These texts, likely from a course on advanced pivot tables, provide a comprehensive guide to working with pivot tables in Excel. The content covers essential foundational skills, starting with creating a basic pivot table from raw data, ensuring the data is properly formatted and cleaned, and placing it into a table for easier management. It then moves into more advanced techniques, including importing data from external sources like text files and Access databases, demonstrating how to consolidate data from multiple sources, and showing various ways to group data within a pivot table by text, numbers, and dates. Finally, the texts explore formatting options for pivot tables, including applying built-in and custom styles, and handling error values and empty cells to present data clearly.
Fundamentals of Excel Pivot Tables
Based on the provided sources, here is a discussion of pivot table basics:
Pivot tables are described as the single most useful tool available in Excel for analyzing data. They are helpful for analyzing data in different ways, such as seeing the total sales accumulated by managers, sales in each category, sales by store, or sales between certain dates. The sources mention a recap of basic pivot table skills early in the course for those who haven’t used them recently or are not overly familiar with creating them from scratch.
Before creating a pivot table, it’s recommended to start with clean data. Cleaning data involves ensuring consistency and the absence of anomalies, such as blank rows, blank cells, inconsistent case, duplicates, and ensuring everything is formatted correctly. The sources also emphasize the importance of putting your data into a regular Excel table before creating a pivot table. This can be done by selecting the data and using Control + T, or by going to the Home ribbon, Styles group, and selecting “Format as Table”. When data is in a table, the “Table Design” contextual ribbon appears when clicked within the data. Another indicator is the presence of filter buttons at the top of each column. It’s also recommended to name your table for easier reading and understanding. Naming a table involves going to the Table Design ribbon, Properties group, and entering a name (without spaces, using underscores if needed), remembering to hit Enter. Putting data into a table also makes it easier to update pivot tables later when new data is added, as the table automatically expands to accommodate new rows.
To create a pivot table from scratch, make sure you are clicked within your data. You can use the “Summarize with PivotTables” option on the Table Design ribbon or go to the Insert ribbon and select the “PivotTable” button in the Tables group. Clicking either option opens a dialog box.
In this dialog box, you need to:
Choose the data you want to analyze. Excel often intuitively picks up the table name or range you are clicked within. You can also choose to use an external data source.
Choose where to place the pivot table report. It is generally suggested to keep your raw data separate from your pivot tables, so placing it on a new worksheet is recommended. You can rename the new sheet to something meaningful like “Pivot Table”.
Click OK.
Once the pivot table is created, you will see an empty pivot table report area on the left and the PivotTable Fields pane on the right. If the pane is not visible, ensure you are clicked within the pivot table report area, or go to the PivotTable Analyze ribbon, Show group, and click “Field List”.
The PivotTable Fields pane lists all the column headings from your source data. Below the list of fields are four areas: Filters, Columns, Rows, and Values.
The core basic operation of building a pivot table is dragging any of these fields into any of these four areas.
Values: Fields dragged here are typically numeric and are used for calculations like sum, count, average, etc..
Rows: Fields dragged here display their unique values as rows in the pivot table.
Columns: Fields dragged here display their unique values as columns in the pivot table.
Filters: Fields dragged here create a filter above the pivot table, allowing you to filter the entire report by selecting specific items from that field.
Building a basic pivot table often involves some trial and error depending on the information you want to extract. For example:
To see total sales broken down by manager, drag “Sales” to Values and “Manager” to Rows.
To see total sales by category, drag “Sales” to Values and “Category” to Rows.
Dragging a field like “Manager” or “Product” between Rows and Columns changes the layout and how the data is presented.
Dragging “Category” to Filters allows you to filter the sales data shown in the report by selected categories.
Combining fields in Rows and Columns (e.g., Towns in Rows, Categories in Columns, Sales in Values) creates a cross-tabulated report.
The sources also mention the Recommended Pivot Tables option on the Insert ribbon, which analyzes your data and suggests potential pivot table layouts based on what might be useful. This can be a quick way to get a starting point, pre-populating the pivot table fields in the appropriate areas. However, this option cannot be used when combining data from multiple tables; in that case, you must use the standard “PivotTable” option and select the “Add this data to the Data Model” checkbox.
You can have more than one field in each area. When multiple fields are in the Rows or Columns areas, their order determines how the data is organized (e.g., organized by country first, then product, or product first, then country).
In summary, the basics involve preparing your data by cleaning it and putting it into a named Excel table, creating the pivot table using the Insert or Table Design ribbon, choosing the data source and location, and then dragging fields from the PivotTable Fields pane into the Rows, Columns, Values, and Filters areas to analyze and summarize your data.
Importing External Data for Pivot Tables
Importing data is a fundamental step when the information you need to analyze with a pivot table is not already in your current Excel workbook. The sources discuss various methods and considerations for bringing external data into Excel so it can be used effectively in pivot tables.
The primary location within Excel for accessing data import tools is the Data ribbon, specifically within the Get & Transform Data group. While the options available might differ slightly depending on your version of Excel, this is where you’ll find utilities for importing data from numerous sources.
The sources detail importing data from two main types of external sources:
Text Files (like .txt or .csv):
One method is using the Get & Transform Data tool from the Data ribbon and selecting “From Text/CSV”. This opens a preview window where Excel attempts to detect the delimiter (the character separating columns, such as a tab, comma, or semicolon) and data types. You can change the delimiter if needed. From here, you can either “Load” the data directly or “Transform Data” using the Power Query Editor.
The Transform Data option is highlighted as a way to clean up data as part of the import process. In the Power Query Editor, you can check and correct data types (e.g., ensuring numbers are formatted as currency or dates are recognized as dates) and remove columns that are not needed for your analysis. Once satisfied, you can use “Close & Load” to import the data into an Excel table or “Close & Load To” to load it directly into a pivot table report.
Another way to import a text file is by opening it directly through the File menu. This often triggers the Text Import Wizard, which guides you through steps like defining the delimiter and setting column data formats. If you use the wizard or simply open a file, cleaning steps like correcting case, splitting columns, removing duplicates, and applying correct number formatting need to be performed after the data is in the worksheet using standard Excel tools. After cleaning, it’s recommended to put this data into a regular Excel table before creating a pivot table.
Databases (like Microsoft Access):
To import from a database, you again use the Get & Transform Data group on the Data ribbon. Click the “Get Data” drop-down, select “From Database,” and then choose the relevant database type, such as “From Microsoft Access Database”.
You browse and select the database file, and Excel will connect and display the tables contained within it. You then select the specific table you want to import.
Similar to text files, you have the option to “Load” or “Transform Data”. Using “Transform Data” opens the Power Query Editor, allowing you to refine the data before importing, such as removing columns that are not relevant to your pivot table.
After transforming, the “Close & Load To” option can be used to directly import the cleaned data into a PivotTable Report on a new worksheet.
Regardless of how the data is imported, the sources strongly emphasize the importance of starting with or creating clean data. This means ensuring consistency, formatting data correctly, and removing anomalies like blank rows, blank cells, inconsistent casing, or duplicate entries. Cleaning can be done during the import process using Power Query or afterward using various Excel functions and tools.
Furthermore, after importing data into a worksheet (if not loaded directly into a pivot table), putting the data into a regular Excel table and naming it is recommended. This makes the data easier to reference, understand, and is particularly beneficial because a table automatically expands when new rows are added, making it much easier to update pivot tables built upon that data later on using the refresh function.
A more advanced scenario discussed is consolidating data from multiple tables into a single pivot table. This is necessary when your data is spread across different sets of information that need to be linked for combined analysis.
Each set of data must first be placed into a regular Excel table and named.
The tables must share a common field (referred to as a “key” or “primary key”) that logically links the data between them, like an “Order ID” shared across customer, order, and payment information.
To create a pivot table from multiple tables, you must use the standard “PivotTable” option on the Insert ribbon and select “Add this data to the Data Model” in the creation dialog box. The “Recommended Pivot Tables” option cannot be used for this.
Once the pivot table is created, you will see fields from the initial table in the PivotTable Fields pane but can click “All” to view fields from all imported tables.
The crucial next step is to create relationships between these tables based on their common key field. This is done via the PivotTable Analyze ribbon, using the “Relationships” button. By defining these links (e.g., linking the Order ID field in one table to the Order ID field in another), you enable the pivot table to draw data from different sources correctly.
After relationships are established, you can freely drag fields from any of the linked tables into the different areas of the pivot table to perform your analysis.
In essence, importing data involves using the tools on the Data ribbon to bring external information into Excel, potentially cleaning and transforming it using Power Query, ensuring it is in a clean Excel table format, and for analyzing multiple sources, creating relationships between the tables via the Data Model.
Essential Data Cleaning for Pivot Tables
Data cleaning and preparation are highlighted as absolutely crucial steps before analyzing data, particularly with pivot tables. The primary reason for this is that if your data is not clean, you might end up with inaccurate or misleading results.
Clean data is described as data that is consistent and free from anomalies. This includes ensuring there are:
No blank rows or blank cells.
No inconsistent casing (e.g., some text is all uppercase, some proper case).
No duplicate entries.
All data is formatted correctly, such as numbers, currencies, and dates.
Cleaning can be performed at different stages. If you are importing data using the “Get & Transform Data” tools, you can utilize the Power Query Editor to clean and transform data as part of the import process. Alternatively, if you open a file directly or data is already in Excel, you can clean it afterwards using standard Excel tools.
Here are some specific techniques and tools for cleaning data mentioned in the sources:
Checking and Correcting Data Types: When importing with Get & Transform Data, Excel attempts to detect data types, but you should verify and correct them in the Power Query Editor (e.g., changing numbers to currency or dates). If opening a file directly using the Text Import Wizard, you can set some formats, but often you need to correct them after import using the Home ribbon’s Number group. For values in a pivot table, number formatting is best done via Value Field Settings > Number Format to ensure consistency across the entire pivot table. Custom number formatting can be used to control how positive, negative, and zero values appear, including adding currency symbols, colors (like red or blue for negatives), or text (like “no data” for zeros).
Handling Blank Rows and Cells: Blank rows can be efficiently removed by selecting all columns, going to Find & Select > Go To Special > Blanks, and then using the Delete Sheet Rows option. For blank cells, you can select them using the same “Go To Special > Blanks” method and then enter a value (like 0) followed by Control + Enter to fill all selected blank cells at once. Pivot table options also allow you to specify what to show for empty cells (e.g., 0 or custom text).
Ensuring Consistent Case: You can use the PROPER function in a helper column to convert text to proper case. After using the function, it’s recommended to copy the helper column and paste values over the original data to replace the formulas with the cleaned text.
Removing Duplicates: Excel has a dedicated Remove Duplicates tool on the Data ribbon in the Data Tools group. You can select the columns Excel should check for duplicate information before removing entire rows that match across the selected columns.
Correcting Text Inconsistencies: The Find and Replace feature (Home ribbon > Find & Select, or Control + H) is useful for replacing inconsistent abbreviations or spellings with a standard version (e.g., replacing “mktg” with “marketing”).
Handling Non-Printable Characters, Line Breaks, and Erroneous Spaces: Text functions like CLEAN (removes non-printable characters and manual line breaks) and TRIM (removes excess spaces) can be used. These functions can even be combined with other functions like PROPER within a single formula in a helper column to address multiple issues at once. Again, pasting values over the original data is recommended after using formulas.
Splitting Data in Columns: The Flash Fill tool (Data ribbon > Data Tools group, or Control + E) is a quick way to split combined text, like separating a full name into first and last names, by recognizing a pattern from the first few manually entered examples.
Handling Error Values: Pivot table options allow you to specify what to display for error values (e.g., custom text like “no data” or a value like 0) instead of showing the raw error (like #N/A).
After the data has been cleaned, the final and critically important step before creating a pivot table is to put the data into a regular Excel table. This can be done by selecting the data and using Control + T or by using the “Format as Table” option on the Home ribbon. Putting data into a table provides several benefits:
It automatically adds filter buttons to column headers, making sorting and filtering easier.
It creates a Table Design contextual ribbon with tools specific to tables.
It’s recommended to name your table from the Table Design ribbon > Properties group. Table names (like sales_data) are easier to read and understand than cell ranges when creating pivot tables.
Crucially for pivot tables, when you add new data (rows) to the bottom of a table, the table automatically expands to include the new data. This makes updating pivot tables built on that table much simpler, as you only need to use the Refresh function on the PivotTable Analyze ribbon to incorporate the new data. If the data wasn’t in a table, you would have to manually change the pivot table’s data source to include the new rows, which takes much longer.
In summary, thorough data cleaning and preparation are essential for accurate pivot table analysis, involving various techniques to address inconsistencies, errors, and formatting issues, and culminating in placing the cleaned data into a named Excel table for ease of use and future updates.
Creating Excel Pivot Tables from Single or Multiple Tables
Creating pivot tables is the primary goal after you have prepared and imported your data, as discussed previously. Pivot tables are considered the single most useful tool in Excel for analyzing data. This course is designed to guide you through utilizing the pivot table options to create meaningful analysis.
Before you begin creating a pivot table, it is crucial that your data is clean and, importantly, placed within a regular Excel table. As we’ve discussed, clean data is consistent and free from anomalies like blank rows, blank cells, inconsistent casing, or duplicates, and everything is formatted correctly. Putting your data into a regular table (Control + T or Home ribbon > Format as Table) is a vital final step. Naming your table (Table Design ribbon > Properties group) is also highly recommended for clarity, making the data easier to read and understand. A key benefit of using a table for pivot tables is that it automatically expands to include new data added to the bottom, making it simple to refresh your pivot table to incorporate the new information later.
There are a few different ways to initiate the process of creating a pivot table from your prepared data:
Using the Table Design Ribbon: If your data is in an Excel table and you are clicked inside it, you can use the “Summarize with PivotTable” option found on the Table Design contextual ribbon.
Using the Insert Ribbon: A more standard method is to go to the Insert ribbon and click the “PivotTable” button, located in the Tables group. This is the first option in that group.
Using Recommended PivotTables: Excel offers a “Recommended PivotTables” option on the Insert ribbon, right next to the standard “PivotTable” button. This feature analyzes your data and suggests potential pivot table layouts that might be useful, such as summing profit by country or month. Choosing one of these suggested options can create a pre-populated pivot table very quickly. However, this method cannot be used if you need to analyze data from multiple tables simultaneously.
Regardless of whether you use the Table Design or Insert ribbon’s standard “PivotTable” option, clicking it will open the “Create PivotTable” dialog box. Here, you need to make two main choices:
Choose the data that you want to analyze: If you were clicked inside a named Excel table when you opened the dialog, Excel will intuitively select that table name as the data source. You can also choose to use an external data source.
Choose where you want the PivotTable Report to be placed: The recommendation is always to place the pivot table on a new worksheet to keep your raw data separate. You can also choose an existing worksheet and specify the location.
Clicking “OK” (after specifying data and location) will create a new worksheet (or navigate you to the chosen location) containing a blank pivot table report on the left side. On the right side, you will see the PivotTable Fields pane. If this pane is not visible, ensure you are clicked within the blank pivot table report area. If it still doesn’t appear, it might have been accidentally closed; you can get it back by going to the PivotTable Analyze ribbon, clicking “Field List” in the Show group.
The PivotTable Fields pane is essential for building your pivot table. It lists all the column headings from your data source as available fields. Below the field list, there are four distinct areas:
Filters: Fields placed here allow you to filter the entire pivot table report.
Columns: Fields dragged here become the column headings in your pivot table.
Rows: Fields dragged here become the row headings in your pivot table.
Values: Fields placed here are the numbers or values you want to summarize (e.g., sum of sales, count of units). By default, Excel often sums numeric fields, but you can change the calculation type in the Value Field Settings.
Building the Pivot Table: The core process of creating a pivot table involves simply dragging fields from the list at the top of the pane into the four areas below. There’s often a bit of trial and error involved depending on the analysis you need. For example, to see the total sales by manager, you would drag the “Sales” field into the Values area and the “Manager” field into the Rows area. The pivot table report will update as you drag and drop fields. You can easily move fields between areas to change the layout and analysis. Placing multiple fields in the Rows or Columns areas will create nested levels of detail. The order of fields within an area matters for the hierarchy of the report (e.g., Country then Product, or Product then Country).
Excel provides helpful automatic grouping for date fields when you drag them into Rows or Columns, often breaking them down into Years, Quarters, and the Date itself, allowing you to easily analyze data by different time periods. You can expand or collapse these groups or customize which levels (Years, Quarters, Months, Days) are displayed via the Group Field option on the PivotTable Analyze ribbon.
A more advanced scenario is creating a pivot table from multiple tables. This is necessary when the data you need for analysis is spread across different sets of information, each in its own table. To do this:
Ensure each set of data is in a regular Excel table and named meaningfully.
The tables must share a common field (like an “Order ID”) that acts as a “key” to link the data logically between them.
When creating the pivot table, you must use the standard “PivotTable” option from the Insert ribbon. In the “Create PivotTable” dialog box, after selecting your first table and location, you must select the option “Add this data to the Data Model”.
After the pivot table is created, the PivotTable Fields pane will initially show fields from the table you were in, but clicking “All” will display fields from all imported tables that were added to the Data Model.
The critical next step is to create relationships between these tables based on their common field. This is done from the PivotTable Analyze ribbon using the “Relationships” button. In the “Manage Relationships” dialog, you click “New” and define the links, specifying which table and column relate to which other table and column (e.g., linking the “Order ID” in the ‘Order Info’ table to the “Order ID” in the ‘Payment Info’ table).
Once relationships are established, you can freely drag fields from any of the linked tables into the Filters, Columns, Rows, and Values areas to build your consolidated pivot table.
Finally, it’s a good practice to name your pivot table itself (PivotTable Analyze ribbon > Properties group) to keep everything organized and easy to reference, similar to naming tables. You can also drill down into any number in your pivot table by double-clicking it, which will open a new sheet showing the underlying data that makes up that total. For large data sets, you can use the “Defer Layout Update” option at the bottom of the PivotTable Fields pane to organize your fields before updating the pivot table, which can improve performance.
Excel Custom Formatting: Numbers and Styles
Based on the sources and our conversation, custom formatting in Excel, particularly within pivot tables, refers primarily to controlling the visual appearance of numbers and values, and also extending to the overall look and feel of the pivot table itself through custom styles.
Custom Number Formatting in Pivot Tables
Custom number formatting is a powerful tool for controlling exactly how numbers and values are displayed in your pivot table report. While you can apply basic formatting like currency or accounting format through the Value Field Settings dialog box, custom formatting allows for much greater control.
To apply custom number formatting in a pivot table, you should right-click anywhere in your numeric data within the pivot table, go down to Value Field Settings, and then select Number Format from there. This is a better approach than using the formatting options on the Home ribbon, which might lead to problems later. From the Format Cells dialog that appears, you can select the Custom category.
The key to understanding custom number formatting is remembering a simple rule: the format string is typically broken into four parts separated by semicolons. These parts define how different types of values are displayed:
Positive numbers: The format before the first semicolon.
Negative numbers: The format between the first and second semicolon.
Zero values: The format between the second and third semicolon.
Text values: The format after the third semicolon.
You don’t necessarily have to define all four parts every time.
Examples of Custom Number Formatting from the Sources:
Formatting Negative Numbers: By default, negative numbers might show in brackets. You can use custom formatting to show them with a minus sign and/or in a different color like red or blue. For example, the format #,##0.00;[Red]-#,##0.00 formats positive numbers with a thousand separator and two decimal places, while negative numbers are shown in red with a minus sign and the same number format. You can add currency symbols to these formats as well.
Formatting Zero Values: You can define how cells with a value of zero should appear. This could be simply 0 or you could display text like “no data” by putting the desired text in quote marks in the third section of the format string (e.g., Positive;Negative;”no data”).
Combining Text and Values: You can include text along with the numeric display. For example, you could add the word “loss” next to negative numbers by including “loss” in quote marks within the negative number part of the format string.
Using Placeholders (# vs. 0): Within the format parts, symbols like # (hash) and 0 (zero) are used as placeholders for digits. A # is a variable placeholder, only displaying digits if they are present, while a 0 is fixed, forcing a digit (zero if necessary) to be displayed. This is useful for maintaining consistent length for numbers, such as formatting item numbers like “1” and “100” to “0001” and “0100” using 0000 as the custom format.
It is important to remember that applying custom formatting only changes the visual appearance of the number; the underlying value in the cell remains unchanged. This means you can format a zero value to show as “no data,” but Excel still recognizes it as a zero for calculations.
If you want to revert a cell or range back to its original state after applying custom formatting, you can use the General format. Custom formats you create are saved in the Custom formatting list within the workbook for potential reuse.
Custom Pivot Table Styles
Beyond number formatting, the sources also discuss creating custom pivot table styles. This refers to defining the visual look of different elements within the pivot table itself, such as header rows, banded rows or columns, first column, grand totals, etc., including aspects like font styles (e.g., italics), fill colors, and borders.
You can access options to create a new custom style from the PivotTable Design ribbon, in the PivotTable Styles group, by clicking the “more” button and selecting New PivotTable Style. This opens a dialog where you can name your style and then select and format each individual element of the pivot table.
Unlike custom number formats, custom pivot table styles are typically saved within the workbook where they were created and are not automatically available in other workbooks. However, you can copy a custom style to another workbook by copying a worksheet containing a pivot table with that style applied into the new workbook.
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This resource provides a detailed tutorial on using Excel pivot tables for summarizing and analyzing large datasets. It begins by explaining the purpose and usefulness of pivot tables, contrasting them with static Excel tables and demonstrating their dynamic nature. The material then focuses heavily on data cleaning techniques that are essential before creating a pivot table, covering the removal of blank rows, duplicates, and unwanted formatting, as well as using formulas and features like Flash Fill to standardize text, dates, and separate combined data. Finally, the tutorial walks through creating and building a pivot table from scratch, explaining the pivot table field list, adding and manipulating fields, understanding aggregation methods (sum, count, average, etc.), grouping data, and customizing the report layout with subtotals, grand totals, and blank rows.
Mastering Excel Pivot Tables
Based on the information from the sources, here is a discussion about Pivot Tables in Excel:
What are Pivot Tables and Why are They Useful?
Effectively, pivot tables are an interactive way of quickly summarizing large amounts of data. In our data-driven world, many individuals collect data from various sources to support better business decisions. However, simply looking at large datasets in an Excel spreadsheet doesn’t clearly highlight key metrics, issues, successes, failures, or trends. Pivot tables provide a way to take this data and make sense of it.
For example, with a dataset of over 14,000 rows of sales data including region, country, item type, sales channel, order priority, order date, order ID, ship date, units sold, unit price, unit cost, total revenue, total cost, and total profit, it’s difficult to easily see things like the top 10 countries by total profit or the number of high-priority orders. Using filter drop-downs is possible but much less efficient than using a pivot table.
The key difference between a regular Excel table and a pivot table is that pivot tables are dynamic. This means you can quickly change the analysis being performed. By moving fields around, you can instantly view the data summarized in different ways, such as seeing the sum of total profit by country after initially looking at units sold. You can add other fields to break down the analysis further, like dropping ‘item type’ into columns to see sales summarized by country and item type. You can also apply filters, for instance, to show only the top five countries to make the data more manageable. Once data is in a pivot table, it can be pivoted in various ways, allowing the creation of more pivot tables and even pivot charts. This opens up opportunities for visual analysis, which is often easier for people to interpret. Ultimately, this can lead to creating interactive dashboards showing key metrics with filters.
In summary, a pivot table is a dynamic, interactive tool for summarizing large datasets. They are useful because they help analyze large datasets in a clear and effective way.
Difference Between Excel Tables and Pivot Tables
It’s important to understand the distinction between Excel Tables and Pivot Tables, as they are not the same. Excel tables are essentially static; you can sort or filter the data, but you cannot easily analyze it in many different ways. In contrast, pivot tables are much more dynamic. With a pivot table, you can move fields around and add different fields to view your data in numerous ways, making them ideal for data analysis.
The sources strongly recommend putting your data into an Excel table prior to creating a pivot table. While it might seem like an extra step, there are many advantages to using Excel tables that make working with pivot tables much easier. One of the most useful features of Excel tables is their auto-expand capabilities. If you add new data to the bottom of an Excel table, it automatically expands to include that data. This means that any pivot table or chart linked to that Excel table will automatically include the new data after a simple refresh. If your data is not in an Excel table, you would have to manually reselect the data range to include new rows.
When data is formatted as an Excel table, it automatically gets some formatting like shading and borders, plus filter and sort drop-downs in the headers. An additional ribbon called Table Design appears when you select a cell within the table. This contextual ribbon contains tools to format the table, apply options, and access table tools.
Preparing Data Before Creating a Pivot Table (Data Cleaning)
Before analyzing data with a pivot table, it is extremely important to clean the data. Data cleaning refers to processes in Excel used to tidy up datasets, make them consistent, format them correctly, and present the data in a way that a pivot table can easily analyze and produce accurate results. Skipping this step can lead to inaccurate analysis. This is particularly crucial if data is downloaded from a third party, external source, or database, as it may not import into Excel in the expected format. Issues like columns being out of place, strange formatting, blank rows, blank cells, or duplicate entries can occur.
Several techniques are discussed for cleaning data:
Removing Blank Rows: Blank rows make data harder to read and cause issues in pivot tables, appearing as a ‘blank’ entry. Manually deleting them is tedious for large datasets. Excel provides a quicker way:
Select the data range (e.g., using Ctrl+A while clicked in the data).
Go to the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select, and choose Go To Special.
Select ‘Blanks’ and click OK. This selects all blank cells/rows in the selection.
Go back to the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Delete, and select Delete Sheet Rows. Removing blank rows before creating a pivot table ensures accuracy and prevents the ‘blank’ entry from appearing.
Removing Duplicates: Duplicates can also cause problems for pivot tables. The desired removal depends on the type of duplicate; for instance, removing duplicate records where every column is identical, as opposed to repeated values in a single column like ‘Online’/’Offline’ in sales channel. Excel has a Remove Duplicates utility for this.
Click anywhere in the data.
Go to the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Remove Duplicates.
A dialog box appears allowing you to select which columns to consider when checking for duplicates.
Formatting Data: Applying the correct formatting is important.
Columns with text (like Region, Country, Item Type) can be formatted as Text using the Format Cells dialog box (Ctrl+1).
Dates might appear as numbers if date formatting isn’t applied. This is because Excel stores dates as numbers, counting days since January 1st, 1900. To display them correctly, select the column and apply Short Date or Long Date format from the Home tab’s Number group.
Numeric columns (like Unit Price, Total Revenue, Total Profit) should have appropriate number formatting. Currency and Accounting formats are common for monetary values. Accounting format often aligns currency symbols to the left and decimal places, which many find easier to read than Currency format where the symbol is next to the value. This can be applied via the Home tab or the Format Cells dialog box (Ctrl+1).
Tidying Up Text: Inconsistencies in text, such as different cases (uppercase, lowercase, proper case) or erroneous spaces (leading, trailing, or multiple spaces between words), can make analysis inaccurate.
Changing Case: Use Excel text formulas like UPPER(), LOWER(), or PROPER(). A recommended method is to use a “helper column” next to the column needing changes, write the formula (e.g., =PROPER(B4)) in the first cell, copy it down, then copy the results and use Paste Special > Paste Values over the original column to remove the formulas, and finally delete the helper column.
Removing Spaces: The TRIM() function removes leading, trailing, and excessive spaces within text. Even if spaces aren’t visible, applying TRIM() is a good practice. Similar to changing case, use a helper column, the TRIM() formula (e.g., =TRIM(B4)), copy/paste values, and delete the helper column.
Removing Line Breaks: The CLEAN() function removes non-printable characters, including line breaks. Again, use a helper column, the CLEAN() formula (e.g., =CLEAN(A4)), copy/paste values, and delete the helper column.
Splitting Data: Sometimes a single column contains multiple pieces of data that should be separate (e.g., Order Date and Order ID combined).
Text to Columns: This feature is useful when data is separated by a consistent delimiter (like a comma, tab, space, or other character).
Select the column(s) you want to split.
Go to the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Text to Columns.
In the wizard, choose ‘Delimited’ if your data has separators or ‘Fixed width’ if data is aligned in columns.
Specify the delimiter(s). The preview shows how the data will be split.
Choose the data format for each new column (optional, General often works) and importantly, the Destination cell where the split data should start appearing.
Click Finish.
Flash Fill: This feature, introduced in Excel 2013, automatically fills data based on a detected pattern. It can be used to split data (e.g., first name and last name from a full name) or combine data.
Type the desired output for the first item in a new column next to your data.
Press Ctrl+Enter to stay in the cell.
Go to the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Flash Fill (or use the shortcut Ctrl+E). Excel will attempt to apply the pattern to the rest of the column. You can also start typing the second item, and Flash Fill may show a grayed-out preview; hit Enter if it’s correct.
Using Formulas: Excel functions like CONCAT() (or CONCATENATE() in older versions) can combine data from multiple cells. These are useful if you need to add specific text or characters (like a hyphen and spaces) between the combined data. Formulas require referencing the cells and enclosing text within quote marks.
Replacing Data: You might need to replace specific text or values.
Find and Replace: This utility (Ctrl+H) can find specific text and replace it with something else throughout the selected range.
Substitute Formula: The SUBSTITUTE() function can replace specific text within a cell based on a formula (e.g., =SUBSTITUTE(B4,”UK”,”United Kingdom”)). Like other formulas, you’d use a helper column and Paste Special > Paste Values to apply the result.
Spell Check: Running a spell check is crucial because if something is misspelled, a pivot table will treat it as a completely separate item, leading to inaccurate analysis. The Spell Checker is on the Review tab in the Proofing group (F7 shortcut). It starts checking from the currently selected cell. You can choose to ignore, change, change all, or add words to the dictionary (useful for names or brands not in the standard dictionary).
Putting Data into an Excel Table
As mentioned, it is highly recommended to put your clean data into an Excel Table before creating a pivot table. You must be clicked somewhere within your data set to do this.
There are two main ways to format data as a table:
Go to the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the Format as Table drop-down and choose a table style.
Click anywhere in the data and press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T. This opens the Create Table dialog box.
Both methods will ask if your table has headers. Once applied, your data gets default formatting and the Table Design contextual ribbon appears. From the Table Design ribbon, you can customize the style, add a total row, toggle banded rows or columns, and turn the filter button on/off.
In the Properties group of the Table Design ribbon, you can see and rename the table. It’s good practice to give your table a meaningful name (like Sales_Data) instead of the default generic name (like Table1) because it makes referencing the data easier, especially in workbooks with multiple tables. Table names cannot contain spaces.
Creating a Pivot Table
Once your data is clean and in an Excel table, you are ready to create a pivot table.
Recommended Pivot Tables: Excel can analyze your data and suggest pivot table layouts.
Click anywhere in your data table.
Go to the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Recommended PivotTables.
A window pops up showing different suggested pivot table summaries based on your data (e.g., sum of unit price by region, sum of profit by item type).
Select the one that best suits your needs and click OK. Excel creates a new worksheet with the pre-built pivot table. You can still modify this table afterward.
Creating a Blank Pivot Table from Scratch: This gives you full control over the layout.
Click anywhere in your data table.
Go to the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click PivotTable. Alternatively, from the Table Design ribbon, in the Tools group, click Summarize with PivotTable. Both methods open the Create PivotTable dialog box.
Choose the data: The dialog box should automatically detect and select your Excel table (e.g., Sales_Data). You can also choose to use an external data source from another file or database.
Choose where to place the report: The common and recommended practice is to place the pivot table on a New Worksheet to keep your raw data separate from your analysis. You can also choose an existing worksheet.
Click OK. Excel creates a new worksheet containing a blank pivot table report area and the PivotTable Fields pane on the right.
Understanding the Pivot Table Interface
When you click inside the blank pivot table report area, two additional contextual ribbons appear: PivotTable Analyze and PivotTable Design. These ribbons contain commands for managing, organizing, and changing the look of your pivot table. They disappear when you click outside the pivot table.
PivotTable Design Ribbon: Focuses on the appearance and layout.
PivotTable Styles: Similar to table styles, allows choosing a visual style. Styles are influenced by the workbook’s theme.
PivotTable Style Options: Toggles elements like row/column headers, banded rows/columns.
Layout: Controls subtotals (show/hide, position), grand totals (on/off for rows/columns), and report layout (Compact, Outline, Tabular forms). You can also insert or remove blank lines after each item.
PivotTable Name: It’s good practice to rename pivot tables from generic names (e.g., PivotTable1) to meaningful names.
Options: Accesses various pivot table settings, including layout and format options like auto-fitting column widths.
Group: Used for grouping selected items or ungrouping.
Insert Slicer / Insert Timeline: Visual filters for pivot tables (not covered in detail in this source).
Refresh: Updates the pivot table with any changes to the source data.
Show group: Toggle buttons to show/hide the Field List pane, plus/minus buttons, and headers. If the Field List disappears, check this button.
The PivotTable Fields pane (usually on the right) is crucial for building the pivot table. At the top, it lists all the column headings from your source data as fields. Below are four areas: Filters, Columns, Rows, and Values. These areas determine the layout and type of analysis.
Building and Modifying a Pivot Table
Building a pivot table involves dragging fields from the top section of the PivotTable Fields pane into one of the four areas.
Rows Area: Typically used for fields you want to appear as row labels (e.g., Region, Item Type).
Columns Area: Typically used for fields you want to appear as column labels (e.g., Sales Channel, Order Priority).
Values Area: This is where you put fields containing numerical data that you want to summarize (e.g., Total Profit, Units Sold). By default, Excel often performs a Sum on numeric fields dragged here, or a Count if the field contains text or dates.
Filters Area: Fields dragged here create report-level filters at the top of the pivot table, allowing you to filter the entire report by selections from that field (e.g., filtering by specific Countries or Order Dates).
You can easily change the layout by dragging fields between these areas. Dragging a field outside the pane removes it from the pivot table.
Aggregating Data: The default aggregation (Sum or Count) can be changed.
Right-click on any value in the column you want to change the aggregation for.
Select Value Field Settings.
In the Summarize values by list, choose a different calculation like Average, Max, Min, Product, Count Numbers, etc..
Click OK. You can also access Value Field Settings by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the field in the Values area.
You can combine different methods of aggregation by dragging the same field into the Values area multiple times. Each instance can then be summarized using a different calculation (e.g., one column showing Sum of Total Profit, another showing Average of Total Profit).
Renaming Fields/Headings: You can change the default headings in the pivot table report area (like ‘Row Labels’ or ‘Sum of Total Profit’) by double-clicking the cell and entering a new custom name. Note that renaming a heading in the pivot table report updates the name in the Values area of the fields pane, but the original field name above remains unchanged.
Number Formatting: To ensure formatting (like currency symbols and decimal places) stays with the numbers when the pivot table layout changes, apply it via the pivot table’s specific options, not just standard cell formatting from the Home tab.
Right-click on a number within the column you want to format.
Select Number Format. Alternatively, access this via Value Field Settings > Number Format.
Choose the desired format (e.g., Accounting, Currency) and settings.
Click OK. This applies the formatting to all numbers in that value field.
Handling Empty Cells: By default, pivot tables show blank cells where there is no data for a combination of criteria. This can affect charts or make the table harder to read. You can replace blanks with a value like 0:
Click inside the pivot table.
Go to the PivotTable Analyze ribbon, in the PivotTable group, click Options.
On the Layout & Format tab, under the Format group, check the box for For empty cells show: and enter the value you want to display (e.g., 0).
Click OK.
Grouping Data
Grouping allows you to combine items in your pivot table.
Automatic Grouping: Excel automatically groups dates when you drag a date field into rows or columns. It analyzes the data and creates fields for years, quarters, and months if applicable. These automatically created fields (like ‘Years’ and ‘Quarters’) appear in the PivotTable Fields pane and can be used independently. You can expand/collapse these groups using the +/- buttons in the pivot table.
Custom Grouping: You can create your own groups from non-date fields (e.g., grouping several Item Types into a ‘Food and Drink’ category).
Select the items you want to group by holding down Ctrl and clicking each item.
Go to the PivotTable Analyze ribbon, in the Group group, click Group Selection. Excel creates a new group (e.g., ‘Group1’) and a new field in the Rows/Columns area (e.g., ‘Item Type2’).
You can rename the group label in the pivot table (using F2 or double-clicking and changing the custom name in Value Field Settings) and rename the new group field in the fields pane (using Field Settings).
Ungrouping: To reverse automatic or custom grouping, select an item within the group and click Ungroup in the Group group on the PivotTable Analyze ribbon.
Inserting Blank Lines: To improve readability, especially with grouping, you can insert blank rows between groups. Go to the Design ribbon, in the Layout group, click Blank Rows, and select Insert Blank Line after Each Item. To remove them, choose Remove Blank Line after Each Grouped Item.
Layout Options
You can customize the overall appearance and structure of your pivot table report. These options are found on the PivotTable Design ribbon, in the Layout group.
Subtotals:You can choose not to show subtotals at all.
You can show them at the bottom of each group (often preferred) or at the top of each group (the default).
Grand Totals:You can turn grand totals off for both rows and columns.
You can turn them on for both rows and columns, only for rows, or only for columns. Turning them off is common when creating charts to avoid including totals.
Report Layout: This changes how the fields are displayed in the report area.
Compact Form: Optimizes for readability and uses space efficiently. It places subtotals at the top of groups and keeps related fields in the same column. This is the most compact view.
Outline Form: Moves the innermost row field to a new column, creating a hierarchical structure where each field is in its own column. Subtotals appear at the top by default, but you can change their position.
Tabular Form: Similar to Outline form, but adds grid lines within the pivot table, making it look more like a regular Excel table.
Repeat Item Labels: In Outline or Tabular forms, you can choose to repeat the labels for outer row fields on every line instead of only showing them once. This can make the table easier to read in some cases or is necessary for certain chart types like map charts. You can turn this off if desired.
These options allow you to tailor the pivot table’s appearance to best suit your analysis and presentation needs.
Cleaning Data for Excel Pivot Tables
Data cleaning is a crucial process to undertake before analyzing large datasets, particularly when planning to use tools like pivot tables in Excel. It involves tidying up data sets, making them consistent, formatting them correctly, and presenting the data in a way that allows for easy and accurate analysis. Skipping this step, especially when importing data from external sources or databases, can lead to inaccurate analysis because data doesn’t always import in the expected format, potentially including columns out of place, strange formatting, blank rows, or duplicate entries.
Here are some of the key data cleaning techniques discussed in the sources:
Removing Blank Rows Blank rows make data harder to read and can cause issues in pivot tables by being picked up as a “blank” entry. Manually deleting them row by row is tedious for large datasets. A quicker method involves selecting the data range, using “Go To Special” to select “Blanks,” and then using the “Delete Sheet Rows” command. Removing blank rows ensures the pivot table is accurate.
Removing Duplicate Entries Duplicate rows, particularly where every column’s information is exactly the same, can sometimes occur when importing data and can cause problems for pivot tables. Excel’s “Remove Duplicates” utility can easily find and remove these exact duplicates. You can specify which columns to check for duplicates, but typically, you check all columns to find completely duplicated rows.
Removing Unwanted Formatting Imported data may contain inconsistent formatting like background shading, bold text, or italics, which results in an inconsistent-looking worksheet. This formatting often isn’t desired. The “Clear Formats” option, found under the “Clear” button in the Home tab’s editing group, can quickly remove all applied formatting, including background shading, bold, italics, and number formatting, providing a clean slate. Other “Clear” options exist for different purposes, such as clearing only contents, comments/notes, or hyperlinks.
Applying Desired Formatting After clearing unwanted formatting, applying consistent and appropriate formatting is important to make your data easier to read. This is referred to as number formatting but can be applied to any column, not just those containing numbers. The “Number group” on the Home tab provides standard options like General, Number, Currency, Accounting, and Date. Dates in Excel are stored as numbers (days since January 1, 1900), so applying a Date format (like Short Date or Long Date) is necessary to display them correctly. For numeric data, you can control decimal places using dedicated buttons or the “Format Cells” dialog box (Ctrl + 1). For monetary values, Currency and Accounting formats add symbols; Accounting format is often preferred as it aligns currency symbols and decimal points, enhancing readability for lists of numbers.
Tidying Up Text Using Formulas Inconsistencies in text, such as case variations (uppercase, lowercase, proper case) or erroneous spaces (leading, trailing, multiple spaces between words), can negatively impact analysis. Excel provides text functions to standardize these:
UPPER(), LOWER(), and PROPER() functions are used to change the case of text.
TRIM() removes leading/trailing spaces and extra spaces between words.
CLEAN() removes non-printing characters, which might appear as small square boxes, and can also remove manual line breaks within cells. These functions are typically used in a “helper column” next to the original data. Multiple functions can be combined in a single formula in a helper column to perform several cleaning steps at once, saving time.
Using Paste Special to Convert Formulas to Values When cleaning data using formulas in a helper column, the formulas refer to the original data column. If the original column is simply deleted, the helper column will result in #REF! errors because the references are broken. To avoid this, the cleaned data in the helper column must be converted from formulas to static values. This is achieved by copying the helper column and then using the “Paste Special” > “Paste Values” option to paste only the resulting values over the original column (or a new location), discarding the underlying formulas. Once the values are pasted, the helper column can be safely deleted.
Splitting and Combining Data Sometimes data is combined in a single cell that needs to be separated (e.g., “Order Date Order ID”), or data in separate cells needs to be combined.
“Text to Columns” is a wizard that splits a single column of text into multiple columns based on a specified delimiter (like a comma, space, or other character) or a fixed width.
“Flash Fill” is a faster tool (available since Excel 2013) that can split or combine data by recognizing patterns based on one or two examples provided by the user. It can be accessed via a button on the Data tab or the Ctrl + E shortcut.
The CONCAT() function (or CONCATENATE() in older versions) joins text from multiple cells. Custom text or delimiters can be included in the joined result by enclosing them in quote marks within the function.
Finding and Replacing Data To standardize inconsistent text entries (e.g., replacing “Democratic Republic of the Congo” with “DRC” or “United States of America” with “USA”), you can use the “Find and Replace” dialog box (Ctrl + F, then select the Replace tab). You specify what to find and what to replace it with, choosing whether or not to match the case. The SUBSTITUTE() formula can also perform find and replace using a formula, requiring the “Paste Special” > “Paste Values” trick afterward.
Running a Spell Check Spelling errors can cause problems in pivot tables because the table will treat variations of the same word as completely separate items. Running a spell check (Review tab > Proofing group, or F7) helps ensure consistency in text entries. You can choose the dictionary language and add correctly spelled but unrecognized words to the dictionary.
Once data is cleaned, it is highly recommended to put it into an Excel Table before creating a pivot table. Excel Tables offer several advantages, including automatic formatting, built-in filter and sort buttons, and importantly, auto-expand capabilities. This means that if new data is added to the table, it is automatically included in the data source for any associated pivot tables or charts, which can then be updated by simply clicking the refresh button. Data can be converted into an Excel Table using the “Format as Table” option on the Home tab or the Ctrl + T keyboard shortcut. Tables can be given meaningful names for easier identification.
In summary, thorough data cleaning is essential for accurate and effective analysis using pivot tables, addressing issues like inconsistencies, errors, and formatting problems through various Excel tools and functions.
Excel Data Analysis with Pivot Tables
Based on the sources, data analysis is the process of summarizing large amounts of data to make sense of them. In a data-driven world where information is collected from various sources, simply looking at a large spreadsheet might not highlight key metrics, issues, successes, failures, or trends. Data analysis aims to take this data and present it in a way that allows for clearer understanding and better business decisions.
Excel provides powerful tools for data analysis, particularly Pivot Tables.
Key aspects of Data Analysis discussed in the sources:
The Role of Pivot Tables Pivot tables are described as an interactive and dynamic way to quickly summarize large amounts of data. Unlike static Excel tables where analysis is limited primarily to sorting and filtering, pivot tables allow you to pivot fields around and view data in all different ways. This dynamism makes it much more efficient to analyze data compared to manually using filters. Pivot tables help analyze large datasets in a clear and effective way. They facilitate asking questions about the data, such as finding top performers or seeing counts of high-priority orders. Pivot charts can be created from pivot table data to offer visual analysis options, as most people find it easier to analyze and interpret data visually. This can extend to creating interactive dashboards with filters for deeper analysis.
The Critical Need for Data Cleaning Before Analysis A central theme is that data cleaning is essential prior to analyzing data with a pivot table. Skipping this step, especially when importing data from external sources or databases, can lead to inaccurate analysis. Data doesn’t always import in the desired format, and inconsistencies or errors can cause problems for pivot tables. Cleaning ensures the data is tidied up, consistent, correctly formatted, and presented in a way that allows the pivot table to easily analyze it and produce accurate results. The sources highlight cleaning steps like removing blank rows, removing duplicate entries, clearing unwanted formatting, applying desired formatting, tidying text using formulas (case, spaces), splitting and combining data, finding and replacing data, and running a spell check. All these steps contribute to a “clean looking data set ready for analysis”.
Structuring Analysis with Pivot Table Fields To perform analysis with a pivot table, you use the Pivot Table Fields pane, which lists the column headings from your source data. These fields are dragged into four areas: Filters, Columns, Rows, and Values. These areas determine the layout of the pivot table and control the type of analysis being done. Placing fields in different areas changes how the data is summarized and viewed.
Aggregating Data for Analysis The Values area is typically where numeric fields are placed. By default, Excel usually performs a sum calculation for numeric values and a count for text or date fields dropped into this area. However, you can change how the data is summarized using the Value Field Settings. This allows you to choose from various aggregation methods, including Sum, Count, Average, Max, Min, Product, and more. You can even combine different aggregation methods (like sum and average) for the same data by dragging the field into the Values area multiple times and setting a different calculation for each instance. This ability to calculate averages, mins, or maxes “on the fly” expands the analysis beyond what was present in the raw source data.
Grouping Data for Deeper Analysis Grouping data is another way to analyze it. Excel automatically groups certain fields, like dates, into categories like years, quarters, and months. This allows you to see the data summarized at different levels (e.g., total profit by year, then by month within each year). You can also create your own custom groups for non-date fields to categorize data according to your analysis needs (e.g., grouping different item types into “food and drink” or “other”). Grouping allows for analyzing data in “multiple dimensions” by adding more fields to the Rows or Columns areas.
Handling Empty Cells and Layout How empty cells are displayed affects the accuracy of analysis, especially in pivot charts. Replacing blank cells with zeros in the Pivot Table Options ensures that items with no data are still represented, showing a zero value rather than being excluded from the analysis or charts. Additionally, the report layout options (compact, outline, tabular) and the choice to display or hide subtotals and grand totals affect the readability and presentation of the analyzed results.
In summary, data analysis in Excel, as presented in the sources, relies heavily on the dynamic capabilities of Pivot Tables, which allow for summarizing, slicing, dicing, and aggregating data in various ways. However, the foundation of accurate analysis is thorough data cleaning, ensuring the data is reliable and free from inconsistencies before being used in a pivot table. Using Excel Tables is also recommended as it makes managing and updating the data source for analysis more efficient.
Grouping Data in Excel Pivot Tables
Based on the sources, grouping data in Excel pivot tables is a way to summarize data by multiple fields and organize the display of that data. It allows you to analyze information at different levels or categorize data according to specific needs.
Here are key aspects of grouping data discussed in the sources:
Automatic Grouping Excel will automatically apply grouping when you summarize data by more than one field in areas like the Rows or Columns of a pivot table.
Date Grouping A common example of automatic grouping occurs when you drag a date field into an area like Rows. Excel looks at your source data and automatically groups the dates by categories such as years, quarters, and months. These levels appear as separate fields (e.g., “Years,” “Quarters,” “Order Date”) in the Pivot Table Fields pane. You can then use these fields independently to summarize data at different granularities, for instance, viewing total profit by year, and then expanding to see the breakdown by month within each year. If you don’t need a specific level, like quarters, you can simply remove that field from the Rows area. The “Group Field” option on the Pivot Table Analyze ribbon shows the date ranges and the levels (months, quarters, years) that Excel has pulled from the data.
Custom Grouping You can create your own custom groups for fields that are not dates. This allows you to categorize data based on your analytical requirements. For example, you could select several ‘item type’ categories like ‘baby food’, ‘beverages’, ‘cereal’, ‘fruits’, ‘meat’, ‘snacks’, and ‘vegetables’ and group them together under a new name like “Food and Drink”. The remaining items could be grouped under “Other”.
Creating Custom Groups To create a custom group, you select the specific items in the pivot table report that you want to include in the group. Then, you go to the Pivot Table Analyze ribbon and select the Group Selection button. Excel will create a new group (initially named generically, like “Group1”). You can rename this group directly in the pivot table report. Excel also creates a new field in the Pivot Table Fields pane corresponding to this custom group (e.g., “Item Type2” if you grouped based on ‘Item Type’). It is recommended to rename this new field as well (e.g., “Food and Drink”) for consistency. This can be done by clicking the drop-down arrow for the field in the Rows area and selecting “Field Settings,” or by right-clicking the field name in the Rows area and selecting “Field Settings”.
Expanding and Collapsing Groups When grouping is applied, items in the pivot table report often display with little plus and minus symbols next to them. These symbols allow you to collapse or expand the details within a group, letting you focus on summary levels or drill down into specifics. You can toggle the display of these buttons on or off from the Pivot Table Analyze ribbon in the Show group.
Multi-Dimensional Analysis Grouping contributes significantly to creating multi-dimensional pivot tables. By adding more fields and grouping them in the Rows or Columns areas, you can analyze your data by multiple factors simultaneously (e.g., analyzing profit by region, item type, and sales channel).
Ungrouping Data If you need to revert a group, you can select an item within the group in the pivot table and click the Ungroup button on the Pivot Table Analyze ribbon.
Grouping and Layout The report layout options can interact with grouping. For example, the Compact Form layout maintains the grouping structure. Adding blank rows using the “Blank Rows” option on the Design ribbon will insert a blank line after each grouped item, which can help emphasize groups and improve readability.
Excel Number Formatting Explained
Based on the sources and our conversation, number formatting is a crucial aspect of data cleaning and analysis in Excel, particularly to improve readability and consistency of your data. It involves ensuring that values in your cells are displayed in a way that accurately reflects their type and makes them easy to interpret.
Here’s a breakdown of the key points about number formatting discussed:
Purpose of Number Formatting:
To make your data a lot easier to read.
To ensure consistency in how numbers are displayed, such as the number of decimal places and the presence of currency symbols.
A currency symbol, for example, always makes monetary values a lot easier to read.
Applying Formatting in Standard Worksheets:
Formatting is applied using the Home tab in the Number group.
A drop-down menu provides common formatting options (e.g., General, Number, Currency, Accounting, Short Date, Long Date).
You can access more detailed formatting options by clicking “More Number Formats” at the bottom of the drop-down or by using the Ctrl+1 keyboard shortcut to open the “Format Cells” dialog box.
