Let’s be real: whenever Excel comes up in conversation among the coding crowd—especially the newer generation—there’s often a collective groan, as if it’s some dreaded chore to be avoided at all costs. Everyone’s eager to dive into the thrill of coding, automation, and all the other exciting tech wizardry out there keeping distance from Excel world.
But what if I told you that Excel is actually a super cool tool, even for those so-called tech wizards? To me, Microsoft Excel is one of the most fascinating applications, brimming with endless possibilities and a whole lot of fun!
In this short article, I’m going to explore a few delightful ways to use Excel for pure enjoyment. Ready to discover how Excel can become your new playground? Let’s dive in!
Contents
How to Use Excel to Fetch and Read Unlimited Jokes?
This is a pretty basic set of steps that you need to follow to pull jokes into Microsoft Excel sheet. Please note that you should have a basic understanding of REST API. No prior coding knowledge is must to perform this exercise.
I’m going to divide the whole process into a few steps that will help you fetch the jokes into your excel sheet.
1. Shortlist a Joke API-
There are countless APIs out there that allow us to fetch a treasure trove of jokes. Today, I’m going to use one of the joke API from API Ninja website. You need to do small exercise and get API key for free. Here is how-
Open API NINJA website and select the JOKE API and Click View Docs.
Here’s how this simple API works: it delivers a fresh joke each time you send a new request! But before we dive into the laughter, the crucial piece we need is the API key. Obtaining it is easy—just sign in to get started. Let’s get that key and unlock the fun!
After logging in/Sign UP, you can see that under Account section an API Key is there for your user profile.
Now that you have all the details to fetch unlimited jokes in your Excel workbook, here’s how the final URL should look:
https://api.api-ninjas.com/v1/joke?apikey=YOUR_API_KEYJust replace YOUR_API_KEY with the one you obtained, and you’re all set to start laughing! Let’s get those jokes rolling!
2. Add API as data source in Excel
Create a blank Excel sheet. Go to the Data tab on the ribbon. Click on Get Data, then select From Other Sources, and choose From Web.
A pop appears on the screen with URL field. Provide the URL created in previous step (with api key parameter added). Click Ok.
3. Data transformation –
A new popup opens on the screen with data transformation and convert options. Click on Navigation and then convert into Table option.
Click on Save and Close or Save and Close to (Any option is fine).
Your unlimited joke box is ready. You can click on refresh icon on right side to load more and more jokes.
********************************************************************************************************
Here are a few of the jokes that I enjoyed while writing this article –
- Why did the car go to the doctor? It had a low battery.
- There’s only one problem with reading articles about space based technology It all goes waaaay over my head.
- What kind of bee will not take credit for his contributions? A Humblebee.
- Two guys walk into a bar… the third one ducks.
- How does Gandhi measure passive resistance? In oooooohms.
