We've upgraded CDXZipStream to increase the speed and performance of the CDXRadius function. This was accomplished by using new caching techniques and by restricting the zip codes being evaluated. A “boxing” method was used to only compare zip codes that could possibly meet the radius criteria based on their latitude and longitude. You will especially see a large improvement when dealing with the Canadian Postal code database that has nearly 900 thousand records.
We are also now using Office 365 dynamic formula arrays to specify the size of the matrix when using the CDXRadius right-click functions. Previously we pre-calculated and set the size of the formula array separately. This option can be turned off if you wish in the right-click function dialog if you are using an older version of Excel. If you are not familiar with this new Excel feature, you can simply enter a formula such as “=CDXRadius(“07869”,5) in a cell and Excel will automatically scale the output range to accommodate all the data.
To get this new feature you need to install CDXZipStream version 5.5.2 or better, which is the current trial version on our site. There is no cost to get access to the update. The installation file for this can be downloaded here.