The appropriate format depends on the type of information in the column.
Examples discussed include:
Applying Text formatting to columns containing text.
Applying Date formatting to columns containing dates. Excel stores dates as numbers (days since January 1, 1900), and date formatting is needed to display them as calendar dates. If not formatted as a date, you might see the underlying numeric value. “Short date” and “long date” are common options. Custom date formats are also available via “More number formats” but are considered advanced.
Applying Number formatting to columns like “Units Sold,” where you might need to control the number of decimal places (e.g., reducing to zero using the Increase/Decrease Decimal buttons or “Format Cells”).
Applying Currency or Accounting formatting to monetary columns like “Unit Price,” “Total Revenue,” or “Total Profit” to add a currency symbol and control decimal places. The key difference is that Accounting format aligns the currency symbols and decimal points in a column, which is often considered easier to read, especially in long lists of numbers, whereas Currency format places the symbol right next to the value and doesn’t align decimals. The sources suggest Accounting format is frequently used.
Formatting and Data Cleaning Steps:
When initially cleaning data, steps like using “Clear Formats” can remove all formatting, including desirable number formatting. Therefore, you might need to reapply the correct formatting after this step.
Helper columns created for text cleaning formulas (like UPPER, TRIM, CLEAN, SUBSTITUTE) might inherit the formatting of surrounding columns, sometimes defaulting to “Text”. To see formula results correctly, these columns might need to be changed back to “General” format before applying the formula.
Identifying numbers stored as text is important. Indicators include the number being aligned to the left side of the cell and a little green triangle in the corner. You can convert these using the warning symbol option “Convert to Number” or by using the VALUE formula.
Number Formatting in Pivot Tables:
When you build a pivot table, the numbers in the values area are initially unformatted and inconsistent.
It is NOT recommended to apply number formatting directly to the cells in a pivot table using the Home ribbon. This is because pivot tables are dynamic; the fields and their locations can change when you rearrange or “pivot” the data. Formatting applied to a static cell will not move with the number it was applied to if the layout changes.
The correct method for applying number formatting in a pivot table is to apply it to the number itself, which ensures it moves with the data regardless of the layout.
This is done by right-clicking on a number within the pivot table and selecting “Number Format”.
Alternatively, you can access this through the Value Field Settings for the specific field in the Values area, and then clicking the “Number Format” button at the bottom.
Both methods open the familiar “Format Cells” dialog box, allowing you to choose formats like Accounting or Currency.
Custom number formatting is also available through this pivot table method.
If you configure your pivot table to show zero for empty cells, these zeros will also display with the number formatting applied to that values field (e.g., showing “$ -“).
In essence, applying consistent and appropriate number formatting is a vital step, first during general data cleaning and preparation, and then specifically within pivot tables using the recommended methods to maintain accuracy and readability as you analyze your data.
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This text comprises excerpts from a tutorial on using Microsoft Excel and its add-ins for data analysis. The tutorial covers data manipulation techniques, including formatting, sorting, and filtering, using functions and formulas for calculations and analysis (like median, average, and standard deviation), and creating visualizations (histograms, bar charts). It also explores pivot tables and pivot charts for data aggregation and summarization, demonstrates the use of Power Query for data cleaning and transformation, and introduces Power Pivot for data modeling and the creation of measures and calculated columns. Finally, the tutorial discusses methods for sharing completed projects.
Excel for Data Analysis: Study Guide
Quiz
What are the limitations of using Excel on a Mac operating system for this course? Mac users will not be able to complete the advanced chapters on power query and power pivot, as well as the final project. Also, Mac does not have as many data sources to pull from.
What are the two major Microsoft 365 plans recommended for this course? The two main plans recommended are the family plan, which can be shared with up to six people, and the personal plan, which is for individual use. Additionally, the family plan has a one-month free trial.
What is a key limitation of using the free Microsoft 365 online version for this course? The free online version of Microsoft 365 has limitations on power query and power pivot, which will restrict the user’s ability to follow along in the advanced chapters. The layout is also much different than the desktop app, and the course won’t provide specific support for navigating the online version.
Explain the difference between saving a file versus save as. When a new file is created and saved, both save and save as will act the same, allowing the user to designate the file name and location. However, if a file has been previously saved and is being modified, using save will overwrite the original, whereas save as creates a new file while keeping the original.
Describe what the “ribbon” is in Microsoft Excel. The ribbon is the area at the top of the Excel interface that contains the different tabs and commands. It’s where you can find options for formatting text, working with data, and inserting formulas.
What is a nested IF statement and why might it be less ideal than using AND/OR functions? A nested IF statement is when an IF statement is placed inside another IF statement. While functional, it can become hard to read and difficult to debug. Logical functions like AND and OR simplify complex conditions, making the formulas easier to understand.
What are the three major functions for statistical analysis covered in the course? The major functions covered include COUNT, which tallies the number of cells in a range containing a number, SUM, which calculates the total of numerical values in a range, and AVERAGE, which computes the mean of a set of numbers.
Why is the standard deviation function, STDEV.S, used over STDEV.P in the course? STDEV.S is used because the data being analyzed is considered to be a sample of the total population rather than the entire population. STDEV.P is used when analyzing an entire population.
What are the main differences between the QUARTILE.INC and QUARTILE.EXC functions? The main difference is that QUARTILE.INC is inclusive and can specify the Min and Max, which QUARTILE.EXC does not have the capability to do. Instead, QUARTILE.EXC excludes those outliers.
Explain the use case of the TEXTJOIN function covered in the course. The TEXTJOIN function is used to combine values from multiple cells into a single text string, using a specified delimiter. This is helpful in aggregating text data and creating longer strings based on multiple values.
Essay Questions
Discuss the importance of selecting the correct version of Microsoft Excel for data analysis tasks, specifically when using advanced features. What factors should a user consider when choosing between Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office Home & Student, and Microsoft 365 online?
Analyze the role of logical functions (IF, AND, OR) in data analysis within Excel. Provide examples of how these functions can be used to categorize and filter data based on multiple criteria, and discuss their advantage over nested IF statements.
Compare and contrast the use of math and statistical functions like COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, and standard deviation in the context of exploratory data analysis (EDA). How do these functions aid in understanding the distribution and central tendencies of a dataset, and why is it important to use descriptive statistics during EDA?
Explore the importance of text functions in Excel, particularly LEFT, RIGHT, MID, FIND, and TEXTJOIN, in the context of data cleaning and preparation for analysis. Explain with examples how these functions can be used to extract, manipulate, and format text data from messy raw data.
Discuss the various what-if analysis tools available in Excel including Scenario Manager, Goal Seek, Solver, and Data Tables. How do these tools assist in decision making, and how do they aid in the evaluation of different possible outcomes?
Glossary of Key Terms
Power Query: A data transformation and preparation tool in Excel that allows users to import, clean, and shape data from various sources.
Power Pivot: An add-in in Excel that enables users to build data models, perform complex analysis, and manage large datasets with relationship tables.
Microsoft 365: A subscription service that provides access to a suite of Microsoft applications such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Microsoft Office Home & Student: A one-time purchase of Microsoft Office applications for home and student use.
Ribbon: The interface at the top of an Excel window containing tabs and commands for managing spreadsheets.
Nested IF statement: An IF statement that is placed inside another IF statement.
Logical Function: A function that tests conditions and returns a result based on whether those conditions are true or false such as IF, AND, and OR.
COUNT Function: A function that counts the number of cells in a range that contain numbers.
SUM Function: A function that adds together all numerical values in a given range.
AVERAGE Function: A function that calculates the arithmetic mean of a set of numbers.
Standard Deviation: A measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of data values using the functions of STDEV.S for sample population, and STDEV.P for population.
Quartile: A measure of division of a data set into four equal groups such as QUARTILE.INC and QUARTILE.EXC for inclusive and exclusive outliers respectively.
MODE Function: A function that returns the most frequently occurring value(s) in a data set.
Text Functions: Functions that allow for the manipulation of text such as LEFT, RIGHT, MID, FIND, and TEXTJOIN.
Data Validation: A tool that restricts the values or data types that can be entered in a cell.
Date Functions: Functions in Excel used to manipulate dates and times such as TODAY, YEAR, and MONTH.
What-If Analysis: A set of tools in Excel that allow users to test different scenarios and see how changes in input values affect the output.
Scenario Manager: A tool that allows users to create and save different scenarios in a spreadsheet.
Goal Seek: A tool that finds the input value needed to achieve a specific target output value.
Solver: A more advanced what-if analysis tool that can find optimal solutions while managing constraints.
Data Table: A way to see how changing a value will affect the result of a formula.
Slicer: A visual control that can be used to filter data in a pivot table or data table
Conditional Formatting: An Excel feature that allows formatting to be applied dynamically based on cell value.
Data Analysis Toolpak: An add-in that allows you to perform more advanced statistical analysis.
Histogram: A chart showing the distribution of numerical data.
Rank & Percentile: Statistical functions to rank values and find their percentiles in a data set.
Moving Average: A tool used to reduce the fluctuations in data and identify a more generalized trend.
Power Pivot Data Model: A relational database within Excel that allows you to connect multiple tables together.
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): A formula language used in Power Pivot for calculations and data analysis.
Explicit Measure: A DAX expression that is explicitly defined in Power Pivot for use in calculations.
Implicit Measure: A calculation done by just simply putting in a variable into the values of a pivot table
Filter Function (DAX): A function used to limit the values or context that can be evaluated.
Calculate Function (DAX): A function to evaluate an expression in a modified filter context.
Relationship Functions (DAX): DAX functions used to manage relationships between tables in Power Pivot such as CROSSFILTER.
GitHub: A web-based platform for version control and collaboration using git.
Git: A distributed version control system that tracks changes in files and code.
Repository (Repo): A storage location for your project files.
ReadMe.md: A text file containing descriptive information about your project, written in markdown.
Markdown: A lightweight markup language used to format text in readmes and other documents.
Mastering Excel: Data Analysis & Project Deployment
Okay, here’s a detailed briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided text, including relevant quotes.
Core Idea: The course requires a specific version of Excel for full functionality, particularly for the “Advanced” chapters covering Power Query and Power Pivot.
Platform Compatibility:Windows: Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office Home & Student, or older versions up to 2010 are compatible for the entire course.
Mac: Excel installed directly on a Mac will have limitations, particularly in the “Advanced” chapter. Power Query and Power Pivot are not fully supported.
Microsoft 365 Online: This version is free but also lacks full functionality for the “Advanced Data analysis” section and has a different layout. “the layout on the web browser version of this app is much different from that that’s installing your computer so I’m not going to be providing any support on this course on actually actually how to navigate this”.
Recommendation: The instructor recommends Microsoft 365 family plan as it “includes all the different features that I need” and is cost-effective when shared.
Trial Option: Microsoft 365 offers a one-month free trial, which could allow users to complete the course for free (if cancelled before the trial ends). “if money is an issue Microsoft 365 family offers this free one-month trial which I think you can complete this course within a month”.
2. Excel Interface & Navigation
Ribbon Exploration: The course focuses on understanding the Excel ribbon, specifically the Home tab (formatting) and the Formulas tab (functions).
File Menu: This includes options for saving, printing, exporting, and closing files. It also contains account information, themes, feedback, and advanced options.
Sheet Manipulation: The course covers adding, deleting, renaming, and moving/copying sheets within and between workbooks.
Context Menus: Right-clicking on cells and objects will expose a lot of functions for various context specific actions.
3. Excel Formulas and Functions
Core Concepts: Formulas are used for calculations and data manipulation; Functions are pre-built formulas for specific tasks.
Insert Function Tool: Helps users find and understand functions.
Logical Functions (IF, AND, OR): These are critical for conditional analysis.
Example of if statement “if it has The Logical test that we want to actually evaluate so I’m going to put in P3 in this case as it’s going to return true or false and then from there the next value in there is value if true which what do we want to return if it is true well that our goal is met and then if it’s not met we want to have well not met”.
Nested If statements should be avoided as they’re “hard to read” instead using and and or which are a lot clearer.
IFS is used for multiple condition evaluations, especially for bucketing data, but requires practice.
Math & Statistical Functions: COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, STDEV.S, QUARTILE, MODE. These are important for Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA).
The P stands for population and the S stands for sample.
“if we went above and below the average by one standard deviation around 68% which is a heck a lot of data is within this one standard deviation”.
Text Functions: LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, FIND, TEXTJOIN, TEXTSPLIT are key for data extraction and manipulation, as often times data is messy.
Date & Time Functions: YEAR, MONTH, DAY, DATE, NOW, TODAY are used for working with date data. “a value of one is added when I put into it plus one basically takes it to the next date”.
Error Handling: The course includes a section to identify and address common Excel formula errors with chatbots being recommended. “The biggest time saer I’ve found with any of these errors is using some sort of chatbot specifically me I’m going to go to something like chat GPT or even claw they’re going to be able to provide really quick help in understanding what an error is and what I need to do to fix it”.
4. Data Analysis & Visualization Techniques
Data Tables: One and two input data tables for sensitivity analysis.
Tables: Converting ranges to tables unlocks sorting, filtering, and slicer functionalities.
Slicers: Used for interactive data filtering and dashboard creation.
Conditional Formatting: Highlights trends and patterns in data using color scales, data bars, and icon sets. “but you’re going to notice it basically does these bands but it does this entire table all formatted together and this is not what we necessarily want of course the total road is going to be the highest I want to look through that row and actually see where I should be actually looking”.
Analysis Toolpak: Includes Descriptive Statistics, Histogram, Rank and Percentile, Moving Average for deeper data analysis.
Charts: Creation of charts based on specific dataset with the x-axis as data range and the y-axis as frequency. “anyway I really like this because now look at this control we were able to minimize it not to go past 40,000 and have all these outliers and everything else that has past 40,000 is put into this basically more value”.
Solver, Goal Seek and Scenario Manager: For “what if” analysis and finding optimal solutions by changing input variables, even with constraints.
5. Power Query & Data Import
Data Import: Importing data from various sources including text files (CSV), multiple Excel workbooks, web data.
Power Query Editor: Clean, transform, and combine data from different sources.
Loading Data: Option to load data into Tables or Pivot Tables.
Error Handling: Power Query has its own errors and notifications.
6. Power Pivot & Data Modeling
Data Model: Linking multiple tables through relationships.
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): Using DAX functions to create explicit measures for complex calculations and data aggregation.
Filter Functions: Used to modify filter contexts for complex aggregations, calculate provides that filter option.
Relationship Functions: CROSSFILTER is used for relationship issues.
Pivot Tables with Power Pivot: Creating interactive visualizations that summarize data from the data model.
7. Project & GitHub Integration
Project Structure: The course includes two projects: Salary Dashboard and Salary Analysis with a GitHub repo containing a readme for each with markdown.
GitHub: Used for sharing and version control of Excel projects.
Git: The core technology behind GitHub used for version control.
GitHub Desktop: An application that allows easy management of git repos.
Markdown: A markup language used to create formatted text in readmes, used in conjunction with Github.
File Management: Using a file system to organize project folders with their Excel files and readmes.
Pushing and Pulling: Demonstrates the workflow of pushing local changes to the remote repository (GitHub) and pulling remote changes to a local repository.
8. Project Documentation & Sharing
README.md Files: Using Markdown syntax (headings, lists, bold/italics, links, images) to document project steps and insights.
Project Sharing: GitHub is used for sharing projects, and LinkedIn for showcasing completed work.
One drive is not recommended for projects that use power query or power pivot features.
Screen Captures: Using system tools (command shift 4 for mac and windows shift + s for windows) to capture relevant visualizations for readmes.
Key Quotes:
“the layout on the web browser version of this app is much different from that that’s installing your computer so I’m not going to be providing any support on this course on actually actually how to navigate this”
“if money is an issue Microsoft 365 family offers this free one-month trial which I think you can complete this course within a month”
“if we went above and below the average by one standard deviation around 68% which is a heck a lot of data is within this one standard deviation”
“The biggest time saer I’ve found with any of these errors is using some sort of chatbot specifically me I’m going to go to something like chat GPT or even claw they’re going to be able to provide really quick help in understanding what an error is and what I need to do to fix it”
“but you’re going to notice it basically does these bands but it does this entire table all formatted together and this is not what we necessarily want of course the total road is going to be the highest I want to look through that row and actually see where I should be actually looking”
“anyway I really like this because now look at this control we were able to minimize it not to go past 40,000 and have all these outliers and everything else that has past 40,000 is put into this basically more value”
Overall Theme:
The course is a comprehensive guide to using Excel for data analysis, emphasizing not only the technical aspects of using the software but also the practical skills needed to conduct analysis, document findings, and share work effectively with GitHub.
Mastering Microsoft Excel: Data Analysis and Power Query
1. What are the different versions of Microsoft Excel, and which one is recommended for this course?
There are several ways to access Microsoft Excel. These include:
Microsoft 365: A subscription service offering access to various Microsoft applications, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. It comes in family (up to six users) and personal plans. College students or those in large corporations may have free access. A free one-month trial is also often available. If you cancel before the trial ends, you can retain the view-only functionality.
Microsoft Office Home and Student: A one-time purchase that provides keys to install Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Microsoft 365 Online: A free, web browser-based version of Excel with limitations.
The course recommends using either Microsoft 365 (family or personal plan) or Microsoft Office Home and Student. These versions allow for full functionality and access to advanced features such as Power Query and Power Pivot. The online version does not include the advanced features needed for the entire course and has a different UI.
2. What are the limitations of using Excel on a Mac operating system?
If you are using a Mac operating system, you’ll have limitations in the advanced chapters. You will not be able to complete sections on Power Query and Power Pivot or the final course project. These features are available in the Windows version of Excel, where Microsoft invests most of its resources. The Mac version has a reduced number of data sources available in the data tab and lacks power pivot.
3. What is the purpose of the “Ribbon” in Excel, and what kind of tasks can you perform there?
The ribbon is the area at the top of the Excel interface that contains various tabs and tools. It is designed to perform different tasks and functionalities. It contains multiple tabs such as “Home,” “Insert,” “Page Layout,” “Formulas,” and “Data,” each with options for formatting, inserting elements, setting up the page, using formulas, and handling data, respectively. The Home tab is used for formatting text and how things appear in the spreadsheet, like fonts, colors, and cell styles. The ribbon allows you to customize various aspects of a spreadsheet.
4. How do I manage different sheets and workbooks?
In Excel, you can manipulate different sheets and workbooks in various ways. To move a sheet, you can right-click on its tab and select “Move or Copy,” then choose to move it to another workbook or create a copy. You can open and work with multiple workbooks simultaneously. You can also copy and paste cells or groups of cells between different sheets or workbooks.
5. How do formulas and functions work in Excel, and what are some key examples?
Formulas and functions are the building blocks of calculations and analysis in Excel. Formulas always start with an equal sign (=), followed by values, operators, and references to cells. Functions are pre-built calculations that perform specific tasks, like SUM, AVERAGE, or COUNT. The lecture specifically uses COUNTIF which takes a range of cells and calculates based on specific criteria. Other basic functions covered are also AND and OR. You can insert a function using the Insert Function button which is very useful if you don’t know the specific function name you’re looking for.
6. What are logical functions and how are they used?
Logical functions in Excel test a condition and return a result based on whether the condition is true or false. The most popular of these are IF, AND, and OR. An IF statement checks a condition and returns one value if it’s true and another if it’s false. Nested IF statements can evaluate multiple conditions, but AND and OR are better for combining criteria. For example, AND returns true only if all its conditions are true, while OR returns true if at least one condition is true. The IFS function allows for multiple logical tests and outputs a different result for each scenario.
7. How do you use math and statistical functions to perform Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)?
Math and statistical functions are used to perform EDA on a dataset. Common functions include COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, STDEV.S (sample standard deviation), and QUARTILE.INC (inclusive quartiles), and MODE. These functions help you calculate descriptive statistics like measures of center (mean, median, mode), spread (standard deviation, quartiles), and range (min, max). Quartiles divide the data into four equal parts. The lecture also demonstrated AVERAGEIF to calculate an average based on a specific criteria. The RANK function returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers. The analysis tool pack can be used to provide descriptive statistics along with histograms.
8. How does Power Query work, and how can I connect it to multiple data sources?
Power Query is a tool in Excel that allows you to connect, transform, and load data from multiple sources. To connect to data, go to “Data” -> “Get Data” and select your data source (e.g., from file, database, or the web). Power Query loads the data into a query editor, where you can apply various transformations like filtering, sorting, and data type conversions. You can combine data from multiple files or tables into a single table. Once transformed, you can load the data into an Excel sheet or data model. When you refresh your data, it automatically updates with those transformations. You can also use parameters to change the inputs in the query, such as changing a date filter.
Spreadsheet and Chart Data Formatting
Data formatting in spreadsheets involves several techniques to ensure data is presented clearly and is easily understood [1]. Here’s an overview of some key formatting methods mentioned in the sources:
Centering Titles: Titles can be centered at the top of a column to clearly indicate the data below it [1].
Number Formatting: Columns containing numerical data, such as salary, can be formatted as currency or accounting numbers [1].
Decimal Places: You can adjust the number of decimal places displayed, which is useful when dealing with large numbers [1].
Date Formatting: Date columns can be converted to short date formats, which is useful when dealing with columns such as job posting dates [1].
Conditional Formatting: This type of formatting allows cells to be highlighted based on a specific rule [2].
Rules can be created to highlight cells based on their value [2, 3].
Color scales can also be applied to cells, with different colors indicating high or low values [3].
Data bars can visually represent values within cells [3].
Icon sets can be used to make data more dynamic [3].
Format Painter: This tool allows you to copy the formatting from one cell to another [3].
Custom Number Formats: Custom number types can be created to format numerical values in a certain way [4].
For example, a custom number format can be created to display values in thousands with a “k” at the end (e.g., 9.6k) [4].
Axis Formatting: Chart axes can be formatted to display numbers in a more readable format [4, 5].
This includes things such as displaying numbers in thousands with a “k” at the end [4, 5].
Minimum and maximum values on the axes can be changed, in order to more clearly display the data [4, 5].
The sources also demonstrate how to format visualizations:
Chart titles should provide context or ask a question [6].
Axis titles should be descriptive, especially for the y-axis which may not be self-explanatory [5, 6].
Chart elements such as axes, titles, data labels, gridlines, legends and trendlines can be added or removed [6].
Quick layouts can be used to quickly try out different themes for charts [6].
Colors can be customized to highlight specific information in a chart [6].
Chart elements such as data labels can be customized to display the data in a variety of ways [4].
These formatting techniques are intended to improve data visualization, making it easier to analyze and present [1, 6].
Spreadsheet Data Filtering Techniques
Data filtering is a powerful feature in spreadsheets that allows you to narrow down the data displayed based on specific criteria [1]. Here’s a breakdown of filtering techniques discussed in the sources:
Basic Filtering:
Filters can be applied to columns to show only data that matches a given condition [1].
For example, you can filter a job title column to show only “data analyst” roles [1].
Multiple filters can be applied to different columns to further refine the data. For example, you can filter for “data analyst” jobs that are “full-time” and in the “United States” [1].
Filters can also be applied to dates [1].
Filters can be cleared from columns to view all the data again [1].
Custom Filters:
Custom filters can be created to filter for data that meets certain conditions, such as values greater than zero and less than a specified value [2].
For example, a custom filter can be used to remove “NA” values from a column of median salaries [2].
Filtering in Tables:
When data is converted to a table, it automatically provides filter arrows at the top of each column [3].
These filter arrows allow for quick filtering based on text, dates, or numerical values [3].
Multiple values can be selected when filtering, such as selecting both “data analyst” and “business analyst” roles [3].
Filtering in Pivot Tables:
Pivot tables allow filtering by dragging fields into the “Filters” area [4].
You can filter rows or columns by selecting or deselecting specific values [4].
Label filters can be used to filter data based on text within labels, such as selecting jobs that contain the word “data” [4].
Value filters can be used to filter data based on numerical values, such as showing jobs with a count greater than 100 [4].
Filters can be cleared from tables to view all the data [4].
Slicers:
Slicers are a visual way to filter data in tables and pivot tables [3].
They provide buttons that can be clicked to filter data, making it easier for others to use the spreadsheet.
Slicers can be created for multiple fields and can be customized [3].
Multiple values can be selected by using multi select feature on slicers [3].
Timelines:
Timelines allow filtering of data by date and can be used in pivot tables or pivot charts [5, 6].
Timelines allow filtering by months, quarters, or years [6].
Filter Connections:
Filter connections can be used to connect filters from one pivot table to another [6].
This is especially useful when you want to have filters applied to multiple pivot tables simultaneously [6].
Filtering is a crucial step in data analysis, allowing you to focus on relevant data and gain insights more effectively [1]. It can be used in combination with data sorting and formatting to help you better understand your data [1].
In addition, the sources note a key limitation of filtering: filters are directional [7, 8]. When using relationships between tables, it is important to remember that filters are applied in the direction of the relationship [7, 8]. The sources provide a workaround for this limitation using Dax functions [8].
Data Analysis Techniques and Methods
Data analysis, as presented in the sources, involves a variety of techniques to explore, understand, and draw conclusions from data. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the key concepts and methods:
1. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
Descriptive Statistics: EDA often begins with calculating descriptive statistics such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum [1]. These can be used to get a sense of the distribution of numerical data [1, 2].
Histograms: Histograms are used to visualize the distribution of data [1, 2]. They show the frequency of values within specified ranges [1, 3].
The width of the “bins” (the ranges on the x-axis) can be adjusted to better visualize the data [3].
Histograms are great for understanding the distribution of numerical data, and determining whether data is skewed or has outliers [1, 2].
Box and Whisker Plots: Box and whisker plots are used to visualize the distribution of data, especially when you want to compare different categories of data.
The box shows the interquartile range, which contains 50% of the data.
The line inside the box indicates the median [3].
Whiskers extend from the box to show the range of the data, and any outliers are shown as dots [3].
Scatter Plots: Scatter plots are used to compare two numerical values and identify any trends or correlations between them [4].
Map Charts: Map charts are used to visualize data geographically, such as showing median salaries by country [5].
Pivot Tables: Pivot tables are used to summarize and analyze data by aggregating it based on different categories [2, 6, 7].
Pivot tables allow you to quickly change the way data is displayed, by moving categories or filters.
Pivot tables can be used to calculate sums, averages, counts, and percentages [2, 6].
Data Analysis Toolpak: This Excel add-in provides tools to perform more advanced statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics, histograms, and rank and percentile calculations [8].
2. Data Aggregation & Calculation
Math Functions: Spreadsheets include functions for performing calculations such as sum, average, min, and max [2, 6].
Conditional Aggregation: Functions like AVERAGEIF and SUMIFS allow you to perform calculations based on specified criteria [1, 2].
Median: The median is the middle value in a dataset, and it is less affected by outliers than the average, making it useful for analyzing salaries [1, 2].
Quartiles: Quartiles divide a dataset into four equal parts, and they can be used to analyze the distribution of the data [1].
Standard Deviation: Standard deviation measures the spread of data around the mean, which is useful for understanding the variability in the data [1].
Mode: The mode is the most frequently occurring value in a dataset [1].
Ranking: Data can be ranked to show its position relative to other values. [1]
Percentiles: Percentiles divide a dataset into 100 equal parts, and they can be used to show where a specific data point falls relative to others in the dataset [8].
Moving Average: A moving average is used to smooth out fluctuations in time series data [8].
3. Data Transformation
Data Type Conversion: Data types can be changed to ensure that data is treated appropriately (e.g. changing text to a number) [9].
Data Grouping: Data can be grouped together based on common characteristics for analysis [6, 10].
Manual grouping allows you to create custom groups.
Automatic grouping uses hierarchies to group dates or other similar data.
4. Advanced Analysis with DAX and Power Pivot
Data Modeling: Power Pivot allows you to model relationships between data from multiple tables [11].
Measures: Measures are formulas that are used to perform calculations on data in the data model [11].
Measures can be implicit or explicit. Implicit measures are created when you drag a field into the values area of a pivot table, whereas explicit measures are defined using DAX formulas. [12]
Calculated Columns: Calculated columns allow you to create new columns in your data model, based on formulas and expressions [12].
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): DAX is a formula language that is used to create measures and calculated columns in Power Pivot [11, 12].
Aggregation Functions: DAX provides many functions for summarizing data, such as AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, MIN, MEDIAN, and SUM [13].
Filter Functions: DAX provides filter functions, such as FILTER, and CALCULATE, which allow you to create measures that only perform calculations on subsets of your data [13]. CALCULATE evaluates an expression in a modified filter context [14].
Logical Operators: Logical operators, such as equal (=), not equal (<>), greater than (>), and less than (<), can be used in DAX formulas to create more complex filters.
Relationship Functions: DAX provides functions such as CROSSFILTER, which allows you to control the direction of filters [15].
5. Visualizing Data
Charts: Charts are used to visually represent data, making it easier to identify patterns and trends [2, 6].
Common chart types include column charts, bar charts, histograms, scatter plots, and map charts [2-6].
Customization: Charts can be customized to improve their appearance and readability [3, 4, 6].
This includes adding titles, axis labels, data labels, legends, and gridlines [3, 4].
Number formats can also be customized for data labels.
Slicers: Slicers are interactive controls that allow you to filter pivot tables and pivot charts [7].
In summary, data analysis involves a cycle of exploring, cleaning, transforming, calculating, and visualizing data. The sources demonstrate a range of techniques, from basic descriptive statistics and charting to more advanced techniques using DAX and Power Pivot. These tools enable you to gain a deeper understanding of your data and communicate your findings effectively.
Mastering Pivot Tables: A Comprehensive Guide
Pivot tables are a powerful tool for summarizing and analyzing data, allowing you to aggregate data based on different categories [1, 2]. Here’s a breakdown of key aspects of pivot tables, according to the sources:
Creating Pivot Tables
Pivot tables can be created from a table or range of data [1].
When creating a pivot table, you can choose whether to place it in a new worksheet or an existing worksheet [1].
The data source for a pivot table can be changed, and the table can be refreshed to include new data [1, 2].
It is possible to add data from multiple tables to a data model and analyze it using pivot tables [1, 3].
Pivot Table Layout
Pivot tables have different areas: filters, rows, columns, and values [1].
Fields dragged into the “rows” area appear as rows in the pivot table [1].
Fields dragged into the “columns” area appear as columns in the pivot table [1].
Fields dragged into the “values” area are aggregated using a specified calculation [1].
Fields dragged into the “filters” area can be used to filter the entire pivot table [1].
The layout of the fields can be adjusted to show them in stacked or in separate areas. [1]
Pivot tables can be displayed in compact, outline, or tabular form [4].
Pivot Table Functionality
Data Aggregation: Pivot tables are used to summarize data by aggregating it based on different categories [1].
Pivot tables can perform calculations such as sums, averages, counts, and percentages [1].
The type of aggregation can be changed in the “value field settings” [1].
Value field settings also allow you to change the number format and name of the column [1, 2].
Filtering: Pivot tables allow you to filter data based on multiple categories [1].
Filters can be applied to the rows, columns, or values [1, 2].
Label filters can be used to filter data based on text, such as selecting jobs that contain the word “data” [2].
Value filters can be used to filter data based on numerical values, such as showing jobs with a count greater than 100 [2].
Grouping: Pivot tables can group data based on a hierarchy [4].
This allows you to analyze data at different levels of detail, such as by country and then by job title [4].
Automatic grouping allows you to group data by year, month, and day [4].
Manual grouping allows you to create custom groups of data [5].
Sorting: Pivot tables allow you to sort data based on different columns [6].
You can sort data by row labels or by values in a specific column [4, 6].
Calculated Fields and Items: Calculated fields and items can be added to a pivot table [5, 7].
Pivot Table Design
Pivot tables can be styled with different colors and formats [6].
Options such as banded rows or columns, and row or column headers can be toggled on or off [6].
Grand totals for rows or columns can be toggled on or off [6].
Field headers can be toggled on or off [1, 6].
Pivot Charts
Pivot tables can be used to create pivot charts [7, 8].
Pivot charts are dynamic and automatically update when the pivot table is modified [8].
Pivot charts include field buttons that allow you to filter the data within the chart [7].
Slicers and timelines can be added to pivot charts, to provide interactive filtering [7].
Pivot charts can be customized with different chart types and formatting options [7].
Key Benefits of Pivot Tables
Dynamic Data Analysis: Pivot tables make it easy to analyze and explore data from different perspectives [1, 8].
Flexibility: Pivot tables can quickly be reconfigured to show different aggregations or perspectives of your data [1].
Efficiency: Pivot tables allow you to quickly calculate and summarize large amounts of data without complex formulas [1].
Interactivity: Pivot tables can be used to create interactive reports with slicers and timelines [7].
Data Relationships: Pivot tables can be used with data models to explore relationships between different data sets [9, 10].
In summary, pivot tables provide a versatile and efficient way to analyze and present data in spreadsheets. They are especially useful for summarizing large datasets and creating interactive reports [1, 2, 6]. Pivot tables can be used in combination with pivot charts to visually represent trends and patterns in your data. The sources also note that measures created with DAX are often more powerful than calculated fields within a pivot table [7, 9].
Creating Effective Charts in Excel
Chart creation in Excel, as detailed in the sources, involves several steps, from selecting the right chart type to customizing it for clarity and impact. Here’s a breakdown of the chart creation process:
1. Understanding Chart Types
Line Charts: These are best for time-series data, showing trends and connections over time [1].
Pie Charts: Pie charts are useful for comparing proportions of a whole, especially when there are two categories to visualize [2].
Column and Bar Charts: Column charts (vertical bars) and bar charts (horizontal bars) are used to compare values across categories [3].
Column charts are often used when categories have short names and the focus is on comparison by height.
Bar charts are useful for categories with longer names, to avoid overlapping labels [3].
Scatter Plots: Scatter plots are used to compare two numerical values and identify any correlations between them [4].
Map Charts: Map charts are used to visualize data geographically, such as showing median salaries by country [5].
Histograms: Histograms are used to visualize the distribution of numerical data, showing the frequency of values within specified ranges [5].
Combo Charts: Combo charts combine two or more chart types (e.g. column and line) to display different data sets [6, 7].
2. Chart Creation Process
Data Selection: Begin by selecting the data you want to visualize, including both the categories and the values [1]. It is important to select only the data you want to plot, especially when using pie charts [2].
Inserting Charts: Go to the “Insert” tab in Excel and select the chart type you want.
You can start with “Recommended Charts” for suggestions [1].
The “All Charts” tab allows you to select a specific chart type and customize it further [1].
Chart Elements:Chart elements such as axes, titles, data labels, and legends can be added or removed using the “+” icon next to the chart, or in the “Chart Design” tab [2].
The chart title can be used to summarize the data or to ask a question that you want the reader to understand from the chart [2].
Axis titles are used to clarify what the values on the x and y axes represent, especially for the y-axis, if the values are not self-explanatory [2].
Chart Design Tab: The “Chart Design” tab allows for customization of the chart with different layouts, themes, and colors [2].
3. Chart Customization
Titles and Labels: Chart titles and axis labels should be descriptive, and should clarify the purpose of the visualization.
Data Labels: Data labels can be added to display values directly on the chart [2].
The position, color, and formatting of the labels can be customized [2].
Trendlines: Trendlines can be added to charts to show trends in the data. Different options include linear, exponential, linear forecast, and moving average [2].
Color: Colors can be adjusted to highlight particular data or to make the chart more visually appealing [2]. Monochromatic color palettes may help focus the viewer on certain elements, such as using darker colors to emphasize certain parts of a pie chart [2].
Axes: The scale and bounds of the axes can be adjusted to better fit the data and eliminate visual clutter [4].
Number formats on the axes can also be customized to improve readability, such as using thousands separators and abbreviating with “k” [3, 4].
Legends: Legends can be used to show what different colors or shapes represent on the chart, especially when the chart has more than one data series [2].
4. Chart Best Practices
Appropriate Chart Choice: Select a chart type that best represents your data, taking into account the type of data and the message you are trying to convey [1].
Data Ordering: Order the categories in a way that makes the data easier to compare, for example, from high to low [3].
Simplicity: Charts should be clear and concise, avoiding too much complexity or clutter [2].
Too many colors can be confusing [2].
Too many data labels can be overwhelming [2].
Consistent Formatting: Use consistent formatting across all of your charts, including titles, labels, colors, and fonts.
Minimize Overlap: Ensure that data labels, titles, and other elements are properly positioned to minimize overlap and maintain readability [2, 4].
5. Interactive Charts
Slicers: Slicers are interactive controls that can be used to filter charts and pivot tables [8].
Slicers can be added from the pivot chart analyze tab [9].
Slicers can be connected to multiple charts [9].
Timelines: Timelines are interactive controls that can be used to filter charts that contain date information [9].
Timelines are inserted from the pivot chart analyze tab [9].
In summary, chart creation is an iterative process that requires attention to detail. Choosing the correct chart type, customizing the visual elements, and understanding your audience are all essential for creating charts that are both effective and insightful. Charts should be designed to tell a story, to draw attention to key aspects of your data, and to help your audience gain a better understanding of the data itself.
Excel for Data Analytics – Full Course for Beginners
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This extensive text provides a detailed tutorial on using Excel and Power BI for data analysis, emphasizing how to convert raw data into actionable insights. It covers fundamental techniques like sorting, filtering, and using Flash Fill in Excel, then moves to more advanced tools such as Pivot Tables for summarizing data and Power Query for importing, cleaning, and transforming data. The document highlights how Power Query is particularly useful for handling data from external sources and combining multiple files, positioning it as a significant advancement in data manipulation capabilities. It then introduces Power Pivot and the concept of a data model to manage relationships between multiple tables and handle large datasets more efficiently, contrasting it with the limitations of relying solely on worksheet formulas like XLOOKUP. Finally, the text explores Power BI Desktop and Power BI Online for creating interactive visualizations and reports, demonstrating how to import data, build data models, write DAX formulas, and share insights, showcasing the power of these tools for analyzing large volumes of data and creating dynamic dashboards.
Excel and Power BI Data Analysis Tools
Based on the sources, Data Analysis is defined as the process of converting raw data into useful information. The purpose of this conversion is to gain insight and make decisions. The source mentions that there are various synonyms for data analysis, including data analytics, analytics, business intelligence, and data science.
The sources highlight that almost every tool used for data analysis requires a proper data set. A proper data set generally includes a field name at the top and empty cells all the way around.
Several tools are presented in the sources as being used for data analysis in Excel and Power BI:
Sort and Filter: These are fundamental tools available in Excel tables, Pivot Tables, Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power BI Desktop. Sorting organizes records in a table, for example, from smallest to largest (a to z) or largest to smallest (z to a). You can sort by one column or multiple columns. Filtering shows only certain records based on one or more conditions. Filters can use various logical tests like AND, OR, or BETWEEN. A particularly helpful use of filtering in the Excel worksheet is to extract specific records. Filtering can also be data type specific, offering different options for dates, text, and numbers. When filtering, the records that match the criteria are shown, and the rest are hidden.
Flash Fill: This is a one-time, simple data cleaning tool in Excel. It can be used if there’s a consistent pattern in the data. You provide an example by typing the desired output next to the original data, and then Flash Fill attempts to apply the pattern to the rest of the column. It’s not recommended for tasks that need to be repeated or refreshed with new data; for those, formulas or Power Query are suggested.
Pivot Table: This is an amazing tool to build reports and charts. It’s particularly useful for summarizing data, such as survey results, showing counts and percentages. Standard pivot tables are suitable for small data sets within Excel and simple calculations like count and percent of total. They allow you to drag fields to areas like Rows and Values to create unique lists and calculations. Pivot tables can connect to data from various sources, including tables or ranges in the worksheet, external data sources, data models in Power Pivot, and data models in Power BI online. A key point is that with standard pivot tables, you have to repeatedly add number formatting to fields.
Power Query: Described as the greatest Excel tool invented since the pivot table. It excels at importing data from outside of Excel (like text files, other Excel files, databases, websites), cleaning data (e.g., splitting columns, extracting information), transforming data (e.g., removing columns, calculating new columns, combining tables), and loading data to the Excel worksheet, the pivot table cache, or the Power Pivot data model. Power Query is also present in Power BI Desktop, functioning the same way. Power Query memorizes the steps applied during importing, cleaning, and transforming, allowing for easy refreshing of data. These steps form the foundation of a Power Query query. Power Query has a functional language called M code, which is used for data mashup.
XLOOKUP function: A worksheet formula that can be used in data analysis, particularly when you need to look up values from one table and bring them into another column in your main table. It’s presented as a modern replacement for older lookup functions like VLOOKUP. XLOOKUP is appropriate when the data is already in the Excel worksheet, the data set is not excessively large (e.g., 43,000 rows is considered not a lot), and the solution can be created using standard pivot tables and Excel charts.
Power Pivot: An Excel feature that creates data model pivot tables. It allows for creating relationships between related tables, which helps avoid using many lookup formulas like XLOOKUP. Power Pivot enables the use of more than one table in a pivot table report. It is also capable of importing large amounts of data into a behind-the-scenes columnar database that compresses the data and can hold millions of rows. Power Pivot allows for the creation of reusable, formattable formulas called DAX measures, which are used in data model pivot tables. In Power Pivot, DAX measures are built in the measure grid below the fact table.
DAX Formulas: Data Analysis Expressions, a function-based formula language used in Power Pivot and Power BI Desktop. There are two types: DAX measures (reusable formulas dragged into data model pivot tables) and DAX calculated columns (formulas that add a new column to a table). Dax measures calculate based on the conditions or criteria (filter context) in the pivot table. This filter context makes calculations efficient, especially with large data sets. In Power Pivot, the assignment operator for DAX measures is a colon followed by an equal sign. In Power BI Desktop, it’s just an equal sign.
Data Model: Created in Power Pivot or Power BI Desktop, it involves multiple tables with relationships defined between them. Dimension or lookup tables, which contain unique lists (the “one” side of a relationship) and attributes, are related to fact tables, which contain repeating values (the “many” side of a relationship). Creating relationships in the data model replaces the need for lookup formulas like XLOOKUP and allows dragging and dropping fields from any related table into reports. The data model is stored in a behind-the-scenes columnar database.
Power BI Desktop: A free Microsoft tool designed for creating data models, visualizations, and reports. It contains the same Power Query and Power Pivot tools found in Excel. Power BI has a wider variety of visuals and reporting tools compared to Excel, and its visuals are interactive. Data models created in Excel Power Pivot can be imported into Power BI Desktop.
Power BI Online: Requires a license and allows users to upload Power BI Desktop files or Excel files with Power Pivot data models. This makes reports, visuals, dashboards, and data models shareable and universally available to assigned groups, serving as a single source of truth for data. Dashboards in Power BI Online are specific locations where you can pin important information (tables, charts, visuals, etc.) from various reports and workbooks for easy presentation and sharing. Dashboards should present information needed for good decisions.
The sources provide examples illustrating these tools:
Example 1 shows using Sort, Filter, and Flash Fill.
Example 4 (from video 3) shows summarizing survey results with a Pivot Table.
Example 5 demonstrates using Power Query to import, transform, and refresh data from a website CSV file.
Example 6 shows using Power Query to combine multiple files into one table, calculate a new column, and load it to the Pivot Table cache.
Example 7 illustrates solving a data modeling problem (needing data from multiple tables) using worksheet formulas like XLOOKUP to add helper columns before creating standard Pivot Table reports and charts. This approach is suitable for smaller data sets.
Example 8 shows solving the same data modeling problem as Example 7 but using Power Query to import data from an external Excel file and load it directly to the Power Pivot data model. This approach is better for larger data sets and allows creating relationships between tables and reusable DAX measures. It also introduces concepts like the one-to-many relationship and hiding fields in the data model.
Example 9 uses Power BI Desktop for the same data source as Example 8, demonstrating importing data with Power Query, loading it to the data model in Power BI Desktop, and creating interactive visuals and dashboards. This approach is preferred for interactive and shareable visuals.
Example 10 shows importing 7 million rows of data from an SQL database into Power BI Desktop using Power Query. It discusses the efficiency of the columnar database for handling big data and creating calculated columns and measures using DAX formulas (including the concept of iterator functions like SUMX) to calculate values like revenue and cost. It also covers creating a date table using DAX and marking it as a date table.
In essence, data analysis, as presented in the sources, is about transforming data for insight and decision-making using a range of tools in Excel and Power BI, from basic sorting and filtering to advanced data modeling with Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power BI Desktop, often involving calculated formulas using XLOOKUP or DAX. The choice of tool often depends on the size of the data, the source of the data, the complexity of transformations needed, and the desired output (e.g., simple report vs. interactive dashboard).
Mastering Power Query: Data Transformation in Excel and Power BI
Based on the sources, Power Query is highlighted as a fundamental and highly valuable tool in the process of Data Analysis, which involves converting raw data into useful information to gain insight and make decisions. It is described as the greatest Excel tool invented since the pivot table.
The primary reason for Power Query’s significance is that while tools like the Pivot Table were amazing for building reports and charts, there was a missing piece for importing data into Excel and fixing or cleaning bad data. Power Query fills this gap.
Power Query is not exclusive to Excel; it is also available in Power BI Desktop and functions the same way in both applications.
Key Capabilities of Power Query:
Importing Data: Power Query excels at bringing data into your analysis environment from various sources outside of Excel. These sources include:
Text files (like CSV, TXT)
Other Excel files
Databases (like SQL databases)
Websites
Folders (to combine multiple files)
Many other data sources
Cleaning Data: It provides tools to fix issues or extract specific parts of your data. Examples include:
Splitting columns (e.g., splitting first and last name)
Extracting information (e.g., extracting a date from a date time field)
Handling delimiters (e.g., tab delimiters in text files)
Transforming Data: Power Query allows you to reshape and modify data before loading it. Examples include:
Removing unwanted columns
Calculating new columns (e.g., multiplying Units by Price to get Sales)
Combining multiple tables into one table
Changing data types
Filtering data (e.g., filtering files by extension in a folder import)
Transforming text (e.g., changing text case to lowercase for filtering)
Removing relational columns automatically added during database import
The Power Query Editor:
Transformations are performed in the Power Query Editor, which is a separate window on top of the Excel or Power BI Desktop window. The Editor provides a preview of the data.
Applied Steps: One of the most important features is the recording of Applied Steps. Power Query memorizes every step applied during importing, cleaning, and transforming. These steps are rerun automatically when the data is refreshed. You can view the data preview at each step of the process.
M Code: Behind the user interface and applied steps is a functional language called M code, which Microsoft calls the data mashup language. While Power Query writes this code automatically when you use the user interface, you can view it in the formula bar or the Advanced Editor, and even write your own M code. M code is case-sensitive, which is different from the Excel worksheet.
Loading Data:
After cleaning and transforming data in the Power Query Editor, the results need to be loaded. The loading destination depends on whether you are using Excel or Power BI Desktop and the purpose of the analysis.
In Excel:
The default is to load the data as an Excel Table on a new worksheet.
Using Close & Load To, you can control the destination:
Load as a Table to a specified worksheet location.
Load to the Pivot Table Cache (for creating Pivot Tables directly from the query output without first putting it on a worksheet).
Load to the Power Pivot Data Model (used when working with multiple tables and relationships).
Only Create a Connection: This option stores the query definition in the Power Query Editor but does not load the data anywhere visible in the worksheet. This is the crucial option when importing data for the Data Model, especially when combining it with the Add this data to the Data Model option. It prevents duplicating the data source by putting it in a worksheet table and the data model.
In Power BI Desktop:
The Power Query Editor has a Close & Apply button. This closes the editor, applies the steps, and loads the data only to the columnar database in the Data Model. There is no option to load directly to a worksheet as in Excel, as the primary destination is always the data model for creating visuals and reports.
Benefits and Use Cases:
Automation and Refreshing: Because Power Query memorizes the steps, when the source data updates (e.g., a new monthly file is added to a folder, or a website CSV changes), you can simply click Refresh, and Power Query will re-import, re-clean, re-transform, and reload the data automatically. This eliminates repetitive manual tasks.
Handling Different Data Structures: Power Query is adept at handling various delimiters (comma, tab) and structures (single tables, multiple files in a folder).
Data Modeling: Power Query is essential for importing data from external sources into the Power Pivot or Power BI Data Model. This allows for building relationships between tables and avoiding the need for numerous lookup formulas like XLOOKUP in the worksheet, especially when dealing with data from multiple tables.
Big Data: Power Query is used to import large amounts of data (e.g., 7 million rows from an SQL database) into the compressed columnar database used by Power Pivot and Power BI Desktop.
Examples from Sources:
Example 5: Power Query is used to import, transform, and load data from a website CSV file to an Excel worksheet table that can then be easily refreshed.
Example 6: Power Query imports and combines data from multiple text files in a folder into a single table, adds a calculated ‘Sales’ column, and loads it directly to the Pivot Table cache, ready for reporting and charting.
Example 8: Power Query imports data from tables within an external Excel file and loads them directly to the Power Pivot Data Model using the “Only Create Connection” and “Add to the Data Model” options, preparing the data for creating relationships and data model pivot tables.
Example 10: Power Query connects to an online SQL database with 7 million rows, imports selected tables using credentials, checks and changes data types, removes unnecessary columns in the Power Query Editor, and loads the data to the Power BI Desktop Data Model.
In summary, Power Query is a robust, user-friendly, and essential tool for modern data analysis in both Excel and Power BI Desktop, providing powerful capabilities for connecting to, cleaning, and transforming data from a wide range of sources, automating repetitive data preparation tasks, and enabling advanced data modeling.
The Art of Excel Pivot Tables
Based on the sources, Pivot Tables are a cornerstone tool in data analysis, designed primarily for building reports and charts. They are considered one of the most significant tools invented in Excel, with Power Query being highlighted as the greatest since the pivot table.
Here’s a discussion of Pivot Tables based on the information provided:
Core Purpose and Functionality Pivot Tables allow you to convert raw data into useful information by summarizing and organizing records in a table. They provide an interactive way to analyze data by dragging fields into different areas (like Rows, Columns, and Values) in the Pivot Table Fields task pane. They use the same sorting and filtering conventions as Excel tables.
Standard Pivot Tables (Working with One Table) This type of pivot table is used when you have your data in a single table, such as an Excel worksheet table or a “flat table” created by adding lookup columns using functions like XLOOKUP. They perform calculations using built-in options like “Summarize Values By” (e.g., Count, Sum) and “Show Values As” (e.g., Percent of Column Total, Difference From Previous).
They are appropriate for data already in Excel, when there isn’t a lot of data (e.g., 43,000 rows is considered manageable, but 100,000-500,000 rows might slow down).
A limitation is that if you use the same number field in multiple reports, you have to reapply number formatting each time.
Standard pivot tables can automatically group dates into months and years.
Data sources can be a table or range directly in the worksheet, or data loaded into the Pivot Table Cache from Power Query. You can access data directly from the Pivot Table Cache using the “from external data source” option.
