Custom Functions

The following custom functions are part of the introductory samples of xlwings Lite:

1. HELLO Function

Description

Returns a greeting message for the given name.

Syntax

=HELLO(name)

Arguments

Argument	Description
name	Required. A text string representing the name to be included in the greeting.

Example

=HELLO("Alice")

Result: "Hello Alice!"

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2. STANDARD_NORMAL Function

Description

Generates a matrix of standard normally distributed pseudo-random numbers and returns them in a structured DataFrame with dates as row indices.

Syntax

=STANDARD_NORMAL(rows, cols)

Arguments

Argument	Description
rows	Required. The number of rows (dates) to generate.
cols	Required. The number of columns to generate.

Example

=STANDARD_NORMAL(5, 3)

Result: A 5-row by 3-column DataFrame containing random values with row indices as dates starting from June 15, 2025.

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3. CORREL2 Function

Description

Computes the correlation matrix for an input DataFrame. Similar to Excel’s CORREL function but operates on matrices.

Syntax

=CORREL2(data)

Arguments

Argument	Description
data	Required. A DataFrame containing numeric values for correlation calculation.

Example

=CORREL2(STANDARD_NORMAL(5, 3))

Result: A 3x3 correlation matrix showing the correlation coefficients between the columns of the generated DataFrame.