Still looking to put together macro for sum of skips!

[mirage]

Hello again all,

Hate to keep harping on this one, but... believe me it looks like a worthwhile area when considering strategies.
Can anyone think of how to do a macro to pruduce a (narrow) range for Sum of Skips?
GillesD has written a macro to produce range of sums. Period.
I've tried to see if I can adapt this macro to take it a step further to pruduce Sums of Skips, but because I don't know Excel VBA all that well I am stumped. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

 

[GillesD]

Sum of skips

Probably it would be best to start from scratch. Can you describe exactly what you want? And if not too complicated, I could probably come up with a macro for this. If possible, also provide an actual example.

 

[mirage]

Re: Still looking for Sum of Skips

Hello Gilles D,
Hopefully this wont be too complicated. I will try to be brief while hopefully making myself clear.
Object:
For each possible combination of 6 out of 49 (or 6 out of 45) numbers, find the all the combinations that equal a single value of Sum of Skips (number of draws ago number was last drawn).
Generate a list of all of the possible combinations that equal Sum of Skip value.
- The associated (Skip) value can be manually typed before running program, or automatically updated when database updated.
- I'm not wanting to include bonus number as only looking for all possible combinations (that equal a single value- Sum of Skips) of 6 of 49 (or 6 of 45) to play.
Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[jbiff]

mirage,
just curious about what you mean by sum of skips. I am still not sure what you mean. my best guess is somthing like this:
draw history
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6
04 12 14 19 21 43
02 11 21 22 27 37
07 12 18 21 36 40
07 13 17 19 21 31
15 19 24 25 36 44

skip history
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 SUM OF SKIPS
08 03 39 02 08 15 = 75
02 10 00 06 01 04 = 23
11 01 07 00 04 00 = 23
00 13 10 02 00 05 = 30
04 00 04 20 01 04 = 33

am i close or way off?

 

[mirage]

Using your example numbers given:

If B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 represent the 6 numbers (history).
ie. 04 12 14 19 21 43 (were the actual numbers that were drawn in a lottery draw).

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 represent skip (history).
and 08 03 39 02 08 15 is the skips for each of the numbers drawn above, which when added(sumed)= 75.

Yes, this is what I mean.

 

[mirage]

Hello?? GillesD?

What part of the question was unclear or the request too complicated? Do you need me to clarify more? Is this approach perceived as being too impractical? Why?

Any, repeat, any! feed back at all would be most, most appreciated!!

This board is starting to feel lonely....

 

[jbiff]

Mirage,
I haven’t given up but it is daunting task that is proving to be beyond my abilities so far
…I’m sure GillesD will come to the rescue.
Meanwhile I’m also playing with the ideas Rubronegro has introduced…
my head hurts
…need more beer

 

[mirage]

Mirage,
I haven’t given up but it is daunting task that is proving to be beyond my abilities so far
…I’m sure GillesD will come to the rescue.
Meanwhile I’m also playing with the ideas Rubronegro has introduced…
my head hurts
…need more beer

Thanks so much jbiff for your efforts. Maybe chugging beer to contemplate a solution is not best idea, but far be it for me to say that it is not best idea for you.
However, stay tuned: - Update News Flash!
The math professor wizard I had previously spoken about deigned to talk to me after all and was intrigued by the challenge but said Excel was not the way to go. He had to really think about it for a minute and said it could be done in VB, but not the Excel version of VB. He said he could do a custom job. It would involve a 2 dimensional array and some tweaking. He said it would take he estimated 8 hours to do, and his price is $100 a hour. He also commented that my Pentium 4 would be doing a lot of computing time to complete the task. At that point I lost my nerve and hesitated. I had to ask myself, is it really worth the money, stress and effort?
I had to do some checking in with reality. (Always a good thing to do once in a while). I have a chart that indicates sums of skips, discrete values, for about a year's worth of draws for 6/49. The lowest value recorded for the year is 18. The highest is greater than 100(anything greater than 100 is off my chart, but this only occurred twice). The most popular on my chart for a year is 41, with 8 occurrences in one year. The second most popular is 34 at 6 occurrences, and then 35 with 5 occurrences. Yes but if you consider possible combinations being nearly 14,000,000/85 possible sum of skips as per chart, then a list of all combinations for one sum value might easily be more than 140,000+! (or -), but you get the picture. So is this really a practical approach?

I'm sure GillesD has thought of this obvious problem and that may be why I haven't heard anymore from that quarter.