Data Model Pivot Tables (Working with Multiple Tables) Introduced with tools like Power Pivot and Power BI Desktop, Data Model Pivot Tables work with multiple tables loaded into a behind-the-scenes columnar database called the Data Model.
Relationships: Instead of using lookup formulas like XLOOKUP in the worksheet, relationships (often one-to-many) are created between related tables in the Data Model (e.g., linking a fact table with sales data to dimension tables like products, sales reps, or dates). This allows you to drag and drop fields from any related table into the pivot table report.
DAX Measures: Calculations are performed using reusable DAX measures that you create. A significant advantage is that you can include number formatting in the DAX measure, and this formatting will apply automatically whenever the measure is used in a pivot table.
Filter Context: DAX measures calculate efficiently using a concept called Filter Context, where the measure automatically filters the data based on the conditions in the pivot table (rows, columns, filters) before performing the calculation.
Handling Big Data: The Data Model, using a columnar database, can handle importing and analyzing large amounts of data (millions of rows), which is much better than handling such volumes directly in an Excel worksheet.
Data Loading: Data is typically loaded into the Data Model using Power Query, often selecting the “Only Create a Connection” and “Add this data to the Data Model” options to avoid duplicating data in the worksheet.
Date Tables: Unlike standard pivot tables, Data Model pivot tables do not automatically group dates. A dedicated date dimension table with a unique list of dates and attributes (like month, year) is required and linked via a relationship. The date table must be marked as a date table in the Data Model to function correctly.
Implicit vs. Explicit Measures: It is recommended to use explicit (user-created) DAX measures rather than implicit measures, which are automatically created when you drag a raw number field into a Data Model pivot table. Implicit measures are hidden, read-only, cannot be formatted or reused, and do not transfer when connecting live to data models in Power BI Desktop.
You can hide unnecessary fields in the Data Model so they don’t appear in the pivot table field list, making it less cluttered.
Integration with Power Query Power Query is essential for getting data from external sources and cleaning/transforming it before it is used in a pivot table. Power Query output can be loaded directly to the Pivot Table Cache for standard pivot tables or to the Data Model for data model pivot tables. This eliminates repetitive manual data preparation steps, as refreshing the query automatically updates the pivot table report.
Integration with Power Pivot and Power BI Desktop Power Pivot in Excel and Power BI Desktop share the core Data Model technology, enabling the creation of Data Model Pivot Tables. Power BI Desktop has a visual called a “Matrix” which is similar to an Excel pivot table and is used for cross-tab reports from the Data Model. You can also connect Excel pivot tables directly to data models stored online in Power BI Service.
In summary, Pivot Tables are powerful tools for data summarization and reporting, evolving from the standard type working with single tables to the more advanced Data Model type capable of handling multiple tables and large datasets using DAX formulas and relationships, often populated and managed with the help of Power Query and the Data Model environment.
Understanding the Data Model for Power Tools
Based on the sources and our previous discussion about Pivot Tables, the Data Model is a fundamental component used in conjunction with Data Model Pivot Tables and tools like Power Pivot and Power BI Desktop.
Here’s a discussion of the Data Model:
What it is: The Data Model is a behind-the-scenes columnar database that stores and compresses data. It is the underlying structure used by Power Pivot in Excel and Power BI Desktop.
Purpose and Benefits:
Handles Large Datasets: A key advantage of the Data Model is its ability to import and analyze large amounts of data (millions of rows) much more effectively than an Excel worksheet. The columnar database design helps compress the data, making it possible to work with volumes that would overwhelm Excel’s row limit or performance.
Works with Multiple Tables: The Data Model allows you to bring data from multiple tables together for analysis in a single pivot table report.
Relationships: Instead of using lookup formulas like XLOOKUP to combine data in the worksheet, you create relationships (typically one-to-many) between related tables directly in the Data Model. This linking of tables (like a fact table with sales data and dimension tables with product or sales rep details) is crucial for working with data spread across different sources. These relationships replace the need for adding helper columns with lookup formulas in your source data.
DAX Calculations: Calculations are performed using reusable formulas called DAX measures. These measures are built in the Data Model and can be easily dragged into a pivot table. DAX measures calculate efficiently using Filter Context, meaning the formula automatically considers the filters and conditions applied in the pivot table or visual (like rows, columns, or slicers) before performing the calculation.
Reusable Formatting: A significant advantage of DAX measures is that number formatting can be applied directly to the measure itself, so it only needs to be set once and will apply automatically whenever the measure is used in any report. This contrasts with standard pivot tables where number formatting must be reapplied each time the same field is used in a different report.
Organized Reporting: You can hide fields in the Data Model that you don’t intend to use in your pivot table reports (like foreign keys or raw number columns that will be used in measures), making the pivot table field list less cluttered.
How Data is Loaded: Data is typically loaded into the Data Model using Power Query. When loading Power Query output, you often select the “Only Create a Connection” option and then “Add this data to the Data Model”. This prevents the data from being loaded into the Excel worksheet and the Data Model, avoiding duplication and potential performance issues. Data can come from various sources, including Excel files containing tables or external databases.
Working with Dates: Unlike standard pivot tables that can auto-group dates, Data Model pivot tables require a dedicated date dimension table. This table contains a unique list of dates and related attributes like month name, year, etc.. This date table needs to be linked to the fact table using a relationship and marked as a date table in the Data Model tools to function correctly and prevent issues like inefficient date grouping or the creation of hidden date tables.
Implicit vs. Explicit Measures: When using a Data Model, it is strongly recommended to create your own DAX measures (explicit measures) rather than relying on the hidden implicit measures automatically created when dragging raw number fields into a pivot table. Implicit measures have limitations: they are hidden, read-only, cannot be formatted or renamed easily, and do not transfer when connecting live to data models in Power BI Service. Explicit measures offer control, reusability, and formatting.
Interface:
In Excel’s Power Pivot window (which opens when you manage the data model), there’s a Diagram View where you visualize tables and create relationships by dragging fields. There’s also a Data View to preview the data in each table and a Measure Grid at the bottom of the fact table to write DAX measures.
In Power BI Desktop, the corresponding views are Model View (similar to Diagram View) and Data View. Measures are typically created by right-clicking the table in the fields list or using buttons in the table/measure tools.
Integration: Data Models built with Power Pivot in Excel can be imported into Power BI Desktop. Both Excel Data Models and Power BI Desktop Data Models can be uploaded to Power BI Online (Power BI Service), making them available as a single source of truth for connecting to from other Excel or Power BI Desktop files.
In essence, the Data Model is the powerful engine behind advanced data analysis in Excel and Power BI, enabling efficient handling of large, multi-table datasets through relationships and flexible calculations via DAX.
Introduction to Power BI
Based on the sources and our conversation history, let’s discuss Power BI.
Power BI Desktop is a free Microsoft download that serves as a tool for data analysis, creating reports, and designing interactive visuals. It shares many core functionalities with Excel’s Power Pivot and Power Query. Power BI is specifically designed to offer more varied visuals and reporting tools and better shareability compared to Excel.
Here are some key aspects of Power BI:
Core Components and Workflow: Power BI Desktop integrates several tools:
Power Query: This is the tool used to import data from external sources (like databases, web files, other Excel files) and then clean and transform it. The Power Query Editor looks and functions very similarly to the one in Excel. The cleaned data is then loaded into the Data Model.
Data Model: Like Power Pivot in Excel, Power BI Desktop utilizes a behind-the-scenes columnar database called the Data Model to store and compress data. This model is crucial for handling large amounts of data, potentially millions of rows, much more effectively than a standard Excel worksheet. Within the Data Model, you create relationships between related tables (like fact and dimension tables) to link them for analysis, avoiding the need for lookup formulas in the source data. The Data Model in Power BI Desktop looks almost exactly the same as in Power Pivot. Power BI Desktop has a Model View (similar to Power Pivot’s Diagram View) for visualizing tables and creating relationships, and a Data View (similar to Power Pivot’s Data View) for previewing table data.
DAX Formulas: Calculations within the Data Model are performed using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). You create reusable DAX measures to perform calculations like Sum or Average. A key advantage of DAX measures is that number formatting can be applied directly to the measure, and this formatting will be automatically applied whenever the measure is used in a report or visual. DAX measures calculate efficiently using Filter Context, meaning they automatically consider the filters applied by the visual (like rows, columns, slicers) before performing the calculation. While Power Pivot focuses on measures, Power BI Desktop also allows creating DAX calculated columns and entire DAX tables. It is strongly recommended to use explicit (user-created) measures rather than implicit measures (automatically created by dragging raw number fields), as implicit measures have limitations such as being hidden, read-only, and not transferring to Power BI Service when connecting live. Fields that are not needed for reporting (like foreign keys or raw number columns used in measures) can be hidden in the Data Model to keep the fields list cleaner in the reporting interface. In Power BI Desktop, hidden fields are indicated by an eyeball icon with a line through it.
Visualizations and Reporting: Reports are built in the Report View, which is comparable to an Excel worksheet where you might place pivot tables and charts. Power BI offers a wide array of visualizations. Examples include line charts, clustered column charts, a Matrix visual (similar to an Excel pivot table for cross-tab reports), slicers, cards, and maps. A defining feature is the interactivity of these visuals; clicking on one visual can filter or highlight data in other visuals on the page. You can control how visuals interact (filter, highlight, or none). Tooltips can be customized to show multiple measures when hovering over data points.
Power BI Online (Service): This is the cloud-based component that requires a license and enables sharing and collaboration.
You can publish Power BI Desktop files (containing the report and data model) or Excel files with Power Pivot data models to Power BI Online.
Uploaded data models appear as datasets. These datasets can serve as a single source of truth for multiple users and reports, allowing others to connect live to the data model from their own Excel or Power BI Desktop files without needing to share the original file.
Reports published from Power BI Desktop can be viewed and interacted with in Power BI Online.
Dashboards are a specific feature in Power BI Online, allowing you to pin visualizations from different reports and workbooks into a single view for easy access and sharing. Dashboards provide a high-level summary of key metrics.
Sharing is managed through workspaces, where groups of users with organizational emails can be granted access to reports, dashboards, and datasets.
Relationship with Excel Tools: Power BI Desktop and Power Pivot share the same Data Model engine. Many features learned in Power Query and Power Pivot in Excel are directly transferable to Power BI Desktop. While Excel (especially with Power Pivot) is capable of building data models and reports, Power BI Desktop is generally preferred for its superior visualization capabilities, interactivity, and the ease of sharing and collaborating via Power BI Online. Data models built in Power Pivot can be imported into Power BI Desktop.
Excel & Power BI Data Analysis Complete Class in One Video – 365 MECS 04
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This presentation offers an introduction to creating interactive dashboards in Excel, focusing on techniques suitable for users who may not have access to Power BI. The speaker guides viewers through the process of data preparation and organization, emphasizing the importance of putting data into a table for easy updates. Key steps covered include designing a wireframe layout, building various chart types like line, map, bar, and donut charts from pivot tables, and incorporating calculated metrics using formulas. The demonstration highlights how to assemble these elements onto a single dashboard, add interactive filters called slicers, and connect them to the charts.
Building Dynamic Excel Dashboards
Based on the provided source, an Excel dashboard is essentially a report that helps you display important data or information in a single place. The primary purpose is to allow your audience to easily see key metrics or statistics that are important to them at a glance.
Creating a dashboard in Excel is useful for analyzing data, extracting data, and presenting key metrics, highlighting pain points in a much more visual way. Dashboards use charts and color to get across the story of your data. When designing a dashboard, it is crucial to consider what questions you are trying to answer and what your audience wants to know.
While applications like Power BI are popular for creating reports and visualizations, Excel remains a preferred choice for many people for several reasons. One significant factor is cost, as Power BI requires an additional payment and is not part of a standard Microsoft 365 subscription. Excel is also a familiar application for most people, making them feel more comfortable using it when first learning about dashboards. Additionally, some users find Excel to be more flexible than Power BI, particularly when it comes to dashboard design and achieving a desired look.
Building an Excel dashboard involves several steps:
Data Preparation and Organization: It’s important to start with clean and consistent data. While the provided session’s data was already clean, cleaning techniques were covered in a previous webinar. A critical step is to put your source data in a table if you want your dashboard to update easily. You can check if data is in a table by looking for the “Table Design” ribbon, or by pressing Ctrl+T if it’s not. Standardizing naming conventions is also recommended for organization. For instance, naming tables with “TBL_”, charts with “CHT_”, and pivot tables with “PVT_” makes it easier to identify elements when linking them later. The source data used in the example was a downloaded sales data set with about 5,000 rows. Organizing different components (data, wireframe, charts, calculations, dashboard) into separate, color-coded tabs can help manage complexity.
Wireframing: Planning the dashboard layout is a good idea before starting. This involves noting exactly what metrics you want to display and how you want to lay out your dashboard, including where charts, slicers, and formatted sections will go. This plan, or wireframe, can be sketched on paper or in an Excel tab using shapes.
Creating Core Components: The dashboard often includes pivot tables and pivot charts built from the source data. The session demonstrated creating four specific charts:
A line chart showing total profit by year. Line charts are often suitable for time-based data.
A map chart showing average unit sold by country. Map charts colorize geographical regions based on data. Note that map charts cannot be created directly from pivot table data; the data must be copied out first, and then the chart’s data source needs to be pointed back to the pivot table. Not every chart type is suitable for all data; for example, too many countries would make a column chart unreadable, but are fine for a map chart.
A bar chart showing revenue by sales channel and item type. For charts with a lot of data categories, like many items, applying a filter to show only the top items (e.g., top 3 or 5) can make the chart more manageable and readable. Bar charts can be made more visually effective by increasing the bar width and adding data labels instead of using a horizontal axis for values.
A donut chart showing the count of orders by region. Donut charts (and pie charts) are generally best for representing a small number of items (e.g., two or three), as they can become confusing with more data.
Incorporating Calculations: Dashboards can display key metrics that are not represented in charts, often shown as “cards” or summary statistics at the top. These metrics need to be calculated on a separate worksheet and then linked to the dashboard. Examples of calculations shown included finding the most profitable item, most profitable region, count of cancelled orders, and top sales channel. This involves using functions like UNIQUE (to get a list of distinct values), SUMIF (to sum values based on a condition), COUNTIF (to count items based on a condition), MAX (to find the highest value), and INDEX/MATCH (to look up corresponding text for a value). Linking these calculations ensures the dashboard updates dynamically when the source data changes.
Assembling and Formatting: To make the dashboard look professional, it’s recommended to turn off grid lines on the dashboard sheet. Components like charts and calculated metrics (often placed inside shapes) are then brought onto the dashboard sheet and arranged. Basic formatting includes resizing elements, changing background fills, applying consistent fonts and colors, and using alignment tools. Using company branding colors is also a good practice. Removing chart borders can help them blend into the dashboard. Adding custom headings using shapes allows for consistent formatting across all elements.
Adding Interactivity (Slicers): Slicers are interactive filters that can be added to the dashboard. They are inserted from the PivotChart Analyze tab. Slicers represent column headings from your data, allowing users to click buttons to filter the displayed information. Slicers can be formatted (e.g., changing the number of columns, removing headers, modifying styles). Crucially, slicers need to be connected to the specific charts or pivot tables you want them to control using the “Report Connections” setting (also called “Filter Connections”). If not connected, a slicer may only control the first chart it’s associated with.
Updating the Dashboard: If your source data is in an Excel table, adding new data to the bottom should automatically expand the table. To update the dashboard components (pivot tables, charts, calculations), you can use the Refresh All button, typically found under the PivotChart Analyze tab. This process aims to provide a one-button update for the entire dashboard, though the live demonstration encountered an issue due to the source data not being properly formatted as a table initially.
Mastering Excel Pivot Tables for Dashboards
Based on the source provided, Pivot Tables are presented as a core component when building interactive dashboards in Excel. They are described as a straightforward way to analyze and summarize data.
Here’s a discussion of Pivot Tables based on the source:
Purpose in Dashboards: Pivot Tables are crucial for creating the underlying data or information that will be displayed on a dashboard, particularly in Pivot Charts. The dashboard demonstrated is “pretty heavy on pivot tables and charts”. They are used to extract and present key metrics from your raw data.
Creation Process:
They are created from your source data, which ideally should be in an Excel table to allow for easy updates.
To create a Pivot Table, you click within your data, go to the Insert ribbon, and select Pivot Table.
It’s strongly recommended to place each Pivot Table on a new worksheet to help organize a complex dashboard workbook.
It’s important to rename both the Pivot Table worksheet and the Pivot Table itself using a consistent naming convention (e.g., starting with “PVT_”) to make them easier to identify later, especially when connecting them to slicers.
Working with Pivot Tables:
The Pivot Table Fields area lists all the column headings from your source data.
You build the report by dragging and dropping these fields into four areas: Filters, Columns, Rows, and Values. The source demonstrates using Rows and Values frequently.
The Values area is typically where fields containing numbers (like profit or units sold) are placed. By default, Excel often tries to sum values, but you can change how the field is summarized (e.g., to Average or Count) using Value Field Settings.
Number formatting should be applied to the values in the Pivot Table to make them tidier and easier to read.
Excel can automatically group date fields (like splitting a date column into Years, Quarters, and the original Date), which you can then manipulate by dragging out groupings you don’t need.
You can turn off Grand Totals if they are not needed for the chart or display you are creating.
For efficiency when building multiple pivot tables for a dashboard, you can copy an existing pivot table worksheet and then modify the fields and settings as needed, which is faster than starting from scratch each time.
Pivot Tables and Charts:
Pivot Tables are the basis for Pivot Charts, which are then used on the dashboard.
However, the source highlights a specific limitation: Map charts cannot be created directly from data inside a Pivot Table. To work around this, you must first copy the data out of the pivot table (pasting values only), create the map chart from the copied data, and then point the chart’s data source back to the Pivot Table’s data range.
You can apply filters within the Pivot Table (like the “Top 10 Filter,” which can be configured for any number, not just 10) to refine the data before creating a chart, especially when you have a large number of categories that would make a chart unreadable.
Interactivity and Updating:
Slicers, which are interactive filters, can be inserted from the Pivot Chart Analyze tab and are connected to Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts using Report Connections (also called Filter Connections). This allows users to filter the dashboard data by clicking buttons. Naming your Pivot Tables and charts correctly is important for easily selecting which ones a slicer should control.
If your source data is in a table and new data is added, the Pivot Table’s source range will update automatically. To update the dashboard components (including Pivot Tables), you use the Refresh All button, typically found under the PivotChart Analyze tab. This is intended to provide a quick way to update the entire dashboard based on new data.
In summary, Pivot Tables in the context of this source are powerful tools for summarizing and manipulating large datasets. They serve as the foundation for creating the visualizations and summary statistics that populate an Excel dashboard, allowing for dynamic reporting and analysis. Effective use of Pivot Tables involves careful data organization, understanding how to summarize and filter data within them, and properly linking them to charts and slicers for interactivity and dynamic updates.
Creating and Using Excel Pivot Charts
Based on the source provided, Pivot Charts are a fundamental element in creating interactive dashboards in Excel, specifically designed to visually represent the summarized data from Pivot Tables. The dashboard demonstrated in the source is described as being “pretty heavy on pivot tables and charts”.
Here’s a discussion of Pivot Charts based on the source:
Purpose and Connection to Pivot Tables: Pivot Charts serve to display important data and key metrics from your raw source data in a visual format on a dashboard. They are inherently linked to Pivot Tables; you create a Pivot Chart directly from an existing Pivot Table. Visualizing data through charts is highlighted as a way to “get across the story of your data” and highlight “pain points”.
Creation Process: Once you have created a Pivot Table populated with the data you want to visualize, you create a Pivot Chart by clicking within the Pivot Table, navigating to the “Pivot Table Analyze” ribbon, and selecting “Pivot Chart”. From there, you can choose the desired chart type.
Types of Pivot Charts Demonstrated: The source demonstrates creating four specific types of pivot charts for the dashboard:
A Line Chart, used to show total profit by year. Line charts are noted as often suitable for “time based data”.
A Map Chart, intended to show average unit sold by country.
A Bar Chart, used to display revenue by sales channel and item type.
A Donut Chart, created to show the count of orders by region. Donut charts (and pie charts) are generally suggested as “good for when you have maybe two or three things” to represent, as more data can make them confusing. Column charts are mentioned as generally suitable for most data.
Suitability of Chart Types: The source emphasizes that “not all charts are created equally” and some are “more suited to certain types of data”. For example, while a map chart works well for visualizing data across many countries, a column chart with that much data would be “absolutely horrendous and nobody would be able to read it”.
Limitations and Workarounds (Map Charts): A significant point raised is that you cannot create a Map chart directly from data inside a Pivot Table. The workaround involves copying the data out of the pivot table (pasting values only), creating a regular Map chart from this copied data, and then importantly, pointing the chart’s data source back to the Pivot Table data range using the “Select Data” option on the “Chart Design” ribbon. This ensures the chart updates when the pivot table data changes.
Formatting and Customization: Pivot Charts offer various formatting options to enhance their appearance and readability on the dashboard:
Hiding “gray filter buttons” (field buttons on chart) to make the chart look cleaner.
Removing the legend if it doesn’t add valuable information.
Adding or modifying chart titles.
Changing chart colors and styles.
Formatting axes (e.g., changing bounds to adjust the visual range).
Formatting the data series (e.g., changing bar width, varying bar colors by point, adjusting donut hole size).
Adding and formatting data labels (e.g., position, color, boldness), sometimes used instead of displaying values on an axis.
Deleting grid lines within the chart area.
Adding a border around the chart’s data series (e.g., bars).
On the dashboard itself, removing the default chart borders helps charts blend into the background.
Using custom headings added with shapes on the dashboard instead of the chart’s built-in title allows for consistent formatting across the dashboard.
Efficiency in Creation: When creating multiple pivot charts, copying the worksheet containing an existing pivot table and chart, then deleting the chart and modifying the pivot table, is suggested as a quicker method than creating each one from scratch from the source data.
Interactivity with Slicers: Pivot Charts are designed to work interactively with Slicers. Slicers act as visual filters that allow users to dynamically change the data displayed in the chart by clicking buttons. To connect a Slicer to specific Pivot Charts (or their underlying Pivot Tables), you must use the “Report Connections” (or “Filter Connections”) setting found by right-clicking the slicer. Properly naming your Pivot Charts and Pivot Tables helps in identifying them when establishing these connections. If connections aren’t made, a slicer may only control the first chart it’s associated with.
Updating: Once the source data is updated (ideally in a table format), the Pivot Charts can be updated automatically by refreshing the linked Pivot Tables. This is done using the “Refresh All” button, typically found under the “Pivot Chart Analyze” tab. The goal is a “one-button update” for the entire dashboard.
In essence, Pivot Charts translate the powerful data summarization capabilities of Pivot Tables into visual insights, forming the central graphical components of interactive Excel dashboards, while requiring careful handling, especially with chart types like maps.
Visualizing Data in Excel Dashboards
Based on the source provided, Data Visualization is presented as a key trend and a fundamental aspect of analyzing and presenting data effectively, particularly in the context of building interactive dashboards in Excel.
Here’s a discussion of Data Visualization based on the source:
Purpose of Data Visualization: The popularity of analyzing and extracting data, and presenting key metrics is rising, with a focus on doing so “in a much more visual way than we ever have done before”. The goal is to “really get across the story of your data” and highlight “pain points” to the audience. Dashboards themselves serve to “display important data or information in a single place so that your audience can easily see key metrics or statistics that are important to them”.
Methods of Visualization: Data is presented visually “using charts using color”.
Role in Dashboards: Data visualization, particularly through charts and pivot charts, is a central component of the dashboard creation process discussed. The dashboard built in the source is described as “pretty heavy on pivot tables and charts”. These visualizations allow users to quickly see key metrics and statistics.
Specific Chart Types: The source demonstrates creating several types of charts for the dashboard, all linked to underlying pivot tables:
A Line Chart to show total profit by year.
A Map Chart to show average units sold by country.
A Bar Chart to display revenue by sales channel and item type.
A Donut Chart to show the count of orders by region.
Column charts are mentioned as generally suitable for most data.
Chart Suitability: The source emphasizes that “not all charts are created equally” and some are “more suited to certain types of data”. For instance, a map chart is good for geographical data across many countries, whereas a column chart with that much data would be “absolutely horrendous and nobody would be able to read it”. Donut and pie charts are suggested as “generally good for when you have maybe two or three things that you want to kind of represent”.
Using Color: Color is used as part of visualizing data. It can also be used for design purposes on the dashboard and to help organize tabs in the workbook. Using company branding colors is also suggested for consistency.
In essence, Data Visualization, primarily through the use of charts derived from summarized data (often via Pivot Tables), is presented as a crucial technique for making data analysis accessible, insightful, and actionable within the context of Excel dashboards. It’s about transforming raw data into visual elements that tell a clear story and highlight important information for the audience.
Excel Dashboard Data Organization Principles
Based on the provided source, Data Organization is highlighted as a crucial element when building interactive dashboards in Excel, particularly because dashboards can become quite complex with potentially “lots and lots of different tabs”. Effective organization helps manage this complexity and ensures the dashboard functions correctly and updates easily.
Here are the key aspects of Data Organization discussed in the source:
Starting with Clean Data: The source emphasizes that the raw data used for the dashboard should be “nice and tidy” and “consistent”. Data downloaded from third-party systems or websites may not be in the perfect format and might require cleaning using Excel functions. While the source doesn’t detail cleaning methods, it mentions that a previous webinar covered these techniques.
Using Excel Tables for Source Data: A “really important point” for organization and dashboard functionality is to put your Source data in a table. If your data is in a table, it allows your dashboard to “update with the click of one button” when new data is added. You can check if data is in a table by looking for the “Table Design” ribbon when clicked inside the data, and you can convert data to a table using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + T.
Standardizing Naming Conventions: It is “really important” to name your table and standardize your naming conventions for different elements. This means using prefixes like TBL_ for tables, CHT_ for charts, and PVT_ for pivot tables, followed by a descriptive name (e.g., TBL_sales_data). This standardized naming makes it “easier to identify the different elements in your dashboard”, which is particularly helpful when linking elements like tables and charts to slicers.
Organizing Worksheets/Tabs: With potentially many components (source data, extra data, wireframe, calculations, pivot tables, charts, dashboard), organizing your tabs is essential. The source recommends putting each pivot table and pivot chart on a new worksheet to avoid confusion. Furthermore, using color-coded tabs helps separate different groups of worksheets, such as data tabs, calculation tabs, and chart tabs, making it “easier for me to organize all of these different tabs”.
Separating Calculations: Calculations used for key metrics displayed on the dashboard (like most profitable item or region, count of cancelled orders) are housed on a dedicated “calculations worksheet”. These calculations link back to the source data, ensuring they update when the source data changes.
Handling Data Extraction for Specific Charts: For certain chart types, like Map charts, you cannot create them directly from Pivot Table data. The workaround involves copying the data out of the pivot table and pasting it as “values only” onto a separate range. While this extracted data isn’t automatically linked, the chart created from it is then pointed back to the original Pivot Table data range using the “Select Data” option.
In summary, effective data organization in Excel dashboards, as described in the source, involves ensuring source data is clean and in a Table format, adopting standardized naming conventions for key elements, strategically organizing components onto separate, color-coded worksheets, and managing calculations and specific chart data appropriately. This structured approach helps maintain clarity and enables the desired interactivity and easy updating of the dashboard.
Building Dashboards in Excel: A Guide
Microsoft Excel Dashboards: A Study Guide
I. Introduction to Dashboards in Excel
What is a Dashboard?A report that displays important data and information in a single place for easy understanding of key metrics and statistics.
Designed to answer specific questions for a target audience.
Often incorporates visual elements like charts and color to tell the story of the data.
Excel vs. Power BIPower BI is a dedicated application for creating reports and dashboards, often considered the “latest buzzword” in data analysis. It is a paid product outside the Microsoft 365 subscription.
Excel is a familiar and widely used application. Many prefer it for dashboard creation due to its cost (often included in existing subscriptions), user comfort, and perceived flexibility in design and layout.
Purpose of Dashboards:Visualize data and highlight key metrics.
Identify pain points or areas of interest.
Present data in a more visual and digestible way than raw data or traditional reports.
Enable informed decision-making.
II. Building a Dashboard: The Process
Agenda for the Session:Introduction to dashboards.
Viewing a completed example.
Data preparation and organization.
Creating a wireframe (planning the layout).
Setting up information using pivot tables and charts.
Incorporating calculations with formulas.
Assembling the dashboard.
Basic formatting.
Adding interactivity with slicers.
Updating the dashboard.
Example Dashboard Components:Title
Key statistics/metrics (displayed as “cards” or highlighted areas).
Inspiration and Design:Look at examples from others (e.g., Pinterest) for ideas on structure and design.
Consider company branding and theme colors.
Use color to separate and organize different groups of information (e.g., colored tabs for data, wireframe, calculations, dashboard).
Remove gridlines on the dashboard sheet for a cleaner look.
III. Data Preparation and Organization
Source Data:Use a clean and consistent data set. Data may need cleaning using Excel functions before analysis.
Ensure the data is in an Excel Table. This is crucial for automatic updating when new data is added.
To put data in a table: Select data and press Ctrl + T.
Naming Conventions:Standardize naming for different Excel elements (tables, charts, pivot tables).
Prefixes like TBL_ for tables, CHT_ for charts, and PVT_ for pivot tables help with identification.
Proper naming makes it easier to link elements (e.g., connecting slicers to charts).
IV. Planning the Dashboard: The Wireframe
Purpose: To plan the layout and content of the dashboard before beginning the building process.
Process:Determine the key metrics and information to be displayed.
Sketch out the desired arrangement of elements (title, key statistics, charts, slicers).
Can be done on paper or using shapes in an Excel tab.
V. Setting Up Information: Pivot Tables and Charts
Creating Pivot Tables:Start with your data in a table.
Go to Insert > PivotTable.
Choose your table range (automatically selected if clicked within the table).
Create the pivot table on a new worksheet for organization.
Rename the pivot table worksheet and the pivot table itself using standardized naming conventions (e.g., PVT_line, PVT_line_chart_effect).
Build the pivot table by dragging fields into the Rows, Columns, Values, and Filters areas.
Example Pivot Tables:Profit by Year (Order Date in Rows, Total Profit in Values).
Average Unit Sold by Country (Country in Rows, Unit Sold in Values, change summary function to Average).
Revenue by Sales Channel and Item Type (Sales Channel and Item Type in Rows, Total Revenue in Values).
Count of Orders by Region (Region in Rows, Order ID in Values, change summary function to Count).
Pivot Table Settings:Automatically splits date fields (Years, Quarters, Dates). Can remove unwanted levels.
Change the summary function (Sum, Count, Average, etc.) using Value Field Settings.
Apply number formatting to values.
Turn off Grand Totals if not needed for charting.
Creating Pivot Charts:Click inside the pivot table.
Go to PivotTable Analyze > PivotChart.
Choose the appropriate chart type for the data.
Line Chart: Good for time-based data.
Map Chart: Good for geographical data.
Bar Chart: Suitable for most data, but be cautious with too many categories.
Donut Chart: Limited to a few categories; shows parts of a whole.
Map Chart Consideration: Cannot create a Map Chart directly from a pivot table. Need to copy and paste the pivot table data as values, create a regular map chart from that, and then point the chart’s data source back to the pivot table range.
Chart Formatting:Remove gray filter buttons (right-click, Hide All Field Buttons on Chart).
Remove unnecessary legends.
Add a chart title (can be replaced later on the dashboard).
Change colors and chart style using the Design tab.
Format data series (e.g., gap width for bar charts, donut hole size).
Add and format data labels.
Delete gridlines.
Remove chart borders on the dashboard for a cohesive look.
Copying Worksheets: Hold down Ctrl and drag a worksheet tab to create a copy, saving time when creating multiple similar pivot tables/charts.
VI. Incorporating Calculations with Formulas
Purpose: To display specific key metrics as individual values on the dashboard.
Process:Create a separate worksheet for calculations.
Use Excel formulas to extract and calculate the desired metrics from the source data.
Example Formulas:UNIQUE: To get a list of unique values from a column.
SUMIF: To sum values based on a condition.
COUNTIF: To count entries based on a condition.
MAX: To find the maximum value in a range.
INDEX and MATCH (or XLOOKUP in newer versions): To perform lookups and return corresponding values based on a condition (e.g., finding the item type associated with the maximum profit).
Link the results of these calculations to the dashboard.
VII. Assembling and Formatting the Dashboard
Bringing Elements Together:Copy and paste pivot charts from their respective worksheets onto the dashboard sheet.
Arrange charts according to the wireframe plan.
Link key metric “cards” (shapes) to the cells containing the calculation results on the calculations sheet using the formula bar (=).
Apply basic formatting to the dashboard elements (colors, fonts, alignment).
Consider adding text boxes or shapes for consistent headings instead of relying on chart titles.
VIII. Adding Interactivity with Slicers
What are Slicers? Interactive filters that allow users to easily filter the data displayed on the dashboard by clicking on buttons.
Inserting Slicers:Click on a chart connected to a pivot table.
Go to PivotChart Analyze > Insert Slicer.
Choose the fields you want to use for filtering (e.g., Sales Channel, Order Priority).
Formatting Slicers:Use the Slicer contextual ribbon to change the number of columns.
Right-click the slicer and go to Slicer Settings to deselect “Display header” for a cleaner look.
Modify the Slicer Style to change colors and remove the white background to blend with the dashboard design.
Connecting Slicers to Charts:By default, a slicer inserted from a chart only controls that specific chart.
Right-click the slicer and go to Report Connections (or Filter Connections).
Select the checkboxes for all the pivot tables (and consequently their linked charts) that you want the slicer to control. Ensure pivot tables are named correctly to easily identify them.
IX. Updating the Dashboard
Requirement: Source data must be in an Excel Table.
Process:Add new data to the bottom of the existing data within the source data table. Excel Tables automatically expand to include new data.
Go to the dashboard or any pivot table.
Go to PivotTable Analyze > Refresh (or Refresh All).
The dashboard, including pivot tables, charts, and linked calculations, should update automatically to reflect the new data.
Quiz (Short Answer)
Answer each question in 2-3 sentences.
What is the primary purpose of creating a dashboard in Excel?
Why might someone choose to create a dashboard in Excel instead of Power BI?
What is a wireframe in the context of dashboard design?
Why is it important for your source data to be in an Excel Table for dashboard creation?
Suggest a standardized naming convention for an Excel Table containing sales data.
What is the advantage of creating each pivot table for a dashboard on a separate worksheet?
Describe a scenario where a Map Chart might be a suitable visualization for your data.
What workaround is necessary to create a Map Chart using data from a pivot table in Excel?
How do you link a shape on your dashboard to a calculation result on a separate worksheet?
What is a slicer and how does it enhance the interactivity of a dashboard?
Answer Key (Quiz)
A dashboard in Excel helps to display important data and key metrics in a single, visually appealing place. This allows users to easily understand information and can aid in decision-making by highlighting trends or pain points.
Users might choose Excel over Power BI because Excel is often more familiar and comfortable to work with. It is also generally included in a Microsoft 365 subscription, avoiding the additional cost of Power BI.
A wireframe is a plan or sketch of how the dashboard will be laid out. It helps organize thoughts about which information to include and where different elements like charts and slicers will be positioned before starting the building process.
Having source data in an Excel Table is crucial because tables automatically expand when new data is added. This allows the dashboard to be easily updated by simply adding new data and refreshing the pivot tables.
A standardized naming convention for an Excel Table containing sales data could be TBL_Sales_Data. This prefix indicates it’s a table, and the rest of the name describes its content.
Creating each pivot table on a new worksheet helps to keep the workbook organized, especially for complex dashboards with many components. It prevents pivot tables from getting mixed up with the source data or other elements.
A Map Chart is suitable for visualizing geographical data, such as sales performance by country or region. It uses color gradients on a map to quickly show variations across different locations.
To use pivot table data for a Map Chart, you must first copy the data from the pivot table and paste it as values onto a new range. Then, create a regular Map Chart from this copied data and finally, update the chart’s data source to point back to the original pivot table range.
To link a shape on your dashboard to a calculation result, select the shape, then go to the formula bar. Type an equals sign (=), navigate to the worksheet containing the calculation, click the cell with the result, and press Enter.
A slicer is an interactive filter that appears as a set of buttons. Clicking on a button in a slicer filters the connected charts and data on the dashboard, allowing users to easily explore different segments of the data.
Essay Format Questions
Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of using Excel versus Power BI for creating interactive data dashboards, considering factors like cost, user familiarity, design flexibility, and updating capabilities based on the provided text.
Discuss the importance of data preparation, organization, and standardized naming conventions in the process of building a complex Excel dashboard. Explain how these steps contribute to efficiency, maintainability, and the functionality of interactive features like slicers and automatic updates.
Elaborate on the role of the wireframe in the dashboard design process. Explain how planning the layout beforehand can impact the effectiveness and clarity of the final dashboard, including considerations like the target audience’s needs and the selection of appropriate chart types.
Describe the different types of pivot charts demonstrated in the source material and explain for each type the kind of data it is best suited to visualize. Include a discussion of any specific challenges or workarounds mentioned for creating these charts from pivot table data in Excel.
Analyze how calculations using formulas, such as SUMIF, COUNTIF, UNIQUE, MAX, INDEX, and MATCH, are integrated into the dashboard process. Explain how creating a separate calculations worksheet and linking these results to the dashboard contributes to its dynamism and usefulness.
Glossary of Key Terms
Dashboard: A report that displays important data and information in a single place, often using visualizations, to provide an overview of key metrics and statistics.
Power BI: A separate Microsoft application designed specifically for creating reports and dashboards, often used for data analysis and visualization.
Microsoft 365: A subscription service from Microsoft that includes various applications like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint; Power BI is not typically included.
Key Metrics: Important data points or statistics that are central to understanding performance or trends.
Pain Points: Areas or issues highlighted by the data that require attention or investigation.
Wireframe: A preliminary sketch or plan of the layout and content of a dashboard.
Pivot Table: A tool in Excel used to summarize, analyze, explore, and present summary data from a larger data set.
Pivot Chart: A chart that is linked to a pivot table and visually represents the summary data from the pivot table.
Line Chart: A chart type often used to display data over time or in a continuous sequence.
Map Chart: A chart type that uses geographical regions (like countries or states) and shades them based on data values.
Bar Chart: A chart type that uses rectangular bars to represent data values, often used for comparing categories.
Donut Chart: A chart type similar to a pie chart, showing parts of a whole, with a hole in the center.
Calculations Worksheet: A separate sheet in a workbook dedicated to performing formulas and calculations that are then used on the dashboard.
UNIQUE function: An Excel function that returns a unique list of values from a range.
SUMIF function: An Excel function that sums values in a range that meet a specified criterion.
COUNTIF function: An Excel function that counts the number of cells within a range that meet a specified criterion.
MAX function: An Excel function that returns the largest value in a set of values.
INDEX function: An Excel function that returns a value or the reference to a value from within a table or range.
MATCH function: An Excel function that searches for a specified item in a range of cells, and then returns the relative position of that item in the range.
Lookup (using INDEX and MATCH or XLOOKUP): A method of finding and returning a value from a table based on a matching criterion.
Slicer: An interactive visual filter that allows users to easily filter data in pivot tables and pivot charts by clicking on buttons representing different categories.
Report Connections (Filter Connections): A setting for slicers that determines which pivot tables and charts the slicer will control.
Excel Table: A structured range of data in Excel that has specific features, including automatic expansion when new data is added, which is beneficial for dynamic dashboards.
Number Formatting: Applying specific display formats to numbers (e.g., currency, percentage, reducing decimal places) to improve readability.
Standardized Naming Conventions: Using a consistent system for naming different elements within an Excel workbook (e.g., tables, charts, sheets) for better organization and ease of reference.
Data Labels: Values displayed directly on a chart element (like a bar or point on a line) to show the exact data value.
Gap Width: A formatting option for bar charts that controls the spacing between the bars in a data series.
Donut Hole Size: A formatting option for donut charts that controls the size of the central hole.
Refresh (Refresh All): A command used to update pivot tables and connected charts and elements when the source
Briefing Document: Interactive Dashboards in Excel
Subject: Review of key concepts and practical steps for building interactive dashboards in Microsoft Excel, covering the advantages of Excel over Power BI, data preparation, planning (wireframing), creating pivot tables and charts, incorporating calculations, and adding interactivity with slicers.
Summary:
This briefing document summarizes the key takeaways from a webinar on building interactive dashboards in Excel. The session, led by IT trainer Deborah Ashby, highlights the increasing popularity of visualizing data and the benefits of using Excel for dashboard creation compared to Power BI, primarily due to cost and familiarity. The core of the webinar focuses on the practical steps involved, including data preparation, using pivot tables and charts (line, map, bar, and donut), integrating calculations using formulas, and making the dashboard interactive with slicers. The importance of planning (wireframing) and standardized naming conventions is also emphasized. While a final demonstration of refreshing the dashboard with new data encountered a technical issue, the overall process and key concepts for creating dynamic Excel dashboards were clearly outlined.
Main Themes and Important Ideas/Facts:
Rising Popularity of Data Visualization: The trainer notes a significant increase in the trend of analyzing and presenting data visually using charts and colors to convey insights and highlight pain points. “One thing that I’ve definitely noticed over the last few years is the R in popularity of analyzing data extracting data and presenting key metrics highlighting pain points in a much more visual way than we ever have done before so we present our data using charts using color so that we can really get across the story of our data.”
Excel vs. Power BI for Dashboards:Power BI: Described as the “latest buzzword” for data analysis and visualization, used for creating “really nice looking reports and dashboards and visualizations.” However, it is an additional cost and “does kind of live outside of the Microsoft 365 family.”
Excel: A popular alternative for creating dashboards due to its familiarity (“most of us use Excel or have used excel at some point or another”) and cost-effectiveness. The trainer also personally finds Excel “a little bit more flexible than powerbi particularly when when it comes to dashboard design and getting my dashboard to kind of look exactly as I want it to look.”
What is a Dashboard?: A dashboard is defined as a report that displays “important data or information in a single place so that your audience can easily see key metrics or statistics that are important to them.”
Audience-Centric Design: A crucial aspect of dashboard design is considering the audience and the questions the dashboard aims to answer. “One thing that is really important when you’re designing dashboards you need to think to yourself what questions am I trying to answer with this dashboard what do people want to know what does my audience want to know.”
Planning (Wireframing): Creating a wireframe before starting the dashboard design is highly recommended. This involves noting the desired metrics and planning the layout and placement of charts, slicers, and other elements. The trainer demonstrates using shapes in an Excel tab as a wireframe. “It is a good idea to kind of have a plan as to what you want to go onto your dashboard before you even begin.”
Data Preparation and Organization:Clean Data: Having clean and consistent source data is essential. While not covered in this session (referencing a previous webinar), it’s acknowledged as a necessary first step.
Data in a Table: Putting the source data into an Excel Table is “a really important point if you want your dashboard to update with the click of one button.” This allows the table to automatically expand when new data is added.
Standardized Naming Conventions: Naming elements like tables, charts, and pivot tables using a consistent system (e.g., TBL_, CHT_, PVT_) is vital for organization and ease of use, especially when linking elements to slicers. “It’s so important to have like a standard nameing convention so it’s easy to identify the different elements in your dashboard is because it’s going to make your life a lot easier when we start having to link our tables and our charts to things like slices.”
Using Color for Organization: Employing color coding for different types of tabs (data, wireframe, charts, calculations, dashboard) can significantly improve organization, especially in complex workbooks.
Key Components of the Dashboard (as demonstrated):Title: A clear heading for the dashboard.
Summary Statistics/Cards: Displaying key metrics (e.g., most profitable item, number of cancelled orders) at the top of the dashboard. These are often derived from calculations performed on a separate sheet.
Charts: Visual representations of data. The webinar demonstrates creating:
Line Chart: Used to show “total profit by year,” suitable for time-based data.
Map Chart: Used to show “average unit sold by country,” suitable for geographical data. Important Note: Map charts cannot be created directly from pivot table data and require copying and pasting values before creating the chart and then re-pointing the chart’s data source back to the pivot table. “You can’t create this chart type with data inside a pivot table… you have to pull it out of the pivot table first of all.”
Bar Chart: Used to show “revenue by sales channel and item type.” Suitable for comparing categories. The trainer advises using filters (e.g., Top 3) for large datasets to avoid overcrowded charts.
Donut Chart: Used to show the “count of orders by region.” The trainer expresses a preference for other chart types for more than a few categories.
Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts: The dashboard heavily relies on pivot tables as the source for the charts. Each pivot table and chart is ideally placed on its own sheet for clarity and organization.
Calculations: Demonstrates using Excel formulas like UNIQUE, SUMIF, MAX, INDEX, MATCH, and COUNTIF on a separate sheet to derive key metrics for the summary statistics displayed on the dashboard. These calculations are linked to the source data to ensure dynamic updates.
Formatting: Basic formatting techniques are discussed, including removing grid lines, adding shape outlines, and customizing data labels and axis. The use of company branding colors is also mentioned.
Interactivity with Slicers: Slicers are described as “interactive filters” that allow users to easily filter the data displayed on the dashboard. They can be customized in appearance.
Report Connections: Slicers need to be connected to the specific charts they are intended to control. This is done via the “Report Connections” (or “Filter Connections”) option, emphasizing the importance of naming charts correctly to easily identify them.
Updating the Dashboard: The intended workflow for updating a dashboard involves adding new data to the source table (which auto-expands) and then using the “Refresh All” button on the “Pivot Chart Analyze” tab. A technical issue prevented a successful demonstration of this step in the webinar, but the principle was explained. “If you have your data in a table when you build your dashboard if you add data into the bottom the dashboard can be updated simply by clicking on refresh and everything will pull through nicely.”
Key Quotes:
“Dashboards can get really complex and you might find yourself with lots and lots of different tabs so we want to try and organize that as best as we can.”
“It’s always good to sort of go away and take a look at what other people are doing… sites like Pinterest just to give yourself some inspiration.”
“If you want your dashboard to update with the click of one button you want to make sure that you put your Source data in a table.”
“The reason why it’s so important to have like a standard nameing convention… is because it’s going to make your life a lot easier when we start having to link our tables and our charts to things like slices.”
“You have to think to yourself okay how am I going to design my dashboard so before you even begin you want to make sure that you make a note of exactly what you want to display on that dashboard.”
“When you’re putting together a dashboard you want it to kind of look as clean and professional as possible.”
“When you’re um creating charts not all charts are created equally some charts are more suited to certain types of data.”
“If you have time based data like we do here 2015 to 2022 that’s often nicely represented in the form of a line chart.”
“You can’t create this chart type with data inside a pivot table and that’s really important if you want to use pivot table data in a map chart you have to pull it out of the pivot table first of all.”
“If you do have a lot of data and you’re trying to cram it into a certain chart type one little thing I would say to do is maybe start applying a filter to just show the top three or the top five.”
“Pie charts and donut charts in general are not my favorite types of chart they’re quite limited with how much data you can actually display in them.”
“Because of the way I’ve constructed this [calculations] and everything links back to that Source data if anything changes it’s going to feed through to my calculations worksheet which is in turn going to feed through to my dashboard.”
“Slicers just act as little filters which we can click on and it changes what’s displayed on our dashboard.”
“With these slices they will not be connected to all of your charts… we need to right click on the slicer and Report connections.”
Conclusion:
The webinar provides a comprehensive introduction to building interactive dashboards in Excel, emphasizing planning, data organization, utilizing pivot tables and charts, incorporating calculations for key metrics, and adding dynamic filtering with slicers. Despite a minor technical issue with the final refresh demonstration, the session successfully conveyed the fundamental principles and practical steps required to create visually engaging and informative dashboards in Excel. The trainer’s insights on comparing Excel to Power BI, the importance of naming conventions, and the utility of wireframing are particularly valuable.
What is an interactive dashboard in Excel?
An interactive dashboard in Excel is a single-page report that helps you display important data and information visually using elements like charts, tables, and key metrics. The goal is to present crucial statistics in one place for easy audience understanding. A key feature is interactivity, often achieved through elements like slicers, allowing users to filter and explore the data presented on the dashboard dynamically.
Why are dashboards useful, particularly in Excel?
Dashboards are useful for visually highlighting key metrics and pain points within data, telling a story with the numbers. They allow audiences to quickly grasp important information without sifting through raw data. While dedicated tools like Power BI exist, many prefer Excel due to its familiarity, cost-effectiveness (often included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions), and perceived flexibility in design.
What are some key steps involved in building an Excel dashboard?
Building an Excel dashboard involves several key steps. Initially, it’s crucial to prepare and organize your data, ensuring it’s clean and structured, ideally in an Excel table for easy updates. Planning is also vital, often done through creating a wireframe or sketch to outline the desired layout and content. The process then involves creating components like pivot tables and charts from your source data, assembling them onto the dashboard sheet, formatting for clarity and visual appeal, adding interactive elements like slicers, and finally, connecting these elements to ensure the dashboard updates with new data.
How does data preparation impact the creation of an effective dashboard?
Proper data preparation is fundamental to creating an effective dashboard. The source data should be clean, consistent, and ideally structured in an Excel table. Using a table allows the dashboard to update automatically when new data is added. Without clean and well-organized data, building accurate pivot tables and charts, and ensuring the dashboard functions dynamically, becomes significantly more challenging.
What is the importance of naming conventions and organization in Excel for dashboards?
Standardizing naming conventions for tables, charts, and other elements is crucial for organization, especially as dashboards can become complex with numerous components and worksheets. Using prefixes like TBL for tables, CHT for charts, and PVT for pivot tables helps in easily identifying and referencing these elements. This organization is particularly helpful when linking different parts of the dashboard, such as connecting slicers to specific charts.
What role does a wireframe play in dashboard design?
A wireframe serves as a planning tool before you start building the dashboard in Excel. It involves sketching out the layout and deciding where different elements like the title, summary statistics, slicers, and charts will be placed. This planning stage helps to ensure that the dashboard is designed in a logical and user-friendly way, preventing unnecessary rework during the creation process.
How are calculations and key metrics displayed on an Excel dashboard?
Key metrics and top-level statistics that aren’t best represented by charts can be displayed using linked cells or formulas on the dashboard. Calculations, such as finding the most profitable item or counting canceled orders, are often performed on a separate worksheet using formulas like UNIQUE, SUMIF, COUNTIF, MAX, INDEX, and MATCH. The results of these calculations are then linked to shapes or text boxes on the dashboard using cell references in the formula bar, ensuring they update automatically when the source data changes.
How do slicers provide interactivity in an Excel dashboard?
Slicers are interactive filtering tools that can be added to an Excel dashboard. They act as visual buttons that, when clicked, filter the data displayed in the connected pivot tables and charts. To connect a slicer to multiple charts, you need to use the “Report Connections” feature (or “Filter Connections” in newer versions) by right-clicking on the slicer. This allows users to easily explore different subsets of the data by simply clicking on the desired filter options within the slicer.
