The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A user-defined function is a code created by a user that prompts the performance of an action and the computation of a value. The function can be programmed to activate via a designated keystroke. There are as many possible uses for user-defined function keys as there are keystrokes. An example of an user defined function is the programming of keys to trigger the activation or disabling of sound.
User-defined functions are subroutines, of which there are several types. An external function can be written using many operating languages, including Java. An SQL function is written entirely in SQL. A sourced function compliments and modifies an existing user-defined function.
In a spreadsheet program, a user-defined function can be applied to a cell, a region, defined by a column number and a row number, to which data is added. The function will occur when the data is entered. A user-defined function cannot alter the spreadsheet environment, such as by the selection, deletion, insertion, renaming, or formatting of existing data. The user-defined functions are the only function procedures that the Excel spreadsheet can use in a cell's formula.
Typically, a user-defined function manipulates or calculates a result based on the data, or on the arguments, that were specified as part of the defining of the function. The structure of a user-defined function, for a spreadsheet, consists of beginning and ending identifiers (Function and End Function, respectively) with so-called arguments forming the bulk of the function definition. Arguments are the qualifiers to the function, with criteria used in analyzing the data, and the order or hierarchy of analyses, as examples.