Android Example Find a missing value using Approximation & Guesswork (Goal Seek)

I have written a few Financial Calculators over the past couple of weeks, and one approach I've found extremely useful is Approximation and Guesswork.
So I figured, why not share the approach with the forum,
  • A) to hopefully inform and
  • B) to see if anyone else has any other intriguing approaches.

Rather than re-inventing a load of different functions to find missing values, I take one formula and turn it around (rather similar to the Goal Seek in Excel).


Here's how my version of approximation works:

(This is the old Jackson Structured Programming diagram - still relevant today (aka JSP))


The beauty of the Approximation approach is that you can find any missing parameter to any calculation with no prior knowledge of the actual calculation itself!
And it's fast.

In this example, I have used a low value of 0 years, a high value of 100 years, so the mid is 50 years.
Each loop halves the difference between the low and mid, or the mid and high, so in a very small number of iterations, you can get from 100 years down to single digits very quickly.:
IterationLowMidHigh
1050100
202550
3012.525
406.7512.5
503.876.75

After only 5 loops, we are already very close to the required answer. The example below takes about 20 loops to get to the final result. Sometimes, I will build in a 'tolerance' amount, which can significantly reduce the iterations, but when dealing with calculators, it's more important to be accurate, so I decide on a tolerance on a case-by-case basis.


In the example below, I've set up a simple Present Value (PV) function. It takes three parameters - the Future Fund Value, the Interest Rate and the Term, and returns the present value of the funds. But the approach can be applied to any complex calculation you can think of.

Here's the code:

Present Value Calculation:
Sub PV(FV As Double, rate As Double, term As Double) As Double
    Return(FV * (1 / (Power((1+rate),term))))
End Sub


In my Approximation routine, I am attempting to find the Term (I expect to get an answer of 5 years in this case)
Approximation:
Sub Approximate
    Dim Mid As Double = 50                        ' Mid value is the value we will use to calculate the PV (When the Target result is reached, the Mid value ifs the one we want
    Dim Low As Double = 0                        ' Used to control how Mid value is calculated
    Dim High As Double = 100                    ' also used to control how the mid value is calculated
    Dim Target As Double                        ' The target value we want to achieve     
    Dim myPV As Double = 0                        ' Holds the result from the PV calculation   
    Dim myFV As Double = 5000                    ' The Future Value Amount
    Dim myRate As Double = .03                    ' The Annual Interest Rate

    Target = (PV(myFV,.03,5))                    ' TARGET IS SET UP HERE ONLY TO AID THE EXAMPLE. 
    Log("Target: " & Target)
    
    Do While (Round2(myPV,2)<>Round2(Target,2))       
        myPV = PV(myFV, myRate, Mid)           
        Log("Low: " & Round2(Low,2) & ";  Mid: " & Round2(Mid,2) & ";   High: " & Round2(High,2) & "   -   Result=" & Round2(myPV,2))
        
        If Round2(myPV,2) > Target Then                                                           
            Low = Mid                                                       
        else if Round2(myPV,2) < Target Then   
            High = Mid                           
        End If
        
        Mid = (Low + High) / 2                   
    Loop   
    xui.MsgboxAsync(Round2(Mid,2),"Result")   
End Sub




The "Log" statement will give you a good idea of what's happening in the background.

I first came across the Approximation approach wayyyyyy back in 1979, when I was writing code using punch cards in Assembler (Search for punch cards - it's worth it ), and I think the technique is still relevant today. It brought a nostalgic smile back to my face when I used it recently to make some very complex financial calculations.
 

Sandman

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Very nice, thanks for sharing!

Sidenote: This is the very first time I've seen JSP in the wild since I learned it the eighties. Wow, what a blast from the past, I honestly thought nobody remembered about it. Makes me want to listen to some Bananarama / Venus again. (Which I was listening too while studying it.)
 

Col

Member
Licensed User

Hope you were able to dig out and enjoy the music!

I hadn't used JSP in many years, but whilst running a course on critical thinking last year I tried it out as one of the techniques. It turned out to be a great way to get people to think through a problem. The participants were senior managers in the financial services sector. After using JSP one of them said "This is great - it's the first time anyone has actually taught me how to think"! High praise for a technique that is is over 40 years old
 
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