Interactive Dashboards in Excel: Microsoft Excel Crash Course
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These sources offer an extensive exploration of data analysis and PowerBI, focusing on the role of a data analyst and the process of transforming raw data into valuable insights. They cover essential concepts like data sourcing, cleaning, modeling, and visualization, emphasizing the importance of effective communication of findings. The texts also introduce advanced topics such as DAX calculations, performance optimization, and the integration of PowerBI within a larger enterprise data flow, highlighting the potential of data to drive strategic business decisions. Furthermore, they touch upon the application of generative AI in data analysis and provide guidance on preparing for the Microsoft PL-300 certification exam, offering real-world scenarios and career insights through examples of aspiring data analysts.
Foundations of Data Analysis
Data analysis is a multifaceted process crucial for turning raw data into meaningful insights and informed decisions for businesses and organizations . It involves identifying, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data to discover meaningful and useful information. Data analysts use various techniques to explore, interpret, and draw meaningful conclusions from processed data “.
The Importance of Data Analysis
Data is an essential business component, but raw data is only meaningful after proper interpretation and analysis . **Data analysts are crucial because they help organizations make sense of the vast amounts of collected data, turning it into insights that inform decisions**. This analytical work helps businesses identify growth opportunities, improve operations, gain a competitive advantage , identify the cause of problems, uncover trends, and make decisions that can improve business performance. Ultimately, data analysis drives strategic decision-making and can significantly impact an organization’s success “.
The Data Analysis Process
The data analysis process typically involves several interconnected stages “:
Identifying the analysis purpose or defining the business problem: This is the foundational step, determining what you aim to achieve or the questions you need to answer with the analysis . Gathering the right data is fundamental to ensure the analysis is relevant and useful, and understanding the purpose informs the type and scope of data needed. Consulting with stakeholders is key to determining the purpose “.
Data Collection and Preparation: Data is gathered from various sources . This raw data is often unorganized and may have missing values or inconsistencies. Data preparation involves cleaning, standardizing, organizing, and transforming the data into a usable format for analysis . The Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process is a common method for processing data, involving extracting data from sources, transforming it to make it consistent and ready for analysis, and loading it to a suitable destination. Data wrangling is another term for this process of processing, cleaning, and transforming data “.
Data Processing and Modeling: Processing transforms raw data . Data modeling organizes data to make sense of the information and generate insights. This can involve understanding basic concepts, using tools like DAX to create calculations, and optimizing model performance . Common data schemas include star and snowflake schemas, which organize data into fact and dimension tables.
Data Analysis, Visualization, and Interpretation: This stage involves exploring processed data and generating insights . Data analysis uses various techniques to explore, interpret, and draw meaningful conclusions from the processed data. Analytical techniques include statistical analysis, hypothesis testing, and identifying patterns, trends, and relationships . Data visualization is a powerful tool used to communicate these insights. Visualizations (like charts and graphs) transform complex data into understandable representations, helping to spot patterns, anomalies, and trends at a glance . Interpretation involves understanding what the patterns and trends reveal.
Reporting and Sharing Data Insights: Insights are communicated to stakeholders through reports and dashboards . Dashboards consolidate critical information visually on one screen to achieve specific objectives. Sharing reports requires considering factors like accessibility, visual appeal, and security . Effective communication and storytelling are essential to convey findings responsibly and ethically.
Implementing Insights and Recommendations: Informed decisions are made based on the analyzed data, guiding actions and adjustments within the business to achieve objectives “.
This data flow process – collection, processing, analysis, and decision-making – is a fundamental concept in business “.
Roles in Data Analysis
The data analysis process involves various roles that collaborate to achieve datadriven success “:
Data Engineer: Designs and constructs data infrastructure, including pipelines, cleaning, pre-processing, and transforming raw data for analysts and scientists “.
Data Analyst: Examines data sets to identify trends, patterns, and insights . They use tools to visualize and present data, making it digestible for stakeholders, and work closely with teams to align analysis with business goals. The data analyst is often a central figure in the process “.
Data Scientist: Dives deeper into data, creating predictive models using machine learning and statistical techniques to identify hidden patterns and optimize decisions . They often collaborate with data analysts.
Database Administrator (DBA): Works on the maintenance, performance, and security of databases, ensuring data is stored efficiently and accessible “.
Data Architect: Creates the blueprint for data management systems, designing data models and strategies for storage, integration, and retrieval “.
Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst: Transforms data into actionable insights, focusing on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) using BI tools to visualize and present data to stakeholders and collaborating with business leaders to understand their goals “.
These roles are essential for providing organizations with the information they need for informed, data-driven decisions “.
Skills for Data Analysts
To succeed, data analysts require a mix of technical and non-technical skills “:
Technical Skills: Proficiency with tools like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerBI . Experience with programming languages such as R and Python is used for analysis and visualization. Understanding SQL (Structured Query Language) is vital for interacting with databases . Key technical activities include data wrangling (cleaning and transforming data), data modeling (organizing data for analysis) , creating calculations using languages like DAX, data visualization (creating charts and reports) , and using statistical functions. Other important technical skills mentioned include data profiling , managing data storage modes, creating aggregations , joining and merging data, grouping and binning data , and performance optimization.
Non-Technical (Soft) Skills: These are crucial for connecting with and influencing stakeholders . Essential skills include **effective communication** to present complex information clearly and concisely to various audiences, diplomacy for navigating disagreements and maintaining relationships , **understanding end-user needs** to tailor analysis and provide relevant insights, and being a technical interpreter to translate complex concepts for non-technical stakeholders . **Strategic thinking, awareness of impact, and understanding the business context** are also important. The ability to use data to tell a story or narrative is also highlighted “.
By developing these technical and non-technical skills, data analysts can collaborate effectively, create actionable insights, inspire change, and make lasting impacts “.
Tools and Techniques Used in Data Analysis
Data analysts utilize a range of tools and techniques “:
Software and Tools: Microsoft Excel is used for designing and managing spreadsheets and preparing data . **Microsoft PowerBI** is a powerful tool for processing, analyzing, and sharing data, known for its user-friendly interface, rich visualizations, and advanced analytics capabilities . The PowerBI workflow includes PowerBI Desktop, PowerBI Service, and PowerBI Apps. Power Query Editor within PowerBI is used for data preparation, cleaning, transformation, and ETL tasks . SQL Server and other databases are used for data storage. Programming languages like R and Python are used for data analysis and visualization “.
Techniques:ETL (Extract, Transform, Load): A fundamental process for preparing data “.
Data Wrangling/Cleaning/Transformation: Making raw data consistent and usable “.
Data Modeling: Organizing data into structured formats like star or snowflake schemas “.
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): A formula language used to create custom calculations and measures within data models “.
Calculations and Statistical Functions: Performing mathematical operations and applying functions like average, median, count, min, and max to data to reveal insights “.
Data Visualization: Creating graphical representations of data such as charts, graphs, scatter plots, bubble charts, dot plots, and tables to make complex information understandable . Interactive features like filtering, sorting, slicers, and bookmarks enhance visualizations.
Data Profiling: Examining data sets to evaluate accuracy, completeness, and statistical distribution . Tools analyze column quality, distribution, and profile statistics.
Grouping and Binning: Organizing data points into chosen groups or equal-sized segments “.
Clustering: Identifying similarities in data attributes to divide data into subsets or clusters “.
Time Series Analysis: Analyzing data in chronological order to identify trends “.
Performance Optimization: Modifying data models and reports to improve speed and efficiency, especially with large data volumes . Techniques include filtering, sorting, indexing, aggregation, and choosing appropriate storage modes. The Performance Analyzer tool helps diagnose issues “.
Data Storage and Management: Understanding different data types (structured, unstructured, semistructured) and appropriate storage solutions , as well as concepts like normalization and indexing in databases.
Connecting to Data Sources: Using methods like Import mode or Direct Query mode to bring data into tools like PowerBI “.
These tools and techniques empower data analysts to extract insights, support business intelligence, and facilitate data-driven decision-making . The sources frequently use the example of Adventure Works, a fictitious bicycle company, to illustrate how data analysis is applied in real-world business scenarios.
Mastering Microsoft PowerBI for Business Intelligence
Microsoft PowerBI is an interactive data visualization product and a comprehensive business analytics solution. It is considered an essential resource for many organizations across various industries.
Importance in Business
PowerBI plays a crucial role in helping businesses make sense of the vast amounts of collected data, transforming it into actionable insights that inform decisions. It enables organizations to harness the full potential of data to uncover insights, identify patterns, trends, and insights, and drive strategic decision-making. PowerBI supports data-driven decision-making and is vital for providing organizations with the information they need for informed decisions [Introduction]. For companies like Adventure Works, PowerBI is used to extract insights from large amounts of data.
Components and Workflow
Microsoft PowerBI has multiple components that work together. The main components are PowerBI Desktop, PowerBI Service, and PowerBI Apps. Other related components include PowerBI mobile, PowerBI report server, and PowerBI embedded.
PowerBI Desktop is a Windows-based application used by data analysts or report designers to clean, transform, and load data, create a data model, design reports, and publish them.
PowerBI Service is the cloud-based service (SaaS) part of PowerBI, used by report users and administrators. It offers advantages like accessibility, scalability, collaboration tools, and data backup and recovery features.
PowerBI Apps are the native mobile applications available on iOS, Android, and Windows. They allow access to insights on the go.
A typical workflow in PowerBI often starts with the creation of a report in PowerBI Desktop. Report designers and developers are primarily responsible for this task. When the report is ready, you publish it to the PowerBI service, where administrators can assign permissions and specific users can consume the report. You can also share reports with colleagues, your whole organization, or external stakeholders who need to draw insights. Insights are also communicated through dashboards, which consolidate critical information visually. PowerBI Service and PowerBI mobile can be used to view dashboards.
Key Capabilities and Features
PowerBI offers a wide range of features and capabilities for data analysis and business intelligence:
Data Connection and Preparation:
PowerBI supports a wide range of data sources, including traditional databases, Excel spreadsheets, cloud-based services, on-premise databases, external enterprise applications, and APIs. PowerBI connector is used to access these sources.
Data preparation is crucial for making raw data usable. This involves cleaning, standardizing, organizing, and transforming data.
The Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process is fundamental for preparing data in PowerBI. Power Query Editor in PowerBI is a tool used for data preparation, cleaning, transformation, and ETL tasks. Data wrangling is another term for processing, cleaning, and transforming data [Introduction, 1, Introduction].
Techniques include data profiling, joining and merging data [Introduction], and grouping and binning data to classify or segment data points.
Data Modeling:
Data modeling is creating visual representations of your data in PowerBI to organize it and make sense of the information. It involves understanding how different data elements interact and outlining the rules that influence these interactions.
PowerBI allows you to identify or create relationships between data elements. You can define relationships between tables and assign data types.
Common data schemas include star and snowflake schemas, which organize data into fact and dimension tables [Introduction, 7, 43].
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a powerful language used to create custom calculations, calculated measures, columns, and tables within data models. DAX is fundamental to data analysis in PowerBI.
Performance Optimization is important, especially with large data volumes. Techniques include modifying models, reports, queries, filtering, sorting, indexing, aggregation, and choosing appropriate storage modes. The Performance Analyzer tool helps diagnose issues.
Aggregations in PowerBI enable diving deeper into data without compromising speed and performance. They involve summarizing or consolidating large volumes of data into manageable summary tables.
Understanding different Data Storage Modes (Import, Direct Query, Dual, Composite) is vital as they determine where data is stored and how queries are sent. Import mode stores data in PowerBI’s in-memory storage, Direct Query keeps data in the source, and Dual mode can act as either. Composite mode allows combining different storage modes.
Creating Hierarchies (date, product, geographical) is a significant feature allowing analysis at different levels of granularity within the same visual using drill down.
Analysis Techniques:
PowerBI empowers you to transform raw data into meaningful insights through various advanced tools and functionalities.
Calculations are the foundation of data analysis in PowerBI and are created using DAX. Common calculations include aggregations and statistical functions like average, median, count, min, and max [Introduction, 21, 22, 23].
PowerBI offers analytics capabilities to add significant value to visualizations. This includes using statistical summary tools.
Identifying patterns, trends, and anomalies is crucial. Scatter charts can help identify outliers.
Time Series Analysis involves analyzing data in chronological order to identify trends. PowerBI supports time series forecasting to predict future trends.
Clustering identifies similarities in data attributes to divide data into subsets.
The Analyze feature automatically detects relationships and connections, providing automated insights. You can right-click on a data point to analyze fluctuations like increases or decreases.
PowerBI leverages AI capabilities and machine learning algorithms to provide insights. This includes AI visuals like Key Influencers and Decomposition Trees for understanding drivers behind outcomes, sentiment analysis, and key phrase extraction.
The Q&A feature is a natural language processing tool allowing users to ask questions about data in plain English and get answers as visuals. It learns and adapts over time.
Quick Insights automatically searches datasets to discover and visualize potential patterns, trends, and outliers using machine learning and statistical functions.
Dynamic reports can facilitate using What-If parameters for interactive adjustments and scenario analysis.
Metrics and Scorecards are critical for tracking progress towards specific objectives and providing a comprehensive view of performance.
Visualization:
Data visualization is a powerful tool for communicating insights. Visualizations transform complex data into understandable representations, helping to spot patterns, anomalies, and trends [Introduction, 11].
PowerBI offers a variety of built-in visualization types, such as bar charts, maps, tables, cards, multirow cards, gauges, KPI visual, scatter plots, bubble charts, and dot plots. Heat maps, tree maps, and 3D visualizations are also discussed for handling high-density data. Coropleth and shape maps are common map visuals.
Custom visuals can be imported from the PowerBI marketplace or created using Python or R.
Design principles are important for creating effective visualizations. This includes considering color theory, appropriate positioning and scale, maintaining cohesion and consistency, and avoiding clutter.
Accessibility is crucial in report design, including features like alt text, sufficient color contrast, keyboard navigation, and compatibility with screen readers. PowerBI has built-in tools to support this.
Visualizations can be interactive, allowing users to drill down, filter, and sort data.
Visual interactions determine how selecting data in one visual affects others. The primary types are filter (filters other visuals), highlight (dims non-selected data), and none (no interaction).
Slicers help users drill down to deeper insights and can be synchronized across report pages to improve user experience.
The Selection Pane helps manage report elements, allowing naming, grouping, and layering visuals. Bookmarks can also be used to create a smooth narrative.
PowerBI allows optimizing report layouts for mobile devices to ensure proper display on smaller screens.
Sharing and Collaboration:
Insights are communicated through reports and dashboards. Publishing reports to PowerBI Service makes them accessible and collaborative.
PowerBI Workspaces are specialized areas that hold assets like reports, dashboards, and datasets. They help organize assets, provide security, enable collaboration, and allow quick updates. There are personal and shared workspaces.
Workspace roles (viewer, contributor, member, admin) determine how individuals interact with content. Permissions can be managed.
You can share Workspace assets as an app, which can have multiple audience groups with tailored access.
Data security is important for safeguarding sensitive data. PowerBI offers authentication tools, sharing links with controlled permissions, sensitivity labels, and data permissions.
Row-Level Security (RLS) controls which individuals can view data based on predefined roles and rules, enhancing security and user experience.
You can promote and certify datasets to establish trust and standardize data quality, helping users find the most accurate data.
Data Gateways establish a secure connection between PowerBI cloud services and on-premises data sources. Types include on-premises data gateway (standard mode), on-premises data gateway personal mode, and Azure virtual network data gateway. They help sync data and keep datasets up to date via schedule refresh.
Subscriptions and Alerts provide automated delivery of data snapshots (emails/notifications) and notifications when specific conditions are met. They enhance user engagement and support real-time decision-making.
Overall, PowerBI transforms raw data into actionable intelligence, acting as a toolkit with mapping techniques and navigation support to help users cut through data noise and interpret patterns. It is a central tool in the data flow process within a business, moving from collection, processing, analysis, and decision-making.
PowerBI Data Transformation Explained
Data transformation is a fundamental process in Microsoft PowerBI, essential for preparing raw data for analysis and generating meaningful insights. It involves altering the structure, format, or values of data to make it suitable for analysis. This often includes cleaning, structuring, and enriching the data.
Why is Data Transformation Necessary?
Raw data, as collected from various sources, is often untidy, incomplete, inconsistent, scattered across different systems, or may have missing values or duplicate entries. Working with such data can lead to inaccurate or misleading analysis results and, consequently, poor business decisions. Data transformation addresses these issues by ensuring the data used for analysis is accurate, clean, consistent, and reliable. It standardizes data across multiple sources and organizes it to be more understandable.
Where Transformation Happens in PowerBI
Within PowerBI, data transformation is primarily handled by Power Query Editor. Power Query is a powerful ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool integrated into PowerBI Desktop. It provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for connecting to various data sources, cleaning data, and performing transformations with ease.
Key Data Transformation Techniques and Capabilities
Power Query Editor offers a range of tools and features for transforming data:
Data Cleaning: This involves identifying and correcting errors and inconsistencies. Techniques include removing duplicate entries, handling or filling in missing values (nulls), fixing incorrect data types, and standardizing formats (e.g., ensuring consistent spelling or capitalization). Filtering data is also a key cleaning method.
Structuring and Shaping Data: This prepares data for analysis. Operations include removing unwanted columns or rows, splitting or merging columns (e.g., combining first and last names into a full name), changing data types (e.g., text to numeric, date, or decimal), and sorting data. Promoting header rows is also a common shaping task. Grouping data allows manually dividing data points, while binning automatically separates data points into segments based on number or size.
Combining Data: It is common to need to combine data from multiple sources.
Append: Adds rows from one table to another. This is useful for consolidating data that has the same columns but spans across different files or databases (e.g., monthly sales files).
Merge: Consolidates data from multiple sources into a single table based on matching criteria or key columns, similar to joining tables in a database. This is used when data needs to be combined horizontally based on relationships between tables.
Reshaping Data Structures:Unpivot: Transforms data from a “wide” format (many columns) to a “narrow” format (fewer columns), often converting column headers into row values. This is useful for data normalization and making comparisons easier.
Pivot: Transforms data from a “narrow” format to a “wide” format, converting rows into columns based on specific values.
Adding Calculated Columns: Power Query allows adding new columns based on calculations performed on existing columns, such as calculating total price by multiplying quantity and unit price. DAX is used for calculations within the data model, but calculated columns can be created during the transformation stage in Power Query using its own formula language or features.
Query Management: Power Query’s Applied Steps list is a critical feature, visually representing every transformation applied to a query. This list can be reviewed, modified, deleted, or reordered, ensuring transparency and allowing for easy undo or redo functionality. Referencing a query creates a new query based on an existing one, inheriting its steps. Changes to the original query automatically update the referenced query, which is useful for maintaining complex transformation workflows. Duplicating a query creates an independent copy that can be modified without affecting the original.
Relationship with Data Loading and Profiling
Transformation is typically performed after data extraction and before data loading into the PowerBI data model. The loading process brings the transformed data into PowerBI for analysis and visualization.
Before transforming or loading data, it is essential to inspect and profile the data. Power Query Editor provides tools like Column Quality, Column Distribution, and Column Profile to evaluate the data’s accuracy, completeness, validity, distribution, and identify anomalies or outliers. This profiling step helps identify where transformations are needed.
Benefits of Data Transformation
Effective data transformation is crucial for generating accurate reports and gaining valuable insights. It improves data quality and consistency, enhances performance by preparing data efficiently, simplifies data management, and helps organizations make informed decisions based on reliable information.
PowerBI Data Visualization Fundamentals
Data Visualization in PowerBI
Data visualization is a graphical representation of data. In Microsoft PowerBI, it is much more than simple graphical depictions; it involves converting raw data into a visual format to help identify patterns, trends, and insights that might not be apparent in text-based data. Visualizations enable you to communicate complex data and insights in a simple, appealing way by presenting data graphically. This process makes it easier for stakeholders to grasp key insights, trends, and patterns that may be difficult to identify from row data or tables.
Why is Data Visualization Important?
Data visualization is crucial for generating accurate reports and gaining valuable insights. It enhances business intelligence, particularly in complex and dynamic business environments. Key benefits include:
Revealing Patterns and Trends: Data visualizations can reveal patterns, trends, and correlations hidden in raw data. For example, a bar chart could visualize sales data demonstrating geographic regions where sales are highest.
Making Data Accessible: Visualizations make data more accessible to a broader audience, as most stakeholders can understand a well-designed chart or graph. This encourages engagement with data and contributes to data-driven decision-making.
Powerful Communication Tool: Visualizations are a powerful communication tool that can tell a compelling story with data, making insights more memorable and persuasive.
Driving Data-Driven Decisions: By providing clear, interactive displays, visualizations act like a navigation system through complex data, helping businesses make informed decisions based on reliable information.
Real-time Analysis: Visualizations can enable real-time data analysis. For example, as sales figures are updated, visualizations in PowerBI can update automatically, providing up-to-date insights.
Where Visualization Happens in PowerBI
Visualizations are primarily created in the Report View of PowerBI Desktop. This is the primary canvas where you design and create your visualizations, adding and arranging different visual elements. Reports can have multiple pages organized using tabs at the bottom of the window. Once created in reports, visualizations can also be pinned to Dashboards in the PowerBI service, which provide a consolidated, one-page summary of the most important metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs).
Workflow for Creating Visualizations
Creating visualizations in PowerBI typically follows a workflow:
Connecting to data sources.
Using Power Query Editor to extract, transform, and load the data.
Loading the refined data into PowerBI’s data model.
Representing this processed data in visualizations.
Key Components and Concepts
Several key components and concepts are involved in creating and using visualizations in PowerBI:
Visualizations Pane: Located on the right side of the window, this pane contains a gallery of visual elements you can add to your report canvas. You add visuals by clicking or dragging them onto the report view.
Fields Pane (or Data Pane): Also on the right side, this pane displays the data tables and fields available for your report. You use this pane to populate your visualizations with data by dragging fields onto the visual or specific field wells.
Field Wells: These are sections within the visualizations pane where you drag data fields to define how they are used in the visual, such as axes, legend, values, or tooltips.
Axes (X and Y): These represent the data points you want to compare or analyze.
Categorical Axes: Used to represent discrete, non-numeric data points (categories). PowerBI automatically arranges data points in the order they appear in the dataset or allows sorting. Common in bar charts and column charts.
Continuous Axes: Designed to represent numerical data points with an inherent order along a continuous scale. Ideal for visualizing quantitative information to identify trends and patterns. Common in line charts, area charts, and scatter plots.
Legend: Controls the color coding or grouping of elements in your chart, helping differentiate between different categories or subgroups. It makes it easier to understand which color represents which item.
Tooltips: Display data or extra information when you hover over the data points of a chart. Tooltips can be customized to include additional fields.
Formatting: PowerBI offers extensive options to format the appearance and feel of visualizations to improve their aesthetic appeal, readability, and align with branding. This includes options for colors, fonts, grid lines, titles, backgrounds, and more. Formatting options are found in the ‘Format visual’ tab of the visualizations pane.
Common Visualization Types
PowerBI offers a wide variety of visualization types:
Charts:Column Charts: Compare different categories in a vertical orientation, useful for demonstrating changes over time or comparisons, generally with fewer than 10 categories.
Bar Charts: Similar to column charts but horizontal, useful for comparing larger quantities or categories with lengthy labels.
Line Charts: Best suited for showing trends over time by connecting individual numeric data points, particularly effective for large datasets.
Area Charts: Similar to line charts but with the area beneath the line filled, helping compare quantities and show part-to-whole relationships over time or across categories. Stacked area charts emphasize the total across several categories.
Pie Charts: Circular graphics divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportions of a whole. Each slice represents a category, and its size is proportional to its quantity. Less effective with too many categories.
Donut Charts: Similar to pie charts but with a blank center. Ideal for showing a dataset as a proportion of a whole.
Scatter Charts: Use dots to represent values for two numeric variables, plotting them along two axes to illustrate how one factor is affected by another, representing correlations and helping identify anomalies or outliers.
Bubble Charts: A variation of scatter plots where a third variable is represented by the size of the bubble. They can depict multi-dimensional data in a single view.
Funnel Charts: Present sequential or staged data, such as a sales conversion process, helping identify trends and bottlenecks.
Combo Charts (Line and Column): Combine line and column charts to display complex and related data points seamlessly.
Tree Maps: Use nested rectangles to display hierarchical or proportional data. Useful for visualizing larger datasets without becoming overly complex compared to pie charts.
Tables: Display raw, detailed data and exact numbers in columns and rows, providing a comprehensive numerical view. Useful for examining exact figures and making precise comparisons.
Maps: Visualize geographical data.
Shape Maps: Color-code geographical regions based on data values to reveal insights.
Coropleth Maps (Filled Maps): Similar to shape maps, shading or patterning geographical areas (countries, states, regions) to illustrate quantitative data values.
Heat Maps: Use color gradients to represent the density and distribution of data across geographical regions or grids. Not a core PowerBI visual but can be imported or created with Python.
ArcGIS Maps: Rich in map visualization features.
KPI Visuals: Specifically designed to display key performance indicators. Include Cards (single value), Multirow Cards (multiple values per row), Gauges (progress toward a target), and the KPI visual (performance against target with trend line).
Advanced Visualization Techniques
PowerBI offers advanced capabilities for visualizing complex data:
Handling High-Density Data: Techniques include using aggregations and summarization, drill through and drill down, color coding (like heat maps), and using 3D and custom visualizations.
Hierarchies and Drill Down/Through: Organizing data into hierarchies (like Date, Product, Geography) allows users to explore data from a general overview level down to specific details within the same visualization. Drill down allows navigating through these hierarchy levels. Drill through is a technique for creating summary pages with high-level insights.
Custom Visualizations: User-defined visual elements for specific requirements. They can be imported from the PowerBI marketplace (AppSource).
Python/R Visuals: Integration with Python and R programming languages allows creating dynamic and sophisticated custom visualizations. This requires specialist expertise and has limitations on data size.
Key Influencers Visual: An advanced analytics feature that uses AI algorithms to identify key contributors behind increases or decreases in a metric, such as sales.
Decomposition Tree: Another specialized analytics tool to navigate through data hierarchy levels to understand how a final value is influenced by different categories.
Clustering: Using algorithms (like in scatter plots) to group data points based on patterns and identify hidden relationships.
Interactions: Visualizations can be configured to interact with one another.
Filter: Selecting a data point in one visual filters the data displayed in others.
Highlight: Selecting a data point highlights related data in other visuals while dimming the rest, maintaining context.
None: Disables interaction, useful when visuals should function independently.
Slicers: Visual filters that allow viewers to segment and filter the data in real-time.
Data Visualization and Data Storytelling
Data visualization is a crucial part of data storytelling. Data storytelling involves leveraging narrative, data, and visualizations to communicate insights effectively. Visualizations act as a bridge between raw data and actionable insights, supporting the narrative and making complex information accessible and engaging for the audience. By choosing appropriate and effective data visualizations, analysts can allow viewers to quickly grasp information and identify trends, patterns, and insights.
Accessibility
When designing reports and visualizations, it is important to consider accessibility. This means creating reports that can be easily used and understood by all individuals, including those with disabilities. Features supporting accessibility in PowerBI include providing alt text for visuals, ensuring sufficient color contrast, enabling keyboard navigation (Tab Order), using markers on lines, and ensuring compatibility with screen readers. High-contrast themes are also available.
Essential Concepts in Data Security
Based on the sources provided, here is a discussion of data security:
Data security is considered paramount in our digital age, like safeguarding your most valuable possessions in a vault with a strong lock. Data, being the lifeblood of modern organizations, is subject to a range of threats, including cyber attacks, breaches, and unauthorized access. Ensuring the security of this “digital gold mine” is not just a choice, but a necessity. In the world of data visualization, ensuring data security is of utmost importance. This includes protecting sensitive information and maintaining data integrity. Incorporating robust security measures is crucial throughout the visualization process.
Why Data Security Matters
Data security is crucial for generating accurate reports and gaining valuable insights. It enhances business intelligence, particularly in complex and dynamic business environments [Source 1 – my previous response, not directly from the provided sources]. Working with data often involves handling sensitive information, such as customer data, financial records, or proprietary business insights. Ensuring the security of this data is essential to:
Maintain trust.
Comply with regulations.
Protect against unauthorized access or data breaches.
Safeguard the company’s reputation and success.
Prevent potential harm to the company and its stakeholders.
Mishandling sensitive data can lead to serious consequences, including financial loss, legal troubles, brand damage, and competitive disadvantage. It can also damage the relationship between an organization and its workforce if employee data is leaked.
Identifying Sensitive Data
Sensitive data contains important information about a business or its stakeholders that, if mishandled, could cause harm or misuse. A simple rule is: if it’s information that could damage the company’s reputation, finances, or stakeholder privacy, it’s sensitive data. Examples include:
Customer details.
Financial records (including profit margins).
Employee information.
Proprietary business knowledge or insights.
Product designs.
Vendor contracts.
Any information that offers intimate knowledge not meant for circulation can be classified as sensitive.
Measures for Safeguarding Data
PowerBI offers various measures to ensure data security:
Access Control & Authentication: Controlling access to data is vital to ensure only authorized individuals can view or interact with specific data sets. Before a user can access a report, they need to prove who they are through an authentication system. Once authenticated, the system determines what data they are permitted to access. This helps protect organizations like Adventure Works from internal leaks and unauthorized external breaches. PowerBI allows defining roles for users with specific permissions tied to them, ensuring data is distributed on a need-to-know basis. Regularly reviewing and updating these roles is essential. Access logs and audit trails can also track and monitor data usage.
Role-Level Security (RLS): RLS is a powerful data governance capability that controls which individuals can view data based on predefined roles and rules. It allows restricting data visibility so each user can only access data they are authorized to view, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality.
Benefits: Precise control over data visibility, prevention of accidental data leaks, safeguarding sensitive data, easier handling of complex data access needs as data scales, assistance with compliance and auditing, and a reduced risk of data breaches.
Types:Static RLS: Uses predefined rules based on user roles and is suitable for a fixed set of users or a simple logic. You configure this in PowerBI Desktop by managing roles, adding filters using DAX expressions, testing, and then assigning users to these roles in the PowerBI service.
Dynamic RLS: Adjusts real-time data access based on user roles and attributes stored in the data itself, using DAX expressions like USERPRINCIPALNAME() to filter data dynamically. This is ideal when user access is based on varying criteria, such as region-specific data access.
Considerations: Both types require thorough testing to ensure accurate and secure visibility. Dynamic RLS can potentially slow down data retrieval and requires regular maintenance.
Data Anonymization and Masking: These techniques protect privacy by removing personally identifiable information or replacing it with pseudonyms. Techniques include generalization, suppression, or noise addition. Data masking specifically allows working with obscured versions of sensitive data, balancing transparency and security, for example, viewing only the last four digits of a credit card number. These are used for analysis and visualization while preserving privacy, especially when sharing data with external partners.
Data Integrity: Maintaining data integrity is crucial to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the visualized information. Key aspects include data validation, error detection, and consistency checks. Implementing data validation rules and performing regular audits helps identify and rectify anomalies. Encryption techniques can also prevent unauthorized modifications and tampering.
Secure Data Transmission: When transferring data or sharing visualizations, it is essential to prioritize secure data transmission using encrypted connections such as HTTPS or SSL/TLS. These protocols ensure data is encrypted during transit, making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to intercept or manipulate it. Other secure methods include using VPNs, two-factor authentication (2FA), enterprise cloud storage solutions, secure protocols like SFTP, and secure cloud-based platforms for distribution. Sharing reports externally requires secure embedding methods like publish to web or embed code, chosen carefully based on data sensitivity.
Data Sensitivity Labels: PowerBI’s data sensitivity labels allow categorizing data to safeguard company reputation and trust. They act like digital tags indicating the required level of confidentiality. Applying these labels properly ensures data protection, especially when sharing or exporting. The sources mention six categories: Personal, Public, General, Confidential, Highly Confidential, and Restricted. These labels can also include encryption settings, preventing access even if a file is inadvertently shared.
Sharing Permissions and Link Management: PowerBI’s link sharing feature allows distributing reports via a URL. However, this poses security risks, so access must be carefully managed. PowerBI offers different sharing options for links (e.g., people in your organization, specific people). Configuring sharing permissions is vital to safeguard data by determining who can access it and what they can do. Permission types include Read (view only), Build (use data for analysis/reports but not change source), Reshare (distribute to authorized users), Write (alter data sets), and Owner (comprehensive control). These permissions can be configured using the ‘Manage permissions’ option in the PowerBI service. When sharing externally, it is important to carefully control what information is shared and maintain strict security measures. Safe links with clear permissions, expiration dates, and limitations to specific users enhance report security. User licensing also needs to be considered for external partners.
External Sharing Settings: PowerBI administrators can adjust settings to enable external sharing while maintaining security standards, such as authorizing users or groups, setting content restrictions, controlling link expiration, and mandating authentication.
PowerBI Gateways: Data gateways, such as the on-premises data gateway, bridge the gap between PowerBI’s cloud services and on-premises data sources, allowing secure use of on-premises data in the cloud. The connection is outbound, which helps reduce security vulnerabilities.
Data Security in the Data Flow
Security considerations are relevant throughout the data flow stages: collection, processing, analysis, and decision-making. Processes within a business govern how data is acquired, stored, manipulated, and shared to support operations. Safeguarding data is important during data preparation (cleaning, transformation) [Source 1 – my previous response, not directly from the provided sources] and ensuring accurate data (data refresh). Planning for data storage and management involves considering security and implementing measures to protect data against unauthorized access, theft, tampering, and emerging threats.
Roles and Responsibilities
Various roles are involved in ensuring data security. Data analysts often work with sensitive data and must handle it with care. Database administrators safeguard the security and overall health of an organization’s databases. Data architects design strategies for data storage, integration, and retrieval, collaborating with other data professionals to align designs with business needs and support security objectives. BI analysts transform data into actionable insights and must work closely with other data professionals, considering data security when presenting to stakeholders. PowerBI Administrators control organizational settings related to security, including external sharing. Workspace roles (viewer, contributor, member, admin) define levels of interaction and access to assets.
In conclusion, security is a fundamental aspect of data visualization in PowerBI, crucial for protecting sensitive information, maintaining trust, ensuring data integrity, and complying with regulations. By implementing measures such as access control, RLS, data anonymization, secure transmission, sensitivity labels, and proper sharing permissions, organizations can build trust, protect sensitive information, and deliver reliable insights to stakeholders.
Microsoft Power BI: Data Analysis Study Guide
Quiz
What are the three key pieces of information required to construct an IF function formula in Excel? An IF function requires a logical test, a value to display or perform if the test is true, and a value to display or perform if the test is false.
Explain the primary difference between a nested IF function and an IFS function in Excel. A nested IF function involves placing one IF function inside another as an argument, typically in the “value if false” section. An IFS function is designed to handle multiple logical tests sequentially without requiring nesting.
According to the source material, why is gathering the right data crucial in the data analysis process? Gathering the right data is essential because it ensures the analysis is focused, relevant, and useful for the end user. Using irrelevant data will not provide insights needed for informed decisions.
What is the primary purpose of data profiling in Power BI, and what are two tools available in the Power Query editor for this? Data profiling identifies potential issues and anomalies within a dataset, enabling informed decisions about data cleaning and transformation. Column quality and column distribution are two tools in the Power Query editor for data profiling.
Define the terms “unique” and “distinct” as they are used in data profiling within Power BI, according to the source. “Unique” refers to the total number of values that appear only once in a column. “Distinct” refers to the total number of different values in a column, regardless of how many times each value appears.
What is DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) and what is its primary function in Power BI? DAX is a programming language used in Power BI (among other Microsoft tools) to create custom calculations on data models and generate additional information not present in the original data.
Explain the concept of “row context” in DAX calculations. Row context refers to the current row of a table being evaluated within a calculation. When a DAX expression is evaluated for a specific row, it considers the values in that row as the context for the calculation, allowing for row-level operations.
What are “calculated columns” in Power BI, and how do they differ from standard columns? Calculated columns are new columns added to an existing table in Power BI that display the results of a DAX formula. Unlike standard columns which are populated by imported data, calculated columns are generated dynamically based on existing data.
Describe the purpose of the CALCULATE function in DAX. The CALCULATE function in DAX evaluates an expression within a context that is modified by specified filters. It allows you to alter the filter context of a calculation, enabling more focused analysis.
What is the primary requirement for a table to be marked as a “date table” in Power BI for time intelligence calculations to function correctly? For a table to function correctly as a date table for time intelligence calculations, it must contain one record for each day, have no missing or blank dates, and span from the minimum to the maximum date present in the data.
Answer Key
Logical test, value if true, value if false.
Nested IF places IF functions inside each other as arguments; IFS handles multiple tests sequentially without nesting.
It ensures the analysis is focused, relevant, and useful for the end user and provides necessary insights for informed decisions.
To identify potential issues and anomalies within the dataset; Column quality and Column distribution.
Unique: Total number of values that appear only once. Distinct: Total number of different values regardless of frequency.
A programming language used for creating custom calculations and generating additional data not in the original model.
The current row being evaluated in a calculation, considering the values in that specific row.
New columns added using DAX formulas; they are calculated dynamically, while standard columns are from imported data.
To evaluate an expression in a filter context modified by specified filters.
One record per day, no missing or blank dates, and spans from minimum to maximum date.
Essay Format Questions
Compare and contrast the star schema and snowflake schema data models in Power BI. Discuss their key characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and when you might choose one over the other.
Explain the concept of evaluation context in DAX. Discuss how row context and filter context interact and impact the results of DAX calculations, providing examples of each.
Describe the different types of measures in Power BI (additive, semi-additive, and non-additive). Provide examples of each and explain how the approach to aggregation differs for each type.
Discuss the importance of effective data visualization in Power BI for conveying insights to stakeholders. Describe at least three different visualization types mentioned in the source material and explain how they can be used to display key performance indicators (KPIs).
Explain the process of creating and utilizing data hierarchies in Power BI. Discuss why hierarchies are beneficial for data analysis and reporting, and describe how you can create your own custom hierarchies using different data fields.
Glossary of Key Terms
Autofill: A feature in Excel that allows you to quickly copy formulas or data down a column or across a row.
Logical Function: A function in Excel or Power BI that performs a calculation based on whether a condition is true or false.
IF Function: A logical function in Excel that returns one value if a condition is true and another value if it’s false.
Logical Operators: Symbols used in logical functions to compare values (e.g., =, >, <, >=, <=, <>).
Nested IF: An Excel formula where one IF function is placed inside another IF function’s arguments.
IFS Function: An Excel function that checks multiple conditions and returns a value corresponding to the first true condition.
Serial Numbers: How Excel interprets and stores dates for calculation purposes.
AutoFill Double-click Shortcut: A quick method in Excel to copy a formula down a column by double-clicking the fill handle.
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): A programming language used in Power BI, Excel Power Pivot, and SQL Server Analysis Services for creating custom calculations and data analysis.
Data Modeling: The process of creating visual representations of data and defining relationships between data elements in Power BI.
Schemas: Structures used to organize data in a data model, such as star and snowflake schemas.
Relationships: Connections between tables in a data model, typically based on common key columns.
Cardinality: The nature of the relationship between two tables (e.g., one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many).
Cross-filter Direction: The direction in which filters propagate through relationships in a Power BI data model (e.g., single, bidirectional).
Calculated Tables: New tables created in a Power BI data model using DAX formulas based on existing data or combinations of data sources.
Cloned Tables: Exact copies of existing tables in a Power BI data model, often created to manipulate data without affecting the original table.
Calculated Columns: New columns added to an existing table in a Power BI data model that display the results of a DAX formula.
Measures: Dynamic calculations or metrics created in Power BI using DAX to summarize, analyze, and compare data across dimensions.
Additive Measures: Measures that can be meaningfully summed across any dimension (e.g., total sales quantity).
Semi-additive Measures: Measures that can be summed across some dimensions but not all, often problematic with the time dimension (e.g., inventory balance).
Non-additive Measures: Measures that cannot be meaningfully summed across any dimension (e.g., profit margin percentage).
Row Context: In DAX, the current row being evaluated within a calculation.
Filter Context: In DAX, the set of filter constraints applied to the data before it’s evaluated by an expression.
CALCULATE Function: A powerful DAX function that evaluates an expression in a context modified by specified filters.
Time Intelligence Functions: Specialized DAX functions designed to work with date and time data for temporal analysis (e.g., TOTALYTD, DATESBETWEEN, DATEADD).
Common Date Table (Date Dimension): A dedicated table in a data model containing a continuous list of dates, required for time intelligence calculations.
Data Granularity: The level of detail captured in a data set or data field (high granularity means more detail).
Data Profiling: The process of examining and summarizing data to understand its structure, content, and quality.
Column Quality: A data profiling feature in Power BI that categorizes values in a column as valid, error, or empty.
Column Distribution: A data profiling feature in Power BI that shows the frequency and distribution of values in a column.
Append Queries: A process in Power Query to combine rows from two or more tables with the same column structure into a single table.
Merge Queries: A process in Power Query to combine data from two or more tables based on matching values in common columns (similar to SQL joins).
Join Type: Determines how rows from two tables are combined during a merge query based on matching criteria (e.g., left outer, inner).
Primary Key: A column or set of columns in a table that uniquely identifies each row.
Foreign Key: A column or set of columns in one table that establishes a relationship to the primary key in another table.
Data Hierarchy: A structured way to organize data fields into levels, allowing for drill-down analysis in visualizations.
Drill Down/Up: Features in Power BI visualizations that allow users to navigate through different levels of a data hierarchy.
Bookmarks: A feature in Power BI reports that captures the current state (filters, slicers, visual state) and allows users to quickly return to that state.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measurable values that indicate the effectiveness of a company or department in achieving business objectives.
Card Visualization: A Power BI visual that displays a single data point or value.
Multi-row Card Visualization: A Power BI visual that displays one or more data points, with each data point on a separate row.
Radial Gauge: A Power BI visual that displays a single value measuring progress toward a goal or target.
KPI Visual: A Power BI visual specifically designed to track the performance of a metric against a target, often including a trend line.
Histogram: A type of bar chart used to visualize the frequency distribution of data, grouping values into ranges or bins.
Top N Analysis: A method to filter data to show only the top or bottom specified number of values based on a criterion.
Geo Hierarchy: A data hierarchy based on geographical locations (e.g., continent, country, state, city).
Custom Visualizations: Visualizations in Power BI created using programming languages like Python or R or developed to meet specific analytical or aesthetic needs.
Workspace Apps: A feature in Power BI Service that allows you to package and share an entire workspace (data sets, reports, dashboards) with specific users or teams.
Impact Analysis: A tool in Power BI Service to view which workspaces, reports, or dashboards are affected by a data set.
Lineage View: A view in Power BI Service that shows the connections and dependencies between different items in a workspace.
Permissions: Settings in Power BI Service that control who can access and interact with data sets, reports, dashboards, and workspace apps.
Use Relationship Function: A DAX function that allows you to activate an inactive relationship between tables for a specific calculation.
Role-Playing Dimension: A single dimension table in a data model that can play multiple roles in relationships with a fact table (e.g., a Date table related to both Order Date and Ship Date).
Briefing Document: Excel and Power BI Data Analysis Techniques
Summary:
This document summarizes the key concepts and techniques presented in the provided source material, focusing on fundamental data manipulation in Excel and various advanced data analysis and visualization capabilities in Microsoft Power BI. The sources cover Excel’s date/time and logical functions (IF, nested IFs, IFS), and delve into Power BI topics such as data modeling, DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), data preparation (profiling, cleaning, transforming, loading, merging, appending), visualization types, hierarchical data, bookmarks, and performance optimization. The importance of non-technical skills, data quality, and understanding analysis objectives is also highlighted.
Key Themes and Important Ideas:
1. Excel Fundamentals:
Working with Dates and Time: Excel interprets dates as serial numbers, allowing for calculations like subtraction. Functions like TODAY(), NOW(), DAY(), MONTH(), YEAR(), and DATE() are used to extract or combine date components and create dynamic date/time formulas.
“Excel interprets stored dates as serial numbers…”
“you can separate the date into its component parts so that you can focus on the year element type an equal sign the word year and an open parenthesis in cell H5…”
“…you also reviewed functions for creating dynamic formulas that calculate time and date values these include the today and now functions…”
“…you can also divide a date entry into its component parts using day month and year or return these components as a single date with the date function…”
Logical Functions (IF, Nested IFs, IFS): Logical functions allow Excel to perform actions based on conditions or logic, essentially asking “yes” or “no” questions about data.
“when working with Excel you might need to execute a function under certain conditions or logic in these instances you can use a logical function calculation like an if function…”
“You can use logical functions to ask yes or no questions about your data if the function returns yes as its answer then you can direct Excel to perform the required action however if the function returns an answer of no then Excel can be directed to perform a different action…”
Logical Operators: These operators are crucial for logical tests within formulas and compare values against specified criteria. Examples include =, >, <, >=, <=, and <>.
“for these tests to work the formula must contain logical operators the logical operators determine what kind of question the formula is asking and what value it needs for its answer these operators can be used to compare both text and numeric entries…”
“The equal sign is the first of the mathematical operators that Excel uses in logical functions excel uses this operator to check if the value of one item is equal to that of another item…”
“finally a very useful set of logical operators is not equal to this is when the less than and greater than symbols are typed back to back this combination of operators is interpreted by Excel as not equal to…”
IF Function Syntax: The IF function requires three arguments: a logical test, a value if true, and a value if false.
“when constructing the if function formula you need to give Excel three pieces of information the first piece of information is called the logical test… The next instruction tells Excel what to do or what to display if the test returns a result of true… The third and final argument is what Excel should do or display if the logical test returns the result of false…”
Nesting IF and IFS Functions: Nested IF functions allow for multiple conditions to be tested sequentially, with subsequent IF functions embedded within the value if false argument of the previous one. The IFS function provides an alternative, designed to run a series of tests without nesting, executing the action for the first test that returns true.
“what if you need to test for multiple conditions? You can use nested if and ifs functions…”
“nesting functions is the technique of adding another function to the formula as an argument for the original function in other words you can place one function inside another to expand its functionality…”
“One approach would be to create what is known as a nested if formula the formula begins with an if that performs an initial logic test if the test turns out to be true then the formula will simply process whatever action is specified in the value if true argument however the result of the logical test could also be false if so then another if function in the value of false argument could run another test and process different actions…”
“The second approach is to use a function called ifs an ifs function is designed to run a series of tests that don’t require you to nest other functions the ifs function steps through the tests checking each one if a test is false it continues to move through the tests until it finds one that is true when a logical test returns true as a result the formula performs or displays whatever is in the value if true for that test it then stops running tests…”
2. Power BI – Data Modeling and DAX:
Data Modeling: Creating visual representations of data and defining relationships between data elements to generate insights. Power BI is a key tool for this.
“data modeling is creating visual representations of your data in PowerBI you can use these representations to identify or create relationships between data elements by exploring these relationships you can generate new insights into your data to improve your business…”
“microsoft PowerBI is a fantastic tool for creating data models and generating insights and you don’t need an IT related qualification to begin using it…”
Schemas (Flat, Star, Snowflake): Different ways to structure data models. Star and Snowflake schemas are common, organizing data into fact and dimension tables.
“you’ll learn to identify different types of data schemas like flat star and snowflake…”
“when deciding on the data schema you plan to use for your analysis the most common schema types are star and snowflake schemas you may recall that in these schemas data is broken down into fact and dimension tables…”
Relationships: Connecting tables based on common keys (primary and foreign keys). Cardinality (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many) and cross-filter direction are important aspects of relationships.
“you’ll create and maintain relationships in a data model using cardality and cross- filter direction…”
“a table relationship is how two tables are connected to each other…”
“in the products table the product ID column is what’s known as a primary key each value in the product ID column is unique… in the sales table the product ID column is what’s known as a foreign key it’s not the primary key of the table but instead it establishes a relationship to the products table…”
“Now that you know how to establish a relationship between two tables the next important aspect is the cardality of the relationship in PowerBI there are three types of cardality one many to one or one to many and many to many…”
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): A programming language used in Power BI (and other Microsoft tools) to create custom calculations and generate information not present in the original data model. It uses functions, operators, and constants.
“if it’s possible to derive the data from the original model you can use DAX data analysis expressions to create custom calculations to generate the data…”
“dax is a programming language used in Microsoft SQL Server analysis services Power Pivot in Excel and PowerBI it is a library of functions operators and constants used in formulas or expressions to create additional information about the data not present in the original data model…”
“to master DAX you need to understand its syntax different data types the operators and how to refer to columns and tables using functions…”
DAX Syntax: Typically involves specifying the name of the new calculation, an equal sign, the DAX function name, and arguments within parentheses (often referencing table and column names).
“first write the name of your new calculation then add the equal sign operator next write the name of your DAX function then parenthesis that contain the logic of your formula write a table name enclosed in single quotes followed by the column name enclosed in square brackets…”
Operators in DAX: Used for various calculations and comparisons, including arithmetic, comparison, logical, and concatenation.
“dax formulas rely on operators there are many different types of operators they can be used to perform arithmetic calculations compare values work with strings or test conditions…”
DAX Functions: Reusable pieces of logic for tasks like aggregations, conditional logic, and time intelligence calculations. Examples include SUM, AVERAGEX, and SUMMARIZE.
“functions are reusable pieces of logic that can be used in a DAX formula these functions can perform various tasks including aggregations conditional logic and time intelligence calculations…”
“commonly used DAX formulas and functions include calculate sum and average…”
Row Context and Filter Context: DAX formulas are evaluated within a context. Row context refers to the current row being evaluated in a calculation. Filter context refers to the constraints applied to the data before evaluation, determining the subset of data used for calculations.
“dax computes formulas within a context the evaluation context of a DAX formula is the surrounding area of the cell in which DAX evaluates and computes the formula this surrounding area is determined by the set of rows and filters to be evaluated in a DAX expression it determines which subset of data is used to perform calculations…”
“row context refers to the table’s current row being evaluated within a calculation…”
“filter context refers to the filter constraints applied to the data before it’s evaluated by the DAX expression…”
CALCULATE Function: A powerful DAX function that can alter the filter context of a calculation. It evaluates an expression within a context modified by specified filters.
“calculate along with its companion calculate table is the only DAX function that can alter the filter context during a DAX calculation…”
“the calculate function evaluates an expression in a context modified by the specified filters…”
“from the examples you have learned the calculate only modifies the outer filter context by applying new filters this is done by either overriding the existing filter or by combining new filters with the existing ones…”
Measures: Calculations or metrics that generate meaningful insights from data, often using DAX. They are essential for quantitative analysis and can be categorized as additive, semi-additive, and non-additive.
