Scheduled data capture in Excel

[jc132568]

Dear Experts,
Can you set up excel to capture data at particular times?
Scenario:
University students sit exams and their results are recorded in excel. So
in December all will have a grade. By February these letter grades may have
changed due to resits, recounts, etc. To assist with the paper work I would
like excel to record the grade in December and then look again in February so
that I can say that for student A the grade was C (one column) and changed to
D(another column) for example.

regards
jc132568

 

[jc132568]

Another way to ask my question I suppose is can I write a formula
(preferably;not so hot on the VB) which will source and display the relevant
data in December and then cut the link so the December data persists, even if
an update is made after December 31st. Then in February it will look at the
same source which will have been updated, and record this result in an
adjacent column. I would like to end up with student name, result for
December, result for February in separate columns.

The reason I ask is because if a student sits the exam once and then sits a
repeat the old data is transferred to comment boxes for future reference and
so is not available to formulae as such.
regards
jc132568

 

[JP]

Only VBA would allow you to set up a spreadsheet where you could
refresh on demand and pick-and-choose which data you want to return.
Formulas would normally update whenever you opened the relevant
workbook. Without any more information about your spreadsheets, I
can't help any further.


HTH,
JP

 

[jc132568]

Thank you for your response. In my workbook one sheet has a list of students
with letter codes which are assigned in December. By February these codes
will change to a final code, based on new exam results. We want to generate
a summary of what the old code was and what it changed to. We want this to
appear on a new sheet. On this new sheet I want excel to record the December
code, lock it in and then in an adjacent column record the changed code in
February. The changed code is not the issue, it is reading the December code
and having it remain unchanged on my new sheet even though the original sheet
will have new data inserted which will change the code.

This must sound convoluted but paper trails force us to record changes. I'm
looking for a non-VBA solution but will explore it when I have more time to
teach myself.

Many thanks
jc132568