Question

How not to compete with self

Asked by: DWG123

I am writing a user function to raise my bid price for an auction.  I want to make sure 1) I have the highest bid price, 2) I don't ever pay more than needed to have the best bid price and 3) that I don't compete with myself.  Number 3 is giving me trouble.

Mugadu sent some code back that worked (thanks), but with some buttons and sub routines in it.  I would like to make this work as a function if possible.  Mainly because I am not sure how to reference/call the sub and I want the same function to work lots of times in a spreadsheet and don't want to get public/private mixed up. (I'm new to this...)

What am I missing to keep from competing with myself?  When MyBid becomes the CurBid, I don't want to "raise" against myself.

Thanks

Option Explicit
 
Function MyBid(CurBid As Single, ReservePrice As Single, FairValue As Single, ProfitMargin As Single)
 
 Dim MaxBid As Single
 Dim Step   As Single
 
 MaxBid = FairValue - ProfitMargin
 Step = 1
 
 If CurBid > MyBid Then
  MyBid = CurBid + Step
  If MyBid >= MaxBid Then
   MyBid = MaxBid
  End If
 End If
 
End Function

                                  
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Asked On
2009-06-27 at 09:58:24ID24527440
Tags

MS Excel

,

VBA

,

functions

Topics

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

,

Microsoft Development

,

VB Objects

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: Skud13Posted on 2009-06-27 at 13:29:58ID: 24729115

Surely you already know what the value of your latest bid is. Therefore any other bid higher than your latest bid will be someone else. If you pass SubmittedBid As Single and put a condition If CurBid = LSubmittedBid then return without increasing the bid, MyBid = CurBid.

 

by: TramtrakPosted on 2009-06-27 at 20:28:03ID: 24730021

Skud13 is correct.

You need to add a column to either record your last accepted bid (value), or whether you own the current bid (true/false). Then use that as a condition in your function.

 

by: DWG123Posted on 2009-06-27 at 20:38:37ID: 24730043

Tramtrak and Skud13,
When someone else out-bids me, the macro works and I up my bid.  Problem is when my higher bid is sent I then up myself.  Line 11 is meant to check if LSubmittedBid = CurBid, but each time CurBid is changed MyBid is zero (macro starts over?), so the check does not work as intented.  This feels like it should be simple, but I am stumped.

Could someone show me how I can make conditional test in line 11 work?  Where can I place or reference my old/previous MyBid value?

 

by: byundtPosted on 2009-06-27 at 22:23:42ID: 24730188

I assume that you are calling the MyBid function from a worksheet formula. It is therefore a user-defined function and not a macro.


It is worth noting that MyBid is 0 in statement 11. It only receives a value in statement 12. As a result, your If test will not work as intended.

I've added a parameter for your most recent bid in the function in the snippet below. I then use that value to initialize MyBid.

You'll also note that I changed all variable declarations to Double. This is because Excel VBA allocates space for a double precision number even when you specify Single in the Dim statement. There is thus no advantage to using Single. The same deal applies to integers--you should always use Long instead of Integer when declaring them because Excel allocates space for a Long anyway.

The final suggestion is that you will probably need to turn on Iterations using the Tools...Options...Calculation menu item. Without turning Iterations on, I got a circular reference error message when I tried to set the value of MyBid automatically using a formula.

Brad

Function MyBid(CurBid As Double, ReservePrice As Double, FairValue As Double, ProfitMargin As Double, LastBid As Double) As Double
 
 Dim MaxBid As Double
 Dim Step   As Double
 
 MaxBid = FairValue - ProfitMargin
 Step = 1
 MyBid = LastBid    'MyBid is 0 at this point. You need to pass the your previous bid here
 If CurBid > MyBid Then
  MyBid = CurBid + Step
  If MyBid >= MaxBid Then
   MyBid = MaxBid
  End If
 End If
 
End Function

                                              
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by: DWG123Posted on 2009-06-27 at 22:36:13ID: 24730201

Yes, this is a user-defined function rather than a macro.

I tried the iteration option to avoid the circular reference.  But I still had the problem.  I think I need to PASS MyBid to LastBid and pass it back into the code at the right time.  

Can I do that in the same UDF?  Or do I need a subroutine to "park" that old MyBid value?  If so, how do I pass the value in and out when needed.

I am trying this myself, but I am slow at this....

 

by: DWG123Posted on 2009-07-02 at 05:31:00ID: 31597575

Thanks for your help, folks.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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