“a measure is a calculation or metric that generates meaningful insights from data measures are an important aspect of data analysis and play a lead role in creating calculated tables and columns…”
“there are three different types of measures additive semi-additive and non-additive which type of measure is used depends on the needs of your data and its dimensions…”
Additive, Semi-Additive, and Non-Additive Measures:Additive: Can be meaningfully aggregated across any dimension (e.g., total sales).
Semi-Additive: Can be aggregated over some dimensions but not all, often time (e.g., inventory balance).
Non-Additive: Cannot be meaningfully aggregated across any dimension (e.g., profit margin percentage).
Statistical Functions in Measures: Functions like AVERAGE, COUNT, DISTINCTCOUNT, MIN, and MAX are used in measures to calculate values related to statistical distributions and probability.
“a key element of measures is statistical functions statistical functions calculate values related to statistical distributions and probability to reveal information about your data several common statistical functions are used in measures like average median and count…”
Calculated and Cloned Tables/Columns: Calculated tables and columns are new elements created within a data model using DAX formulas. Calculated tables can combine data from multiple sources or normalize dimension tables. Cloned tables are exact copies used for manipulation without altering the original. Calculated columns add derived data to existing tables.
“you can use calculated and cloned tables to enhance your data sets and improve your analysis…”
“a calculated table is a new table created within a data model based on data from different sources a calculated column is a new column added to an existing table that presents the results of a calculation…”
“cloning a table can be extremely useful for manipulating or augmenting data without affecting the original table…”
“calculated columns are custom data columns that are created within a Microsoft PowerBI data model using data analysis expressions or DAX language…”
Time Intelligence Functions: Specialized DAX functions for working with date and time data to perform advanced temporal analysis, including period-to-date calculations, comparisons, and moving averages. A common date table is a prerequisite.
“time is the dimension that virtually underpins all data analysis and for this reason time intelligence functions hold a position of paramount importance time intelligence functions are specialized functions designed to work with date and time data enabling users to perform advanced temporal analysis and gain deeper insight into historical data…”
“a common date table or date dimension is a prerequisite for time intelligence calculations you can’t execute them without a date dimension…”
“important time intelligence DAX functions is total year-to- date… date year-to- date function… dates between… same period last year… date add function…”
Common Date Table: A critical dimension table for time intelligence calculations, requiring one record per day, no missing or blank dates, and covering the full date range of the data. Can be created in Power BI using Power Query or DAX (CALENDAR, CALENDARAUTO).
“a common date table or date dimension is a prerequisite for time intelligence calculations…”
“the date dimension must meet the following requirements there must be one record per day there must be no missing or blank dates and it must start from the minimum date and end at the maximum date corresponding to the fields in your parameters…”
“you can create a date dimension in PowerBI using either Power Query or DAX this is useful when working on large data sets with complex calculations you can create a date dimension with DAX using the calendar and calendar auto functions…”
USE RELATIONSHIP Function: Used within other DAX functions (like CALCULATE) to override or activate an inactive relationship between two tables for a specific measure calculation.
“with the cross filter function you can change the cross filter direction for a specific measure while maintaining the original settings… Fortunately Adventure Works can use the cross filter function to alter the direction while maintaining the original settings…”
“the cross filter function changes the cross filter direction between two tables for a specific measure while maintaining the original settings…”
“you can only use use relationship within DAX functions that take filter as an argument for example calculate calculate table and total YTD…”
“the use relationship function in DAX overrides this relationship and establishes a temporary relationship between the date column of the date table and the shipping date column of the sales table this inactive relationship becomes active only during the current calculation when using the use relationship function there are some essential points to consider…”
3. Power BI – Data Preparation and Transformation:
Importance of Gathering the Right Data: The objective or purpose of the analysis informs the data collection process, ensuring the data is focused, relevant, and useful for the end user.
“gathering the right data is crucial for conducting a successful analysis however before you can start collecting data it’s essential to determine and understand the purpose or goals of the analysis you can then collect the appropriate data to conduct an analysis that is focused relevant and useful for the end user of the analysis…”
“the purpose of your analysis will inform what is the right data to collect including the type and scope of the data to gather and use in the analysis…”
Data Profiling: Analyzing data to understand its structure, content, quality, and patterns. Helps identify potential issues and anomalies for cleaning and transformation. Power BI’s Power Query Editor offers Column Quality, Column Distribution, and Column Profile tools.
“data profiling is the process of examining and analyzing a data set to understand its structure content quality and patterns…”
“data profiling enables the identification of potential issues and anomalies within the data set this proactive approach allows you to make informed decisions about data cleaning transformation and enrichment ultimately leading to improved data quality…”
“microsoft PowerBI offers the following two profiling tools in the Power Query editor column quality and column distribution…”
“column quality focuses on valid error and empty rows on each column allowing you to validate your row values…”
“column distribution provides a set of visuals underneath the names of the columns that showcase the frequency and distribution of the values in each of the columns…”
“another type of profiling in PowerBI is column profile column profile provides column statistics such as minimum maximum average frequently occurring values and standard deviation…”
Unique vs. Distinct: In Power BI, “unique” refers to values that appear only once, while “distinct” refers to the total number of different values regardless of frequency.
“before delving into data profiling tools let’s first consider two important factors in data profiling unique and distinct in PowerBI unique is known as total number of values that only appear once distinct is known as total number of different values regardless of how many of each you have…”
Data Cleaning: Addressing inconsistencies, errors, and missing values identified during profiling.
“you explored evaluating data data statistics and column properties reviewing why data evaluation is crucial Power Query’s profiling capabilities and different evaluation methods through an interactive activity you practiced analyzing a data set for anomalies and statistical irregularities preparing you for real world scenarios as a PowerBI data analyst you also explore data inconsistencies unexpected or null values and data quality issues you may encounter as a PowerBI data analyst as well as resolving data import errors…”
Transforming and Loading Data: Shaping data into a usable format and loading it into the data model. Includes creating and transforming columns, changing data types, and applying query steps.
“next you explored the transforming and loading data you reviewed creating and transforming columns understanding the importance of selecting appropriate column data types and how to transform columns and create calculated columns in Power Query you brushed up on shaping and transforming tables and applying query steps to shape the data exploring reference queries you recaped when to use reference or duplicate queries and also unpacked the differences between merge and append queries and explored the different types of joins…”
Merge vs. Append Queries:Append: Combines rows from multiple tables into a single table (stacking data). Works best when tables have the same column structure.
Merge: Combines columns from multiple tables based on a common key (joining data). Requires selecting a join type (left outer, right outer, full outer, inner, left anti, right anti).
“Append queries are a great way to consolidate data from multiple sources into a single table… append queries works well when the columns in the data source are well aligned and the desired resulting table should match the format of the data sources however you may encounter more complex scenarios requiring the merging of data from different sources this is where merge queries comes in…”
“to merge two tables you need to tell the merge query which type of join you would like to use the join type informs PowerBI how to merge the two tables a join requires that there is a common column between the two tables… this is known as the join key…”
“powerbi supports the following join types left outer right outer full outer inner join left anti-join and right anti- join…”
4. Power BI – Visualization and Presentation:
Visualizing KPIs: Displaying key performance indicators using Power BI visuals like Cards, Multi-row Cards, Radial Gauges, and the dedicated KPI visual. KPIs differ from regular charts by aligning with strategic business objectives.
“kpis differ from regular charts and metrics because they align directly with strategic business objectives instead of simply presenting raw data KPIs offer insight into how that data impacts overall business goals and progress…”
“microsoft PowerBI offers a range of visualizations to display KPIs including cards multirow cards gauges and the KPI visual…”
Card Visuals: Display a single value or data point, ideal for essential statistics.
“the card visualization displays one value or a single data point this type of visualization is ideal for representing essential statistics you want to track on your PowerBI dashboard or report…”
Multi-row Card Visuals: Display one or more data points, with one data point per row.
“next is the multirow card visualization that displays one or more data points with one data point for each row…”
Radial Gauge Visuals: Circular arcs displaying a single value, measuring progress toward a goal.
“another visualization you can use is the radial gauge this visual is a circular arc that displays a single value measuring progress toward a goal or target or indicates the health of a single measure…”
KPI Visual: Tracks a metric’s performance against a target and includes a trend line.
“lastly the KPI visual in PowerBI is a powerful tool for tracking the performance of a metric against a target the KPI visual also includes a trend line or chart to show the data’s trajectory over time…”
Data Granularity: Refers to the level of detail captured in a data set or field. High granularity provides deeper, more precise insights. The appropriate level of granularity depends on the analysis objectives.
“data granularity refers to the level of detail or depth captured in a certain data set or data field granular data provides deeper and more precise insights this delivers more nuanced and valuable findings…”
“data granularity isn’t about always having the highest level of detail it’s about having the appropriate level of detail before you begin your analysis ask yourself do you require high granularity or low granularity the decision should depend on the specific requirements and objectives of the analysis…”
Histograms: Visualizations illustrating the frequency distribution of data by grouping data points into ranges or bins. Often use bar or area charts.
“a histogram is a way to visualize a topend data query result while the topend function in PowerBI is a built-in DAX function that retrieves the topend records from a data set based on specific criteria it compares the parameters provided and returns the corresponding rows from the data source the n in top n refers to the number of values at the top or bottom data points are grouped into ranges or bins making the data more understandable a histogram is a great way to illustrate the frequency distribution of your data…”
Top N Analysis: Filtering data to display only the top or bottom ‘n’ values based on specific criteria, enabling quick identification of significant data points.
“the top end analysis prevents this by sorting the data to display according to a category’s best or worst data points this enables stakeholders to quickly identify the top or bottom values in the data and make datadriven decisions efficiently…”
Data Hierarchies: Structured ways to organize data (e.g., geographical, product categories) to allow users to drill down into data at different levels of detail. Can be created automatically by Power BI (for dates) or manually.
“PowerBI offers a way to unravel this mystery by creating a data hierarchy hierarchies provide a structured way to organize and visualize data allowing users to uncover hidden insights and tell a compelling story…”
“PowerBI has automatically created a hierarchy with all the date fields such as estimated delivery date and order date… How can you create a hierarchy of your own? Let’s create a hierarchy for product related data using the product category product subcategory color and product name fields…”
Map Visualizations: Used for visualizing geographical data. Requires correctly formatting geographical columns as data categories (Country, State/Province, City) and can benefit from using latitude and longitude coordinates for precision. Geo hierarchies enhance map visualizations.
“for map visualizations defining a precise location is especially important this is because some designations are ambiguous due to the presence of one location name in multiple regions for example there is a Southampton in England Pennsylvania and New York adding longitude and latitude coordinates solves this issue but if the data set does not have this information you will need to make sure to format the geographical columns as the appropriate data category…”
“adding depth to map visualizations leverages geo hierarchies you can drill down from country to state state to city and so on…”
Bookmarks: Capture and save the current state of a report (filters, slicers, display properties, current page, visual selection) to share specific views with others or for easy navigation.
“bookmarks in PowerBI are a way to capture the current state of the report you are viewing and share this state with other viewers…”
“when adding a bookmark there are four state options that you can save data properties such as filters and slicers display properties such as visualization highlighting and visibility current page changes which present the page that was visible when you added the bookmark and selecting if the bookmark applies to all visuals or selected visuals…”
Using Variables for Troubleshooting: Variables in DAX store values or tables temporarily, allowing for breaking down complex formulas into smaller, manageable parts. This aids in debugging and understanding the calculation process.
“maybe the weight of potential inaccuracies weighs on you mistakes mean mistrust in data and mistrust in data can lead to poor business decisions in this video you’ll learn how to use variables in DAX to troubleshoot issues like this one…”
“to recap a variable in DAX lets you store a value or a table to be used later in your formula think of them as placeholders or temporary storage units for your data by breaking down your DAX formula into smaller pieces and storing parts of the calculation in variables you can keep track of each step making the process more comprehensible and easier to debug…”
Power BI Service – Dashboards: Dashboards provide a single page view of key metrics and visuals from one or more reports. They are available in Power BI Service and mobile, but not Desktop. Tiles from reports or other dashboards can be pinned to dashboards.
“a PowerBI dashboard is a single page view of key metrics and visuals from one or more reports…”
“you can create and copy dashboards you must use the Microsoft PowerBI service you can view dashboards in Microsoft PowerBI service and in Microsoft PowerBI mobile dashboards are not available in PowerBI desktop…”
Duplicating Dashboards and Pinning Tiles: Dashboards can be duplicated in Power BI Service. Tiles from reports or other dashboards can be pinned to existing or new dashboards to consolidate visuals.
“to create a copy of a dashboard you must be the creator of the dashboard… you cannot pin tiles from dashboards shared with you only from dashboards created by you…”
“to duplicate a dashboard log into your PowerBI service and open the workspace that contains your dashboard… to pin a tile from one dashboard to another open the product sales dashboard from my workspace and hover the cursor on the tile to pin then select more options and select pin tile from the dropdown…”
Custom Visualizations (Python/R): Power BI allows for creating custom visualizations using Python or R programming languages for more advanced or specific needs. Requires installing Python/R and enabling scripting in Power BI.
“you can create custom visualization in PowerBI using Python or R programming languages these visualizations are imported from a file on your local computer you can also develop PowerBI visuals to meet your analytical or aesthetic needs…”
“using R or Python to develop your own PowerBI visuals or to customize existing ones is an optional expertise you may wish to pursue it if you have a coding background a familiarity with Python or want to extend your skill set into this area…”
Data Access and Permissions in Power BI Service: Power BI Service allows for managing data access and permissions at the dataset level and through workspace apps. Lineage view helps understand the impact of a dataset on reports and dashboards.
“effective data access and permission management is crucial to ensure that the right individuals have the appropriate level of access to sensitive data and reports…”
“with data set level permissions PowerBI service enables you to assign specific permissions to data sets while sharing you can ensure that although colleagues can access and utilize the data they cannot make changes to it this ensures the sanctity of vital data sets…”
“workspace apps in PowerBI allow you to share entire workspaces including data sets dashboards and reports ia workspace app is a full data package that can be shared with specific users or teams ensuring a comprehensive sharing experience…”
“to check how many workspaces reports or dashboards are affected by a data set you can perform what is known as impact analysis to do this you go to your workspace and hover on a data set then select the more options three dots next to it and select show lineage…”
Using Microsoft Copilot in Bing for DAX Assistance: Copilot can help troubleshoot DAX formulas, suggest corrections, and offer alternative approaches for complex calculations like nested IFs.
“Microsoft Copilot in Bing can also be a valuable companion in troubleshooting and improving your DAX formulas…”
“microsoft Copilot in Bing can help guide you through the correct structuring of calculate formulas suggest how to perform dynamic aggregations and even detect and suggest fixes to syntax errors…”
“Copilot can simplify this by suggesting straightforward alternatives or helping restructure these nested conditions into manageable components…”
5. General Concepts:
Importance of Non-Technical Skills: Developing non-technical skills like understanding end-user needs, relaying findings to stakeholders, collaboration, and creating actionable insights are crucial for data analysts.
“non-technical skills are equally vital these include a keen understanding of the needs of end users and the ability to relay findings and concepts to stakeholders of varying technical knowledge by developing these non-technical skills you can better collaborate with stakeholders create actionable insights inspire change and make lasting impacts enriching your own career and contributing to the growth and success of those around you…”
Data Quality: Emphasized throughout the data preparation process, focusing on completeness, accuracy, uniqueness, and consistency.
“data profiling enables the identification of potential issues and anomalies within the data set this proactive approach allows you to make informed decisions about data cleaning transformation and enrichment ultimately leading to improved data quality…”
This briefing document provides a high-level overview of the key topics and concepts covered in the provided source material, offering a foundation for understanding essential data analysis techniques in both Excel and Power BI.
Excel Functions and Power BI Data Modeling
How do Excel’s logical functions, such as the IF function, work and what are they used for?
Excel’s logical functions are used to ask yes or no questions about your data. Based on the answer to that question (true or false), Excel can be directed to perform different actions or display different values. The IF function is a common example, requiring three pieces of information: a logical test (a condition to check, often using logical operators), what to do if the test is true, and what to do if the test is false. For example, you could use an IF function to check if a sales figure is greater than or equal to a target; if true, award a bonus, and if false, award nothing. Logical operators like =, >, <, >=, <=, and <> (not equal to) are essential components of these tests.
When might you need to use multiple conditions in Excel logical functions, and what are the approaches?
You might need to test for multiple conditions when a simple yes/no question isn’t sufficient. For instance, determining different bonus levels based on varying sales thresholds. There are two main approaches: using nested IF functions or using the IFS function. A nested IF involves placing an IF function within another IF function’s “value if false” argument to perform a subsequent test if the initial one is false. The IFS function is designed to run a series of tests without nesting, stepping through each condition until one is true and then performing the corresponding action.
What is Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) in Power BI and what are its key components?
DAX is a programming language used in Power BI, SQL Server Analysis Services, and Power Pivot in Excel. It’s a library of functions, operators, and constants used to create additional information or custom calculations on data models that isn’t present in the original data. Key components of DAX include syntax (defining calculations, often starting with a name, equals sign, and function), operators (for arithmetic, comparison, logic, and concatenation), functions (reusable logic for tasks like aggregation, conditional logic, and time intelligence), and understanding the data model (tables, relationships, and context).
How do row context and filter context influence DAX calculations in Power BI?
DAX formulas compute values within a context. Row context refers to the current row being evaluated within a calculation. This allows calculations to be performed row by row, which is useful for tasks like creating calculated columns where a calculation is applied to each row independently. Filter context refers to the filter constraints applied to the data before a DAX expression is evaluated. This determines which subset of data is used for calculations. Changes in filters (like selecting a specific product category or region) will alter the filter context, leading to different results for the same DAX measure.
What are measures in Power BI, what types exist, and why are they important for analysis?
Measures in Power BI are dynamic calculations or metrics used to generate insights from data. They are essential for quantitative analysis and summarizing, calculating, and comparing data. There are three main types: additive measures (which can be meaningfully summed across all dimensions, like total sales), semi-additive measures (which can be summed across some dimensions but not all, particularly time, like inventory balance), and non-additive measures (which cannot be meaningfully summed across any dimension, like percentages or ratios). Measures are important because they compute values on the fly based on the current filter context, allowing for dynamic analysis and reporting.
What are calculated and cloned tables in Power BI and when would you use them?
Calculated tables are new tables created within a Power BI data model using DAX expressions, often based on data from existing tables or even multiple sources. Cloned tables are exact copies of existing tables. You would use calculated tables to combine data from different sources, normalize dimension tables (like in a snowflake schema), create a common date dimension table, or generate summary tables from large datasets. Cloned tables are useful when you need to manipulate or augment data without affecting the original table, especially if the original data is refreshed periodically.
How do data granularity and geographical hierarchies contribute to data analysis in Power BI?
Data granularity refers to the level of detail captured in a dataset or data field. High granularity provides deeper and more precise insights, while low granularity offers a more summarized view. Choosing the appropriate level of granularity depends on the analysis objectives. Geographical hierarchies in Power BI (like Country > State > City) provide a structured way to organize and visualize data based on location. They allow users to drill down into data from a broad overview to a more detailed level, enabling the analysis of trends and performance at different geographical scales.
What is the significance of data modeling, schemas (Star and Snowflake), and table relationships in Power BI?
Data modeling in Power BI involves creating visual representations of your data and defining relationships between data elements to generate new insights. Schemas, such as the Star and Snowflake schemas, are common structures for organizing data into fact tables (containing measurements and metrics) and dimension tables (providing contextual attributes). Table relationships, established using primary and foreign keys, define how these tables are connected. Understanding and correctly configuring cardinality (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many) and cross-filter direction in these relationships is crucial for accurate data analysis and filter propagation in Power BI calculations.
Power BI Tutorial For Beginners To Advanced | Master Power BI From Beginner to Expert, By Microsoft
The Original Text
data is an important part of your day-to-day existence think about how many times you collect and make use of data every day for example you may have recently compared the cost of flights to find the best value for your vacation or you might have asked your friends to let you know what dates they’re available to meet for a party so that you can find a day that suits everyone in the group so how do data analysts make use of information just like when you plan your vacation or party they identify and gather important data then study and analyze the data to generate the insights that they need data analysts carry out these tasks using a range of techniques tools and software like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerBI these might sound like complicated technologies but it’s possible to approach them from an entry-level stage and develop competency and this high demand at an organizational level for individuals who can demonstrate proficiency with these tools the career opportunities available for data analysts include a range of roles from business analyst to data scientist to database administrator with increasing digitization of all aspects of life the demand for these roles across all business sectors is greater than ever with the right knowledge and skills you could be the next data analyst an organization is looking for you might be keen to pursue a career in data analytics but you might also be concerned that you don’t have a relevant university degree or prior experience or maybe the cost is just too high don’t let these concerns hold you back if you’re fascinated by the world of data and willing to join us then we’re offering you a chance to embark on a learning journey that prepares you for an exciting career in data analytics this Microsoft PowerBI analyst professional certificate consists of a series of courses that act as a solid foundation of fundamental knowledge that imparts the skill set required for an entry- level job in data analytics in addition finishing this program also prepares you for the exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst earning a Microsoft certification provides industry endorsed evidence of your skills and demonstrates your willingness to stay on top of the latest trends and demands and stand out in a fast changing industry you’ll begin this program with an overview of how to design and manage spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel this overview begins with a guide to Excel elements and techniques along with guidance on how to organize data you’ll then learn how to prepare data for analysis using different functions this overview of Excel will help you to understand the importance of sourcing and organizing data so you’ll follow it with an exploration of the different stages and roles in the data analysis process you’ll begin by learning about essential data analysis concepts and the role of the data analyst you’ll then review the tools required to source gather transform and analyze data effectively sourcing data is important but so is preparing it for analysis that’s why you’ll also learn how to bring data into PowerBI and clean and transform it for analysis you’ll begin by learning about different data sources in PowerBI you’ll then learn techniques for importing the data lastly you’ll discover how to clean and transform data once you’ve imported your data you then need to organize it so that you can make sense of the information to generate insights so you’ll also review techniques for modeling data you’ll start by developing an understanding of basic data modeling concepts you’ll then learn how to use DAX in PowerBI to create calculations finally you’ll discover how to optimize the performance of a data model in PowerBI the ability to generate insights from your data is great but you also need to be able to communicate these insights that’s why you’ll also explore the techniques and tools used to create visual presentations of data you’ll begin by exploring visualization concepts and you’ll also learn how to create reports next you’ll learn how to ensure your reports contain navigation and accessibility elements you’ll then explore how to bring data to the user by managing access and creating dashboards finally you’ll review methods and techniques for identifying patterns and trends in your data another important skill you’ll require is the ability to make use of available PowerBI assets so you’ll also learn how to create use monitor and manage a workspace and you’ll discover how to manage share and secure data sets in PowerBI not only do you need to be able to visualize your data but it’s also important that you can use it to tell a story or narrative during this program you’ll explore how to design robust and compelling visualizations to communicate your data with stakeholders you’ll start by exploring key principles of design and the importance of narrative you’ll then learn techniques for designing report pages with powerful visuals and you’ll review design principles and techniques for dashboards you’ll complete a final capstone project where you’ll put your new skills to use by developing a PowerBI dashboard in the final course you’ll prepare for the PL300 exam by undertaking a practice exam this exam covers all the main topics of the Microsoft Certified Exam PL300 so it’ll also help you determine if you’re ready for the real thing once you complete the program it’s time to start exploring potential careers and don’t forget to share your Corsera Professional Certificate to get that extra advantage congratulations on your decision to become a data analyst and to help make sense of data for others now let’s get started have you ever faced the challenge of making decisions or providing insights based on large amounts of data this can be quite a daunting task especially if the data is difficult to read and understand fortunately you’ve come to the right place this course on preparing data for analysis in Microsoft Excel will equip you with the skills you need to work with large blocks of data and make it easier to read and understand data analysis is a process that involves defining the purpose of the data gathering cleaning and analyzing it to gain insights businesses often use data analysis to obtain usable relevant information that can assist them in making educated business decisions however this is usually done with large amounts of data that you need to cleanse transform and analyze you will often have to present this data in charts tables and graphs that provide relevant insights your data insights will help organizations to lessen the risks associated with making business decisions microsoft Excel can assist you in analyzing data for your business and you don’t need an IT related qualification to do this the preparing data for analysis with the Microsoft Excel course is designed for anybody that’s interested in learning about preparing data for analysis within a business context it also establishes a foundation for anyone striving to have a career in data analytics through data analytics in Excel you will be able to collect store and delve deeper into your business’s data you will also learn to harness the power of data using tools for sourcing gathering transforming and analyzing data now let’s go over a brief overview of what you will learn over the next few weeks to kickstart your learning journey you’ll discover the fundamental and essential Microsoft Excel elements and techniques for creating workbook content these techniques include entering formatting managing and adding data to worksheets you’ll then learn how to read large blocks of data and review the steps for sorting and filtering data in Excel next you’ll discover how to use formulas and functions to perform calculations in Excel then you’ll learn how to prepare data for analysis using functions you’ll explore functions that are used to clean or standardize text to prepare it for effective analysis you’ll then investigate the use of date and time functions in Excel so that you can complete actions like creating timeline information in a spreadsheet you’ll also review the logical functions like if and ifs and you’ll learn how to use these logical functions to generate content like data columns in the last module you’ll undertake a final project in this project you’ll create a worksheet with an executive summary of a business’s month-by-month profit margin performance compared to the previous year this project will help you prepare for the final capstone project at the end of this program finally you’ll have a chance to recap on what you’ve learned and focus on areas you feel you can improve on throughout the course you will encounter many videos that will gradually guide you toward a solid understanding of preparing data for analysis watch pause rewind and re-watch the videos until you are confident in your skills then consolidate your knowledge by consulting the course readings and measuring your understanding of key topics by completing the different knowledge checks and quizzes by the end of the course you’ll be equipped with the necessary skills to work effectively with data in Microsoft Excel good luck as you start this exciting learning journey the Microsoft PowerBI Analyst program is an excellent resource to start your career whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional looking to improve your skills data is the driving force behind this everchanging modern world shaping and developing industries and society it has transformed the way institutions operate from banks and hospitals to schools and supermarkets and for businesses data is everything it informs decisions and helps create value for customers content streaming services analyze data to decide what content to promote social media services analyze data to determine what products their customers are interested in and your local supermarket gathers and analyzes data to ensure the products you want are available the result of having all this data is that professional analysts are required to process and sort it to gain the insights that drive both the business and social worlds are you intrigued by this career field and wondering how to get started let’s meet two other students who have just begun their careers in entry- levelvel positions discover how and why they have chosen to embark upon career paths in this field with Microsoft and Corsera lucas a recent information technology graduate is currently searching for his first IT job he is eager to secure a position in the IT sector that offers good earning potential and a quick career progression he wants to work full-time in data analysis as he feels this career would offer both benefits during his degree he found working with and analyzing cloud-based data to be the most enjoyable element hence his focus on this career path lucas currently works shifts in a warehouse environment so he will need the flexibility of self-paced learning his earnings are low so he wants to achieve the qualification using the same basic laptop he relied upon as a student despite being a beginner Lucas has already mapped out his career and certification path and has enrolled in the Microsoft PowerBI analyst program he plans to apply for an entry- levelvel position as a data analyst once he has successfully completed the program and passed the PL300 exam as a data analyst he will inspect data identify key business insights for new business opportunities and help solve business problems amelia has been working as an administrative assistant in sales and marketing since leaving high school now that a few years have passed she is ready to embark upon a new career path in her current role Amelia has seen PowerBI reports and dashboards created by colleagues and shared with the team she was impressed at how the information was used to shape and focus the sales campaigns this sparked an interest in a career in data analysis amelia’s job requires her to work long hours so the ability to structure her own learning path is vital she also has a long commute so would like to access e-learning through her smartphone or tablet pursuing the PowerBI analyst qualification will showcase her dedication and help her apply for more senior roles in the department in the short term amelia doesn’t have a scientific background but she finds IT concepts logical and easy to understand so she’s embarking on the Microsoft PowerBI analyst program as it doesn’t assume a pre-existing high level of technical knowledge in the long term she hopes to secure an entry-level role as a PowerBI analyst as a PowerBI analyst she will be responsible for building data models creating data assets like reports and dashboards and ensuring data requirements are met you may be in a similar position to Lucas and Amelia and possess an interest in this exciting field of data analysis like them you can begin your career in this field by enrolling in the Microsoft PowerBI analyst program this will be the start of your new adventure good luck with your learning journey generative AI stands at the forefront of a transformative era reshaping our interaction with data and redefining the boundaries of creativity across diverse sectors this innovative tool utilizes sophisticated statistical techniques to generate content across text images and code empowering individuals and industries with remarkable capabilities in this video you’ll gain an understanding of the multifaceted landscape of generative AI exploring its vast capabilities industry implications and the career opportunities it presents before we get into more detail let’s answer the question what is generative AI examples of these models are generative adversarial networks or GANs and transformer models with these models generative AI can create outputs that closely mimic humanmade content using generative AI as an assistant can make a positive contribution across multiple industries for example imagine a trendy clothing store using generative AI to design unique patterns and styles based on customer preferences with GANs the AI could generate lifelike images of clothing designs enabling the store to offer personalized options to each customer this application not only enhances the shopping experience but also streamlines the design process illustrating how generative AI is reshaping industries through its creative capabilities now that you’re up to speed on what generative AI is let’s explore some of its capabilities across different functions firstly there’s text generation where generative AI models like generative pre-trained transformer or GPT can compose essays generate creative writing automate customer support and more imagine how generative AI can bring the store collection to life for shoppers effortlessly crafting engaging product descriptions captivating social media posts and personalized customer communication that mimics the tone and style of human interaction next there’s image creation generative AI can transform textual descriptions into stunning visual representations for the retail store this means converting text into realistic images of new apparel designs from elegant evening gowns to casual streetear providing the store’s creative team with endless inspiration and flexibility in bringing their vision to life this capability is revolutionizing fields such as graphic design video game development film production and marketing and branding where custom visuals can be created quickly and at scale with audio production the store’s marketing and branding department uses generative AI’s audio ability to synthesize speech compose music and create sound effects generative AI produces captivating audiovisisual content for advertising campaigns captivating audiences and enhancing brand visibility in addition to its applications in creative fields like fashion generative AI also showcases its capability in code generation imagine the retail store leveraging generative AI to optimize its online presents ai would aid the store’s programmers by suggesting improvements completing lines of code or even creating entire programs this would not only streamline website development but also enhance user experience ensuring seamless navigation and captivating visuals for online shoppers finally there is data synthesis in the fashion world staying ahead of the curve is crucial and generative AI aids the store in achieving just that it utilizes extensive data sets on fashion trends customer preferences and style influencers the store can conduct market research and analyze customer behavior ethically and responsibly by generating synthetic data sets that maintain statistical properties without compromising individual privacy this application is crucial for training more AI models where access to real data might be restricted or unethical so what are the industry implications of this emerging technology the deployment of generative AI across various industries indicates a major shift in operational dynamics in healthcare AI generated models can predict patient outcomes personalize treatment plans and automate administrative tasks in finance AI can manage risk assessment automate trading and personalize banking services the creative industry is seeing an explosion of innovation and inspiration as generative AI aided tools are contributing hugely to the fields of art music and literature pushing the boundaries of traditional creativity as AI evolves its impact on the workforce and industry standards will be significant the demand for AI knowledge is growing and learning to work with AI will be crucial for career advancement in all fields jobs that traditionally didn’t involve technology will start using AI tools more often this shift will require professionals in most fields to develop new skills and undergo additional training to effectively integrate generative AI into their work as a result educational programs and workshops focusing on generative AI and its applications are becoming increasingly important offering valuable resources for those looking to stay relevant and excel in their careers both businesses and individuals need to understand and adapt to generative AI’s capabilities to fully harness its potential generative AI is not just a tool for creating and automating it is a catalyst for innovation and transformation across all areas in this video you gained an understanding of the capabilities of generative AI and its implications for various industries you also explored some of the career opportunities it will create as we continue to explore and expand these technologies capabilities the opportunities for advancement and creativity are limitless welcome to the age of generative AI where everyone has the chance to redefine the boundaries of what is possible generative AI is transforming businesses today by gathering information and creating all kinds of content changing how businesses operate let’s imagine a renowned restaurant called Chef’s Table as chef Andre strives to innovate and delight his patrons with new dishes he turns to generative AI to enhance his culinary creations the technology behind this ability involves using models trained on huge sets of data to do tasks such as text generation image creation and even code synthesis in Chef Andre’s kitchen Generative AI acts as his trusty sue chef assisting him in developing innovative recipes crafting visually stunning presentations and even optimizing kitchen workflows just like Chef Andre relies on his sue chef to complement his skills and creativity generative AI compliments businesses by providing them with new insights ideas and efficiencies in this video you’ll explore the technical foundations and potential applications of generative AI in businesses like Chef’s Table you’ll also assess its limitations and examine the ethical considerations that arise when using it first let’s gain some insight into the technical foundations of generative AI it operates primarily through two types of models generative adversarial networks or GANs and transformer-based models guns involve two neural networks the generator and the discriminator working in tandem to produce highly realistic outputs these two components are known as the generator and the discriminator imagine the generator as a chef preparing a new dish and the discriminator as a food critic tasting it the chef the generator creates new dishes while the food critic the discriminator evaluates them if the critic cannot distinguish between the chef’s creations and dishes from renowned restaurants then the chef has succeeded this collaborative process results in the creation of highly realistic and refined outputs transformers used by models like generative pre-trained transformer or GPT and birectional encoder representations from transformers or BERT use attention mechanisms to create text that is contextually relevant and stylistically coherent attention mechanisms play a crucial role in the model’s functionality these mechanisms enable the model to focus selectively on various parts of the input data much like a chef carefully chooses the best ingredients for a dish this selective focus allows the model to highlight important information and maintain a clear grasp of the context imagine a chef who not only selects fresh ingredients but also keeps the recipe and cooking techniques in mind to craft a delicious and well- balanced meal similarly attention mechanisms ensure that the text generated by the model is coherent and contextually appropriate rather than a random assortment of words these technologies rely on deep learning needing a lot of computer power and data to train them how well a generative AI model works depends on the quality and variety of its training data which affects its ability to generalize new information without upholding biases so you’ve learned about the technical foundations of generative AI but what are its practical applications in various business functions in marketing and customer engagement generative AI can craft personalized content at scale from email marketing campaigns to dynamic web content think of this as a chef preparing a personalized menu for each diner based on their preferences creating unique and delightful dining experiences ai models can enhance engagement and conversion rates by analyzing existing customer data and tailor messages that resonate on an individual level additionally generative AI assists in optimizing operational efficiencies and logistics for instance AI can forecast demand trends simulate supply chain scenarios and recommend adjustments this is like a chef estimating the number of diners planning the menu and ordering ingredients to minimize waste and make customers happy this predictive capability enables Chef’s Table to make informed decisions reduce costs and improve service delivery in the area of human resources AIdriven analysis of job descriptions and applicant data helps streamline the recruitment process by generating and evaluating diverse job descriptions AI can attract a wide range of candidates potentially reducing biases often found in manual processes additionally generative AI can simulate training scenarios providing personalized learning experiences for employees think of this as a chef conducting cooking classes tailored to the skill levels and learning styles of each student ensuring everyone learns effectively another application of generative AI is document management and technical writing it can analyze extensive data sets of documents to learn and replicate the necessary formatting style and technical language specific to different business sectors for example AI models trained on legal documents can help to draft contracts that comply with current laws and regulations furthermore models trained on medical texts can help in preparing accurate clinical trial reports the technologies ability to understand and generate technical content is like Chef Andre mastering the preparation of complex dishes ensuring consistency and high standards without extensive manual effort one of the standout features of generative AI is its capacity to mimic specific writing styles this capability is particularly useful in marketing and customer communications where maintaining a consistent brand voice is crucial by training on a company’s historical communication data AI can generate content that aligns with the brand’s tone style and audience engagement strategies additionally it can adapt to different styles as needed much like a versatile chef who can cook various cuisines to cater to diverse tastes and cultural preferences finally the ability of generative AI to produce coherent and contextually relevant text has wide ranging application in business for instance it can generate product descriptions marketing copy or news articles with little to no human input significantly speeding up the content creation process moreover in customer service AIdriven chat bots can handle inquiries and provide responses in real time improving customer experiences and operational efficiency these applications demonstrate the potential of generative AI to take over repetitive and time-conuming tasks enabling employees to focus on more strategic activities much like a chef relying on a well-trained kitchen staff to handle routine tasks while focusing on creating innovative dishes despite its capabilities generative AI is not without limitations and may raise some ethical concerns the quality of output can vary significantly depending on the model’s training inaccuracies can emerge especially when the AI encounters data or requests outside its training scope moreover there’s the potential for AI to reinforce or amplify biases present in the training data leading to unfair outcomes or ethical dilemmas this is similar to a chef needing to ensure their ingredients are fresh and free from contaminants as any issue can affect the final dish ethical concerns that must be addressed include issues such as data privacy intellectual property and the potential for misuse therefore businesses must establish clear guidelines and ethical frameworks to govern AI use ensuring that AI generated outputs align with legal and moral standards think of it as a chef adhering to food safety regulations and ethical sourcing practices to ensure every dish is not only delicious but also responsibly made in this video you learned how generative AI offers substantial benefits across various business functions enhancing productivity decision making and customer engagement however to leverage this technology effectively businesses must understand its technical foundations potential applications and limitations you also gained insight into how responsible use of generative AI guided by strong ethical principles is essential to harness its full potential while reducing associated risks as businesses continue to integrate AI into their operations the focus must remain on creating value responsibly ensuring that AI solutions are deployed in a manner that is both effective and ethical like a master chef businesses must blend innovation with responsibility to create a successful and sustainable future picture a future where machines not only grasp our language but also craft it with remarkable finesse where creativity knows no bounds as artificial minds effortlessly generate images and ideas this isn’t the stuff of sci-fi dreams it’s the emergence of generative AI a tool that will complement and benefit us in both our work and our everyday lives to gain a better understanding of generative AI it is crucial to dive into its foundational technologies such as machine learning models and their architectural nuances let’s get started by exploring the distinguishing features of generative AI unlike traditional AI which typically focuses on analysis and classification generative AI is proactive in creating new content this shift from passive analysis to active creation is transformative especially in handling complex tasks such as natural language processing or NLP and synthetic image generation nlp enables machines to read understand and generate human language while synthetic image generation involves creating fake images using computer programs and algorithms it’s like a digital artist creating a convincing picture of a landscape they’ve never seen before the introduction of transformers a type of model architecture that relies on mechanisms called attention and self attention has revolutionized NLP models like Google’s birectional encoder representations from transformers or BERT and Open AI’s GPT series use these transformers they learn the relationships between words in a text but not in the usual order from start to end instead they can understand different parts of the text at the same time it’s like reading a mystery novel and being able to pick up on clues scattered throughout the book all at once this way of learning allows for more things to be processed at the same time making the training quicker and more efficient so those are some of the distinguishing features but what are the technical foundations of generative AI it primarily operates through two types of machine learning supervised and unsupervised in supervised learning models are trained on labeled data sets allowing them to learn a function that can map input data to desired outputs for example a model might be trained to generate text summaries by learning from a data set of articles paired with their respective summaries unsupervised learning on the other hand involves training models on data without explicit labels here the aim is for the models to discover inherent patterns and relationships in the data this approach is particularly beneficial for generative AI as it allows the model to learn to create content that is not bound by predefined labels enabling more innovative and adaptive applications next let’s take a closer look at some of the core technologies behind generative AI at the heart of its capabilities are neural networks particularly generative adversarial networks or GANs and variational autoenccoders or VAEs variational autoenccoders or VAEEs encode input data into a compressed representation and then decode it back to reconstruct the input the process involves optimizing the parameters of the encoder and decoder so that the output closely matches the input allowing the model to generate new data samples from learned representations language models are constantly evolving so it’s important to keep up to date with these advancements language models such as GPT3 and BERT demonstrate significant advancements in generative AI these models use transformer architectures which rely on self-attention mechanisms to process sequences of data like sentences in ways that consider the context provided by other parts of the sequence this is crucial for generating coherent and contextually appropriate text word tovec another critical technology involves vectorizing words into a geometric space where words with similar meanings are located close to each other this enables more nuanced understanding and generation of text based on semantic similarities rather than just syntactic rules generative AI has many business applications and can revolutionize several key areas let’s explore some in more detail firstly there’s content generation gpd models excel in generating written content by leveraging transformer architecture which allows them to understand context and generate coherent and contextually appropriate text these models are pre-trained on a wide variety of internet text and fine-tuned for specific applications enabling them to create highquality articles blogs and other written materials next is personalization the process starts with collecting user data from sources like websites apps and social media integrated data pipelines using tools like Apache Kafka or Google Cloud Data Flow consolidate this data in real time realtime analytics platforms such as Apache Spark streaming or AWS Kinesis process the data to extract insights which feed into a personalization engine that generates tailored recommendations content and communications these personalized interactions are delivered using APIs integrated with various platforms to ensure low latency responses edge computing technologies like AWS Green Grass or Azure IoT Edge process data closer to the user additionally there’s automation ai models trained on large data sets and using advanced algorithms automate these processes improving efficiency and reducing costs the technical backbone includes robotic process automation or RPA for executing repetitive tasks AI powered software tools for intelligent decision making and cloud services that provide the necessary scalability and support continuous learning and adaptation of the models this infrastructure ensures that AI systems remain upto-date and can handle increasing volumes of work effectively and finally innovation generative AI fosters innovation by simulating and modeling various scenarios to predict outcomes aiding businesses in developing new products and services with higher success rates this involves using advanced AI models for predictive analytics scenario planning and risk assessment including techniques like regression analysis time series forecasting Monte Carlo simulations Beijian networks and stress testing large data sets from diverse sources are processed using tools like Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark simulation tools such as digital twins and optimization algorithms are used to predict performance and find optimal solutions from what you have learned in this video it is clear that generative AI is a powerful tool that when leveraged responsibly can provide significant advantages to businesses by automating tasks personalizing customer experiences and driving innovation you’ve gained an understanding of how generative AI continues to evolve providing useful business applications as the technology continues to evolve it will likely become an even more integral part of the digital business landscape it’s no secret that generative AI has significantly transformed various job functions in the workplace from automating routine tasks to enhancing creative processes these systems use vast amounts of data to create new content make predictions and even make decisions despite its revolutionary potential generative AI is not without its pitfalls and shortcomings which raise several risks challenges and ethical considerations that must be carefully managed in this video you will gain further insight into these challenges and limitations but first let’s explore how generative AI can be integrated into different job functions in many sectors generative AI tools are employed to streamline operations and enhance productivity for example in roles such as content creation AI can produce drafts suggest edits and generate creative ideas which allows human workers to focus on more strategic aspects of their work similarly in software development AI can write code debug and even test software streamlining the development process and reducing time to market a significant shortcoming of generative AI was highlighted by the use of Open AI’s GPT3 in generating medical advice in one instance GPT3 was used to provide mental health support and it suggested to a simulated user experiencing distress to commit self harm this incident underscored the danger of relying on AI for sensitive tasks without robust safeguards the model generated harmful advice because it lacked the nuanced understanding and ethical judgment required in mental healthcare relying instead on patterns learned from its training data this example demonstrates the potential risks and severe consequences of deploying AI without adequate human oversight and ethical considerations these capabilities not only optimize efficiency but also offer significant cost savings and scalability for growing businesses however the integration of AI into these roles is not always seamless the reliance on AI can lead to job displacement as roles traditionally failed by humans become automated furthermore the quality of AI generated outputs can be inconsistent while AI excels in generating structured content it struggles with tasks requiring deep understanding or emotional intelligence often producing outputs that are awkward or contextually inappropriate earlier you learned that businesses need to adopt ethical considerations given the potential for bias in AI generated content since AI models learn from data they inherently acquire the biases found in their training data sets this can result in discriminatory practices such as favoring one demographic group over another when AI is used in HR for resume screening or job recommendations maintaining the privacy of personal data is a primary objective for businesses when using generative AI systems to interact with personal data care must be taken to ensure confidentiality and user privacy these systems can inadvertently expose sensitive information or even be used to generate deep fakes contributing to misinformation and potentially harming individuals reputations next let’s examine some of the challenges of reliability and accountability when using generative AI ai systems are notorious for their blackbox nature meaning the processes they use to reach conclusions are not always clear this lack of transparency can lead to reliability issues where businesses find it challenging to understand or predict the AI’s behavior this is particularly problematic in highstakes environments like healthcare or finance where unexpected AI decisions can have serious consequences accountability is another challenge when errors occur it’s difficult to determine responsibility between the AI developers the users and the AI itself this complicates legal and regulatory frameworks which are often illequipped to handle the novel implications of AI technology despite their advanced capabilities generative AI systems often lack common sense reasoning a basic human ability to make practical judgments about everyday situations ai can generate plausible sounding responses or content that upon closer examination is nonsensical or impractical this limitation is due to the AI’s reliance on pattern recognition instead of understanding underlying principles or contexts implementing generative AI in a workplace context involves various hurdles these include the technical challenge of integrating AI with existing IT systems the need for significant investment in technology and training and the ongoing requirement to update and maintain AI systems to adapt to new data or changing conditions additionally if an organization is resistant to change and its staff are doubtful about AI this can also make it harder to implement effectively to reduce potential harm and ensure ethical AI deployment it is crucial to adhere to guidelines like those set by major technology companies including Microsoft these guidelines emphasize fairness reliability privacy inclusiveness accountability and transparency organizations must commit to rigorous testing and auditing of AI systems to identify and correct biases protect data privacy and ensure that AI systems perform as intended without infringing on ethical norms in this video you’ll learn that while generative AI presents remarkable opportunities for transforming workplace operations and enhancing productivity its implementation must be approached with a nuanced understanding of its limitations and potential risks by prioritizing ethical considerations and responsible use organizations can harness the benefits of generative AI while mitigating its shortcomings this balanced approach is essential for realizing the full potential of AI technologies in a manner that respects human values and social standards at this point in the course you might view Microsoft Excel as a complicated software application or believe it’s only used for working with financial data however Excel is designed to be very userfriendly and can assist with many different types of data and tasks in this video you’ll discover Excel’s primary purpose and use cases and explore key parts of the software’s user interface including the command tabs adventure Works a multinational manufacturing company that produces and distributes bicycles and accessories globally needs to input some data into Excel to assist with this task the company has recruited you and your several new employees however before starting the task the company has decided to train you to use the software so that you can improve your experience with Excel this training will help you better manage and analyze the data required for the task at hand let’s begin by understanding what Excel can do for Adventure Works microsoft Excel is a software application that businesses use to store data like financial figures and create calculations based on this data users can interpret the data they store by creating visuals or using Excel’s built-in analysis features they can then use the insights derived from these interpretations to inform business strategies or influence decisions with Adventure Work’s vast product line and global presence Excel’s capabilities will be crucial in managing and analyzing its data efficiently before you can start using Excel it’s essential to understand how to navigate the software’s user interface and locate the features you need excel’s user interface is designed to be accessible and includes various elements that help you interact with the software effectively the first of these elements is the title bar it’s located at the top of the Excel window and displays the name of your file the search option and other essential features the worksheet is the primary area where you can input data into cells using either the keyboard or other input devices the command tabs are located below the title bar and provide quick access to Excel’s hundreds of commands which are organized in areas called tabs or ribbons to find the command you need click in the relevant tab to reveal the related commands let’s take a few moments to explore these features and discover how you can use them to input data one of the main areas of Excel is the grid this area contains the worksheet which is where you enter data or information it’s divided into rows and columns and you input information into cells where a column and row intersect just above the worksheet is the formula bar when you type information into a cell in the spreadsheet it appears in both the cell and the formula bar when you create a calculation the result appears in the cell while the formula that drives the result appears in the formula bar in other words the formula bar always shows the actual contents of the cell there is a green title bar at the top of the screen on the left is the autosave button in the browser version of Excel you can find the app launcher button here which you could use to access other Microsoft 365 programs the title bar also contains a useful undo button when autosave is turned on creating a new Excel document automatically assigns the name book to your new file you can view the file name within the title bar to rename a file select the title bar and type an alternative name file names can contain spaces and capital letters you can also use punctuation marks however it is best to avoid the use of punctuation marks as some characters are not permitted also file names can contain a maximum of 255 characters but it’s recommended that you use 31 characters at most you can select the same box to manage the location in which you store the file to the right of the file name is the search feature select the search box and then select find to open a dialogue box where you can search for content like text or figures in your files you can use the options choice in the bottom right of the dialogue box to refine and control Excel searches you can also search for a recent action you’ve applied to a cell next let’s explore the command tabs excel has hundreds of commands organized in storage areas called tabs or ribbons you can select a tab heading to view its ribbon and related commands let’s review the most frequently used tabs the home ribbon is the first ribbon that appears when you open a file it contains the most frequently used commands you’ll rely on for standard everyday tasks like formatting and sorting data you can use the commands on the insert ribbon to add different elements to a file like charts or comments the draw ribbon offers you drawing tools for marking your worksheet while the page layout ribbon lets you alter the appearance of a spreadsheet when printed the formulas ribbon contains commands that you can use to manage more complex calculations you can use the data ribbon to perform different actions with data such as transform query sort and filter operations adventure works are expected to work with large blocks of information and the data ribbons sort and filter commands are useful for these tasks you’ll mostly use the commands on the review ribbon once you’ve created a spreadsheet for example you can use them to manage security settings or collaborate with colleagues the view ribbon offers Excel users commands to make it easier to view large spreadsheets such as the freeze pane which keeps titles visible when moving through data blocks there are also extra tabs called contextual tabs that appear during specific actions or when certain items are selected for example if you add a bar plot to your worksheet then the chart design and format tabs appear on screen these extra tabs contain commands relevant to the tasks you’re working on this demonstration provided only a brief overview of Excel’s interface and it’s completely normal if you feel like you need more help with this information learning any new software requires time and practice so don’t worry if you don’t fully understand everything just yet as you continue through the course you’ll have more opportunities to explore these commands and features in greater depth and you’ll become more comfortable with Excel’s interface by learning about its key elements including the command tabs you’ve built a solid foundation of Excel’s primary purpose and use cases keep up the good work excel is a powerful tool for organizing and analyzing data but sometimes when you’re dealing with large amounts of information it can be difficult to make sense of it all that’s where formatting comes in in this video you’ll discover how to enter and format data in Excel to improve its readability adventure Works has created a list of its offices using Excel however important information is missing from these files it’s also difficult to read the data because it’s not correctly formatted let’s help Adventure Works to add and format its data the green cursor box is in the top leftand corner of the worksheet you can move the cursor by pointing and selecting on a cell the cell location indicator shows you where you are on the sheet you can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor as you type the entry appears in the cell and on the formula bar you can use the backspace key to delete any typing errors the office location is missing from cell C21 select on C-21 type Delaware and then press enter to confirm your entry the entry appears in the cell and formula bar the data lines up to the left of the cell to indicate that it’s text type the number 130422 and confirm it in cell E21 the entry sits to the right of the cell in Excel text aligns to the left of the cell and numbers to the right excel treats an entry that contains both letters and numbers as text you can also manually set the alignment with the alignment buttons on the home ribbon excel also offers an autocomplete feature as a shortcut for entering data for example column D already contains several instances of the word partner so if you type the letter P in cell D21 then Excel suggests the word partner as a possibility press enter to accept the suggestion you can also ignore it by continuing to type an alternative word next New Jersey needs to be added type the word new in C16 this prompts an incorrect suggestion so you must type New Jersey in full now if you type new in C17 Excel waits to see what letter is typed next before suggesting a word because there is more than one entry beginning with new in the browser version of Excel you’ll be presented with a drop-own list of multiple suggestions from which you could select New Jersey column C contains state names this results in a floating dialogue called convert to geography to appear select in the dialogue to instruct Excel to recognize text entries as geographic locations you can select on the card symbol to the left of the entry to interact with Bing to generate information about the location keep in mind that if you print your worksheets the card symbols beside the entries will appear on the print like other Microsoft 365 apps Excel has an undo feature in the desktop version this feature is located on the title bar in the browser version it is located to the left of the home ribbon select the undo feature to reverse recent actions in this case you’ll remove the geographic locations tag and return the entries to normal text the next action is to type New York in full in C18 autocomplete has no suggestions as New York hasn’t appeared in the column before a different shortcut called autofill can be used to add New York to C19 and C20 with the cursor still on C18 position the mouse pointer over the bottom right hand corner of the cell the pointer changes to a narrow black cross now hold down the mouse button and drag it down this action autofills the entry into the cells underneath now that you’ve entered the data in your spreadsheet you need to format it formatting data makes it easier to read and correct formatting on numeric entries prevents misunderstandings here the numbers in E2 and H21 are financial data to make this clear highlight the numbers by selecting all the data from E2 to H21 then select