XLInputs can replace the free ELExcel.dll in the TradeStation forums, but the free dll does not replace XLInputs. XLInputs was designed to make working with Excel from EasyLanguage, very easy. Without any special code in your EasyLanguage indicator or strategy, using an XLI function, EasyLanguage can reference inputs in Excel even if you don’t know the exact row or column.
With the free dll, you would need header lines in your code. Then your custom code would need to loop through cells in an open workbook to find an identifier that locates your specific input. This is extremely process intensive since the most expensive operation when interacting with Excel is to read from it. (Writing is faster.)
XLInputs streamlines such processes by taking advantage of Excel functionality. It has Excel perform the search; making what would otherwise be a CPU intensive process, light and efficient. And the language to accomplish this in an EasyLanguage input is as simple as the following numeric example: XLI.Num(“Book1”, “Sheet1”, “Identifier”, 0). Note that 0 is a default return value if the identifier is not found in Excel.
Further XLInputs is not limited to reading from Excel. It writes to Excel with ease. It can:
- read and write comments
- get and set font colors
- get and set background colors
- read and write times, converting to EL format when reading any Excel date or time value
- read and write dates, converting to EL format when reading any Excel date or time value
- read and write text
- read and write True/False values
- identify the location of specific cells returning row, column and A1-address information
- determine the used range
- clear cell formats, delete comments, etc.
And there are many custom application of the technology like placing a list of dates and times in Excel; using that as a list of valid trading session times to be honored by Strategies. It can be leveraged for custom optimizations, other tuning processes, and many other operations imminently useful to serious traders.