Empirically, I've checked and checked and where are all these hidden combinations? Is this only in theory or would I be faced with a list of 150,000 possible plays and what to do with them? I guess all the hidden combinations would reveal themselves if/when the program was executed. I would also guess that numbers of combinations would vary alot, from draw to draw - with the obviously more popular sums having the greater number of combinations. And those least likely to occur, say value 15 to 17, much fewer. But would values 15 or 17, for example, ever be an occurrence? They might someday but that's a real gamble.
{Any comments here would be appreciated.} I could still advise the professor to please procede (if he's not completely fed up with my dithering and is still willing to do it). I could perhaps make the program available if persons on this board think it's worthwhile -and, if it is possible for me to do so. However, the expense involved for me is an issue.

 

[GillesD]

Always feasible

I have given some thoughts to the problem and it will soon be available here. The problem is not Excel but the time I can give to program it and check the code (and the solution it gives).

 

[Babarlish]

Greetings Mirage

The Oracle has given some thoughts to your theory without wearing his blond wig in an attempt to sound smarter than usual.

No Mirage, its not worth the money, nor the stress, nor the effort. Sorry, the program would reveal you all the 14 million combinations with their respective skip value. They could thereafter be catalogued in files or in a database from 18 to above 100 as you mentioned above.

BUT...

First point: Do not pay $100 an hour for a program made with VB (Visual Basic, or the cream of the crash compiler).

Second Point: Do not pay $100 an hour for a program, (even working very well) that is only a theory, unless you are already a programmer
and have the compiler(s) to do it yourself.

Third Point: Checking with reality cannot help you see the Oracle. The spirit world is not visible to mortals, but the Oracle knows who are his true devoted admirers and goes the extra mile for them.

Fourth point: The program you seek, I already have it partially programmed in my head with all the necessary arrays, and I can assure you Mirage that your Pentium 4 would not be working for hours, not if it would run what I have in my head. As a matter of fact I can safely estimate that the program I have in mind would dish out a result ASCII file in less than 20 minutes. The Oracle appraise these results based on the speed of a Celeron 2.4 Ghz which is the same as a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz with a smaller cache. The Oracle also know that you already know that.

Last point: Mirage from the top your theory is quite clever, but consider this: from draw to draw, all combinations that relate to all the values will change because 6 balls per draw come to the end of their individual skip (7 with bonus number), (half an hour later in Newfoundland) while the others see their skip value to increase by 1. Let's take the most popular value on your chart which is 41. From draw to draw, many combinations that equals a skip value of 41 will change because any combination that use any of the 6 drawn numbers suffer a big shift in value. Incidently the numbers of the 43 balls that were not drawn have their skip value to equal skip = skip + 1. This causes the skip value of all the combinations to change and to migrate from one value (as in 41) to another. The Oracle think that you are doubling the risk of making the wrong decision. Because with this theory, you must first decide at each draw which value you want, then choose the combination(s) you are willing to play in the choosen value.

Does that make sense Mirage?

You owe the Oracle a can of spray net.

Bab

 

[Nick Koutras]

Greetings Mirage

The Oracle has given some thoughts to your theory without wearing his blond wig in an attempt to sound smarter than usual.

No Mirage, its not worth the money, nor the stress, nor the effort. Sorry, the program would reveal you all the 14 million combinations with their respective skip value. They could thereafter be catalogued in files or in a database from 18 to above 100 as you mentioned above.

BUT...

First point: Do not pay $100 an hour for a program made with VB (Visual Basic, or the cream of the crash compiler).

Second Point: Do not pay $100 an hour for a program, (even working very well) that is only a theory, unless you are already a programmer
and have the compiler(s) to do it yourself.

Third Point: Checking with reality cannot help you see the Oracle. The spirit world is not visible to mortals, but the Oracle knows who are his true devoted admirers and goes the extra mile for them.

Fourth point: The program you seek, I already have it partially programmed in my head with all the necessary arrays, and I can assure you Mirage that your Pentium 4 would not be working for hours, not if it would run what I have in my head. As a matter of fact I can safely estimate that the program I have in mind would dish out a result ASCII file in less than 20 minutes. The Oracle appraise these results based on the speed of a Celeron 2.4 Ghz which is the same as a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz with a smaller cache. The Oracle also know that you already know that.

Last point: Mirage from the top your theory is quite clever, but consider this: from draw to draw, all combinations that relate to all the values will change because 6 balls per draw come to the end of their individual skip (7 with bonus number), (half an hour later in Newfoundland) while the others see their skip value to increase by 1. Let's take the most popular value on your chart which is 41. From draw to draw, many combinations that equals a skip value of 41 will change because any combination that use any of the 6 drawn numbers suffer a big shift in value. Incidently the numbers of the 43 balls that were not drawn have their skip value to equal skip = skip + 1. This causes the skip value of all the combinations to change and to migrate from one value (as in 41) to another. The Oracle think that you are doubling the risk of making the wrong decision. Because with this theory, you must first decide at each draw which value you want, then choose the combination(s) you are willing to play in the choosen value.