on the currency button in the number group the currencies are available on the drop-own menu alternatively you can use the comma format to display a comma separator and two decimal places you can use the increase or decrease decimal buttons to customize the number of decimal places the percentage button is both a format and an action button it adds the percentage symbol and it also multiplies the cell content by 100 select undo to reverse this the dropown above these buttons presents other number formats these formats include dates as dates are treated as numbers in Excel your next task is to format the column titles so that they stand out type the heading state code in B1 the text overflows into the adjacent empty cell once you add state in C1 two characters of the B1 heading are masked however the formula bar confirms that the whole heading is still there the column’s title is partially hidden you need to make the full title visible from the home ribbon choose wrap text to stack the words in the cell you can also format a heading to stand out using font options in this example the size of the heading has been increased to Calibbri 12 and a blue background color has been applied you can also center the heading using the alignment section of the ribbon another Excel shortcut is the format painter which is found on the left of the home ribbon this shortcut copies format settings from one cell to another select in the format painter to display a paintbrush and copy B1’s style then highlight A1 to H1 to paint those cells with a copied format this action also copies the wrap text and center alignments you should now be familiar with the different methods and shortcuts you can use to enter and format data in Excel this video also demonstrated how this knowledge can be applied to help Adventure Works complete and format their Excel sheet great work reading and editing the contents of a large spreadsheet with hundreds or even thousands of data entries can seem like a large task thankfully Microsoft Excel offers several features and keyboard shortcuts that help you navigate and edit your spreadsheets over the next few minutes you’ll explore these features and shortcuts and learn how to use them adventure Works has sent you a large inventory file they need you to check the current information in the file and add some new data there are over 100 entries in the file to navigate through however you can quickly review these entries and add new ones through Excel’s navigation features and keyboard shortcuts there are several useful navigation and editing features available in Excel the freeze panes feature for example keeps an area of the screen static you could use it to freeze a specific row the static area remains on screen while you scroll freely through the other content you can use the new window option to open a second viewpoint of your file with this feature you can keep one part of the file within view as you work in another area name box is another useful Excel feature the name box is the title of an area located between the ribbon and the worksheet to the left of the formula bar when you type a cell reference in this box and press enter the cell cursor moves to that position on the sheet the name box can also be used to assign a name to a cell finally there are also several keyboard shortcuts that you can use to speed up the navigation and editing of a spreadsheet let’s discover more about how these features and shortcuts operate by helping Adventure Works first you need to freeze key rows to give yourself a more efficient view of the data from the window group of the view ribbon you can access several options two of these include freeze panes and new window select the freeze pane drop-down to view three choices freeze panes freeze top row and freeze first column select freeze top row to turn the row currently visible at the top of the screen static be aware that row one isn’t always the top visible row a horizontal line appears under the top row to indicate the static area the selected frozen row remains static while the other rows below it scroll off screen you can also select freeze first column to turn the first column currently visible on screen static in this case it’s the category column again the first column column A isn’t always the one that becomes static selecting the freeze first column option automatically turns off the freeze first row option once you’ve frozen an area of the screen the first choice in the freeze panes drop-down menu changes to unfreeze pane select the unfreeze pane to release all static areas on screen what if you need to freeze the screen in two directions at the same time for example to help Adventure Works view its worksheet more clearly you need to make sure that all row titles and the data in columns A and B are visible to do this you first need to select on C2 to move the cursor to that position then in the freeze panes dropdown select the freeze panes option once this option is selected Excel identifies the cursor position and freezes everything above and to its left your cursor is currently on C2 so Excel freezes columns A and B along with row one again you can use the unfreeze panes option on the freeze panes dropdown to release all areas of the screen you must also have the totals in row 152 available on the screen while editing other areas of the spreadsheet you can use the new window command to open another view of the file in a new window this window isn’t a separate copy of the file it’s just a different view of the same file with both views visible you can now review the totals data in row 152 while editing the cells in other areas of the spreadsheet to close this second view just select the X in the top right hand corner of its window you can also move quickly around the worksheet using keyboard shortcuts let’s take a moment to explore some keyboard shortcuts available to Windows users press control and home to jump to cell A1 at the top left of the worksheet if on the freeze panes top row choice is turned on the cursor will instead jump to cell A2 but what if you need to move to the end of your work to continue data entry press control and end to move the cursor to the last cell in the worksheet that contains content rather than simply moving the cursor hold down the shift key while pressing either the control and home or the control and end combinations excel selects the entire block as it moves the cursor you can also use the name box to move quickly to specific cells the name box is located to the left of the formula bar the box typically displays the cell reference for your cursor’s current position however if you type a different cell reference and press enter your cursor jumps to the specified cell the name box is also a useful method for assigning names to cells a cell name helps users to identify data content since it’s more descriptive than just a cell reference adventure Works needs you to rename cell 152 to units in stock so position the cursor on the cell then in name box type the text units underscore in underscore stock and press enter cell names must be unique and cannot contain spaces you can use the underscore symbol to substitute for spaces if the cell is referenced in a calculation its name and reference are visible you can view the name from the drop-own list in the name box you can check which cell the name is assigned by selecting the name manager on the formula ribbon in the dropown select the cell name to move the cursor to the cell you can use these same steps to view and access this cell from any sheet in the workbook for example from the products two sheet selecting the units in stock cell name from the name box dropdown brings you back to that cell on the products one sheet you should now know the Excel features and shortcuts to help you navigate and edit spreadsheets you can use these tools to assist you in any Adventure Works Excelbased assignments well done have you ever opened a Microsoft Excel worksheet only to find the content structure difficult to interpret perhaps it contains irrelevant entries or needs too much scrolling to navigate in this video you’ll learn how to use Excel’s sort and filter features to organize content so you can read and identify data quickly and efficiently over at Adventure Works the company checked its inventory data for records related to a specific supplier however the Excel file that contains the data is poorly structured and difficult to navigate adventure Works needs your help to sort and filter the information so that only the suppliers data is visible before you begin helping Adventure Works let’s examine the concepts of sorting and filtering in Excel excel offers users a series of sort and filter commands these commands change the position of data in the worksheet window so that it’s easier to understand in other words they don’t change the data they change how it’s displayed it’s also important to remember that the sort and filter commands are not the same they work on data in different ways you need to understand these differences to prevent any misreading of the data let’s begin with the sort feature the sort feature is found in the sort and filter group in the data ribbon this feature reorders the worksheet by physically moving rows into new positions to return the data to its original position you must use the undo command however if a sort was not your last action you may inadvertently reverse other steps you should also be careful if saving your workbook after applying a sort once your changes are saved the sort order applied to the data is permanent and an undo is no longer possible now that you’re familiar with the sort feature let’s focus on filtering filtering refineses the data displayed based on the criteria of your choosing however unlike with sort the rows are not repositioned instead Excel hides all the rows that don’t match your chosen criteria this leaves a subset of rows visible this subset can be reduced further by applying more filters let’s learn more about how these actions work by helping Adventure Works restructure its inventory Excel file the Adventure Works inventory Excel file is currently sorted by category you need to restructure it using the sort and filter commands access these commands from the sort and filter group in the data ribbon the sort ascending and sort descending commands are shortcut choices when you select one Excel checks the location of your cursor it then uses the column in which the cursor is located as the key for the sort place your cursor on column B which is the date entered column then select sort ascending which is now called oldest to newest the rows are now organized in date order excel interprets dates as numbers so it has performed a numeric sort had you placed the cursor in the supplier column Excel would have performed a textbased sort you can select undo on the title bar to restore the previous row order adventure Works has requested that the data be sorted by supplier the data in column D and that the most recent entry is visible first within each block of supplier data sorting by the supplier and then sorting by the date won’t work here because one sort would cancel out the other instead you need to perform a multi-level sort this technique lets you sort data in two ways simultaneously first from the sort and filter group of the data tab select the sort button to open a sort dialogue box at the top right of the dialogue box you need to confirm that there’s a tick in the my data has headers box this instructs Excel to exclude the first row from the sort next use the drop-own menu under column to instruct Excel to perform the first sort by supplier you can retain the defaults of sort and sell values and sort A to Z then select the add button to display additional sort fields use these fields to configure the second sort level by data entered again retain the defaults of sort and cell values but change the order to newest to oldest then select okay to exit the dialogue box and sort the data as required you have now sorted the data by supplier and date entered select undo on the title bar to reverse the sort next Adventure Works needs you to filter the records to view only the data related to the supplier called Cycles the first step when filtering is to turn on the filtering feature select the filter button on the sort and filter group of the data tab to add filter arrows to each column heading you can now filter the data using the arrows next to each heading to open drop-own lists each filter arrow also has an additional submen to allow for more precise filtering excel recognizes the type of content in the column and generates contextsensitive choices such as equals does not equal begins with and more select the arrow next to the supplier column heading to display a list of suppliers a tick mark beside an entry indicates that its rows are currently visible remove the tick marks next to list entries except for cycles as then select apply excel hides all other rows in the worksheet so that only the cycles as data is visible there are now only 10 rows visible in the sheet all of which relate to cycles as you can confirm this by checking the bottom left of the Excel screen here it states that 10 records were found select the arrow next to the unit price to apply another filter from the drop-down put a tick in the box to the left of item seven then select the apply button the filter only works on the 10 visible records so you have now displayed only rows where cycles as is the supplier and seven is the unit price you might ask yourself how do I know if data has been filtered in Excel there are two ways to determine if data has been filtered the first is to check the filter arrow to the right of the column heading if there is a funnel symbol on the filter arrow then your list is filtered the other method is to check for breaks in the sequence of row numbers on the left hand side of the display area for example a row sequence of 8 9 112 indicates that rows 10 to 111 have been filtered out so how can you remove filtering to make other data visible again in the column header select the arrow or arrow and funnel symbol then select the clear filter option from the drop-own menu to clear a specific filter while retaining the others you can also select the clear choice in the sort and filter group of the data tab to clear all filters you’ve now removed all filters and restored the full data display thanks to your help Adventure Works has the inventory data it needs and you should now be familiar with using the sort and filter actions to organize and identify data quickly and efficiently well done congratulations on reaching the end of the first week in this course on preparing data for analysis with Microsoft Excel in this week you explored the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel by learning how to create workbook content and work with blocks of data in Excel let’s take a few minutes to recap the key skills you gained during this week’s lessons you began with an introduction to the program in which you discovered what topics you will learn about as you progress through the different courses you were also given guidance on how to be successful in this course this guidance included helpful tips on how to structure your study and ways in which you can approach the learning material you were then introduced to other learners in a meet and greet session during which you explained why you’re taking this course and what you hope to achieve from it finally you explored a list of valuable resources you can use to succeed in the course in the second lesson you learned how to create workbook content you began this module with an introduction to Microsoft Excel you developed an understanding of the importance and function of the application including how it’s used in everyday business to store calculate and gain insights from data you then learned how to navigate Excel using its user interface or UI the UI is comprised of three key areas there’s the title bar which contains the name of your file the search option and other primary features the worksheet is the main area used to input data into cells and the command tabs provide quick access to Excel’s commands which are organized in areas called tabs or ribbons you then learned how to enter and format data in Excel you explored the different ways data can be added to a worksheet you discovered how to use formatting to improve the readability of a spreadsheet and you reviewed keyboard shortcuts for data entry and formatting next you learned how to manage worksheets you then undertook an exercise where you demonstrated your new skills by adding data to a worksheet this was followed by a knowledge check which tested your understanding of the material finally you explored additional resources to enhance your learning in the third and final lesson of this week you focused on working with blocks of data in Excel you began the lesson by learning how to read large data blocks in Excel you explored Excel’s navigation and editing features such as the freeze panes feature the new window feature and the name box feature and keyboard shortcuts you then developed an understanding of the concepts of sort and filter you learned how to identify the key differences between both and you learned how to sort and filter data in Excel so that you can organize and identify data quickly and efficiently you then explored different methods for sorting data in a worksheet including alpha numeric sort and the multi-level sort feature and you discovered how to use the filter feature to control data visibility in a worksheet next you undertook an exercise in which you demonstrated your new skills by sorting and filtering data in a worksheet this was followed by a knowledge check and module quiz both items tested your understanding of the material by presenting questions focused on the key concepts you explored you should now be familiar with the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel you should be capable of creating workbook content and using different methods for working with blocks of data great work i look forward to guiding you through the lessons next week in which you’ll learn how to use formulas and functions in Excel analyzing data often involves making calculations however when working with large blocks of data calculations can quickly become confusing luckily Microsoft Excel can calculate numerical information using formulas you can solve real life data analysis problems in Excel with a little bit of planning and some basic math over the next few minutes you’ll learn how
Excel processes calculations and how to create a formula using the correct syntax over at Adventure Works the accounting staff are amending a spreadsheet that records orders placed with suppliers their first task is to update the prices and order amounts they need to work out the purchasing cost by creating a calculation in the data but first they need to understand how Excel reads interprets and implements calculations let’s take a few minutes to explore formulas and calculations and then help Adventure Works a formula in Excel is a calculation performed on the values in a range of cells in your worksheets examples of these calculations include addition subtraction multiplication and division once the calculation is completed the formula returns a result even if it’s an error now that you’re familiar with what a formula is let’s find out more about how they work all formulas begin with an equal sign it is then followed by a calculation or function formulas can contain numbers or cell references for example this formula instructs Excel to add the values in cells A1 and B1 excel usually reads the formula from left to right characters are used to indicate the type of calculation Excel should perform the plus character is used for addition and the minus character for subtraction the asterisk is used for multiplication and the forward slash character is used for division the formula bar shows the formula in the cell you are working in the worksheet shows the result of the formula in the formula bar this is important to take note of when you are creating or working with calculations a formula can also be static or dynamic a formula containing fixed numbers will be static and always generate the same result for example the formula in E2 is static because it contains specific numerical values it will not update if any of the monthly figures in cells A2 B2 or C2 change on the other hand a formula that contains cell references is dynamic based because Excel always uses the current value in the cell the formula in E3 is dynamic because it includes cell references a formula can also include a reference to a cell which itself contains a formula this creates a chain of calculations for example the formula in E1 refers to cell C1 cell C1 also contains a formula that calculates the data in cells A1 and B1 if the values in cells A1 and B1 change then the formulas in cells C1 and E1 will both change in other words a change at one end affects all other formulas in the chain a formula can also refer to a cell in another sheet this reference must include the worksheet name followed by an exclamation mark this other worksheet can be in the same workbook or in another Excel file references to cells in other workbooks are called links or external references the formula in this screenshot references the product sheet within the same workbook for example this formula states that what is in this cell is equal to the contents of H2 in the product sheet plus the contents of A1 in this sheet now that you’re familiar with the basics of a formula let’s view it in action by helping Adventure Works determine the cost of the items it’s ordering from its supplier begin by positioning the cursor on K3 which is the cost column this is the cell where the results should be displayed then type an equal sign to determine the cost of the order you need to multiply the contents of I3 the unit price by the contents of J3 the number ordered select cell I3 to add that reference to the formula the equal sign and the cell reference are displayed in both the result cell K3 and in the formula bar next type an asterisk symbol to represent multiplication then select cell J3 this reference is colored red on the formula bar and the cell is highlighted in red press the enter key to complete the formula this creates a result of 79,050 which is now visible in K3 adventure Works decide to make a change to its order it wants to reduce the number of units that it ordered by 250 so how can Adventure Works update the formula with this new information amend the figure in J3 and press enter this causes the formula in K3 to recalculate and generate a new result of $65,875 if you double click on a cell such as K3 this opens edit mode while you’re in edit mode Excel places colored highlights around the cells referenced in the calculation it’s easy to begin to edit a cell accidentally with a double click if the cell contains a formula particularly one you didn’t create this can be a little worrying pressing the escape key is a safe way to cancel an edit without amending any of the information within a cell you have explored how calculations in Excel can be useful in data analysis by now you should know how Excel processes calculations and how to create a formula using the correct syntax you will learn more about formulas as you progress in your learning journey well done microsoft Excel doesn’t just store data it also assists with calculations a fundamental component of Excel and data analysis so it’s important that your calculations are correct and reliable in this video you’ll learn how Excel processes calculations discover how to construct the syntax for calculations and edit your syntax to avoid errors jamie at Adventure Works is working on a purchase sheet it has been updated to include information on new orders placed with suppliers she now needs to create calculations that correctly display the difference between purchasing costs and sales amounts the formulas she creates will contain a mixture of multiplication and subtraction and she needs to be confident that those operations are happening in the correct sequence let’s take a few minutes to explore how these formulas work beginning with operators the symbols that are used to indicate mathematical actions in Excel are known as operators operators are used for actions like addition subtraction multiplication and division for example you can use operators to add the values of two cells together or divide the value of one cell by another when working through a formula Excel does not always calculate the expressions or steps in a formula from left to right excel handles the operators in a calculation according to a key mathematical principle called the order of precedence the order of precedence assigns greater importance to some of the mathematical symbols over others this means that Excel calculates formulas according to the hierarchical position of each symbol within the order of precedence don’t worry if you don’t fully understand what the order of precedence is this is covered in a later reading in terms of importance Excel tries to process division and multiplication symbols before addition and subtraction however you can control how Excel executes calculations by using parenthesis in your formulas this is a key technique in creating formulas that generate reliable results parenthesis instruct Excel as to which part of a calculation must be executed first even if this would contradict the order of precedence let’s explore the use of parenthesis in formulas you want Excel to add the numbers two and three together and then multiply the subtotal result by 4 so you type this formula as equal sign 2 + 3 * 4 however Excel will not process this calculation left to right instead Excel will first multiply 3 by 4 which gives a result of 12 it will then add two giving a formula result of 14 this is because the multiplication symbol has a higher priority in the order of presidents adding parentheses to the calculation allows you to instruct Excel to do this bit first so you could rewrite your calculation by placing part of the formula in this instance 2 + 3 in parenthesis now you’ve directed Excel to add 2 and 3 as its first step and then multiply the result of that addition by four the result of this calculation would be 20 and not 14 as it was previously it is important to have a clear understanding of where to put parenthesis in a calculation placing parentheses in the wrong position in a formula or not including them at all could change how Excel understands and implements the calculation an incorrect calculation result may not always be obvious as it may seem plausible there are also times when you may need to reproduce cell entries and formulas within a worksheet when a formula is copied it is important to consider the appearance of the cell references there are two ways a cell reference can appear in a calculation these are relative and absolute a relative cell reference means that if you copy a formula to a new cell Excel will adjust the row numbers or the column initials in the cell references to update the formula relative to its new location this ensures that the formula is correct for the row or column it has been copied to for example the formula in K3 which reads equal sign I3 multiplied by J3 is copied down using the autofill feature excel adjusts the cell references for each row but what if a cell reference needs to say the same when the formula is copied elsewhere for this to happen you must make the cell reference into an absolute reference when Excel copies a formula it keeps absolute references constant and does not adjust them for example if the formula in L3 is copied down through the column then the reference for the cell that contains the exchange rate needs to say the same when the formula in L3 is copied down the K3 reference in the formula will adjust to include a different row number however the N2 reference in the formula should not change since the exchange rate is only mentioned in that one cell to make a cell reference absolute add a dollar sign before the column initial and before the row number this instructs Excel to keep the cell reference constant during the copy operation this means that all copies of the formulas will contain the original cell reference don’t worry if you find these concepts difficult to follow you’ll explore how to control calculations in more detail in a later video there are also additional resources available at the end of the lesson excel will also recalculate and update all formula results when a file is opened files that contain a lot of complex calculations will be slower to open fully on screen than ones that only contain data fortunately you can turn the automatic recalculation feature off just remember to switch it on when you are done working with the file to change the recalculation mode select the calculation options dropown on the formulas ribbon then on the dropown select the recalculation mode you need for your file well done you now know how to control how Excel works through the steps in a formula you’re also able to identify the correct syntax to use if calculations are going to be copied elsewhere in the spreadsheet great work a Microsoft Excel formula can be complex and include many steps in this video you’ll explore the correct syntax for Excel calculations that contain multiple steps and discover how to adjust a formula to ensure that it copies a calculation correctly amy at Adventure Works is preparing a price quote in a worksheet for the client Kontoso Bikes the client wants to order bicycle parts for their retail outlets let’s find out more about how Amy can control her worksheet calculations to ensure that the prices are correct for the client amy has already listed the required items and their respective prices adventure Works are offering a 10% discount to the customer adventure Works charges different prices for delivery based on the region that the customer outlet is in contoso Bikes has four retail outlets two in region A and two in region B the spreadsheet also shows data for region C however this region is not the focus of this video amy must ensure that two different delivery rates are used in her formulas let’s help her create calculations firstly cell G6 must show the result of the cost per unit multiplied by the quantity ordered position the cursor on cell G6 and type an equal sign to begin the first calculation select cell E6 and type a star from multiplication then select F6 press enter to complete the calculation and generate the subtotal next Adventure Works needs to calculate the client’s 10% discount select cell H6 and type an equal sign select the subtotal amount in G6 to work out the 10% amount you need to divide by 100 and multiplied by 10 add the forward slash symbol for divide and type 100 then add the star symbol for multiply and type 10 excel processes these calculations from left to right it first divides the figure in G6 by 100 and then multiplies the result by 10 press enter to get the discount figure now you need to work out the total cost excluding delivery select cell I6 and type an equal sign then select G6 to select the subtotal and type a minus symbol to subtract the discount select cell H6 to select the discount however before pressing enter to complete the calculation there’s another step to consider this order needs to be duplicated for each of Ktoso bikes four outlets so the total cost excluding delivery needs to be multiplied by the value in cell I2 to calculate this type a star select cell I2 and press enter but something has gone wrong with the result of this formula because the total amount is less than the subtotal select I6 to return to edit mode in your formula the multiplication operator has higher priority or precedence than the minus operator in other words the multiplication operator is higher in the order of precedence so Excel takes the discount in H6 multiplies it by the value in I2 and then subtracts that value from the total to work around this add an opening parenthesis before G6 and a closing parenthesis after H6 this ensures that Excel processes the subtraction operator before the multiplication operator press enter to execute the formula and generate the correct value next you need to calculate the total amount if it is to include the cost of delivery remember there are two different prices for delivery one price for each region so there must be subtotals in this formula the formula in the cell also requires a mixture of addition and multiplication symbols so you need to use parenthesis to work with the order of precedence select cell J6 and type an equal sign select I6 to include the total cost if excluding delivery then type a plus symbol type an opening parenthesis and the number two add a star symbol and then select cell M2 include a closing parenthesis type another plus symbol add an opening parenthesis a number two and a star select cell M3 type the closing parenthesis press enter to calculate the result the total cost when delivery is included is $22,930 amy now needs to calculate these same costs for all the remaining categories in the worksheet you could help her by using the autofill feature to copy the formulas that you’ve created to save time however some cell references will need to be made absolute to prevent the autofill process from changing them select cell I6 type a dollar sign in front of the letter I and another dollar sign in front of the number two press enter the formula in J6 also requires a dollar sign this time instead of typing out each dollar sign let’s use a shortcut method enter edit mode on cell J6 position the cursor on the M2 reference this is the region A delivery charge press the F4 key on the keyboard to bring up the dollar signs repeat this action for the M3 reference the region B delivery charge then press enter to complete the formula it’s now safe to use autofill to copy these formulas as the required cell references will remain absolute position the cursor on G6 a shortcut for autofill is available because there is a block of data to the left position the mouse pointer on the bottom right hand corner of the cursor so that it becomes a black cross then double click the mouse button excel uses the block of data to the left as a reference and copies the formulas down to G15 repeat this process on cells H6 I6 and J6 to complete the worksheet you have now helped Amy to calculate the various costs for Kontoso bikes orders you should now be able to recognize situations in which you need to adjust the syntax in a formula to control how it’s processed in Excel you’ve also learned some useful shortcuts for absolute references and autofill these shortcuts will help you to work more quickly and efficiently on your worksheets at this stage of the course you should be familiar with creating and working with formulas but you don’t always have to create your own formulas as you’ll soon discover Excel offers predefined formulas called functions that you can use to perform calculations in this video you’ll discover what function formulas are explore their syntax and learn how to use them to perform calculations over at Adventure Works the company is approaching the end of its financial year lucas in accounts has been tasked with calculating the total quarterly sales for each regional sales team you can help Lucas carry out this task using Excel function formulas but first you need to learn what functions are and recognize their syntax let’s begin by defining a function a function is a predefined formula that performs a calculation based on values specified by the user for example a simple function could total the values in two cells or a more complex function could calculate repayments on a bank loan functions are useful because they allow for more complex calculations they also facilitate dynamic content that responds to changes in the worksheet excel contains many built-in functions these built-in functions are grouped into different categories which can be accessed from the formulas tab or ribbon there are several categories visible when you access this ribbon select the more functions option to view the others these categories are organized so that you can locate the functions most relevant to your day-to-day requirements for example Excel offers functions for financial date and time and math calculations you’ll explore each of these categories in more details as you progress through the course you can also refer to the Microsoft page Excel functions by category article link in the additional resources so now that you know what a function is let’s explore its elements the first element of a function formula is the name of the function this takes the form of a single word such as sum the sum function adds all the values within a selected range of cells the second element of the formula is the arguments as you’ve just learned a function calculates data this data or information is referred to as an argument the data it accepts is also custom you can add your own information to the formula to direct and control the action of the function it’s important to remember that each function requires a different list of arguments some arguments are mandatory a function can’t carry out its task without them however other arguments are optional they exist to provide different choices around additional elements like formatting your results so how do you construct a function formula like any other calculation a function formula begins with an equal sign you then need to write the function name for example equals followed by sum the next step is to write the arguments arguments are contained within a pair of parenthesis so begin by typing an open parenthesis then list the arguments as an example you could follow a sum function with the argument open parenthesis C2 colon C4 make sure to separate arguments from one another using characters such as commas or colons instead of spaces or periods when you finish typing your arguments end your function formula with a closing parenthesis you now have an argument that instructs Excel to add all data in cells C2 to C4 when executed this formula returns a result that calculates the values within this cell range function formulas can contain more complex arguments but this simple example is a great starting point to help familiarize you with the syntax now that you know how to construct a basic function formula let’s make use of your new skills and help Lucas create a sum function to obtain the totals for Adventure Works sales figures adventure Works sales data is contained in an Excel workbook called annual sales totals the workbook contains a worksheet called sheet one this sheet contains five columns the first column lists the months of the year one month per row the other four columns contain the names and data for each regional sales team each column contains 12 sales totals one for each month let’s begin by calculating the sales totals for team A first you need to place the cursor on the cell where the result of your function must appear place your cursor on cell B14 underneath the sales data for team A this is the cell where the overall sales total must appear now you can write your function first type an equal sign then type the name of your function in this instance you need to add the data so you can use a sum function function names are not case sensitive you can type them in upper or lower case once written Excel displays them in uppercase as you type the word sum a list of suggested functions appears this list is a useful shortcut for accessing functions quickly but for now you can continue typing the formula now that you’ve stated the name of your function you need to outline your arguments type an open parenthesis a floating help message appears with argument prompts if the prompt is in bold then the argument is required if the argument is in square parenthesis then it is optional in other words it’s not required for the function to work in this instance you’re writing a custom argument type B2 colon B13 then type a closing parenthesis to end your argument the sum function and your custom argument instruct Excel to calculate or add numeric total of all data in cells B2 to B13 just like the example you explored earlier press enter to execute the function the result shows that team A sales total for the year was $971,000 now that you’ve calculated the sales total for team A you can copy the function formula to the other cells in the row using the autofill shortcut select cell B14 position the mouse pointer over the bottom right hand corner of the cursor to turn it into a black cross hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor to the right as far as cell E14 as it copies the data from cell to cell excel also adjusts the formula to total the cells in each column for the remaining teams lucas now has the sales totals for each of Adventure Works sales teams thanks to your help Lucas successfully created the function formula he needed to complete his task and having assisted Lucas you should now know what functions are be able to read the syntax of a function and know how to use a function to perform a calculation creating a formula with a function for the first time can be intimidating how many arguments does it require what’s the correct syntax thankfully Excel offers a useful insert function tool that provides a framework for creating a function formula in this video you’ll explore the insert function tool and function categories and learn how to create a function over at Adventure Works the company is busy calculating the annual sales total for each regional team the sales data is contained in a worksheet called sheet one the worksheet lists all four teams and their respective sales totals for each month let’s help Adventure Works calculate each team’s total sales using the insert function feature begin by positioning the cursor on cell B14 this is the cell in which your sales total must appear for team A now you can access the insert function feature there are two ways to open this feature the first is by selecting the insert function button on the left hand side of the formulas ribbon or you can select the insert function option on the worksheet screen to the left of the formula bar selecting either one of these options opens the insert function dialogue box in the middle of this dialogue box is a list of functions you can navigate through these functions using the scroll bar however this is a brief list that doesn’t contain all available functions above this list is a drop-own box with the heading most recently used to the left of this dropdown is a prompt called or select a category because the category choice is set to most recently used the list underneath contains functions that you’ve recently used in your worksheet formulas as you work through Excel you’ll most likely make frequent use of the same functions over time this list will populate with your most used functions providing a useful quick access shortcut you can select each function in the list to display a short description of its purpose in the bottom left of the dialogue box is a blue hyperlink called help on this function this is a contextsensitive link select it to visit the help page for your selected function on the Microsoft support site if your required function isn’t on this list then select the drop-own arrow to the right of most recently used you can select another category to open a different list of functions for example you need to use the sum function to complete the calculation task for adventure works you can access a sum function from the math and trigonometry category when you select this category the list of available functions changes you can learn more about which functions correspond to which categories in the additional resources remember that you can select a function for an explanation of what it does or you can highlight a function name in the list then select the blue help hyperlink for more detail the function list is arranged alphabetically so scroll down to the S section select sum and then select okay this action opens another dialogue box called function arguments there are two boxes at the top of this dialogue labeled number one and number two respectively notice that the text number one is bolded this indicates that an entry is required here the text number two is not bolded which indicates that it is optional however you might use it in a situation where you require a total for blocks of numbers at separate locations in the spreadsheet in the adventure worksheet Excel has identified the block of numbers directly above your cursor position so it’s suggesting that you include the cell range B2 to B13 in your total in the background on the formula bar Excel has already constructed the calculation for you it has included not only the cell references but also the equal sign the parenthesis and the colon if Excel has suggested the wrong block of cells then you can select the navigate button to select a different range or edit the formula the navigate button is an arrow pointing upwards at the right of the number one box selecting this arrow temporarily collapses the dialogue box and returns you to the spreadsheet so that you can change the selection the navigation arrow to the right of the number box is now an arrow pointing downwards selecting this arrow restores the full function arguments dialogue box just above the blue help link on this dialogue is a formula result which in this case is a total you should also be aware of warning messages that could appear here these warnings are often generated by errors that are created when working with more complex function formulas you’ve now selected the required function and you’ve made sure that the syntax is correct and targets the required data select okay to add the completed formula to the worksheet when executed this function formula generates a sales total of $971,000 for team A adventure Works can copy this formula across the row to generate sales totals for the other teams thanks to your use of the insert function feature Adventure Works now have the required sales data and you should now be familiar with the function tool understand its categories and be able to make use of the tool to create a function formula congratulations on reaching the end of this second week in this course on preparing data for analysis with Microsoft Excel this week you explored how to create and work with formulas and functions in Excel let’s take a few minutes to recap what you learned in this week’s lessons you began the first lesson by learning about formulas you learned that a formula in Excel is a calculation performed on the values in a range of cells in your worksheets examples of these calculations include addition subtraction multiplication and division once the calculation is completed the formula returns a result even if it is an error you then learned how formulas work different characters or operators are used to indicate what type of calculation Excel should perform examples of operators and calculations include addition subtraction multiplication and division the formula bar shows the formula in the cell you are working in while the worksheet shows the result of the formula in the formula bar formulas can also be static or dynamic a static formula means that the numbers are fixed so it always generates the same results a dynamic formula is one in which the results depend on the current values in the reference cells a formula can also include a reference to a cell that itself contains a formula creating a chain of calculations and a formula can also refer to a cell in another sheet this reference must include the worksheet name followed by an exclamation mark you then learned how to control calculations you learned that when working through a formula Excel handles the operators according to the order of precedence this means that Excel calculates formulas according to the hierarchical position of each symbol within the order of precedence the hierarchy is as follows excel first calculates division and multiplication operators it then calculates addition and subtraction operators however you also discovered that you could control a calculation using parenthesis in formulas parenthesis instruct Excel as to which part of a calculation must be executed first even if this would contradict the order of precedence there are also times when you may need to reproduce cell entries and formulas within a worksheet when a formula is copied it is important to consider the appearance of the cell references there are two ways that a cell reference can appear in a calculation relative and absolute a relative cell reference means that Excel adjusts the cell reference of a copied formula relative to its new location to make sure it’s correct and an absolute reference means that Excel keeps the reference constant it doesn’t adjust it you learned that to make a cell reference absolute you must add a dollar sign before the column initial and before the row number you also explored different percentage calculations and you learned how to create reliable percentage formulas using the correct syntax throughout the lesson you put your new knowledge to use by assisting Adventure Works with many different calculation tasks one of these tasks was in the exercise in the exercise you calculated Adventure Works profits and margins in preparation for a presentation to complete this task you created a calculation that relied on the company’s revenue data and you made sure that your calculation followed the best practices you had explored during the lesson you then undertook a knowledge check in this item you proved your understanding of the concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions finally you explored a list of additional resources designed to help you improve your knowledge of the topics in this lesson in the second lesson of this week you learned how to get started with functions you began by learning that a function is a predefined formula that performs a calculation based on values specified by the user you then discovered that Excel contains many built-in functions grouped into separate categories which can be accessed from the formulas tab or ribbon you then explored the two elements of a function the first element of a function is the name such as sum next is the arguments an argument is the data a function accepts arguments are mandatory but the data can be custom you then learned how to construct an argument in Excel like any other calculation a function formula begins with an equal sign you then need to write the function name for example equals followed by sum the next step is to write the arguments within a pair of parenthesis when you finished typing your arguments end your function formula with a closing parenthesis you also learned that you could create a function using the insert function tool the tool is a framework for building functions it’s accessed using the formulas ribbon or from the worksheet screen the tool lets you build a function from a series of drop-own lists and it provides useful tips for building functions and warnings for when they’re incorrect you then explored the autosum shortcut the autosum shortcut is a method of adding formulas in Excel it provides quick access to core functions that Excel users make daily use of the functions it provides access to include the sum function which adds all values within a selected range of cells the average function used to calculate the average of the selected range and the different versions of the count functions these are useful methods of counting the numbers of cells in a given range that contain or don’t contain specified values there’s also the max function which displays the cell with the largest value from a given range and finally the min function this function displays the cell with the lowest value from a given range you can also reproduce calculations quickly and easily in a worksheet using the autofill feature just like in the previous lesson you put your new knowledge to use by assisting Adventure Works with many different functions this included the exercise item in the exercise you helped Adventure Works to prepare a monthly sales report to complete this task you prepared the report using a series of functions and you made sure that your calculation followed the best practices you had explored during the lesson you then undertook a knowledge check and a module quiz in which you proved your understanding of the concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions you’ve now reached the end of this module summary it’s time to move on to the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you’ve learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore some additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson best of luck we’ll meet again during next week’s lessons you check the results of a recently performed data analysis only to discover the results are wrong a quick inspection of the data set reveals errors in the data raw data needs to be correct and trustworthy because this information influences decisions so you always need to check for errors and resolve any you find in this video you’ll explore the common data errors in Microsoft Excel and discover how they could negatively impact data analysis jamie at Adventure Works is working on a spreadsheet that contains a large amount of customer and sales information she’s assessing if the contents are reliable enough to be used for data analysis to deliver new insights on customer behavior however the spreadsheet contains some common errors these errors must be resolved before she can make use of the data let’s take a few minutes to examine the types of errors that Jaime should be checking for many common errors or mistakes that you might find in your data set are often made by those who entered the data they might be unfamiliar with the software or technology or they’re just not paying attention a common mistake is that a name or keyphrase is misspelled in that case Excel might not link the entry to other important details as it should or it might not find the entry in a search for example Jaime’s spreadsheet tracks sales figures by region column C tracks the city in which each sale was made if she types the city Chicago as the latest entry without the A or types it in the wrong column Excel would ignore that entry when asked to summarize or total the sales results for that city entries can be misidentified during the data analysis process if they contain unnecessary characters for example Jaime types a dollar character before the numbers in her entries these entries are considered text excel would not include those amounts in a number calculation in a wider data analysis process they might be ignored altogether remember in Excel a currency amount should always be typed as numbers in the cell first then you should apply the currency symbol or the comma separator using a number format unnecessary spaces before or after entries can also create difficulties they don’t stand out on screen in the same way as other text or number characters but Excel is aware of them for Excel the word Chicago followed by a single space is different from Chicago typed without the space for calculation and analysis purposes it considers them to be two separate cities finally an entry might be placed in the wrong column or under an incorrect heading in a spreadsheet for example Jaime might type an entry under the wrong heading in her spreadsheet the city named Chicago is entered in the sales price column so that row item might be mclassified other examples of common errors or mistakes can be caused by an inconsistent layout or content it’s important that data is presented consistently throughout a worksheet so that it always remains accurate and reliable poor or inconsistent layouts can give rise to errors when creating an Excel file keep in mind the way in which information will be used like if a spreadsheet only has a single column for an address this column then contains all the address elements like city region or area code this means that it’s difficult to break down these results separately by city or by region during data analysis because they’re not in separate columns instead you should format information like addresses across multiple columns so that it’s easier to process and analyze the data abbreviations and acronyms can also generate errors in data analysis it’s usually better to include a full word or title instead of an abbreviation or acronym in the following spreadsheet there are multiple variations of common abbreviations like Mr Miss and doctor this will cause serious issues during data analysis the best approach for data analysis is to standardize the approach for writing abbreviations particularly for titles like these another important feature of data analysis is the ability to break down results and information by date or calendar interval this means that dates must be entered in a particular way in a spreadsheet so that Excel recognizes them as calendar items the component elements like the month day and year must be typed as numbers and separated by a forward slash or a dash if you type dates with incorrect separator characters then Excel won’t interpret them as numbers instead it processes them as text so you won’t be able to conduct time analysis of your data a final common error to be aware of is duplicate information duplicate information in a data block distorts analysis results items can be counted multiple times and numeric results can be artificially inflated checking for duplicate data is an important step before performing data analysis duplicated entries in data are often the result of human error where entries are typed multiple times data could also be repeated accidentally if imported or created using a copy and paste operation for example Jamie might add sales figures from the previous week to the spreadsheet if her colleague doesn’t check for duplicate data then those sales figures could be included in the results a second time so how could you avoid the risk of duplicate data aim for an efficiently designed spreadsheet for example if you’re including dates in your spreadsheet then sort the sheet in date order this makes it easier to identify the time entries already added likewise if you’re including address data then assign a different column to each element of an address this helps others to identify entries by searching for house numbers street names or cities like an entry for apartment 1 2 36 on North Street Miami jamie has identified the common errors in her data set she can now resolve them and start analyzing the data and you should also now be able to recognize common data errors and how they can have a negative impact on data analysis results you’ll be able to identify and fix the most common errors in the data before submitting it for analysis well done every day you calculate dates and times asking questions like “How long do I have to get to work?” or how many days do I have available to complete that project data analysts also ask date and timebased questions about their data sets and they can calculate answers using Excel’s date and time functions and formulas in this video you’ll learn about the importance of these date and time calculations how they can generate new data and explore some business use cases over at Adventure Works distribution hub Jaime is overseeing both the stock that Adventure Works are purchasing from suppliers and the items dispatched to fulfill customer orders jaime needs to create a spreadsheet with date and time formulas that track the delivery times dates and date intervals before you discover how Jaime can make use of these formulas let’s find out how date and time information provides businesses with an essential framework for planning date and timebased calculations are useful tools in helping businesses to plan for increased demands for products and demands on resources such as staff and equipment they also help businesses plan towards key dates or deadlines you can also use Excel to plan toward key dates where there will be an increased demand on your business take the example of a building company contracted to build a new office block the project manager needs to create schedules and plans for all stages of the building process for planning purposes they need to determine how many working days there are between the project’s proposed start and end dates excel can be used to create formulas to calculate how many hours calendar days or work days there are for important deadlines these formulas can be set up in a dynamic way so that they update as the clock or the calendar changes by monitoring daily results over a specific time interval businesses can identify dips and peaks in performance for example a management team might notice that during one period there was a significant drop in sales if the results are organized by date they can identify the factors internal or external that might have caused this date and time calculations are also useful for tracking results and performance business transactions are usually recorded against dates and in some cases against time now that you’re familiar with some of the benefits of date and time calculations let’s explore date and time functions and formulas in Excel it is important to understand how Excel tracks dates and how it is used in calculations let’s begin with serial numbers the method Excel uses for tracking calendar days in Excel each date entry is formatted to appear as a calendar item however behind each date is a number that Excel uses to keep track of calendar days this number is known as a serial number excel assigns a serial number to each date starting from the 1st of January 1900 this date was given serial number one excel uses the system clock on your computer to track time and it increments the serial number by one when a 24-hour period has elapsed a date in the past will have a smaller serial number than one in the future you can view the serial number behind any date by changing the format from date to general in this example the two entries in A2 and B2 are formatted to display as dates if the same entries in A4 and B4 are formatted as general it is possible to display the serial numbers behind these dates the later date has a larger serial number excel uses these serial numbers in calculations using serial numbers one date can be subtracted from another to calculate a specific number of days for example the today formula can be used to always display the current date in a spreadsheet over at Adventure Works Jamie needs to display the current date in her spreadsheet she can use the today function to generate this result the syntax for this formula is an equal sign followed by the word today and parenthesis this creates a dynamic date display in a spreadsheet that updates every 24 hours a similar function called now can also be used to display both the current date and time the syntax for this function is an equal sign the word now followed by parenthesis when executed this function displays the current date and time in your spreadsheet this makes it more useful than the today function which just shows the date you can also use functions to extract the component elements of a date these actions can be carried out using the month day and year functions each function extracts a specific component of the date the month day or the year you will learn more about these functions and the others you’ve just reviewed later in the course finally there’s also the date function the date function is the opposite of month day and year either of these operations may be necessary to prepare date information for data analysis you will learn more about these functions and the others you’ve just reviewed later in the course jamie can use these date and time formulas to track delivery times and dates for Adventure Works purchases from suppliers and to track items dispatched to their customers and you should now understand how date and time calculations are used to generate new data in Microsoft Excel you’ve also learned how to identify key business case uses for date and timebased information well done as a data analyst you’ll often have to input large volumes of time and date based data into your spreadsheets and it can be difficult to manually keep this data aligned with your project thankfully with Excel you can create dynamic date and time entries that update automatically over the next few minutes you’ll learn how to create dynamic time and date entries in a worksheet and separate dates into component parts adventure Works are preparing a new advertising campaign which will launch in multiple countries they need to use Excel to track progress toward key dates the milestone dates for the project are contained in a worksheet called regional dates the worksheet tracks information about the products that are part of the campaign alongside the campaign launch dates for each country adventure Works needs to calculate how many project days are available for each campaign another calculation in the spreadsheet must show on a rolling basis how many days are left until each launch date the development of this campaign will spread over two years so Adventure Works also need to record the accounting period for the project launch date for each country let’s help Adventure Works to complete their spreadsheet using date and time formulas entries in column D and E are formatted as dates you can select any cell in the range D5 to E19 and check the number format box on the home ribbon to confirm this remember that these dates are actually serial numbers so you can switch the format on cells D5 and E5 to general access the home tab and select general from the drop-own menu to display the serial numbers notice that the serial number for the date in E5 is larger than the one for the date in D5 select undo to restore the date format now you need to calculate the number of project days you can complete this task using a simple subtraction formula select F5 to input your calculation begin the calculation with an equal sign then take the date in E5 the larger serial number and subtract the date in D5 the smaller serial number press enter to generate the result there are 63 days assigned to the timeline for this first project note that because this calculation is a subtraction Excel doesn’t include the start date in cell D5 in its count however if required you can ask Excel to include the start date by adding a plus one to the formula the result in F5 remains static because the dates in D5 and E5 won’t change now you need to work out the days to launch figure for cell G5 the formula for this figure takes the launch date in E5 and subtracts a current date figure in cell E1 the current date in E1 must also be created using a formula if E1 always displays the current calendar date then the formula in G5 recalculates daily to show the decreasing numbers of days to the launch date you need to use the today function in your formula in E1 to make sure that the date updates every 24 hours to the current date with the cursor in E1 type an equal sign the word today and an open parenthesis you might notice that the help prompt is empty this is because the function doesn’t require any arguments there still needs to be parenthesis after the function name but no arguments should be included press enter to produce a dynamic date result that updates every 24 hours to show the days to launch figure in G5 the formula takes the campaign launch date in E5 and subtracts the current date in E1 the E1 cell reference must have dollar signs before the column initial and the row number this is to make sure that the reference stays constant when the formula is copied the today formula will now change the current date in cell E1 every day this means that the formula in G5 also recalculates daily so the days to launch figure reduces by one each day as the timeline gradually progresses your next task is to show the year for the campaign launch date excel recognizes three elements in a date the month the day and the year you can use the year function to identify and display the year element from a date in another cell in other words you can separate the date into its component parts so that you can focus on the year element type an equal sign the word year and an open parenthesis in cell H5 a help prompt appears on screen and states serial number this is because Excel interprets stored dates as serial numbers select E5 type a closing parenthesis and then press enter to generate the result in H5 this campaign is set to launch in 2023 you’ve calculated the required campaign information for row 5 you can now copy these formulas down through the spreadsheet to calculate the remaining campaign dates use the autofill doubleclick shortcut on each formula to copy it down through the column to row 19 and complete the spreadsheet you should now understand how Excel works with dates in calculations and be able to create some common dates and time tracking formulas thanks to your work in these formulas Adventure Works now have a clearer picture of how much time is available for each stage of this project well done when working with Excel you might need to execute a function under certain conditions or logic in these instances you can use a logical function calculation like an if function in this video you’ll explore the purpose of logical functions review some common use cases and learn the syntax for creating a logical function formula using the if function over at Adventure Works Lucas is reviewing the monthly sales reports he needs to find out if any of the sales staff are entitled to a monthly bonus as a reward for exceeding their sales targets you can help Lucas to identify which sales team members deserve a bonus by using an if function formula but before you can help Adventure Works you’ll need to find out more about how logical functions work you can use logical functions to ask yes or no questions about your data if the function returns yes as its answer then you can direct Excel to perform the required action however if the function returns an answer of no then Excel can be directed to perform a different action for example you can direct adventure works if function formula to ask the question has this salesperson met their target if the answer is yes then they’ll be awarded their bonus if the answer is no then they’re not awarded a bonus when logical functions such as if run a test they determine the answer by comparing the value in a cell against a specified criterion for these tests to work the formula must contain logical operators the logical operators determine what kind of question the formula is asking and what value it needs for its answer these operators can be used to compare both text and numeric entries let’s review some examples of these operators the equal sign is the first of the mathematical operators that Excel uses in logical functions excel uses this operator to check if the value of one item is equal to that of another item for example a formula that tests if one equals 1 would return the value of true the logical symbols greater than and less than are used by Excel to test if one value is larger or smaller than another an Excel formula that performed the logical tests two is greater than one and one is less than two would return an answer of true for both tests the greater than and less than symbols can also be combined with the equals sign this combination lets Excel confirm if a value is greater than or equal to or less than or equal to another value let’s take a formula where Excel checks to see if the value in cell D2 is the same as or larger than the value of 400 if even one of these arguments were true then the test would return the value of true finally a very useful set of logical operators is not equal to this is when the less than and greater than symbols are typed back to back this combination of operators is interpreted by Excel as not equal to in other words you’re asking Excel to determine that value A does not equate to value B for example the result of the logical test 1 is not equal to two would be true because the two numbers are different values so you’ve discovered how an if function formula works but how do you make use of one when constructing the if function formula you need to give Excel three pieces of information the first piece of information is called the logical test for the logical test you need to identify the cell that contains the value to be checked you also need to specify the test to be carried out in relation to this value this is the if keyword followed by parenthesis it’s within these parentheses that you must type the logical test for example Lucas needs Excel to check the total sales of each team member to determine if they meet their monthly target the next instruction tells Excel what to do or what to display if the test returns a result of true in Lucas’s case if his test returns a value of true then the team member is awarded a bonus the third and final argument is what Excel should do or display if the logical test returns the result of false if Lucas’ test returns a value of false for a team member then Excel returns a value of zero in other words that person is not awarded a bonus now that you’ve reviewed the elements of an if function formula let’s make use of your new skills and help Lucas create a formula to check the sales team’s monthly figures and determine which employees are entitled to a bonus the data set Lucas requires is in a workbook called monthly sales the workbook contains four sheets one for each sales team for this exercise let’s just focus on the results for team A the worksheet lists the name of each team member their total monthly sales and their monthly target the bonus amounts must be calculated and listed within column E any team member who meets or exceeds their target is awarded the bonus figure in cell H4 let’s begin by finding out if team member Michelle Cook is entitled to a bonus position the cursor on cell E4 type an equal sign the keyword if and an opening parenthesis you need to place your arguments for the if function within parenthesis notice the floating help message prompting you for the three arguments that the function needs select cell C4 for Michelle’s monthly sales data type a greater than symbol followed by an equal sign then select cell D4 and type a comma this instructs Excel to check if Michelle’s sales figures for this month are greater than or equal to her assigned target however as you can see from the bold prompt text the formula is still incomplete you now need to instruct Excel on what bonus value to award you must also include what action Excel should take if the result of the logical test is true or yes and what to do if the result is false or no select cell H4 for the value if true add a dollar sign before the column initial and the row number this dollar sign prevents Excel from adjusting it when copied then type a comma followed by a zero for the value if false this zero indicates that Michelle doesn’t receive a bonus if Excel doesn’t return the required value finally type a closing parenthesis to end your arguments press enter to execute the if function formula the results show that Michelle has met her sales target and has earned a bonus of $500 for this month copy the formula down the column and executed to determine how the other team members have performed the results show that three team members met their sales targets and could be awarded a bonus two team members did not reach their targets so should not receive a bonus thanks to your help Lucas successfully created the IF function formula he needed to complete his task and having assisted Lucas you should now know how if functions work and recognize the correct syntax to create a logical formula using if well done you may be familiar with using a logical function to test for conditions in your data sets but what if you need to test for multiple conditions you can use nested if and ifs functions in this video you’ll explore the concept of nested if and ifs functions and learn how they can be used to perform a series of elimination tests and generate a final result over at Adventure Works Lucas is calculating bonuses for sales team B lucas needs to calculate each team member sales total and determine what level of bonus they should be awarded lucas can complete this task using nested if and ifs functions let’s find out more about these functions and then help Lucas complete his task at this stage of the course you’ve encountered many examples of function formulas but a formula doesn’t have to make use of just one function in fact a formula can contain several functions that work together to achieve a result logical functions work this way by interconnecting with one another nesting functions is the technique of adding another function to the formula as an argument for the original function in other words you can place one function inside another to expand its functionality for example you might need to create a formula that performs a series of elimination tests before