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When using iteration (circular references with the iteration option checked) is there any way of determining how many iterations were needed to reach a satisfactory answer?

Some spreadsheets that I used (a long time ago) used to have a variable that stored the number of iterations, and the variable could then be used in further calculations.

I can't see how to get this information in Planmaker. Is there a way of doing it?

Lance

Hello,

currently there are no functions in PlanMaker to return the number of iterations or the calculated difference to the old calculation.

The iterations are stopped when the differences to the last calculation run reach the limit given in File/Prefs/Calculate. The number of iterations is only a fail-safe limit in case this does not happen.

_________________
Sven Leßmann
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Yes I guessed that the number of iterations box was only a fail-safe-limit. I tried techniques like putting "=B2+1" in B2 along with the rest of the model, but the B2 counter would just run to whatever the limit was and reveal nothing about the rest of the model.

There are times when knowing how many iterations were needed to reach a certain limit can be useful - for example I have an algorithm for calculating sample size that uses that information. That is why I was asking.

Lance

Here is a solution for the equivalent problem in MS Excel posted on a MS newsgroup by "Charles":

--------------
I think this works, but I have not done exhaustive testing. Its a UDF that
will return the number of iterations.
The aCircularCell reference MUST reference one of the cells in the circular
calculation chain.
It relies on the fact that Application.Iteration seems to be False in the
initial part of the calculation when Excel is determining if there are
circular references, and then Application.Iteration becomes true when Excel
has determined that there are circular references and has switched to its
algorithm for resolving circular references.
Not sure what happens if you have more than one circular chain!

Option Explicit
Dim IterCount As Long

Public Function IterCounter(aCircularCell As Range)
Dim var As Variant

var = aCircularCell
If Not Application.Iteration Then
IterCount = 0
Else
IterCount = IterCount + 1
End If
IterCounter = IterCount

End Function

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Could something like this be written for Planmaker?

Lance

Hello,

I referred your question to our developers and will inform you here as soon as I have more information.

_________________
Sven Leßmann
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Thanks Sven. Lance