Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ (The Wiley Finance Series) [Hardcover]

Steve Dalton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470027975 | ISBN-13: 978-0470027974 | Publication Date: September 25, 2007 | Edition: 2

Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ is a must-buy book for any serious Excel developer.Excel is the industry standard for financial modelling, providing a number of ways for users to extend the functionality of their own add-ins, including VBA and C/C++. This is the only complete how-to guide and reference book for the creation of high performance add-ins for Excel in C and C++ for users in the finance industry. Steve Dalton explains how to apply Excel add-ins to financial applications with many examples given throughout the book. It also covers the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++, and provides comprehensive code, workbooks and example projects on the accompanying CD-ROM. The impact of Excel 2007’s multi-threaded workbook calculations and large grids on add-in development are fully explored. Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ features: 

• Extensive example codes in VBA, C and C++, explaining all the ways in which a developer can achieve their objectives.
• Example projects that demonstrate, from start to finish, the potential of Excel when powerful add-ins can be easily developed.
• Develops the readers understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++.
• A CD-ROM with several thousand lines of example code, numerous workbooks, and a number of complete example projects.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"If you're looking to take advantage of the performance benefit from calling C/C++ code from Excel then this book should be the first and last one that you buy. For the second edition Steve has catalogued the changes needed to work with Excel 2007 and given new examples covering the SABR stochastic volatility model and CMS derivative pricing." - Dr. Mike Staunton, London Business School, Wilmott columnist

"This book is for anyone who wants to do any application development in Excel. Even for an old hand at Excel development such as myself, a brief skim through reveals valuable nuggets of information. Delving deeper into the text, richer veins are easily found. This book is destined to become an essential reference on Excel development."
—Dr. Les Clew low, Principal, Lucama Group Ltd

"Programming Excel add-ins using the C API can be complex and difficult. Steve has done a masterful job of demystifying the process. After reading this book you’ll be creating XLLs for all purposes with complete confidence. Highly recommended."
—Rob Bovey, MCSE, MCSD, Excel MVP, President, Application Professionals

From the Back Cover

Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ is a must-buy book for any serious Excel developer.Excel is the industry standard for financial modelling, providing a number of ways for users to extend the functionality of their own add-ins, including VBA and C/C++. This is the only complete how-to guide and reference book for the creation of high performance add-ins for Excel in C and C++ for users in the finance industry. Steve Dalton explains how to apply Excel add-ins to financial applications with many examples given throughout the book. It also covers the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++, and provides comprehensive code, workbooks and example projects on the accompanying CD-ROM. The impact of Excel 2007’s multi-threaded workbook calculations and large grids on add-in development are fully explored. Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ features:

• Extensive example codes in VBA, C and C++, explaining all the ways in which a developer can achieve their objectives.
• Example projects that demonstrate, from start to finish, the potential of Excel when powerful add-ins can be easily developed.
• Develops the readers understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++.
• A CD-ROM with several thousand lines of example code, numerous workbooks, and a number of complete example projects.

"Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ is the definitive how-to guide adn reference for developers looking to create high-performance applications in Excel using C and C++. The book provides a practical, detailed, and lucid treatment of the Excel C API and XLL add-in development, with a particular emphasis on developing worksheet functions. Author Steve Dalton does a masterful job of sharing his many years of expertise, tackling the subject with detailed information, abundant best practice, and numerous practical examples. I would highly recommend this book to any serious Excel developer." - David Gainer, Group Program Manager, Microsoft Excel

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470027975
• ISBN-13: 978-0470027974
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 1.6 x 9.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of content, but badly organized, February 13, 2011

By 

cptseamonkey - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ (The Wiley Finance Series) (Hardcover)

It's a 500 page book plus thousands of lines of source code, so your answers are in there ... somewhere. But the whole product is painfully disorganized.

The source code does not provide an adequate solution to producing Excel add-ins, it is just too brittle, hard to modify/maintain, and confusing. There are 141 functions that read "if Excel 2007 do this, if Excel 2003 or before, do that..." which would all have to be re-written every time a new version of Excel comes out. Instead of working around the Microsoft SDK files, he changed them directly, so again you'd have to adjust them to a new version of Excel. One of the big problems with the code was the author's choice to make his "cpp_xloper" class the center of the project, which contains a huge amount of code for moving data around through Excel's xloper/xloper12 data structures, including overriding the += operator so it adds numbers and concatenates strings. This was a big mistake in my opinion because it's ALL unnecessary. You only need ONE function that needs to know anything about xlopers -- the one that converts the data to be sent to/received from the Excel C API. That should be the only function that even cares if you're in Excel 2007 or before. All of the rest of the code should be done in normal C/C++ data structures. That right there saves you about 90% of the work!!

A large portion of the book is devoted to explaining this approach and documenting the source code, so to the extent the source code is bad, so is the book.

To be fair, after two weeks of going through a couple thousand lines of spaghetti code, I was able to write a nice C++ wrapper that does everything I want. The information is in there ... somewhere.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what the title says it is, June 21, 2009

By 

J. Beeler - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ (The Wiley Finance Series) (Hardcover)

This book might qualify for the "Most Specific Title" award, but the book is exactly what it claims to be. A guide to developing financial applications using excel add-ins written in C/C++.

This book's target audience is someone familiar both with C/C++ as well as Excel -- not a beginner in either. Additionally, this book is not intended to be a reference for either the language or the application, but is instead a course in developing add-ins for Excel using C++. If this is what you're looking to do, this is the book you need.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only choice, March 14, 2009

By 

Dimitri Shvorob - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ (The Wiley Finance Series) (Hardcover)

The book does not have any competition, does it? I am grateful to the author, but think that one could do a better job presenting the material.

If you have not heard of XLW, do try it out first.