it generates the final result you could design this formula in two ways one approach would be to create what is known as a nested if formula the formula begins with an if that performs an initial logic test if the test turns out to be true then the formula will simply process whatever action is specified in the value if true argument however the result of the logical test could also be false if so then another if function in the value of false argument could run another test and process different actions for example a nested if formula could check if a member of the adventure work sales team meets a specific bonus band if the result is false then a second argument could check the value against another band and so on the second approach is to use a function called ifs an ifs function is designed to run a series of tests that don’t require you to nest other functions the ifs function steps through the tests checking each one if a test is false it continues to move through the tests until it finds one that is true when a logical test returns true as a result the formula performs or displays whatever is in the value if true for that test it then stops running tests in the case of Adventure Works the IFS function can continually check each sales team member’s sales results against the different bonus bands until it identifies a suitable amount to award them now that you’ve learned about the basics of nested if and ifs functions let’s put your knowledge to use by helping Lucas to calculate the bonus bands for the sales team the sales data sets are contained in the team B worksheet in a workbook called monthly sales figures the team B worksheet lists the names of each team member and their monthly sales result it also lists their sales targets and the amount they achieved above their targets the bonus amounts must be listed in column F using the bonus bands data in column I and J adventure Works also needs a formula in F3 that checks the sales data in cell E3 it must then calculate which bonus band is applicable to the team member Olivia King and display the correct bonus amount let’s begin by typing the formula position the cursor on F3 type an equal sign an if and an opening parenthesis next select E3 to add that cell as a cell reference then type a greater than symbol followed by an equal sign type 20,000 which is the first bonus band and then a comma finally select cell J3 to add it as the value if true argument then type a comma this first part of the formula provides Excel with the following instruction if the figure in cell E3 is greater than or equal to 20,000 then the staff member is owed the bonus amount in cell J3 but what if one or more of the amounts in column E are less than 20,000 if the amount in E3 is less than 20,000 there are still two other bands from which a bonus can be assigned to test for these bands you need to add another if function as the value if false argument in the formula you can nest this function within the first one first type an if in this instance you don’t need another equal sign then type an opening parenthesis so you can begin writing your arguments this second occurrence of the if will need its own opening and closing parenthesis the parenthesis must contain three arguments a logical test a value if true and a value if false let’s create the logical test first select E3 to assign it to your argument then type a greater than symbol and an equal sign then type 10,000 and add a comma next you need to assign the value if true so if the amount in E3 is over 10,000 then the bonus amount awarded will be the value in J4 select cell J4 and type a comma to assign it to your argument finally you need the value if false if it’s not true that the amount is over 10,000 then the bonus amount awarded will be the value in J5 select cell J5 to assign it to your argument each instance of if also needs its own closing parenthesis type two closing parenthesis and press enter to execute the function the results of your function show that the logical test for the first if failed so Excel moved on to the second if the second logical test was true so Excel correctly displayed the bonus amount of $1,000 in cell J4 changing the monthly sales figure for Olivia to 67,140 would change the result in F3 because both if functions would have returned a false result so the result would have been the value in cell J5 this formula is now a nested formula because there is a second if inside the first one let’s delete this result and recreate the formula using the ifs function when you type equals an ifs and an opening parenthesis Excel only provides prompts for two arguments a logical test and a value if true as you learned earlier you can use ifs to specify a series of tests and the value if true for each one let’s step through this process select cell E3 then type a greater than symbol an equal sign and a value of 20,000 type a comma and then select J3 as the band to be assigned if the first test is met when you type a comma prompts appear for another logical test and a value if true for the second logical test select E3 again this time you must follow it with a greater than sign and an equal sign then select J4 now you need to tell Excel that the final value of true should be the result of the formula so type true and a comma then select J5 adding the word true here prevents Excel from producing a hash NA error message you also need to add dollar signs to the J3 J4 and J5 references you can now copy this formula down through the column to calculate the bonus amount for each team member thanks to your help Lucas has now determined what bonus band should be awarded to each team member and you should now understand the difference between a nested if function formula and a calculation that uses ifs you’ve explored the different syntax for both types of formula so you can decide which you find easier to understand and replicate congratulations on reaching the end of the third week in this course on preparing data for analysis with Microsoft Excel this week you explored how to use functions to prepare data for analysis in Excel let’s take a few minutes to recap what you learned in this week’s lessons you began the first lesson by discovering how inconsistent data affect analysis and the common mistakes people make examples of these errors include misspellings unnecessary characters and spaces and incorrectly place entries you now know that errors such as these have a negative impact on data analysis you were also able to fix these errors in your data before submitting it for analysis you then learned how you can use different functions to standardize text data the left mid and right functions are used to return a specific number of characters from either the left the middle or the right side of a cell entry typically these functions are used in situations where you need to transfer parts of the cell content to a different column many data analysts use the left mid and right functions to split the contents of a column into three separate columns the trim function removes empty spaces from text strings except for the spaces between words this is useful for when you suspect that there are random spaces at the beginning or end of an entry it’s also a useful way to tidy up a column of text before beginning any analysis using the wrong case in text data can make a summary or report appear untidy or unprofessional there are three functions you can use to standardize the case used in text entries these are upper lower and proper lastly you can use the concat function to combine entries from different cells in a spreadsheet into a single cell entry and in this lesson you put your new knowledge of functions to use by helping adventure works you used your knowledge of functions to help Adventure Works standardize its data for analysis one of these tasks was in the exercise in the exercise you had to clean up Adventure Works spreadsheet so that it could be used for data analysis to complete this task you used formulas to remove inconsistencies or errors from the data and you made sure that your formulas followed the best practices you had explored during the lesson you then undertook a knowledge check in this item you proved your understanding of concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions finally you explored a list of additional resources designed to help you improve your knowledge of the topics in this lesson in the second week you learned how to use date and time functions in Microsoft Excel to generate new data you explored different examples of how the data generated from date and time calculations can be used for example date and time data can be used to create a framework for planning track business performance and display important results you then learned how Excel interprets and works with dates in a spreadsheet all dates have serial numbers which is how Excel interprets them with these serial numbers you can use dates to perform calculations like subtracting one date from another you also reviewed functions for creating dynamic formulas that calculate time and date values these include the today and now functions and you discovered that you can also divide a date entry into its component parts using day month and year or return these components as a single date with the date function throughout the lesson you put your new knowledge to use by assisting Adventure Works you helped the company to plan its projects by using different date and time calculations one of these tasks was in the exercise in the exercise you gathered date and time information for one of Adventure Works advertising campaigns you completed this task using the date and time calculations you learned about these functions helped you to generate new milestone data for Adventure Works you then undertook a knowledge check in this item you proved your understanding of the concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions finally you explored a list of additional resources designed to help you improve your knowledge of the topics in this lesson in week three you learned about logical functions such as if and ifs you learned that logical functions can be used to ask yes or no questions about your data if the function returns yes as its answer then you can direct Excel to perform the required action however if the function returns an answer of no then Excel can be directed to perform a different action next you learn that for these tests to work the formula must contain logical operators the logical operators determine what kind of question the formula is asking and what value it needs for its answer you discover that these operators make use of if formulas and this formula needs three pieces of information to work it requires a logical test a true value and a false value you also learned that nesting functions is the technique of adding another function to the formula as an argument for the original function in other words you can place one function inside another to expand its functionality there are two approaches you can use the nested if function or the ifs function you learned that the nested if formula begins with an if that performs an initial logic test if the test turns out to be true then the formula will simply process whatever action is specified in the value if true argument however the result of the logical test could also be false if so then another if function in the value if false argument could run another test and process different actions the second approach is to use the ifs function you discover that the ifs function steps through the tests checking each one if one test is false then the function continues to move through the remaining tests until it finds one that is true when a logical test returns true as a result the formula performs or displays whatever is in the value if true for that test it then stops running tests just like in the previous lessons you put your new knowledge to use by helping adventure works in this lesson you determined the financial performance of the sales team using if and ifs functions this included the exercise item in the exercise you helped Adventure Works to generate additional information from a customer’s spreadsheet to complete this task you generated the required information by using if and ifs functions and you made sure that your calculation followed the best practices you had explored during the lesson you then undertook a knowledge check and a module quiz in which you proved your understanding of the concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions you’ve now reached the end of this module summary it is time to move on to the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you’ve learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore some additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson best of luck we’ll meet again during next week’s lessons you’re nearing the end of this course on preparing data for analysis in Microsoft Excel you’ve put great effort into this course by completing the videos readings quizzes and exercises you should now have a stronger grasp of several foundational concepts for understanding data analysis these include the fundamentals of working with data in Microsoft Excel creating and using formulas and functions in Excel and preparing data for analysis using functions you’re now ready to apply your knowledge in the exercise and the final course assessment the assessment is a graded quiz that consists of 30 questions that are related to topics you covered throughout the course but before you start let’s recap on what you’ve learned in the first week you were introduced to Microsoft Excel you learned how to use Excel by exploring how to enter and format data manage worksheets read large blocks of data and sort and filter data microsoft Excel is a useful data analysis tool it is used in everyday business to store calculate and gain insights from data you learned how to navigate Excel using its UI for example the title bar that displays the name of your file and search option and the command tabs which are organized into tabs and ribbons you also learned that a worksheet is where you input data into cells data can be added to worksheets by importing it or creating it manually data isn’t always easy to read but you’ve learned how to use formatting to improve the readability of a spreadsheet you also explored the keyboard shortcuts for data entry and formatting excel has various features that help you to read large blocks of data you learn that you can use the freeze panes new window name box features and keyboard shortcuts to make it easier to read your data you can use the sort and filter feature to organize and sort data quickly and efficiently there are also different sort methods such as alpha numeric sort and multi-level sort that you can use to sort your data the filter feature helps you to control data visibility in a worksheet and provides information on how many rows match a specific criteria in the following week your focus shifted to functions and formulas in Excel you discovered that a formula in Excel is a calculation performed on the values in a range of cells in your worksheets examples of these calculations include addition subtraction multiplication and division once the calculation is completed the formula returns a result even if it is an error you then explored how formulas work along with the operators they use formulas can be static or dynamic a static formula means that the numbers are fixed so it always generates the same results a dynamic formula is one in which the results depend on the current values in the reference cells and it reacts to any changes in the values by updating the result you also learned how to control calculations here you learned that Excel controls calculations using the order of precedence this means that Excel processes the mathematical operators in formulas according to the hierarchical position of each symbol within the order of precedence you learned about the hierarchy of symbols and discover that you can also control a calculation using parenthesis next you explored the relative and absolute cell references these concepts relate to how a
cell reference appears in a calculation a relative cell reference means that Excel adjusts the cell reference of a copied formula relative to its new location to make sure it’s correct an absolute reference means that Excel keeps the reference constant in other words it doesn’t adjust it you also learned about functions which are predefined formulas built into Excel you explored popular functions such as sum average and count and learned how to create formulas with them using features such as the autosome shortcut and the insert function wizard you also explored different percentage calculations and you learned how to create reliable percentage formulas using the correct syntax the third week was all about preparing data for analysis using functions you started off by exploring how inconsistent data affects analysis and the mistakes that can be made when inputting data examples of these errors include misspellings unnecessary characters and spaces and incorrectly placed entries you now know that errors such as these have a negative impact on data analysis you also learned how to fix these errors in your data before submitting it for analysis it is important to standardize text data before analyzing it you can do this using functions the left mid and right functions are used to return a specific number of characters from either the left the middle or the right side of a cell entry typically these functions are used in situations where you need to transfer parts of the cell content to a different column the trim function removes empty spaces from text strings except for the spaces between words this is useful for when you suspect that there are random spaces at the beginning or end of an entry you also learned that there are three functions upper lower and proper that you can use to standardize the case used in text entries your reports will look tidy and professional if you standardize the case you can also use the concat function to combine entries from different cells in a spreadsheet into a single cell entry next you discover that dates are important for data analysis without date and time data it is more difficult to analyze and compare results over time you explored functions such as today or now which help you add dynamic date and time information to your worksheet you also learned that other functions such as year month or day can be used to split dates into their component parts to facilitate analysis finally you learned how logical functions such as if and ifs add another dimension to calculations because they ask Microsoft Excel to check for criteria and perform different actions depending on the result you then explored how other functions such as the or and the and functions make the logical formulas you create even more efficient and versatile you also learned how to produce specific and targeted formulas by using functions such as sum if average if and count if these functions combine the if functionality with the actions of standard functions such as sum now that you’ve built a solid understanding of the fundamentals of Excel formulas functions and learned how to prepare data for analysis you’re ready to test your knowledge by undertaking the exercise and the final course assessment best of luck congratulations you have made it to the end of the preparing data for analysis in Microsoft Excel course your hard work and dedication have paid off you’re off to a great start with your data analysis learning journey and you should now have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel working with blocks of data in Excel formulas and functions and how to prepare data for analysis using functions you can also identify common errors made in data analysis and you know how to deploy different strategies to make sure you have reliable data but that’s not all you’ve also gained valuable insight into the functions and formulas you can use to create in-depth data for analysis you’ve explored various calculations deepened your knowledge of how data analysis can be performed and reviewed scenarios where it is used and let’s not forget the process of preparing data for analysis you now understand the critical role that reliable data plays as a central focal point of data analysis you should now have a firm knowledge of how Microsoft Excel works and how it can be used for data analysis think about everything you can do with this new knowledge well done for taking the first steps towards your future data analysis career by successfully completing all the courses in this program you’ll receive a Corsera certification this program is a great way to expand your understanding of data analysis and gain a qualification that will allow you to apply for entry- levelvel jobs in the field all the courses in this program including the one you just completed will help you prepare for the PL300 exam by passing the exam you’ll become a Microsoft certified PowerBI data analyst it will also help you to start or expand a career in this role this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to perform the following tasks prepare data for analysis model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX you’ll learn about the syntax later in this program you can visit the Microsoft certifications page at http://www.learn.microsoft.com/certifications to learn more about the PowerBI data analyst associate certification and exam this course has enhanced your knowledge and skills in the fundamentals of data analysis but what comes next there’s more to learn so it’s a good idea to register for the next course on harnessing the power of data in Microsoft PowerBI the next course will cover various ways data analysis is used in business you’ll learn about the role of a data analyst and how to use data to solve business problems and you’ll learn how to process and analyze data then you’ll move on to learn about the tools needed to analyze data efficiently whether you’re just starting out as a novice or you’re a technical professional completing the whole program demonstrates your knowledge of analyzing data in PowerBI you’ve done a great job so far and you should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained will show potential employers that you are motivated capable and not afraid to learn new things it’s been a pleasure to embark on this journey of discovery with you best of luck in the future hello and welcome to the harnessing the power of data with PowerBI course this course covers the core concepts of data analysis and introduces the main features of Microsoft PowerBI many of your normal digital activities generate data this can happen when you use services such as car parking traveling by rail or air or from your shopping socializing or fitness activities of course it’s not just you that’s contributing data your friends family and colleagues in fact almost everyone adds content to the data pool businesses and organizations also use many other sources such as government financial economic health and scientific data to name a few gathering and storing a vast amount of data is the first phase then comes the challenge of its analysis this is why there is a growing demand for data analyst professionals businesses need data analysis more than ever and as a data analyst you’ll be ideally placed to begin harnessing the power of data in this learning path you will learn about the life and journey of a data analyst and the skills tasks and processes they go through in order to tell a story with data you’ll discover how getting that data analysis story correct enables businesses to make informed decisions let’s get an overview of the main topics covered in this course you may have already learned about one crucial topic preparing data using Microsoft Excel you also need to understand other elements involved in the career of data analysis including learning about the stages in the data analysis procedure and the roles involved recognizing key issues and concerns when conducting analysis and sharing results and knowing different types of data sources and connection types this course will give you a solid foundation in these topics and introduce you to the component elements of Microsoft PowerBI software that helps to process analyze and share data let’s now quickly summarize the course material to give you an overview of all your study in this course this course will introduce you to data analysis in business data sources and data ingestion to begin you’ll learn about the role of a data analyst key data analysis concepts and how data plays an essential role in business you’ll then be briefly introduced to PowerBI as a tool for data analysis you will also learn about data sources and the exact transform load or ETL process you’ll learn the importance of identifying and evaluating data sources and following this you will learn about transforming and cleaning data in PowerBI you’ll get to distinguish between the different query and scripting languages to consolidate your learning and put it into practice you will complete a practical assignment where you will use data to determine the cause of a recent decrease in sales practical exercises in the course are based on a fictional business called adventure works during the exercise you must identify stakeholders locate data sources perform data transformation and distribute reports after this hands-on learning you will complete a final graded assessment be assured that everything you need to complete the assessment will be covered during your lesson with each lesson made up of video content readings and quizzes to assist your learning you will also get to apply your newly gained skills in exercises quiz questions and self- reviews in addition discussion prompts allow you to share knowledge and discuss difficulties with other learners these discussions are also a great way to grow your network of contacts in the data analysis world so be sure to get to know your classmates and stay connected during and after your course is this the course for you hopefully the outline of the course content and topics will help you decide and it’s important to mention that you don’t need an IT related background to take this course it’s for anyone who likes using technology and has an interest in data analysis whatever your background to complete this course you need to have access to some resources you need a laptop or desktop computer with a recommended 4 GB of RAM an internet connection and a Windows operating system version 8.1 or later it should have a .NET framework version 4.6.2 to or later install and a subscription to Microsoft Office 365 you’ll also need to install PowerBI desktop available as a free download you’ll find further details about these and other requirements in the additional resources item at the end of this lesson this program prepares you for a career in data analysis when you complete all the courses in the Microsoft Power BI analysis professional certificate you learn a Corsair certificate to share with your professional network taking this program not only helps you become job ready but also prepares you for an exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst in the final course you’ll recap the key topics and concepts covered in each course along with a practice exam you’ll also get tips and tricks testing strategies useful resources and information on how to sign up for the exam finally you’ll test your knowledge in a mock exam mapped to the main topics in this program and the Microsoft Certified Exam PL300 ensuring you’re wellprepared for certification success earning a Microsoft certification is evidence of your real world skills and is globally recognized a Microsoft certification showcases your skills and demonstrates your commitment to keeping pace with rapidly changing technology it also positions you for increased skills efficiency and earning potential in your professional roles the topics covered in the practice exam include prepare data model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets in summary this course introduces how a data analyst uses data to create a compelling story through reports and dashboards using Microsoft PowerBI it also explores the need for true business intelligence in the enterprise i hope you are ready to get started with your data analysis journey data is an essential business component with organizations using many methods to collect their data however raw data is only meaningful with proper interpretation and analysis that’s where the work of a data analyst is crucial because data is often used to inform decisions that can significantly impact an organization’s success data analysts are essential to business they help organizations make sense of the vast amount of collected data in this video you will explore the role of a data analyst the flow of data in an organization and how an analyst achieves data insights that inform decisions you’ll also learn about the importance of data analysis in modern organizations and the vital role of a data analyst data analysts help organizations make sense of the data they collect turning it into insights that inform decisions let’s explore the responsibilities of a data analyst and discover how they achieve data insights imagine you work for an online retail company every day your company collects data on customer purchases website traffic and social media engagement however the data is not organized which makes it difficult to analyze the inability to interpret the data means your company fails to identify opportunities to improve customer experience increase sales and stay ahead of the competition this is why a data analyst is needed the data analyst is responsible for collecting organizing and analyzing the data to generate insights that inform business decisions for example the data analyst may identify trends in customer behavior that could inform marketing campaigns or website design they may also identify areas where the company can cut costs or improve efficiency strategic thinking awareness of impact and understanding of context are crucial skills for a data analyst to succeed in their role here’s why each skill is important strategic thinking helps data analysts prioritize tasks allocate resources efficiently and make datadriven decisions that contribute to long-term success by considering both short-term and long-term implications data analysts can ensure their work has a meaningful impact on the organization being aware of the potential impact of their analysis is critical for data analysts to ensure they communicate their findings responsibly and ethically this involves understanding the consequences of datadriven recommendations considering potential biases and ensuring data privacy and security awareness of impact also helps data analysts advocate for datadriven decision making and fosters a culture of evidence-based strategy within the organization data analysts need to have a deep understanding of the context in which they are working including the industry market trends and the organization’s goals and challenges this knowledge allows them to tailor their analysis to the specific needs of the business and provide actionable insights data analysts use various tools and techniques to collect and analyze data these include programming languages like R and Python r is used specifically for data analysis while Python is a generalpurpose programming language that can be used for a wide range of applications including statistical analysis data visualization tools like Microsoft PowerBI and databases like SQL Server data analysts are expected to be proficient in these tools and technologies and to possess excellent analytical skills a data analyst collects data from many resources including customer sales financial and operational data departments within an organization such as marketing sales finance and operations provide this data the data is then processed cleaned and transformed into a usable format for analysis this process is known as data wrangling once the data is wrangled it is loaded into a data warehouse or data lake where data analysts can access and analyze it the data is organized into tables or data sets each containing a specific data type data analysts then use this data to generate insights that inform business decisions data analysts play a critical role in our datadriven world they help organizations make sense of the large amounts of collected data turning it into insights that inform decisions using their skills data analysts help organizations identify growth opportunities improve operations and gain competitive advantage someone at the party asks you “What do you do?” You reply “I work with data.” Does that help them data roles are a mystery most people don’t understand the value and variety of positions in the data analysis process let’s demystify data analysis roles and responsibilities in this video by exploring various roles and describing how they contribute to the success of datadriven organizations you’ll also learn about the importance of each role and how roles collaborate the data analysis roles and responsibilities that you’ll explore are data engineer data analyst data scientist database administrator data architect and business intelligence analyst commonly called BI analyst to understand a data engineer’s role imagine you’re creating a garden the data engineer is like the person who designs and constructs the irrigation system delivering water to each plant they build and maintain the data infrastructure including designing constructing and integrating data pipelines they clean pre-process and transform raw data into a format that can be used by data analysts and data scientists in our gardening analogy the data analyst is like the gardener who meticulously observes the growth of each plant and makes recommendations for improvement data analysts examine data sets to identify trends patterns and insights to inform decision-m they use various tools and techniques to visualize and present data making it easily digestible for stakeholders data analysts work closely with other team members to align their analysis with business goals and objectives think of a data scientist as a botanist using their plant biology knowledge to optimize the growth and health of the garden they dive deeper into the data to create predictive models using machine learning algorithms and statistical techniques they seek to identify hidden patterns and correlations that help organizations make better datadriven decisions data scientists often work closely with data analysts sharing insights and collaborating on projects to maximize the value of the data after all at gardening you’ll want to safeguard the security and overall health of the garden that’s like the role of a database administrator or DBA database administrators work on the maintenance performance and security of an organization’s databases they ensure data is stored and retrieved efficiently implemented backup and recovery strategies and manage user access dbas play a crucial role in keeping data safe and accessible to those who need it to ensure a greatl looking garden a landscape architect designs the garden layout to maximize aesthetics and functionality in a similar fashion a data architect creates the blueprint for an organization’s data management systems they design data models establish database structures and create strategies for data storage integration and retrieval data architects collaborate with other data professionals to align their designs with business needs and support the objectives of data analysts and scientists the business intelligence or BI analyst is like the garden consultant who helps you make informed decisions about the type of plants to grow where to place them and how to care for them based on data and analysis pi analysts transform data into actionable insights that drive business growth and improve decision-making they work closely with data analysts and data scientists to extract meaningful insights from complex data sets focusing on key performance indicators and using various BI tools to visualize and present data to stakeholders bi analysts also collaborate with business leaders to understand their goals and objectives ensuring that their analysis is relevant and impactful so the next time you’re at a party and someone asks about your role what will you say you should be able to highlight the importance and variety of data analysis positions you could discuss the data engineer who is responsible for building and maintaining the data infrastructure the data analyst who identifies trends patterns and insights in the data the data scientist who creates predictive models to optimize decision-m the database administrator who ensures the security and performance of databases the data architect who designs the blueprint for data management systems and the business intelligent analyst who transforms data into actionable insights for decision makers your party friends will then understand what each role does in the data analysis process providing organizations with the information they need to make informed datadriven decisions jamie the CEO at Adventure Works has asked you to analyze customer data to identify trends and make recommendations for improving the customer experience after weeks of working through the data creating detailed visualizations and uncovering valuable insights you now need to present your findings to various stakeholders these include your team marketing sales and company executives for your project to be successful you need to effectively communicate your findings and collaborate with people at all organizational levels to succeed as a data analyst you need a strong foundation in non-technical abilities like these in addition to technical skills in this video you will explore some essential non-technical or soft skills a data analyst should have nontechnical skills are important for data analysts these skills can help you connect with and influence stakeholders increasing your impact within your organization essential non-technical skills include effective communication diplomacy understanding end user needs and being a technical interpreter for nontechnical stakeholders let’s explore each skill in more detail the first soft skill is effective communication data analysts need to effectively communicate findings to various stakeholders with different degrees of technical knowledge for example when Jamie at Adventure Works asks you to analyze customer data you would need to present your findings to team members managers and executives to communicate effectively data analysts need to present complex information clearly and concisely imagine you have identified a trend in Adventure Works data that could significantly increase sales instead of overwhelming your audience with raw data you could visually represent this trend and use storytelling techniques to explain how it could impact the business another important non-technical skill is diplomacy which is the art of navigating delicate situations and maintaining positive relationships even when disagreements arise as a data analyst diplomacy may be essential for negotiating access to data mediating disagreements among stakeholders or presenting results that challenge existing beliefs for instance you might have to present a report that disagrees with a manager’s idea by being diplomatic you can share your findings in a way that maintains trust and respect while still communicating your insights collecting and analyzing data is not sufficient for making an organizational impact data analysts also need to understand the needs of the end user of their reports this will lead to findings that are relevant and useful to the stakeholders that will use them as a result stakeholders can use the insights from your reports to take action and make informed business decisions understanding the analytical needs of a business involves asking questions empathizing with the user’s perspectives and collaborating with stakeholders to identify the most valuable insight imagine you are analyzing customer data for a marketing team by understanding the marketing team’s goals and customer frustrations you can tailor your analysis to provide more useful and relevant insights because data analysts often serve as a bridge between technical and nontechnical stakeholders it’s important to be able to translate complex concepts into understandable terms this is especially so when relaying information to stakeholders who lack a technical background one way to do this is by using analogies or metaphors to explain technical concepts for example comparing machine learning algorithms to a chef who improves their recipes over time based on customer feedback ultimately becoming a successful data analyst goes beyond mastering technical skills it also requires effective communication diplomacy a total understanding of the needs of end users and the ability to relay findings and concepts to stakeholders of varying technical knowledge by developing these non-technical skills you can better collaborate with stakeholders create actionable insights inspire change and make lasting impacts enriching your own career and contributing to the growth and success of those around you i hope this thought will inspire you as you continue your journey to becoming the best data analyst you can be if you needed to assess the prospects for a new bicycle launch in the USA by Adventure Works you wouldn’t collect data about sports clothing from the European market would you no because no matter how great your analysis is this data will not provide insights that Adventure Works can use to make informed decisions about a product launch in the USA that’s why gathering the right data is an important part of the data analysis process in this video you’ll explore how the objective or purpose of analysis informs the data analysis process you’ll learn the importance of gathering data that is aligned with this purpose and how it influences the type of scope of data used gathering the right data is crucial for conducting a successful analysis however before you can start collecting data it’s essential to determine and understand the purpose or goals of the analysis you can then collect the appropriate data to conduct an analysis that is focused relevant and useful for the end user of the analysis to determine the purpose of your analysis you will need to consult with stakeholders and consider the questions you aim to answer with the analysis such as what are the recent sales figures for bike A and bike B and insights you hope to gain through the patterns trends or relationships that emerge from the analysis such as how the introduction of bike B to the market is affecting the sales of bike A for example in the case of Adventure Works you might need to brainstorm with marketing manager Renee and the sales and marketing team to determine what they hope to achieve with analysis the purpose of your analysis will inform what is the right data to collect including the type and scope of the data to gather and use in the analysis the type and scope of data used then influence the conclusions drawn and the decisions made let’s explore how the purpose of the analysis can influence the type and scope of data used in the analysis the type of data refers to the format or structure of the data for example sales figures and numerical data suppose through consultation you determine that the primary goal of the analysis for the sales and marketing team at Adventure Works is to determine which bicycle models are the most profitable in the USA in this case the type of data you might choose to focus your analysis on is sales data which includes information on the total sales of each bicycle model the number of units sold and the revenue generated by each model however if the team is more interested in understanding which products American customers are interested in buying and how to improve the product purchasing experience customer feedback data may be more useful than sales data this might involve collecting customer reviews ratings and comments on each bicycle model as this data can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and help identify areas for improvement these examples demonstrate the role identifying and defining the end goal or purpose of the analysis plays in determining what data is relevant and should be collected aside from considering the type of data appropriated from achieving the aims of your analysis you also need to define the scope of your data in relation to the analysis purpose considering the scope of your data in data analysis includes defining the boundaries or limits of the data you’ll collect and use in your analysis such as geographical regions time periods or product categories it can also include the size or amount of the data and number of variables considered in the data to illustrate if Adventure Works stakeholders would also like to use the analysis to inform the development of a new bike in the USA you might decide to analyze market trends competitor and sales data from the past two years focusing on mountain bikes and road bikes in North America by defining the scope of the data you can ensure that you collect data that is useful for understanding the relevant product market and identifying potential product development opportunities for adventure works ultimately by carefully defining the type and scope of your data based on the purpose of your analysis you can collect relevant data this helps ensure that your analysis is accurate and relevant to the needs of the business addressing the specific objectives or goals of the project this video highlighted the importance of identifying the purpose of your analysis and then gathering relevant data of the appropriate type and scope for successful analysis this ensures that the analysis results are meaningful and useful helping businesses like Adventure Works unlock insights and make informed decisions as you continue to develop your data analysis skills remember that the foundation of any successful analysis lies in gathering the correct data you might think that a business like Adventure Works is a great place for data analysis it has access to large amounts of data from a variety of sources like sales manufacturing purchasing and marketing however that data while valuable is often not in a form that is easily understandable or ready for analysis this is where the process of preparing and analyzing data comes in in this video you’ll learn about the importance of processing and analyzing data for transforming raw data into valuable insights that can drive strategic decisions you’ll be introduced to the extract transform load or ETL process a common method for processing data you will also learn how using calculations and visualizations during analysis can help uncover hidden patterns and trends in the data first let’s define what is meant by processing and analyzing data processing data refers to transforming raw data into a format that can be easily understood and analyzed analyzing data involves using various techniques to explore interpret and draw meaningful conclusions from the processed data for Adventure Works processing data might involve consolidating data from multiple sources such as sales transactions customer demographics and product inventory this is because the data in its raw form may be scattered across different databases spreadsheets and even paper records additionally the data may be in various formats have missing values or contain duplicate entries in this case processing the data would involve cleaning organizing and transforming the data into a format that is more suitable for analysis a common data processing method is the extract transform load or ETL process the ETL process involves extracting data from various sources such as databases or files transforming the data to make it consistent accurate and ready for analysis for example by cleaning and filtering the data and loading the transformed data to a suitable destination like data repositories databases or analytical tools for further analysis this process which you will learn about in greater depth later plays a crucial role in preparing raw data for analysis now that you have a general understanding of data processing let’s explore some methods of data analysis one effective way to analyze data is by performing calculations on the processed data to reveal new insights for example Adventure Works can calculate its products total revenue profit margin or average order value these calculations can help the company identify which products are performing well and which might need improvement another powerful technique for analyzing data is data visualization visualizations or graphical representations of data such as charts and graphs can communicate complex information in a simpler way and help make complex data easier to understand they can also help uncover patterns trends and relationships within the data that might not be apparent through calculations alone for instance Adventure Works could create a bar chart to compare the total sales of different product categories or a line chart to track monthly revenue over time visualizations like these can help the company quickly identify trends spot potential issues and make more informed decisions in summary processing and analyzing data is critical to transforming raw data into actionable insights through the ETL process data can be extracted transformed and loaded into a format that is suitable for analysis when the data is processed calculations and visualizations can then be used to explore the data uncover hidden patterns and generate new insights to drive strategic decisions as you progress in this course you will learn more about the various tools and techniques available for processing and analyzing data by mastering these skills you will be better equipped to help businesses like Adventure Works maximize the value of their data and make datadriven decisions that drive growth and success jaime Lee owner and CEO of Adventure Works is concerned that sales have been stagnant and wants to take her business to the next level she’s aware of the power of data insights to drive business decisions so she employs Adio Quinn a data analyst to help provide the answers she needs to grow her company in this video you’ll explore how data insights can be used in the final stage of the data analysis process to drive business using a case study you’ll discover how these insights can empower stakeholders like Jamie to make informed decisions and improve business performance data insights refer to the valuable and actionable information knowledge and understanding generated from analyzing data this is the final stage of data analysis where the insights can be used to identify trends patterns and opportunities these insights can then lead to actionable business decisions that can help businesses grow and stay ahead of the competition let’s explore how data insights can drive business decisions practically by considering how Jamie could use insights related to sales customer and competitor data to make decisions that improve business performance at Adventure Works by analyzing sales data collected over the past year ADIO identifies that certain types of bicycles sell more during specific seasons like mountain bikes in the spring and road bikes in the summer by using this data insight Jaime can make informed decisions about inventory and promotional efforts for example she could make sure that the warehouse is sufficiently stocked up with each bike type based on seasonal demand levels and have the marketing team offer special promotions to boost sales of the bikes in their off seasons by making decisions based on data insights Jaime can optimize her inventory management and increase overall profitability suppose Adio also discovers that customers belonging to particular age groups prefer specific bicycle types or respond more positively to particular marketing messages jamie can use this information to oversee the creation of targeted marketing campaigns offerings and communications that resonate with different segments of the company’s audience by personalizing marketing efforts based on customer data insights Jaime can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and drive more sales and revenue imagine Addio’s analysis reveals a gap in Adventure Works current offerings with customer data indicating that customers are increasingly interested in electric bikes and unique design features with insight into this growth opportunity Jaime can explore the development of new products to meet these demands making decisions related to product development and innovation for Adventure Works this datadriven approach to product development ensures that businesses create products that cater to real customer needs increasing the likelihood of success another area where data insights could drive business decisions is pricing strategy sales data competitor pricing and customer feedback can help stakeholders like Jamie determine optimal price points for products balancing demand revenue optimization and market competitiveness for example say Adio finds that customers at Adventure Works are willing to pay a premium for certain highquality bicycles jaime can then adjust the company’s pricing strategy accordingly to capture more value from those sales however if some bicycles are priced too high and are hurting overall sales Jaime can consider lowering their prices to create demand by using data insights to inform pricing decisions businesses can optimize revenue and profitability stakeholders and data analysts alike can follow some best practices to enhance the use of data insights to drive business decisions for a comprehensive understanding of a business its operations and trends and patterns it’s important to gather data from multiple sources and regularly analyze it regular data analysis makes it possible to stay upto-date with trends and make timely informed decisions it’s also important to encourage a datadriven culture where data insights are valued and used to inform decision making at all levels likewise encouraging collaboration and insight sharing within an organization can lead to better decision-m finally investing in the right tools and technology like Microsoft PowerBI can help streamline the data analysis process making it easier to gain insights and make datadriven decisions you should now have a better understanding of how data insights can drive business by embracing a datadriven approach companies can stay ahead of the competition and make better business decisions ultimately the more stakeholders like Jamie understand their data the better equipped they’ll be to make informed strategic decisions that can optimize business performance for your company imagine navigating through a dark maze without a map searching for hidden treasure this is what it feels like to dive into a vast ocean of data without the right tools microsoft PowerBI offers a solution to the challenge of navigating large amounts of data and uncovering useful insights in this video you’ll learn about PowerBI’s role in data analytics and visualization its key features and benefits and navigating its user interface powerbi is a suite of business analytics tools to help organizations transform raw data into meaningful information and make datadriven decisions there are several products within the PowerBI ecosystem including PowerBI desktop the Windows application for creating reports and dashboards that you’ll use throughout this course and others such as PowerBI service PowerBI mobile PowerBI report server and PowerBI embedded these components work together to provide a comprehensive business analytics solution allowing you to connect to various data sources clean and prepare data create impactful visualizations and reports and share findings and insights effectively powerbi has become an essential resource for many organizations across various industries let’s explore why powerbi is userfriendly its easy to use intuitive interface makes it accessible to technical and nontechnical users alike with its drag and drop functionality you can create visualizations reports and dashboards simply and quickly another benefit of using PowerBI is data integration it supports a wide range of data sources including traditional databases Excel spreadsheets and cloud-based services this allows you to consolidate data from multiple sources and create a comprehensive view of their business performance powerbi simplifies data transformation with the Power Query Editor in PowerBI you can clean transform and reshape data as needed which is important to ensure that data is accurate consistent and ready for analysis there are also rich visualization options available in PowerBI with a variety of built-in visualization types such as bar charts and maps and custom visuals developed by the community these options make it easy for you to present data in a visually appealing and easy to understand way you can perform advanced analytics with PowerBI with data analysis expressions or DAX and built-in analytical capabilities you can perform complex calculations and data analysis leading to deeper insights and better decision- making plus you can easily collaborate and share reports and dashboards with colleagues both within and outside the organization powerbi is scalable and designed to grow with organizations its various licensing options and features can accommodate businesses of all sizes and the platform can scale to meet changing business needs finally PowerBI integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products such as Excel SharePoint and Teams and offers a cost effective pricing model now that you have some insight into why PowerBI is one of the most popular data visualization and business intelligence tools let’s examine its user interface to get started with PowerBI you’ll need to download and install PowerBI Desktop the primary application for designing and creating reports and dashboards once you have PowerBI Desktop installed you can begin exploring the main areas of its user interface you can use the ribbon located at the top of the PowerBI desktop window to quickly access various tools and features to create and customize your reports and dashboards it contains several tabs such as home insert modeling and view each tab has its own collection of buttons and options for performing common tasks like connecting to data sources creating visualizations and formatting your reports in the left navigation pane you can select report to open report view report view is the primary canvas where you design and create your visualizations you can add and arrange different visual elements here like charts tables maps and more to build your report pages allow you to create multiple views of your data in a single report at the bottom of the PowerBI desktop window you’ll find a row of tabs you can use these to organize your visualizations based on themes or categories to add duplicate or remove pages use the tabs at the bottom of the report view the visualizations pane is located on the right side of the window and contains a gallery of visual elements that you can add to your report there are various types of visuals available that you can add to your report by clicking or dragging them from the visualization pane onto the report view also on the right side of the window is the fields pane it displays the data tables and fields available for your report as you learn to build reports in PowerBI you’ll use the fields pane to populate your visualizations with data the fields pane is organized into two sections the top section displays the available tables and the bottom section shows the fields within the selected table last the filter pane found on the right side of the window allows you to apply filters to your data at various levels such as the entire report individual pages or specific visualizations in this video you discover the benefits of using PowerBI as a business intelligence tool and explored its user interface by understanding its key features and capabilities you’re one step closer to using PowerBI to create reports that communicate your insights effectively and drive meaningful change businesses like Adventure Works often have a large amount of data but don’t know how to extract the insights hidden within in this video you’ll discover how calculations and visualizations in Microsoft PowerBI are used to analyze this data generate and communicate insights and empower businesses to make datadriven decisions you’ll learn the key concepts behind calculations using data analysis expressions or DAX and how visualizations can communicate complex data and insights in PowerBI calculations are the foundation of your data analysis and are created using a powerful language called data analysis expressions or DAX calculations allow you to perform specific operations on data manipulate it and create new calculated measures columns and tables that you can use in visualizations and reports to drive decision-m with custom calculations you can tailor your analysis to specific business requirements and address unique analytical needs some common calculations are aggregations where multiple values are combined or grouped into a single value to summarize large amounts of data for example summing up finding the average or counting data points based on specific criteria timebased calculations for comparing data across time periods such as month over month or year-over-year growth and ratios and percentages for calculating proportions or shares of a whole to understand the relative performance of different elements to illustrate with data on monthly sales Adventure Works could use DAX to calculate the average monthly sales determine the month with the highest sales or identify the percentage of sales coming from a specific product category after performing calculations with your data the next step is to represent the results visually visualizations enable you to communicate complex data and insights in a simple appealing way by presenting data graphically visualizations make it easier for stakeholders to grasp key insights trends and patterns that may be difficult to identify from row data or tables powerbi offers a wide range of visualization types such as different charts maps tables and even custom visualizations when choosing the most suitable visualization you should consider the type of data you’re working with for example whether the data is numerical or categorical consisting of non- numeric variables the purpose of your analysis such as comparing values showing distribution understanding relationships or tracking trends as well as the level of detail needed from highlevel summaries to granular insights now let’s explore how to create a visualization in PowerBI using a given data set suppose you are part of a team analyzing sales data and creating a report for Adventure Works you need to create a visualization that represents the number of orders across the different bite categories to create your visualization you first need to import your data to do this open Microsoft PowerBI desktop click on get data in the home tab then select text/ CSV and click connect navigate to the location of the CSV file containing the data you need in this case the Adventure Works bike sales data select it and click open once the data is loaded the data view will display the important data in a table format take a moment to familiarize yourself with the structure of the data the next step is to create a bar chart of the bike sales by category click on the report view which is the first icon on the left side of the PowerBI interface next click on the clustered bar chart visualization icon in the visualizations pane this is a bar chart with multiple bars after that drag and drop the product category field onto the y-axis section of the visualization pane then drag and drop the order quantity field onto the x-axis section of the visualization pane this bar chart visualization shows the total order quantity for each product category this can help Adventure Works quickly identify which bike categories have the highest or lowest number of orders they can use the insight to make informed decisions about inventory management marketing strategies and product development you’ve now gained a foundational understanding of calculations and visualizations in PowerBI and their role in generating results and insights from data you learned about using DAX calculations for data analysis and using visualizations to communicate data insights and help businesses make datadriven decisions congratulations on completing this first module on data analysis in business let’s recap some key concepts that you covered in lesson one you were introduced to the course and syllabus explored some tips for successfully completing the course and engage with your peers in the second lesson you learned more about the essential role data analysis play in businesses helping them collect organize analyze and understand their data data analysis can help businesses gain insights from their data identify the cause of problems uncover trends and make decisions that can improve business performance you are introduced to the stages of data analysis and the interconnected roles available within this process from data engineers to business intelligence or BI analysts you also explored some important skills data analysts need to succeed in their role including nontechnical skills like effective communication and understanding end user needs in lesson three you examine the stages of data analysis in more depth these stages include identifying the problem or purpose of the analysis collecting processing data and analyzing data data visualization and report sharing and implementing insights and recommendations you learned that gathering the right data is fundamental to an analysis that is relevant and useful understanding the purpose of your analysis will inform the type and scope of data that is correct for the analysis you then explore the processing and analyzing stages of data analysis some are more processing involves transforming raw data in preparation for analysis and analysis involves analyzing the processed data and generating insights you are briefly introduced to the extract transform load or ETL processing method and learned about DAX calculations and visualizations in data analysis you also learned about some factors to consider before sharing reports with stakeholders including the accessibility visual appeal and security of your report as well as data storage and refresh schedules you discovered the importance of understanding stakeholder experience and applying this to data visualization and analysis to more effectively convey data insights you learned how data insights can drive informed business decisions and lead to improvements like increased customer satisfaction you then explored some best practices for stakeholders and data analysts to follow to drive business decisions including collecting data from multiple sources regular data analysis encouraging datadriven culture and collaboration and insight sharing and investing in the right tools and technology you also had the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in the lesson by evaluating an analysis process finally you were introduced to Microsoft PowerBI and its many benefits including its userfriendly interface rich visualizations and advanced analytics you learned how to navigate PowerBI’s users interface set up your own PowerBI desktop environment view a report and generate interactive visualizations you now know more about the role of a data analyst the data analysis process the role data analysts play in business and PowerBI as a tool for data analysis with the foundational knowledge you’ve gained you are ready to move on to your next lesson on harnessing the power of data in PowerBI in previous lessons you learned about the importance of data and the role it plays you discovered how organizations aim to derive meaningful insights from their collected data in this context it’s necessary to identify the collected data and evaluate which parts of it are required you could start a data project by first determining what is being measured and what are the critical issues you need to make decisions about the answers will help you to identify and evaluate the data correctly now let’s examine the process of data identification and evaluation in more detail this process includes understanding the importance of asking the right questions analyzing the required data for a business decision and data type classification by the end of this video you’ll understand data classification and modern data sources and you’ll learn how to use these in business decisions proper data valuation depends on the key skills of identifying data sources and asking the right questions let’s explore data evaluation at Adventure Works a fictitious large multinational company that makes and distributes bicycles and accessories to global markets jamie the CEO at Adventure Works wants to analyze sales data to reveal factors that influence the sales of their products a good place to start the analysis is to streamline the business requirement from complex to simple and then establish relationships between any multiple topics let’s take the example of identifying factors that affect sales to do this analysis you need first to determine the data to be measured and the potential factors that could influence it for instance this includes internal company data data from social media and sensor generated data such as product codes from barcode scanners or identity confirmation from facial recognition software sales data is the main area that Adventure Works wants to assess a critical source of this information comes from their enterprise resource planning or ERP system erp systems are designed to collect store manage and interpret structured data from various business activities structured data is data that is organized into a formatted repository typically a database so it’s easily searchable in the context of Adventure Works everything is a physical store from product shelves product categories to points of sale employees and customers and are all defined and stored in the table of the ERP database this kind of data structure creates a digital mirror of the real world store and provides a highly efficient and effective way for Adventure Works to analyze sales data from various periods such analysis could be based on product category or type of customer providing actionable insights into sales trends customer behaviors and product performance how you evaluate the ERP database depends entirely on your perspective and analysis evaluation questions could be are sales generally showing a downward or upward trend are there seasonal increases or decreases in certain categories how do holidays or special occasions affect sales have sales shown variability by age gender income level or customer geographic location on a product or category basis now let’s consider other potential data sources for Adventure Works in addition to the ERP data examining the situations that occur before or during the purchase are useful an excellent example of such a source is the sensors installed in the automatic doors of the store the data from these sensors revealing the number of people entering and exiting the store at any given time can be categorized as semistructured data semistructured data falls between structured and unstructured data while it doesn’t conform to the formal structure of data models as seen in an ERP system it contains tags or other markers to separate data elements and enforce hierarchies of records and fields within the data the data obtained from door senses might be tagged with information like timestamps store identifiers or locations allowing for more detailed analysis this data can be used to evaluate the store’s visit intensity over different periods offering an opportunity to correlate store traffic patterns with sales volume this analysis could lead to insight about peak selling times the effectiveness of promotions or how staffing levels relate to sales in addition Adventure Works can analyze unstructured data flowing from social media channels to gauge the company’s popularity and reputation this can include online messages related to the company social media check-ins photos and videos shared by customers unstructured data is information that doesn’t have a predefined structure or isn’t organized in a predefined manner making it less straightforward to analyze for adventure works this social media data can be evaluated from different dimensions such as the timing of posts or demographic characteristics of the audience interacting online with the company for instance by conducting trend analysis the company can gauge the popularity of its brands products or campaigns this analysis can inform marketing strategies customer engagement tactics and product development with a robust data identification and evaluation strategy to identify and evaluate the correct data sources companies like Adventure Works can harness the full potential of data to uncover actionable business insights each piece of data regardless of its type structured unstructured or semistructured holds immense value the true power of data lies not in its volume or variety but in its purposeful utilization remember data itself is not the end goal instead it’s a tool to help businesses make more informed decisions therefore it’s vital to understand why you’re using the data how it serves your purpose and what methods you’ll use for its evaluation what’s the best way to use Microsoft PowerBI as with other software you may have your own preferred way to use it and that’s okay however in this video you will explore key PowerBI components and discover their primary purpose to achieve the best results you must use these components in the proper order that sequence of use is known as a workflow over the next few minutes you’ll get to know how a common workflow operates in PowerBI microsoft PowerBI is an interactive data visualization product with multiple components you use its components and its rich visualization features to create meaningful reports from different data sources and types of data let’s explore the details of Microsoft PowerBI’s three main components powerbi Desktop PowerBI apps and PowerBI service powerbi Desktop is a Windows-based desktop application that is mainly used by data analysts or report designers to clean transform and load data create a data model design reports and publish these reports powerbi desktop uses PowerBI connector to access various data types and data sources connectors allow you to read data from various sources this includes resources located in the local file system such as Microsoft Excel or PDF documents conventional database systems hosted on internal servers called onremise databases cloud-based databases and even external enterprise applications and application program interfaces or APIs powerbi service is the cloud-based BI service or software as a service part of PowerBI it is used by report users and administrators powerbi apps is the native mobile application of PowerBI it’s available on iOS Android and Windows with these components and interfaces Microsoft PowerBI enables users from various disciplines such as report designers administrators and business users to use the product according to their roles as mentioned earlier the order in which you use these components is known as a workflow a PowerBI workflow can be described as the steps taken with data to create publish and share a typical workflow in PowerBI often starts with the creation of a report in PowerBI desktop report designers and developers are primarily responsible for this task when the report is ready you publish it to the PowerBI service where administrators can assign permissions and specific users can consume the report now let’s examine each step of the workflow in more detail create is about importing data and creating a report this step is when you import your data sources into PowerBI desktop clean transform and load your data in order to have targeted data for your reports use your filtered data to create a report and analyze and present your data using various visualizations and charts in your report then you move on to the publish step of the workflow where you publish reports and create dashboards that means you publish your report to the PowerBI service and share your data with others by creating dashboards and use different visualizations and filters to make your data more understandable in your dashboard the final step of this workflow is sharing in this step you share dashboards with users and manage access to your data share your dashboards with the users needed to make it easier to collaborate on projects manage access to your data by ensuring that dashboards have different user permission levels this is also where you consider