Hi,

This is my first post on this forum, and I am pretty new to macros in Minitab... I have a lot of c/c++ experience, so minitab is really frustrating!! this should be so easy...

anyway,

I am trying to write a macro that will perform a normality test and capability analysis on all the columns in the worksheet... But the number of columns isnt known prior to running the macro. I need to count the number of columns that contain data.

Of course my first approach was to use a loop and the count command... well unfortunately, the count on an empty column triggers an error, not an empty flag ('*'). I spoke with minitab customer service, and they gave me a cludgey way of counting the cols using the stack command. However, this does not work if any of the columns is text.

Can anyone give me a method to determine the number of columns containing data?

Thanks!

I am no programmer, but I am wondering why you have to count the number of columns that have data in them first.

Can you test a column for data, check for the correct response to data, run normality, check for the correct response to normality, run capability then move to the next column.

If Minitab runs into a column that does not contain data or gives an error, the macro will stop because you first asked it "does data exist" if not, stop.

I know this probably sounds simplistic, but it comes from a non-programmer.

Jim Shelor
PMP, SSBB