Does that make sense Mirage?

You owe the Oracle a can of spray net.

Bab

So many words for what?????

The answer exists, it is free and takes
a second to dispaly.

LottoStatisticsXL displays these skips at "Trivial Report" columns AA...

mirage e-mail me to prepare you a version that will handle Skips not only
for the Skips of the First Cycle but fo any Cycle.

I see you are from London, where I live too.

 

[Snides]

Your idea doesn't sound like it would be very hard to program. I could likely do it in much less time than your math professor guy... I certainly don't see it being worth 800 bucks..

When you count skips, would the last draw be one draw back? or zero draws back? I ask because some people like using 0, and I like using 1.

I could try to whip up a program for you in the near future, unless what nick is suggesting works fine for you.. and I would give you the bargain price of only $200

I see from your picks in ON/49 that you don't currently use this idea when you pick numbers, but i guess without a program to do it, it could be a bit daunting..

If i do this, it would be in VB, I use it all the time, and it never crashes for me.. guess i'm just lucky that way It would however use a mdb file as it's source, that's Microsoft Access for those that don't know.. Do you have that so that you could update your history, or would you like the ability to update built into the program? and how would you like the output? on screen? text file? csv file? Would you want any other filtering built in? It's not often that more than two numbers come up from any previous draw groups (unless you include bonus, and the last draw can sometimes have 3) I would think a realistic filter to add would be <= 2 from any group, or you could have results like 222233 = sum of 14.

Let me know if you want this to go to the next level, and I'll see if I can find a few spare hours next week while i'm on holidays and have nothing better to do than drink beer, cut the grass, and stop some of the sun's rays from hitting my deck..

 

[Babarlish]

If i do this, it would be in VB, I use it all the time, and it never crashes for me.. guess i'm just lucky that way

Greetings Snides

Looks like we both think in the same direction regarding Mirage's equation. I'll put something together this weekend. I'm just curious about the execution speed. It might slap down something well below 20 minutes, perhaps 3-4 minutes. The results would be in ASCII files. One file for each skip value encountered in the process, and each of these files holding all the combinations that equals that particular value.

You owe the Oracle a freeware version of runtime.dll

Bab

 

[mirage]

(Originally quoted by Snides)

Your idea doesn't sound like it would be very hard to program. I could likely do it in much less time than your math professor guy... I certainly don't see it being worth 800 bucks..

When you count skips, would the last draw be one draw back? or zero draws back? I ask because some people like using 0, and I like using 1.

I could try to whip up a program for you in the near future, unless what nick is suggesting works fine for you.. and I would give you the bargain price of only $200

I see from your picks in ON/49 that you don't currently use this idea when you pick numbers, but i guess without a program to do it, it could be a bit daunting..

If i do this, it would be in VB, I use it all the time, and it never crashes for me.. guess i'm just lucky that way It would however use a mdb file as it's source, that's Microsoft Access for those that don't know.. Do you have that so that you could update your history, or would you like the ability to update built into the program? and how would you like the output? on screen? text file? csv file? Would you want any other filtering built in? It's not often that more than two numbers come up from any previous draw groups (unless you include bonus, and the last draw can sometimes have 3) I would think a realistic filter to add would be <= 2 from any group, or you could have results like 222233 = sum of 14

---------------------------------------------------
Well...! Thanks for all your input of ideas and suggestions! That was really terrific! Now, where and to who do I respond first?
FYI, I am not a programmer, but an artsy type (although I did work for a few years as a kid as a "systems operator" way back in the days of dinasaur main frames.) I don't even work in area of IT currently, for many years, and am way out of date in my knowledge.

Barbalish: I am not as computer literate as you so kindly
assumed!

I'll address Barbalish's first posting in a separate post as soon as I am able.
And Nicks in another or I will email him.

Meanwhile, Barbalish and Snides: If you want to take a look at cooking up a solution, I would be more than grateful.
(And now I owe the Oracle...?)

Nick, let me go back and look at your LottoStatisticsXL some more, although my first impressions were that this gave results which were mainly statistical (which is not what I want)or maybe I was just misled by the program name(?)

Snides:

I want something that produces a list that displays on screen as well as printable and that list to be only those combinations that equal the sum of one skip value. I don't know what a csv file is.

Also: Very Important for me. I wanted something flexible that will do for a 6/49 OR a 6/45 (or whatever) lottery. Again, imo, Lottario is an under-rated lottery.

