers with little or no programming experience. A distinguishing feature of the book is the coverage in Chapters 14-30 where specific applications are demonstrated and extended. The real strength of this book is that it is written by a fine educator who develops understanding in a systematic and effective fashion. With some work on the reader's part this book provides rewarding results.
Rating:
Summary: The key to Excel/VBA programming competence
Review: VBA for Modelers is that rare computer book that takes its reader from novice to programmer. Albright gives plenty of examples of code for numerous real world applications. The first section of the book is an overview of VBA in general. The depth and approach of these chapters though make it advisable to have some VBA knowledge. I recommend for complete beginners that they drudge through at least the first several chapters one of those beginner books to get a feel for VBA. If you are not an avid programmer it can be bewildering as to how to go about using the VBA code you see in a beginner book to create an application for business. Albright shows you how in a manner that is easy to read and understand. The project for each chapter and the problems at the end of each chapter are the key to developing an understanding of VBA and how to apply it to your everyday problem solving with Excel. Work through these problems and you will be able to approach Excel/VBA apps with ease. Easily the best computer book I have ever read. Now if Albright would write a similar book for Access all would be well in the world.
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