Cool glad you got it working, i am no excel wiz most of what i know i learned from testing and asking questions on http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/index.php this is a fantastic site most times i can ask a question and have and answer within an hour or two.

Hi again,

I found a problem with the import feature i have been using and thought i would post the answer here.

With Microsoft Office 2003 when importing the text file using Data and then import external data you need to change the "File Origin" in step 1 from "Unicode (UTF7)" to "Unicode (UTF8)" and in step 3 select "text" under "Column data Format" so that the excel doc will accept the "+" that indicates a win if not it will leave it out and stuff up the rating as i have found.

In my ratings this is not a problem unless the winner has won by more than half a length because it will get a penalty and can reduce it's overall score

IMO it's better to do your form with pen and paper. That way you dont get bogged down in spreadsheets and you are focusing more on the horses then the formulas.

Print out your system and then work from that with pen and paper.

Scan the form to identify the top 5 chances then work out your ratings.

You can do it pretty quick after a bit of practice and in the process you learn more about the horses.

Useful web query spreadsheet...time to give back...
 

Hi all,

I just wanted to give something back to the Propun forums, albeit a token gesture. I have gleaned so much knowledge and information off here in the last 12 months, I figured I should offer my little contribution, a web query import/form splitter for Excel 2000-2007.

OK, what does it do? Well, I always wondered how screen scraping works. Then I discovered Web Queries.....they allow you get the form and DFS for free (this one is for UniTAB) rather than having to copy and paste it into the spreadsheet manually. Once your used to it, the process takes only a few seconds to load a whole race's information in including the most recent prices.

I've haven't investigated the other TABs but I imagine that with a little reformatting of the cells you can do it easily enough.

The real beauty is that as once you load a race, you can simply right click on the race and click 'Refresh Data!'...and it does....all the prices as they change right up until they jump.

I can tell you how to build the formula to work out what percent is on what horse as you refresh the race details, but that info is already on here...you just need to convert it to a formula....I have and it helps a lot with dutch betting.

Warning for UniTAB punters....the UniTAB site changes format once a race jump time gets within 5 minutes.....as a rule, remember to re-import the race information once the '5 mins to go' message pops up on the web page, or do what I do, and only load races running in the next five minutes.....If it does go pear-shaped, simply shut the spreadsheet down (WITHOUT SAVING) and re-open it.

Give it a crack and if you need any help, e-mail me on suntzu4@hotmail.com

Good luck,

Neurokahuna

I'll be the first to say many thanks for this Neuro. I struggled getting web queries to work the way I wanted previously so will have a play and see how I get on. However my biggest "thank you" is reserved for the LEN() formula in your spreadsheet. I couldn't work out how to get round the problem of horses with less than four starts and now I've got the solution! Next time please don't wait 12 months to post the solution!


Cheers mate

Thanks Neurokahuna will have a look.

Shaun

Me thinks you changed your email address... hmm... was that to get away from questions?

I would appreciate a few minuyes of your time when you are free.

Cheers

Zlotti

Hi All,

I have attached a spreadsheet for all of you to try out. The system is called Method 260 which was given to me for free from the nice people at racerate.

Instructions:

Open spreadsheet to the Main tab
Press Alt-F8 to bring up the macros window
Select Method260 and press run
Enter the date in YYYY/MM/DD format ie. Today will be 2009/05/19.
Watch the program work.

It will do each race in chronological order and create a new tab for each race. It is not 100% in that after all races are put in it will create a blank tab for each meeting. If someone can fix that, happy days.

The next day if you want to start again, simply delete every tab created leaving the Main, Horse and Table tabs in place. To do this simply select the first tab after the Table tab then while holding shift down click on the last tab. Then right click and select delete. Then save the sheet and start again.

If anyone has got a good system that could be improved by automation, post it up here and I will see if I can make it better.

Cheers.

I have seen this sheet before, but never the attached macro

Yeah, all I did was automate it as best as I could. Just run it before the start of the race day and watch it in action.

The only thing is the prizemoney change from the last race I cant get automatically.