can Excel help to "count" votes...?

[RedBeer]

Hello,

I have a fairly limited knowledge of Excel, but I'm wondering if someone can
help me use it for a somewhat novel task.

I have a website where I've demo'd some graphic art pieces and have asked
viewers to vote for their favorite 5 out of 26 pieces. I got 25 votes, so
I've got 5x 25 results, which I've entered in columns labeled "1st place,
2nd place... " etc.

I'm wondering if Excel can help me "choose" the most popular art pieces
somehow; or else generate an out put of an ascending or descending
"popularity" scale; somehow mathematically quantifying the choices. ie,
"1st place" column entries could be "multiplied" by say a factor of 10, 2nd
place enties "multiplied" by 8, etc.

Only trouble is, working with math you'd end up with fractional results,
whereas only the whole, original and absolute values of the integers
representing the art pieces would have any value.

For instance, if piece #7 appears in the 1st place column 3 times, and in
the 3rd place column 2 times, it gets a score of 70+18, for an overall
"rating" of 88.

Perhaps the whole thing is more like evaluating a "matrix" which gets pretty
tricky and takes me into math that I haven't comprehended since high school!

thanks for any pointers
(or relevant humor)

RD

 

[Bob Phillips]

I have posted an example solution at http://cjoint.com/?ezkgNtPhYY

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)

 

[RedBeer]

Hi Bob,

Thanks so much for the work and thought you put into this - I'm impressed!

The matrix I created is a little different: the 5 columns represent 1st thru
5th place in the voting score and the rows represent the votes cast by
different individuals.

Example:

Voter 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 4th place 5th place

joe 12 25 11 21
23
bill 13 24 1 26
14
jan 2 17 12 4
10

.... etc for 25 voters. Numbers represent the numerical "labels" ID'ing the
pictures.

Is there any way I could use your forumlas for my matrix, or would I have to
recreate a new matrix
with your parameters?

Also, if I do re-enter the matrix, I notice that all your "scores" come out
as "zero" ...
Are the formulas not supposed to return actual numeric scores?

Thanks again, your thoughts are appreciated...

RD

 

[Bob Phillips]

Take a look at this revamped version http://cjoint.com/?eAlhxtIPeV


--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)

 

[Bob Phillips]

BTW, the zeroes are because it is an array formula, so when you do it, or
re-do it, you need to commit it with Ctrl-Shift-Enter, not just Enter.

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)

 

[RedBeer]

Hi Bob,

Thanks once again for your knowledge and insight.
I'll try re-configuring my matrix according to your plan and test it out.
Hopefully, OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet capabilities will support the same
functions as Ms Excel ...

RD

 

[Bob Phillips]

Afraid I can't help you there, never use it.

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)