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Date/Time: Mon, 06 May 2024 12:25:23 +0000



[Locked] - Notice: New Sierra Chart Spreadsheet Functionality

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[2014-05-21 02:52:51]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
This is a locked thread which is going to discuss the new Sierra Chart spreadsheet functionality.

This has been under development for years now. We have been talking about it for a while now, and we definitely are finally getting close, within a couple of months, to an actual release we have confidence in. And even much more confidence in than the CLR Spreadsheets that most everyone use.

More details are going to follow soon.

Just a couple of thoughts we want to get out right now though. The new spreadsheet functionality, replaces a spreadsheet component known as "spreadsheet gear" in what are known as the CLR versions of Sierra Chart. This is our main release of Sierra Chart.

The new spreadsheet functionality can be found in the non-CLR version of Sierra Chart and can be tested right now. You can update with Help >> Download Latest Non CLR Version.

There are two general categories of limitations:

Some of the more advanced spreadsheet functions, are not supported. We will be providing a list of what is supported. The vast majority of functions are supported. All of the core and basic spreadsheet functions are supported. An example of what is not supported is COUNTIF , AVERAGEIF, MAXIF, MINIF, SUMIF.

You can still accomplish that functionality just by using more simplified formulas and columns within Sierra Chart spreadsheets. So this should not be a real issue. It is not likely anytime soon some of these more advanced functions would be supported just due to the inherent complexity of what they do with the parameters they take. We may never support them for these reasons. We want to make that clear right now. So please do not have an expectation they would come or request be be added because it is a request that has a high probability of not happening for a very long time, if ever.

There are two user interfaces in the old spreadsheets known as Range Explorer and Workbook Explorer. These provide various features, such as conditional formatting and other kinds of things which also are not supported and never will be supported in the new spreadsheets. We just want to make this clear right now.

Why are we changing the spreadsheets? We need to have 100% control over all source code within Sierra Chart in order to continue to properly and effectively support and maintain and enhance the Sierra Chart product and services in the area of spreadsheets. We do not have this control the old CLR spreadsheets. We do not have the source code to them. The new spreadsheets can be run on any operating system with simple porting. The CLR spreadsheets cannot be. The new spreadsheets are faster. This is a very important feature.

While we know that we are going to be successful in migrating over to these new spreadsheets, we realize there is going to be some frustration among users who extensively use spreadsheets because there are some limitations with the New Spreadsheets.

Another thing is that all of the formatting from your existing spreadsheets will be lost when they are updated to the new spreadsheets. Only the values and the formulas will be copied over.

This is worth it for us in the long term because we know that supporting the old CLR spreadsheets, is not practical in the long term and from an engineering perspective, we cannot wait to get rid of the old spreadsheets.

When there is an official release of the new spreadsheets in a couple of months, you can continue to use the older Sierra Chart versions as long as you need to until to you can migrate over successfully.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-10-20 20:48:02
[2014-05-22 03:27:21]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Another limitation of the new non-CLR spreadsheets is that it is not possible to reference data across Spreadsheets by specifying the name of the Spreadsheet in a cell reference. Only within Sheets within the Spreadsheet. And it is not likely this functionality will ever be added.

There are ways of designing your use of Spreadsheets, so this is not required. The main solution is to use the Chart Data Output Sheet Number to control what Sheet within the Spreadsheet the data is outputted to and is used by the Spreadsheet study.

Spreadsheets support 60 formula columns and you can also have multiple window views into the same Spreadsheet Sheet.

These limitations, exist because of the very high degree of complexity to implement them and to support them. Spreadsheets are complicated enough without adding unnecessary complexity. We have a responsibility to ensure the spreadsheets are fast and are reliable and can be properly maintained and supported. So these limitations are likely to always be limitations but they really are not limitations because the core spreadsheet functionality is provided and it executes very fast. And accurately.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-05-22 03:27:41
[2014-05-23 02:59:15]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Some major enhancements with the new spreadsheets are:

- New referencing method for chart data and studies which automatically adjusts to studies being reordered. This prevents having to change formulas.