Unfortunately, I do not have Access. I have the cheaper version of Excel and Word only, running on XP. Is this a problem?
Therefore can the ability to update be built into the program, as you suggested Snides?

I don't know what to say about adding in filters. I agree about your suggestion re <=2 would be a good filter. However, otherwise I was going to comb through list of combinations manually.

When I count skips, last draw counts as 1. i.e. if 7 won in 6/49's last draw, then 7 is counted as "1". So I'm in agreement with your preference.

My picks for Ont 49? No, I don't use anybody else's ideas when picking numbers. Yes, the task is somewhat daunting. But my process sometimes works. I have been gazing at lottery numbers for many years and feel I have experience gained through observation on my side. I am intrigued by some of the more arcane ideas I've seen on this board though. (i.e. Rubronegro's)

Lastly Snides, you are of course jesting when you say you could whip up a program for the bargain basement price of $200?? (LT will have your head!)

 

[Beaker]

With bonus, assuming repeating numbers are skip 1 - so skips start at 1 - and excluding draw 1 and 2, I get the following:

Low value: 12 = draw 1375
High value: 132 = draw 1573

mode is 45

Others might have something different

Good luck here

 

[mirage]

With bonus, assuming repeating numbers are skip 1 - so skips start at 1 - and excluding draw 1 and 2, I get the following:

Low value: 12 = draw 1375
High value: 132 = draw 1573

mode is 45

Others might have something different

Good luck here

I guess this means Beaker's a skeptic. Fair enough. (Useful feedback) I guess strategy would be to go very high, with 6/49 over 95 sum at least, excluding bonus. With filters but not too tight. Do you not have to consider huge possible combinations anyway when choosing your numbers?So what's couple/several thousand when you have filters?

 

[mirage]

(I hate being so visible all over this Q & A, etc.)
(Sigh... I meant "dinosaur" not dinasaur").
Anyway,
Double checked Nick's program LottostatisticsXL, and no, it will not work for me. Is just giving statistical pictures of past performances. I already keep some stats on past performances, but Nick's is really comprehensive, fast and ready. It does the grunt work. However, it is not really what I want.
GREEN LIGHT Barbalish and Snides if you have the time and interest. Yes filters a must. Thanks!

 

[mirage]

(Quote originally by Barbalish)
....consider this: from draw to draw, all combinations that relate to all the values will change because 6 balls per draw come to the end of their individual skip (7 with bonus number), (half an hour later in Newfoundland) while the others see their skip value to increase by 1. Let's take the most popular value on your chart which is 41. From draw to draw, many combinations that equals a skip value of 41 will change because any combination that use any of the 6 drawn numbers suffer a big shift in value. Incidently the numbers of the 43 balls that were not drawn have their skip value to equal skip = skip + 1. This causes the skip value of all the combinations to change and to migrate from one value (as in 41) to another. The Oracle think that you are doubling the risk of making the wrong decision. Because with this theory, you must first decide at each draw which value you want, then choose the combination(s) you are willing to play in the choosen value.

Final word.
Barbalish, (or would you prefer to be addressed as Bab?), yes I already knew this.
- The Oracle did not specify his choice of spray net.

 

[mirage]

(Quote originally by Barbalish)
....consider this:, etc....

Final word.
Barbalish, (or would you prefer to be addressed as Bab?), yes I already knew this.
- The Oracle did not specify his choice of spray net.

Whooops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean "Babarlish"! Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Snides]

Greetings Snides

Looks like we both think in the same direction regarding Mirage's equation. I'll put something together this weekend. I'm just curious about the execution speed. It might slap down something well below 20 minutes, perhaps 3-4 minutes. The results would be in ASCII files. One file for each skip value encountered in the process, and each of these files holding all the combinations that equals that particular value.

You owe the Oracle a freeware version of runtime.dll

Bab

Ok mirage, if barbarlish gets something done on the weekend that's suitable for your needs, then i may not do anything.. I won't have time to start any such project till monday anyways.. I do have some visions in my head right now of how cool of a program it could be, but those visions may just be mirage..

a csv (comma separated values) file, is basically a text file that excel can open and the numbers will be plastered into cells based on where the commas were in the .csv file..

I can give the program the option to do 6/49 or lottario, but I don't have the lottario history available. I would need the data to set up in the initial mdb file and then you could update from there.. if you could supply that data, that would be great, but then there are things like "early birds" would you want those number included in the skip count? if a number hits for the early bird that had a skip of 5, does it change to 1? many more things to consider there..

Yes, I am jesting about the bargain price of $200.. It would likely be worth a lot more than that!