<html> <head> <title>Siag - Notes for Excel Users</title> </head> <body> <h1>Notes for Excel Users</h1> If you have previously used legacy applications such as Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet, you already know most of what you need to get started with Siag. However, <i>Siag is not an Excel emulator</i>, and it is good to be aware of some of the differences. <h2>Operators</h2> In formulas, Excel uses ^ for exponentiation. Siag has a syntax that is modeled after the C programming language. This means among other things that ^ is used for bitwise xor. To get exponentiation, use ** instead (this does not come from C). <p> <h3>Example</h3> In Excel, 2^3 evaluates to 8. In Siag, you must use 2**3 to get the same result, as 2^3 yields 1. <p> Another difference is that Siag has <a href="c-expr.html">many more operators</a>. <h2>Functions</h2> Siag has hundreds of predefined functions. Many of those have Excel equivalents, but not all. In the <a href="siag-functions.html">function reference</a>, those functions which are Excel compatible are marked as such. <h2>Extension Language</h2> Excel has Visual Basic. The primary extension language in Siag is <a href="scheme.html">Scheme</a>, which allows you to define new functions in a straightforward way - functions which can then be used directly in your documents. <p> Siag can also use <a href="../common/interpreters.html">other extension languages</a>. <h2>File Formats</h2> The best way to move files from Excel to Siag is this: <ol> <li>Load the file in Excel <li>Save the file using Lotus 1-2-3 format (.wk1) <li>Load the file in Siag </ol> If the procedure above is not possible (say, you have a file in .xls format but no access to Excel), it is possible to load the file anyway using <a href="fileformats.html">Siag's .xls support</a>. Be aware, though, that doing this will preserve less information. <hr> <address>Ulric Eriksson - July 2000 - ulric@siag.nu</address> </body> </html>