-When sheets are added or removed, existing sheets still maintain their reference to the same chart when using the Spreadsheet study.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
[2014-05-23 03:52:44]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Some major enhancements with the new Spreadsheets in the non-CLR version are:

-New referencing method for chart data and studies which automatically adjust to studies being reordered. This prevents having to change formulas when studies are inserted or reordered.

-When Sheets are added or removed, existing Sheets still maintain their reference to the same chart when using the Spreadsheet study.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
[2014-07-11 06:08:23]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
A new feature in the new non-CLR spreadsheets in Sierra Chart is the ability to see the formula expression tree of a formula and the result of each subexpression. Attached is an example of this.

This is very useful to debug a formula that is giving an error.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-07-12 04:54:42
imageFormula Details.png / V - Attached On 2014-07-11 06:08:20 UTC - Size: 17.97 KB - 528 views
[2014-07-12 04:55:20]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
There was a mistake in the prior posting. We meant to say "non-CLR". That has been corrected.

The new Spreadsheets certainly do not use Microsoft CLR or .NET.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
[2014-07-31 01:53:33]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Here is a video demonstrating how to enter data and formulas on the new non-CLR spreadsheets:

https://www.sierrachart.com/Videos/EnteringDataOnSpreadsheets.wmv

Let us know if you have any trouble viewing it.

The next feature to be released with the new Spreadsheets is automatic copying of the data and formulas from the old spreadsheet file format to the new spreadsheet file format.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-07-31 01:55:13
[2014-08-12 03:20:44]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Effective December 31, 2014 the CLR version of Sierra Chart which uses the Old Spreadsheets will no longer be kept up-to-date with new versions.

At this time, both the CLR and non-CLR versions of Sierra Chart supporting the Old Spreadsheets and the New Spreadsheets, respectively, are released as the main version. Users have a choice of either at this time.

The CLR version of Sierra Chart supporting the Old Spreadsheets will still be available for many years but it will not be kept up-to-date after December 31.

The latest non-CLR version supporting the New Spreadsheets does have a file converter to read old spreadsheet formulas and values into the New Spreadsheets. Formatting is not copied over.

New Spreadsheets do not support conditional formatting and have no support for referencing between Spreadsheets. While the new Spreadsheets will have some improvements made and certainly continued performance improvements, we do not foresee adding the capability to support references between Spreadsheets. In general, it is too complicated and the spreadsheets were not designed with this capability and it can hurt performance and adds unnecessary complexity. So please do not ask for this. So you will have to find and alternative to references between Spreadsheets. There is a discussion thread on this Support Board about that with lots of details. There is the capability to have references between Sheets within a Spreadsheet window.

Effective around January 1, 2015, Sierra Chart will begin to statically link with the standard Microsoft C++ libraries and MFC and will no longer have a need for the redistributable package. This is possible because there will no longer be a dependency on CLR.

We are gradually making the necessary changes in Sierra Chart to port Sierra Chart the other operating systems. We expect that native support for other operating systems will be available in the second or third quarter of 2015. Assuming there are no complications or great difficulties.

Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-08-12 03:21:31
[2014-08-13 22:20:37]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Here is the discussion thread about alternatives to references between spreadsheets:
References Between Spreadsheets
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
[2014-08-16 11:33:17]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Effective December 31, 2014 the CLR version of Sierra Chart which uses the Old Spreadsheets will no longer be kept up-to-date with new versions.

We may be pushing back this date.

We see that there are still performance issues with the new spreadsheets we need to resolve. There are some cases where the new spreadsheets are faster than the old spreadsheets but there are also many cases we can see with more complex formulas where there is worse performance and we need to solve this.

We do not want anyone to feel pressured or concerned about the old spreadsheets not being supported at a certain time. We will make sure there is plenty of time before then.

And as we said also, you will be able to continue to use older versions for many years without any concern.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2014-08-16 11:33:26

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