mobile usage for instance using PowerBI mobile apps you can view and interact with reports and dashboards that have content pinned from reports anytime and anywhere you can use different features of the mobile apps to explore and share your data from different perspectives in summary a typical Microsoft PowerBI workflow sequences the requirements needed to choose data sources and types in step one and then step two is used to visualize the data the third and final workflow step presents the resulting reports and dashboards to cater to different user types and their requirements using such a workflow you combine different types of data from many sources using various components such as PowerBI desktop PowerBI service and PowerBI apps have you ever tried to solve a jigsaw puzzle when the pieces are scattered everywhere and you don’t even know those pieces belong to the same puzzle that’s what it can feel like as a data analyst tasked with extracting insights from data that spread across multiple sources formats and structures not to worry there’s a way to solve this problem the extract transform load or ETL process in this video you’ll build on your knowledge of the ETL process you’ll explore the three main components of the ETL process and how to apply them the benefits of using the ETL process and how it’s performed using Microsoft PowerBI as you learned earlier in this course ETL stands for extract transform and load the names given to the three main steps in the ETL process this process involves taking raw data from various sources preparing it for analysis and loading it into a repository or data storage and management system let’s explore each step of the ETL process in more detail and how they can be applied in the scenario of the manufacturing company Adventure Works which produces and distributes bicycles and accessories extract is the first step in the ETL process which involves retrieving and extracting raw data from different sources such as databases files or other data storage systems for example imagine that Adventure Works data is scattered across multiple systems as is the case with many organizations say customer data is stored in a data management system called customer relationship management or CRM sales marketing and manufacturing data is in an enterprise resource planning system or ERP and purchasing data is in spreadsheets the extraction process involves pulling the data from these different sources then you consolidate it into an easily accessible central location often a temporary intermediate storage location known as the staging area and prepare it for further processing in the next step once the data is extracted the second step is to transform it transforming the data involves cleaning structuring and enriching the data to make it more suitable for analysis this may involve removing duplicates handling missing values creating new calculated fields converting data types and standardizing measurement units in the case of Adventure Works let’s say that the sales and marketing data is in US dollars but the manufacturing and purchasing data is in different currencies depending on where in the world the sales or purchase take place as part of transforming the data you may need to convert all the currency values into a standard unit of measurement in this case US dollars to ensure consistency the third and last step involves loading the transformed data into the final storage system typically a data warehouse where it can be readily accessed and analyzed for example using tools like PowerBI depending on the organization’s needs the loading process can be a one-time event or scheduled to run regularly in the case of Adventure Works the cleaned and transformed data might be loaded into a cloud-based data warehouse making it accessible to the company’s data analysts and decision makers the ETL process ensures that the data analyze is accurate clean and consistent which in turn supports informed decision-m this process offers many benefits including data integration etl helps integrate data from different sources providing a unified view of an organization’s data making it easier for analysts to perform analysis and derive insights data quality etl processes involve data cleansing and validation which significantly improve data quality data consistency by transforming data into a standardized format ETL ensures consistency across various data sets enabling analysts to easily compare and analyze data from different sources enhance performance by aggregating summarizing or indexing data during the transformation process etl can improve query performance and reduce the load on data analysis systems and data governance etl can support data governance initiatives by helping organizations maintain a single source for their data ensuring that everyone has access to the same accurate information widely used in data analytics tools like PowerBI the ETL process helps you bring together refine and assemble different data pieces into a coherent picture that can drive business decisions powerbi is just one tool that comes equipped with built-in ETL capabilities enabling you to connect to many different data sources transform your data using Microsoft Power Query and load it into the PowerBI data model power Query is a powerful ETL tool within PowerBI providing a graphical interface and formula language called M to perform various data transformation tasks with Power Query you can extract data from multiple sources clean and structure it and load it into PowerBI for creating reports and visualizations the extract transform load or ETL process is essential for any datadriven organization the importance and benefits of ETL lie in its ability to turn raw data into accurate and consistent information in a centralized system that is easy to analyze and use in decision-m because data is critical to better decision- making embracing tools that can support the ETL process such as PowerBI can significantly impact business performance addio the data analyst at Adventure Works needs to analyze sales data from multiple channels including physical stores and e-commerce platforms he asks the data analytics team to gather and ingest the data a fundamental step before he can proceed with the later stages of the extract transform load or ETL process in this video you’ll explore data gathering and ingestion including different methods to gather and ingest data and their advantages and disadvantages let’s start by outlining data gathering and ingestion which typically take place in the extract step of the ETL process data can come from a variety of sources such as structured data from spreadsheets or databases unstructured data from text files or social media posts and streaming data from realtime data transmissions such as webcams or satellite navigation systems data gathering involves collecting or acquiring data from these different sources an example of gathering data is the data analytics team at his venture works collecting all their sales data ranging from spreadsheets to realtime streams data ingestion starts with data gathering and encompasses the process of obtaining and importing data from various sources for immediate use or storage such as in a database for example as a part of data ingestion the team at Adventure Works can go on to extract relevant data from each source such as customer data and sales metrics like revenue they can then load it into a central database where it can be accessed for further processing and transformation the data gathering and ingestion process is beneficial for organizations for various reasons with data volume velocity or speed of generation and variety in terms of types and sources constantly increasing it helps organizations consolidate their data this unified view of their data facilitates comprehensive analysis datadriven decision-m and innovation data ingestion improves operational efficiency through process automation proper ingestion practices can also help organizations meet regulatory requirements protect sensitive data and ensure data integrity now that you know more about data gathering and ingestion and its benefits let’s explore some common methods for gathering and ingesting data as well as their advantages and limitations these include manual data entry filebased ingestion database connections web scraping and data streaming manual data entry is the most basic method of data gathering and ingestion where data is manually inputed into a system for example an employee at Adventure Works may type in data from a physical customer order form into a customer relationship management or CRM system while manual data entry is straightforward and suitable for small amounts of data it is time consuming prone to errors and unsuitable for large scale data ingestion another method is filebased ingestion the process of importing data from files such as spreadsheets to illustrate Adventure Works might receive sales data from retail stores in Excel spreadsheets these files can be imported into the ETL process using tools that read and parse or interpret the file contents while filebased ingestion is common and requires less technical expertise than other methods it can become cumbersome when dealing with large numbers of files or frequent updates with the database connection method you access data directly from a database or data warehouse using tools that can connect to and query the source for example Adventureworks can create a database connection to access data from its sales database using SQL queries this connection enables the analytics team to extract necessary data by using SQL commands as well as transform and load it for further analysis later in the ETL process while database connections offer real-time access to data enabling instant insights and prompt decision- making they do require knowledge of database languages like SQL and may involve complex configuration or authentication process web scraping is a method of extracting data from websites using automated methods or software tools in the case of Adventure Works the analytics team can use web scraping to gather competitor pricing information or customer reviews web scraping is a powerful way to gather data from websites but it can require legal permission and be complex as it involves a range of technologies streaming data is continuous real-time data generated by sensors or other sources you can ingest data streaming using tools that connect to and process the data as it is generated for instance Adventure Works could use data streaming to monitor factory equipment track inventory levels or analyze real-time sales data data streaming allows for immediate analysis and decision-m but requires specialized tools and infrastructure to handle the continuous flow of data each data ingestion method has its advantages and limitations so it’s essential to choose the appropriate data ingestion method based on your specific use case and the nature of the data you’re working with in summary data gathering and ingestion involve obtaining and importing data from different sources generally in the extract phase of the ETL process data gathering and ingestion have many benefits for businesses from consolidating data to facilitating innovation by mastering the data gathering and ingestion methods introduced in this video you can help organizations like Adventure Works optimize their data for analysis due to rapid growth Adventure Works needs to store and manage increasing volumes of data from different sources the company must develop a comprehensive plan for data storage and management to handle its changing data needs in this video you learn about the role of data storage and management planning in the extract transform load or ETL process and for organizations in the short and long term you’ll also learn key considerations for effective data storage and management planning planning for data storage and management is involved throughout the ETL process during the extract step you need to consider what types of data you’ll be collecting how often and from which sources setting the foundation for data management in the transform step proper data management ensures the transform data is consistent accurate and complete planning for data storage is also necessary as the transformed data may need temporary storage before being loaded into its end destination finally in the load step planning for data storage and management like considering database or data warehouse structure facilitates efficient retrieval and analysis of stored data in a broader context planning for data storage and management impacts multiple aspects of an organization short-term data storage and management solutions address immediate data needs facilitating quick access to up-to-date data and collaboration for Adventure Works this is vital for daily operations like responding to customer inquiries and processing transactions long-term storage and management planning caters to strategic goals and compliance requirements for example long-term storage solutions will enable Adventure Works to analyze sales data customer feedback and market trends over time informing decision-m and improvement strategies when planning for data storage key considerations include storage capacity data access scalability security and backup and disaster recovery one of the first considerations is how much storage capacity you need this depends on factors like organization size data types and average file size required storage duration and anticipated data volume growth accurate estimation can prevent the cost of overprovisioning and lower underprovisioning risks like data loss and system performance issues it’s also important to consider how easily you and your team can access data when needed whether for daily operations and collaboration or long-term trend analysis planning for accessibility may involve organizing file structure implementing searchability and retrieval mechanisms and providing remote access options another factor is the scalability of your storage solutions or its ability to adapt to changes in data volume technology and data types planning for scalability helps ensure the storage infrastructure can support your organization’s data needs as they change over time without compromising performance requiring major infrastructure changes or incurring excessive costs next is security considering storage security is vital as data breaches can have serious consequences like financial loss planning and implementing security measures such as access controls and data encryption help protect your data against unauthorized access theft or tampering and emerging threats and vulnerabilities lastly a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan is essential for minimizing the impact of data loss due to unexpected events such as hardware failures or human error this involves creating regular data backups on site offsite or both implementing a recovery strategy that outlines how to restore data and resume operations and regularly testing and updating the recovery plan now that you’re familiar with data storage planning let’s focus on data management which involves organizing maintaining and protecting data to ensure its quality accuracy and accessibility key aspects of data management planning include data governance data quality data integration data security and privacy and data retention and archiving data governance establishes policies and procedures for data collection storage access and usage throughout your organization this helps prevent data silos or isolated sets of data ensures data accessibility and promotes data quality and responsibility among team members data quality considerations ensure accurate complete up-to-date data relevant to business needs you can implement processes for checking cleaning and enriching your data to maintain high quality data data integration plays an important role in the combination and consolidation of data from multiple sources and formats into a unified view facilitating data analysis and insights data security and privacy include planning measures such as access controls activity monitoring and compliance with data protection regulations implementing a data retention policy and archiving process to ensure data is retained for the appropriate time based on factors like legal or business requirements are important aspects of data management planning in conclusion data storage and management planning helps organizations develop comprehensive solutions to handle their current and future data needs even during periods of expansion as with adventure works by considering data storage factors like storage capacity and accessibility alongside aspects of data management from data quality to retention organizations can ensure efficient data storage management and use imagine you have a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet of raw data from various sources your task is to analyze it and generate insights to help Adventure Works make informed decisions as you start exploring the data set you realize that it’s filled with inconsistencies missing values and duplicate entries if you don’t address these issues your analysis will be flawed and potentially lead to costly mistakes this is where data cleaning and transforming comes into operation in this video you’ll explore data cleaning and data transformation discover how they impact the quality of your analysis and compare the implications of cleaning data at source and in PowerBI data cleaning is the process of identifying and correcting errors and inconsistencies in data sets this includes removing duplicate entries filling in missing values and fixing incorrect data types data transformation involves altering the structure format or values of the data to make it more suitable for analysis this may include aggregating data converting data types or normalizing values both cleaning and transformation are crucial to ensure the quality and reliability of your analysis for instance imagine you’ve been given a data set that contains information about customers products and sales transactions some customer names are written in all caps while others are in sentence case making it difficult to group or filter the data by customer name cleaning this data would involve standardizing the format of customer names an example of transforming this data is calculating the total revenue for each customer which would require aggregating the sales data by customer and multiplying the quantity of products sold by their respective prices inconsistent untidy or duplicate data entries can have a negative impact on data analysis these issues can lead to inaccurate or misleading results which can lead to poor decision-m for example if duplicate sales transactions are included in the data the total revenue might appear higher than it actually is this can result in overestimating the company’s performance and making illinformed decisions about resource allocation now let’s discuss the difference between cleaning data at the source and cleaning data in PowerBI cleaning data at the source involves addressing data quality issues directly within the source system such as a database or a spreadsheet this method ensures that any future analysis using this data will have a clean and consistent foundation however this approach may not always be possible especially if you don’t have direct access to the source system or if multiple systems are involved cleaning data in PowerBI involves importing the raw data and applying cleaning and transformation steps within the PowerBI environment this approach addresses data quality issues without modifying the original data source however this means that you may need to repeat the cleaning process each time you import the data into PowerBI which is time consuming and prone to errors let’s consider examples of data cleaning in PowerBI and data cleaning at the source the source refers to where your data is coming from for instance it could come from internal software like enterprise resource planning or ERP systems accounting software databases or Microsoft Excel let’s start by exploring how to clean data at the source adventure Works stores its sales customer and product information in a centralized database the data quality team decides to implement data validation rules and standardize the formatting of customer names directly in the database this ensures that any future analysis of this data has a consistent and accurate base by addressing the data quality issues at the source Adventure Works can save time and effort in future analysis as the data will already be clean and ready for use now let’s switch to an example of cleaning data in PowerBI rather than at the source imagine that Adventure Works stores its sales and data in multiple systems and the data quality team does not have direct access to all the source systems they choose to import the raw data into PowerBI and apply cleaning and transformation steps there while this approach allows them to address data quality issues and generate accurate insights it also means that they will need to repeat the cleaning process each time they import new data this is time consuming and if the cleaning steps are poorly documented it may lead to inconsistencies in future analysis in summary data cleaning and transforming are essential data analysis processes they help ensure your insights are accurate and reliable data cleaning involves identifying and correcting errors and inconsistencies in data sets data transforming involves altering the data structure format or values to make it more suitable for analysis now that you understand the implications of cleaning data at the source compared to EmpowerBI you can choose the most effective approach for your needs by improving your data cleaning and transformation skills you’ll be better equipped to tackle the challenges of errors and inconsistencies in data sets picture this you’re at your desk with your morning coffee your manager needs a comprehensive report on Adventure Works sales performance across all regions product categories and customer types and she needs it by the end of the day your heart races as you think about the vast amount of data you’d have to sift through scattered across numerous files databases and systems but you don’t panic you remember that Microsoft Power Query can help with Power Query you know you can efficiently connect to multiple data sources transform unclean data and create a structured data set for further analysis in PowerBI this video explores the capabilities and benefits of Power Query you’ll discover how Power Query helps you connect to multiple data sources clean and transform data and create structured and repeatable data preparation workflows for efficient data analysis microsoft Power Query more commonly known as Power Query is a data connectivity and data preparation tool built into Microsoft’s PowerBI suite it plays a crucial role in the data analysis process by enabling you to connect to a wide range of data sources clean and transform the data and then load it into PowerBI data models for analysis and visualization power Query streamlines and automates the process of preparing data for analysis making it easier for you to gain valuable insights from data power Query is designed to handle the extract transform load or ETL process an essential part of any data analysis workflow let’s explore how Power Query can help with the ETL step extract power Query can connect to various data sources such as relational databases Excel workbooks CSV files web pages and more once connected you can select the specific tables or data sets you want to work with transform with the data loaded Power Query provides a userfriendly interface for cleaning and transforming the data you can perform various transformations such as filtering sorting merging splitting grouping and aggregating data load once the data has been cleaned and transformed Power Query loads it into the PowerBI data model where you can further analyze visualize and share power Query is particularly useful in the following scenarios connecting to multiple data sources power Query simplifies the process of connecting to any consolidating data from different sources into a single data set for further analysis cleaning and transforming data power Query provides a wide range of tools and functions that help you clean reshape and transform data into a structured and usable format automating data preparation tasks power Query records the steps you take when transforming data creating a repeatable and editable process this feature not only saves time by automating repetitive tasks but also ensures consistency and accuracy during data preparation structured and collaborative workflows power Query’s ability to record and edit transformation steps makes it easy for you to share data preparation workflows with colleagues power Query also promotes a structured and repeatable approach to data preparation as you perform transformations it records these steps in an applied steps pane which allows you to review modify or delete any step in the process this makes it easy to fine-tune your data preparation workflow and ensures that you can consistently reproduce your results to illustrate the ability of Power Query let’s return to your task of creating a sales performance report for Adventure Works based on all sales regions in this situation your data is scattered across various sources such as Excel spreadsheets CSV files databases and even web pages with Power Query you can easily connect to these different sources extract the relevant data and consolidate it into a single data set once you’ve connected to your data sources Power Query provides a userfriendly interface that allows you to perform various data transformations such as removing unwanted columns or rows splitting or merging columns changing data types and filtering and sorting data power Query is ideal for extracting data from various sources cleaning and transforming it and then loading it into a PowerBI data model for further analysis and visualization this enables you to create a comprehensive Adventure Works sales performance report breaking down sales by region product category and customer type just as your manager requested part of the PowerBI suite Power Query is a versatile and powerful data connectivity and preparation tool by connecting to multiple data sources cleaning and transforming data and creating structured and repeatable data preparation workflows Power Query helps you at each stage of the ETL process turning raw data into valuable insights that drive informed decision-making as you continue to work with data and explore the world of PowerBI Power Query will become an indispensable tool in your data analysis toolbox imagine yourself as an artist standing before a canvas prepared to create a masterpiece the colors on your palette are your data and your brush is Microsoft PowerBI how you blend these colors the strokes you choose and your vision will determine the beauty of your final painting your business intelligence insights working through this week on the right tools for the job you learned the techniques to paint a masterpiece you covered the importance of identifying suitable data and evaluating data sources data gathering and ingestion transforming and loading the data in preparation for analysis and using the extract transform load or ETL capabilities of Microsoft PowerBI and Microsoft Power Query let’s revisit some of the key concepts you covered in the week you started your journey with an exploration of data collection identifying and evaluating the required data in the foundation for successful business decision-making you learn the importance of asking the right questions and analyzing the necessary data for business decisions illustrated through the scenario of adventure works you explore the need to understand the purpose of the data how it serves this purpose and how it should be evaluated learning about classifying data as structured unstructured and semistructured types you then continued to the workflow in PowerBI the artist’s brush in the earlier analogy you discover that PowerBI with its three main components PowerBI desktop PowerBI service and PowerBI apps is a powerful tool for creating meaningful reports from various data sources you were introduced to the PowerBI workflow to effectively sequence your work from importing data to creating dashboards sharing them and managing access permissions next you explored the ETL process and related concepts you learned about data gathering and ingestion the act of obtaining and importing data from different sources this process aids in data consolidation enabling enhanced decision-m and innovation you covered some common methods of data ingestion and gathering from less technical methods like manual data entry to methods that require specialized tools or knowledge like database connections you also learned more about data storage and management and their importance for datadriven organizations you explored key considerations for data storage planning such as storage capacity and data access needs as well as key aspects of data management planning from data governance to retention and archiving your journey then led you to data cleaning and transformation much like cleaning and preparing your paint brushes before creating a masterpiece data needs to be cleaned and transformed to ensure its quality and suitability for analysis you learned how data cleaning addresses inconsistencies missing values and duplicate entries in data sets while data transformation enhances data analysis through processes like aggregating data converting data types and normalizing values after that you explore the practical aspects of cleaning data at the source in Excel before importing it into PowerBI you discovered the importance of using key Excel functions like text functions data and time functions logical functions and lookup functions to ensure the reliability and accuracy of our data in the final part of the week you explored Microsoft Power Query in PowerBI a data connectivity and preparation tool that handles the ETL process you should now understand how Power Query helps in connecting to multiple data sources cleaning and transforming data automating data preparation tasks and creating structured and collaborative workflows this week you were introduced to some of the tools you can use to create data analysis masterpieces robust insightful and visually appealing business intelligence reports in future courses you’ll have the opportunity to develop practical skills in using these tools as you continue your PowerBI learning journey remember that like a skilled artist a successful data analyst must know their tools well understand their medium the data and have a clear vision of the end result the knowledge and skills acquired in this week will serve as a strong foundation to build on enabling you to create compelling data narratives that drive informed business decisions you’ve now reached the end of your learning journey for this harnessing the power of data with PowerBI course building a solid foundation in learning how to use Microsoft PowerBI to help businesses make the most of their data with Microsoft PowerBI in your data analysis toolkit you discovered how you can use data effectively to help stakeholders make informed business decisions you’ve put great effort into completing this course by working through a range of videos readings exercises and quizzes in the final course assessment you’ll apply what you’ve learned by completing tasks that simulate a real world data analysis scenario to consolidate your learning you’ll then take a final graded quiz to assess the knowledge and skills you gained throughout this course in this video you’ll review key learnings related to the data analysis process for businesses and the process of transforming data into valuable insights using PowerBI this will help you prepare effectively for your upcoming assessments now let’s get started by revisiting your first week of learning in the first week you learned about data analysis in business including the interconnected roles available to you in the world of data you primarily focus on the role of a data analyst when exploring the data analyst role you cover the skills data analysts need to collect process analyze and ultimately transform raw data into valuable business insights another key learning point was the stages of the data analysis process you learned that the data analysis process includes identifying the analysis purpose or defining the business problem data collection and preparation data processing and modeling data analysis visualization and interpretation and reporting and sharing data insights in relation to data processing you explored how you can use the extract transform load or ETL process to transform raw data in preparation for analysis you were introduced to data analysis expressions or DAX calculations and using visualizations during the data analysis stage you also explored some factors to consider when creating data analysis reports and best practices for supporting datadriven decision-making in businesses the importance of gathering the right data and engaging with the analysis purpose for successful data analysis was emphasized you learned the significance of understanding stakeholder experience you discovered how tailoring your data analysis and visualization with this in mind can enhance comprehension engagement and the relevance of data insights part of your learning included discovering how data insights can drive business decisions and how stakeholder engagement can facilitate this process you then went on to learn more about Microsoft PowerBI and its user interface components powerbi is a userfriendly but powerful tool for data analysis and visualization week two began with an exploration of data collection and the importance of asking the right questions to ensure you gather the right data this included learning about identifying suitable data by evaluating data sources and types you were introduced to the PowerBI workflow consisting of PowerBI desktop PowerBI service and PowerBI apps you learned that with the PowerBI workflow you can import data generate data insights create meaningful reports and dashboards and share and manage those reports and dashboards you then explored elements of the extract transform and load process in more depth as a part of this process you covered data gathering and ingestion which are integral to the data analysis as well as methods for performing them you also explored the importance of effective data storage and management which is involved throughout the ETL process data storage and management planning and considerations from storage capacity and data access needs to data retention and archiving were highlighted as crucial for datadriven organizations you then learned more about data cleaning and transformation essential steps to ensure data quality and accuracy prepare your data for analysis and enhance your analysis you discovered how to clean data at source in Microsoft Excel before you import it into PowerBI the week of learning concluded with an introduction to Microsoft Power Query Editor in PowerBI a data preparation tool with ETL capabilities you learn that Power Query can help you connect to multiple data sources clean and transform data automate data preparation tasks and create workflows as you embark on the final course exercise and graded quiz you can approach your assessments with confidence knowing that you’ve built a strong foundation of knowledge and skills by committing to your learning journey throughout the course however if you feel the need to review any of the concepts summarized for you in this video or require additional preparation remember that you have the flexibility to revisit any of the course items it’s now time to showcase your learning starting with an invaluable practical exercise in this exercise you’ll engage in key tasks that form part of the initial phases of the data analysis process for a product launch analysis wishing you the best of luck as you embark on the final week of this course congratulations on completing the harnessing the power of data with PowerBI course with your hard work and dedication you’ve made great progress in your data analysis learning journey you should now have a thorough understanding of the following topics the role of data in driving decisions and business outcomes how data is produced gathered and transformed into insights in businesses and organizations the stages in the data analysis process the role of the data analyst including related skills tasks and tools the components of Microsoft PowerBI and using PowerBI as a tool for data analysis and visualization this course provided you with a foundation in data analysis in Microsoft PowerBI you discovered the importance of data analysis in business with a deep dive into the role of a data analyst in supporting datadriven decision-m in organizations you’ve learned all about the data analysis process and how to ensure that the analysis you perform is useful for stakeholders whether you’re engaging with stakeholders to determine the analysis purpose or business problem gathering the right data or reporting the insights you now have a comprehensive understanding of each stage of the process you familiarize yourself with PowerBI including its user interface and components you had the opportunity to generate your own visualization a key skill for a data analyst you also learned about the PowerBI workflow and using Power Query Editor in PowerBI for transforming data the foundational knowledge you’ve gained represents a significant step towards using PowerBI effectively to generate valuable insights from data well done this course forms part of the Microsoft PowerBI analyst professional certificate these professional certificates from Corsera help you get job ready for in demand career fields the Microsoft PowerBI analyst professional certificate in particular is not only a way to broaden your understanding of data analysis but also gain a qualification that can serve as a foundation for a career in data analysis using Microsoft PowerBI plus the professional certificate will help you prepare for exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst by passing the PL300 exam you’ll earn the Microsoft certified PowerBI data analyst certification this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to prepare data model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX of which you gain some foundational knowledge in this course you can visit the Microsoft certifications page at http://www.learn.microsoft learn.microsoft.com/certifications to learn more about the PowerBI data analysis certification and exam this course enhance your knowledge and skills in the fundamentals of data analysis in PowerBI but what comes next well there’s more to learn so it’s recommended you move on to the following course in the program whether you’re new to the field of data analysis or already have some expertise and experience completing the whole program demonstrates your knowledge of and proficiency in analyzing data using PowerBI you’ve done a great job so far and should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained will showcase your willingness to learn motivation and capability to potential employers it’s been wonderful to be a part of your journey of discovery wishing you all the best for the future hello and welcome to this course on extracting transforming and loading data in Microsoft PowerBI regular digital activities such as ordering food online reserving a trip and using a social media application generate a great deal of data now think about the billions of people who engage in these activities every single day then there are other organizations like universities and banks that perform many other transactions that may need to be stored in different ways businesses also need to gather data from different sources for example from their customers from other companies and from the government now imagine all that data living in different places and being stored in different ways how can a company make sense of all of this that’s where data analysts come in one of their jobs is to extract data from different sources transform it in a way that it can be used and load it into a tool to help the analysis process like PowerBI this is what you will learn in this course how to extract transform and load data a process also known as ETL before data can be used to tell a story it must first be processed so that it is usable as a story data analysis is the process of identifying cleaning transforming and modeling data to discover meaningful and useful information the data is then crafted into a story through reports for analysis to support the critical decision-making process in this learning path you will learn about the life and journey of a data analyst and the skills tasks and processes they have to master to tell a story with data you’ll discover how getting the data analysis story correct enables businesses to make informed decisions by now you should have learned how to harness the power of data in PowerBI and how it benefits an organization in this course you will get to explore various topics and elements involved in the career of a data analyst including identifying how to collect data from multiple sources and configuring it in PowerBI preparing and cleaning data for analysis and inspecting and analyzing ingested data to ensure data integrity this course will give you a solid foundation in these topics and offer you opportunities to practice extracting transforming and loading data into PowerBI now let’s briefly outline the course content so you can have an idea of what’s to come in your learning journey as you explore the extract transform and load process first you will learn about the extract portion of the ETL process you will focus on data sources and how to extract data and configure storage modes in PowerBI then you will move on to the transform portion of the ETL process you will practice cleaning and transforming data to prepare it for data modeling you will also learn about data cleaning using Power Query and how to use applied steps next you will cover the load portion of ETL and practice using data profiling and advanced queries you will also learn about referencing queries and data flows and using the advanced editor to modify code to assist your learning you will also get to apply your newly gained skills in exercises quiz questions and self- reviews to consolidate your learning and put it into practice you will complete a practical assignment in this assignment you will be provided a business scenario from Adventure Works a fictional business where you need to gather data from multiple data sources to clean and transform you will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge you gained in this course to join and merge these data sources identify and remove anomalies using profiling tools after this practical assignment you will complete a final graded assessment be assured that everything you need to complete the assessment will be covered during your learning with each lesson made up of video content readings and quizzes in addition you can share your knowledge and discuss challenges with other learners these discussions are also a great way to grow your network of contacts in the data analysis world so be sure to get to know your classmates and stay connected during and after your course this course is also a great way to prepare for the Microsoft PL300 exam by passing the PL 300 exam you’ll earn the Microsoft PowerBI data analyst certification the exam measures your ability to prepare data model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets in this course you will learn the process of extract transform and load you will identify how to collect data from and configure multiple sources in PowerBI and prepare and clean data using Power Query you’ll also have the opportunity to inspect and analyze ingested data to ensure data integrity now that you have an overview of what this course is about it’s time to take the next step and prepare for a career as a data analyst using PowerBI these days businesses generate very large amounts of data through their activities and the data may come from different sources for example from different departments within the company or from clients the challenge is how to make sense of this data and extract valuable insights that can help improve business performance that’s where PowerBI comes in in this video you’ll explore the basics of data sources produced from business operations and learn how to combine them to gain business insights to begin let’s first review the data sources that you can connect to in PowerBI flat files are a common type of data source that can be used for ETL or extract load and transform in PowerBI examples of flat files include CSV TXT and Microsoft Excel files relational data sources such as SQL Server MySQL and Oracle databases are commonly used by large organizations because they provide a high level of reliability data integrity and security nosql databases such as MongoDB and Cassandra are becoming increasingly popular for ETL in PowerBI these databases are designed to store and manage large volumes of unstructured or semistructured data making them ideal for use in a wide range of applications don’t worry if you’re not familiar with all the terminology it will be discussed later in this course so no matter where your data is stored PowerBI has the flexibility to connect to a wide range of data sources next we will explore how combining data sources in PowerBI can optimize supply chain performance imagine you are a supply manager responsible for managing the new just in time system of your company ensuring that all parts and materials are sourced and delivered on time while meeting quality standards you closely collaborate with your team to ensure that the system runs and all suppliers meet their obligations by combining data from various sources such as sales figures inventory production and supplier information your department could gain valuable insights into customer behavior product performance and supplier performance for example by analyzing sales data alongside supplier data trends in customer demand can be identified and production and inventory levels adjusted accordingly on a company level analyzing supplier performance data helps to identify areas for improvement and work with them to enhance their performance and long-term collaboration in conclusion combining data sources can benefit different stakeholders in a business by providing valuable insights into customer behavior product performance and supplier performance this information can be used to make informed decisions leading to improved supply chain management reduced costs increased customer satisfaction and ultimately drive business success data integration can be a daunting task especially when you are working with multiple data sources that have varying formats structures and quality levels the combination of these sources can often lead to inconsistencies and errors making it difficult to derive meaningful insights and make informed decisions but you don’t need to worry tools like PowerBI simplify the process of combining data from different sources reducing the time and effort required to create a comprehensive view of your data it is designed to be userfriendly and accessible even for non-technical users with an intuitive interface and drag and drop functionality that makes it easy to create reports and visualizations powerbi also allows you to customize your reports and visualizations to suit your company’s specific needs you can choose from a wide range of pre-built templates and visualizations or create your own custom designs this flexibility makes it easy to create reports that are tailored to the unique needs of your business it also enables collaboration by allowing you to share your reports and visualizations with colleagues clients or stakeholders by sharing reports or embedding them in websites or apps this collaborative approach can improve communication and ensure that everyone is working with the same data ultimately driving business success combining data sources is a great method of providing valuable information that can lead to improved supply chain management reduced costs increased customer satisfaction and ultimately drive business success and it should not be a daunting task in this video you learned the basics of data sources produced from business operations and how to combine them to gain business insights tools like PowerBI with its built-in data connections can simplify the process of combining data from different sources reducing the time and effort required to create a comprehensive view of your business by leveraging the functionalities of PowerBI you as an aspiring data analyst along with other stakeholders can gain a competitive edge and unlock new opportunities for growth and success at Adventure Works every day businesses generate large amounts of data but where do they store it all many organizations store and export data as files such as flat files in this video you’ll learn how to set up and export a flat file data source your manager at Adventure Works Adio Quinn asked you to build a PowerBI report using a flat file that the human resources team has prepared the file contains some of Adventure Works’s employee data such as employee names hire dates positions and managers as well as data located in several other data sources so what is a flat file a flat file is a file type that contains a single data table with a uniform structure for every row of data and does not have hierarchies some examples of flat files include commaepparated value or CSV files delimited text or TXT files and fixed width files additionally output files from various applications such as Microsoft Excel workbooks can also be classified as flat files now that you know what a flat file is let me demonstrate how to set up a flat data source let’s help Adventure Works HR department set up a flat data source the first step is to determine which file location you need to use to export the data the file location is important because when it is changed PowerBI will not be able to refresh the data this can cause errors such as file not found or data source not found once you have located your file you can proceed in PowerBI to display available data sources in the home group of the PowerBI desktop ribbon select the get data button option or down arrow to open the common data sources list if the data source you want isn’t listed under common data sources select more to open the get data dialogue box in this example you need an Excel data source which is first on the list next a connection window displays where you select the employee Excel workbook that the HR team prepared and select open when your HR file is connected to PowerBI desktop the navigator window opens this window displays the tables available in your data source the Excel file in this example you can select a table to preview its contents and to ensure that the correct data is loaded into the model after selecting the check box of the table that you want to bring into PowerBI it activates the load button now you can select the load button to import your data into the PowerBI data set in case you need to change the location of your source file for a data source during development or if your file storage location changes you’ll need to update your connection strings in PowerBI to keep your reports up to date to do this in PowerBI desktop select file in the menu bar then select options and settings from the file menu and now select data source settings from the options and settings menu you can also change or clear the permissions by selecting edit or clear permissions respectively permissions cover the privacy level and credentials used for connecting to a data source remember that any structural changes to the file can break the reporting model so it’s important to reconnect to the same file with the same file structure by following these steps you’ll be able to ensure that your report uses the most accurate and up-to-date information available you’ve now helped Adventure Works HR department to store their data and you should now know how to set up and export a flat file data source great work as an aspiring PowerBI data analyst you’ll generate large amounts of data but where can you store this data fortunately PowerBI offers several storage options for its users over the next few minutes you’ll explore PowerBI’s storage modes and their impacts on report performance adventure Works need help with creating a report that displays the performance of different product categories over time this report will be a large sales transaction table with billions of rows so you need to optimize its performance so that the end users have fast access to the visuals but before taking on this task you first need to understand the different storage modes available in PowerBI and how they impact report performance let’s begin with an overview of PowerBI storage modes powerbi has two primary storage modes import mode and direct query mode it also includes a complimentary dual mode import mode is used to import small data sizes from various sources into PowerBI and it stores it in memory which enables quick access for example in import mode you can connect to an Excel file containing a data set of available categories this mode is ideal for the marketing department if they need to filter sales transactions by category in the report view on the other hand direct query mode allows you to connect directly to the data source and the data remains in the source system direct query mode is best suited for larger data sets where loading data into memory is not practical for instance if you have a card visualization that displays an aggregate summary of category sales from a sales table with this storage mode PowerBI will send a request to the data source and get the result back by using direct query the sales department can leverage the power of the external database to handle complex queries and aggregations while PowerBI only brings in the necessary data for visualizations there are many features in import mode not supported in direct query mode so it’s important to remember that you can’t switch from one mode to the other now that you’re familiar with the two primary storage modes in PowerBI import and direct query let’s explore the complimentary dual mode dual mode is a distinct mode that combines the benefits of import and direct query modes when you use dual mode the PowerBI service determines the most efficient mode to use for each query so if a table has similar data between import and direct query modes then using dual mode can be beneficial with dual mode you can import the data you need and still use direct query for additional data that is not available in the important data let’s explore the advantages and limitations of each of the storage modes in a little more detail starting with import mode import mode is a great option if you need to work with small to medium-siz data sets data is loaded into PowerBI to form the data model the data model organizes the data into tables columns and relationships making it more accessible and easier to work with all calculations are performed within the data model the data is stored in compressed form which optimizes memory usage one downside of import mode is that you must refresh the data manually this means that any changes you make to the source data will not be reflected in the report until the data is refreshed the next mode you’ll explore is direct query direct query mode connects directly to the data source and queries are sent to the source system in real time this means that the data is always up to date and there’s no need to refresh the data manually direct query mode is best suited for larger data sets as it does not require loading all the data into memory if you choose to import the data to a PowerBI file stored on your local computer it will require a significant amount of memory and resource overhead one downside of using direct query mode is that it can impact performance if the queries are complex or the data source is slow so you need to consider the benefits and drawbacks of each storage mode and select the one that best suits your needs the third option you need to be familiar with is dual mode this is where data is stored in memory but can also be retrieved from the original data source this is useful when you are working with dimension tables which can be queried with fact tables from the same source for instance Adventure Works might have a sales aggregate by customer loyalty table in import mode which is used to speed up query processing by storing a summarized and categorized version of customer data in memory simultaneously the larger sales transactions table could be set to direct query mode in this scenario setting the common dimension table such as date to dual mode can enhance the performance of the report when the dual mode table date is combined with an import mode table sales aggregate by customer loyalty it behaves like an import table and retrieves data from memory ensuring faster performance on the other hand when the dual mode table dimension date is combined with a direct query mode table sales the dual mode table dimension date behaves like a direct query table quering data directly from the source system when you use multiple data sources to create a data model it is called a composite model composite models enables you to combine multiple import modes into one unified data model using composite models can greatly enhance the functionality and performance of your reports and analytics workflow when building composite models in PowerBI it’s important that you specify the storage mode for each table in your data model the performance of your composite model depends on how you set it up for the best performance try to use import or dual mode tables they work faster because the data is stored in memory and can be retrieved quickly giving you faster results when creating reports it’s essential that you consider the size of your data set and determine if real-time access is a requirement before selecting a storage mode powerbi offers different storage modes and in this video you learned about the two primary storage modes in PowerBI import direct query as well as the complimentary dual mode as an aspiring data analyst it is important that you understand how these different storage modes impact a report’s performance in this video you explored the advantages and limitations of each of the storage modes great work data has the potential to help organizations make better business decisions but businesses generate such large amounts of data they have to sift through that it becomes difficult to see the story it tells luckily PowerBI is an excellent tool for visualizing and analyzing data however the slow loading time of data can be a significant issue especially when working with large data sets in this video you’ll learn how to configure import direct query and dual storage modes in PowerBI to optimize data retrieval and processing enhance report speed and guarantee that your reports always contain the most recent data renee Gonzalez the marketing manager at Adventure Works has asked you to create a report that displays sales at the cash registers as customers purchase products the point of sale system scans product barcodes at the cash register measuring purchase trends she’s concerned with the logistics of ordering stocking and selling products while maximizing profit as this is going to be a large sales transaction table with billions of rows you need to ensure that the report’s performance is optimized so that the end users have fast access to the visuals to complete this task successfully you have to select the best storage mode for the data and configure it in PowerBI to optimize data retrieval and processing let’s start by helping Adventure Works choose a storage mode in PowerBI desktop to do this select the data button on the home group of the PowerBI desktop written in the get data dialogue box search for the Azure SQL database connector once you’ve selected the Azure connector the data connectivity mode section displays where you can choose from two options import or direct query import mode stores data directly in PowerBI desktop’s memory while direct query retrieves data from your data source in real time powerbi also provides extra functionality to customize the storage mode for each table in your data set to get started select the model view icon near the left side of the window to display a view of the existing model model view displays all the tables columns and relationships in your model table card headers are colored to help you quickly identify which tables are from the same kind of source a table card header with no color indicates that these tables are in import mode tables from the same direct query source will display the same color in the table card header blue in our example select the sales order detail DW table and expand the properties pane by right-clicking on the table and selecting properties the properties pane displays various options for configuring the table you’ll find a drop-own menu labeled storage mode in the advanced section of the properties pane this is where you can set or adjust the table’s storage mode now let’s set up a dual import mode for your table by configuring the storage mode of the sales order details table this table is currently set to a direct query mode in the advanced section change the option to import mode the following warning message will display setting storage mode to import is an irreversible operation you will not be able to switch it back to direct
query this operation will refresh table setter import which may take time depending on factors such as data volume next select okay congratulations you now know how to configure storage modes to optimize your reports now that the storage modes are configured Renee and her team should experience a significant improvement in system performance for example reports will generate more quickly they can display real- time data and business users can access data more efficiently well done at this stage of the course you should be familiar with how businesses gather and generate large amounts of data in their daily activities this can include data from human resources accounting and sales you also learned that this data may be structured and stored in different ways as an aspiring data analyst at Adventure Works you will realize that the most important step is to determine how data will be structured and stored knowing your data types and the way it is structured gives you the correct data sets to create reports that suit the company’s needs allowing business insights that will help during decision-m furthermore identifying the best storage solution for your data can reduce costs and improve performance two aspects that any company has as top priorities by the end of this video you will be able to identify the difference between structured and unstructured data and what storage solution is ideal for each type as an aspiring data analyst at Adventure Works you’ve been assigned the task of determining the best storage solution for the online retail website at Adventure Works the website was built with three data sets used to run the business product catalog data image files and financial business data each data set has different requirements the key factors to consider in your task are data classification how your data will be used and how you can get the best application performance now let’s focus on data types there are three types of data structured unstructured and semistructured all of which are suitable for analysis but differ in the tools used for ingestion transformation and storage let’s start with structured data structured data is the most common type of data that we use it is also known as relational data in a financial report for example numbers and names are arranged into columns and rows making it easier for analysis and processing by nature structured data is quantitative easily searchable sortable and analyzed using tools like Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or relational databases which can store large amounts of structured data sql or structured query language is a programming language used to manage relational databases it allows users to manipulate and query data stored in a database making it a valuable tool that’s used by data analysts and business users however the structure makes any addition or removal of data fields difficult since you must update each record to adjust to the new structure some applications where relational data is used are customer relationship management reservations and inventory management systems now let’s cover unstructured data unstructured data does not have a predefined structure or format it is best used for qualitative analysis and usually resides in non-reational databases or unprocessed file formats some examples of this type of data are text documents audio and video files social media posts and images these types of files can be stored in a centralized repository that ingests and stores large volumes of data in its original form then there is a third type of data it is called semistructured data because it is not as organized as structured data and it is not stored in relational databases this type of data uses tags for organization and hierarchy video files may have an overall structured and contain semistructured metadata but they are considered unstructured data since the data that forms the video itself is unstructured there is a process for converting semi-structured data into a specific format that can be easily transmitted stored or processed it is called data serialization it uses a method of formatting that will allow the data to be transmitted or stored in a way that is easily understood by both the sender and the receiver without the need to know all the specific details of the data this is useful when dealing with semi-structured data that doesn’t fit neatly into traditional databases or data structures if you want to learn more about serialization please visit the additional resources at the end of this lesson now you’ll learn how to classify your data in order to choose a suitable storage solution for structured or unstructured data the correct storage solution can deliver better performance improve manageability and save on database costs when selecting a storage solution it’s important to consider the type of data you’re working with what operations are needed to transform the data and what level of management and maintenance is required the business data used at adventure works for analysis on a year-to-year comparison is not updated frequently it is stored in multiple data sets and some latency can be accepted since it is mainly read only not all data analysts need write access but they can all read from all data sets this is a type of structured data that will most likely be queried by data analysts who use SQL more than any other query language therefore a suitable storage solution for this example is a SQL database or a cloud-based solution like Azure SQL database but it can also be bundled with another cloud-based solution Azure Analysis Services to model the data in Azure SQL database this model can be shared with business users who can connect to it through PowerBI for analysis and gain business insights in summary selecting the appropriate storage solution is vital for addressing the specific requirements of your data remember when we spoke about serialization and the formatting to allow the storage of unstructured or semistructured data one of those formats is a blob this is a binary large object where the data is stored in a binary ones and zeros format for Adventure Works online retail website Azure Blob Storage is an ideal option for storing unstructured data such as photos and videos it’s a scalable and cost-effective cloud storage service which is designed to store large amounts of unstructured data such as images videos or documents the website has a product page where a bicycle photo needs to be displayed at the same time as the specific bicycle model the photos will not be queried independently by including the photo ID or URL as a product property the photo can be retrieved by its ID without any time lag this demonstrates how unstructured data can be stored the right storage solution allows Adventure Works to achieve optimal performance and efficient data management in this video you learned that while structured data is easier to work with and analyze unstructured data is often more abundant and valuable businesses and organizations are increasingly focusing on harnessing unstructured data to gain insights into customer behavior emotions and other aspects that can shape their strategies choosing and implementing the correct storage solution can benefit companies and organizations by improving performance reducing costs and increasing efficiency adventure Works generates data from many different departments and stores this data in many different sources wouldn’t it be great if they could combine data from these different sources with PowerBI they can combine data sources using connectors in this video you’ll learn about the different kinds of connectors available in PowerBI their purpose how to choose a connector and securely connect to the cloud data source adventure Works needs to generate a report that compares the sale of bicycle models across the company’s different outlets web retail and individual sellers however the sales data is stored in different sources the company needs you to generate an integrated report that combines these different data sources you can combine these data sources using connectors in PowerBI you can use PowerBI as a single business intelligence solution to generate an integrated report by combining the company’s data sources through the use of connectors but before you begin let’s find out more about connectors connectors are links that transport data between a data source and an application they’re basically the bridges that connect PowerBI to different sources of data with connectors you can create a link or bridge between PowerBI in different data sources like databases files services SharePoint and more connectors make it easy to connect between data sources you can then transform clean and visualize the data into PowerBI for report and analysis to generate insights but before you start importing your data it’s important to understand what your business requirements are for the data source this includes things like whether the data is stored on your own computer and gets updated every so often or if the data is coming from an external source and needs to be updated in real time you also need to know who will be using the data and how it will be used these requirements are essential because they can affect the way you load the data into PowerBI so it’s important that you get them right microsoft frequently adds new data connectors to its desktop and services platforms it typically releases at least one or two new connectors every month as part of the regular PowerBI update this has resulted in PowerBI having a vast collection of over 100 data connectors available files databases and web services are the most used sources all PowerBI connectors are free to use but they might be marked as beta or preview depending on their development stage any data source marked as beta or preview has limited support and functionality so don’t make use of it in production environments now that you’re familiar with the data connectors available in PowerBI it’s time to help Adventure Works generate their report let’s examine the steps involved in setting up a connector to a SQL database first navigate to the home tab and locate the get data button you have two options to choose from here you can either select the get data button and then choose all or you can select the expand arrow next to the get data button and select more this lets you access a wide range of data connectors available in PowerBI to make sure your data is mapped correctly in PowerBI it’s crucial to identify the specific nature of the data for instance if you’re working with a document meant for an Azure SQL database using the Excel connector wouldn’t give you the desired outcome as a PowerBI user in the get data window navigate to the Azure SQL option and select it then select the connect button you can also use the search bar to filter the available connectors and quickly find what you’re looking for after selecting the data source you’ll be prompted to set up the connection depending on the type of data source you’ve chosen the specific details you need to provide will differ for example if you’re working with an Excel file you’ll need to specify the location of the file on the other hand if you’re dealing with a SQL server database you’ll need to enter the server name and the database connection details there are a few additional options you may want to consider in addition to specifying the server address and database name you can also choose between different connection modes such as import or direct query most of the time you’ll select import other advanced options are also available in the SQL Server database window but you can ignore them for now you’ll cover them at a later stage in the course after you’ve specified the server and database names you’ll be prompted to sign in with a username and password you’ll have three different sign-in options to choose from depending on your credentials the first option is to use your Windows account this is often the easiest option for users who are already logged into their computer the second option is to use your database credentials for instance SQL Server has its own signin and authentication credentials that are managed by the database administrator the third option is to use your Microsoft account credentials which require your Azure Active Directory credentials once you’ve selected the sign-in option that’s appropriate for your situation enter your username and password and then select connect this will allow you to securely connect to your data source once you’ve successfully connected your database to PowerBI desktop the available data in the navigator window appears this window displays all the tables or entities that are available in your data source such as the SQL database in this example to preview the contents of a table or entity simply select the check box next to the table to import data into your PowerBI model select all tables that you want to bring in finally once you’ve selected the tables you can choose to either load the data into your model in its current state or transform it before loading for now the focus is on the data loading process data transformation will be covered in more detail at a later stage by selecting the appropriate data and choosing the load option you can easily bring in the data you need to start building visualization and analyzing your data in PowerBI connectors are an essential component of PowerBI the wide range of available connectors lets you connect to lots of different data sources to bring them all together into one place you can then import or extract the data from these sources into reports and dashboards for analysis and visualization by leveraging the full range of connectors you can access valuable insights to make datadriven decisions for your business you should now understand that connectors are a powerful asset that can help you get the most out of your data analysis what if you could reorder products you buy frequently with a click of a button that would be really convenient right and what if other types of tasks could be automated by businesses well in today’s datadriven world organizations are constantly searching for ways to automate tasks to optimize productivity microsoft PowerBI is an integrated suite of software tools applications and connectors that can help you transform your data sources into clear and compelling visualizations connectors play an important role in connecting to various data sources and executing actions or triggering workflows based on specific events there are two types of operations available to create automated workflows triggers and actions in this video you will explore how actions are triggered to create efficient and effective scheduled actions so let’s get started with triggers and actions in PowerBI addio Quinn a data analyst at Adventure Works a bicycle manufacturer is responsible for analyzing daily sales reports and providing insights to the management team however the manual process of importing data from multiple sources and analyzing it can be laborious and timeconuming to streamline this process Adio asks your help to leverage PowerBI’s triggers and actions to automate the workflow with PowerBI you can schedule an action to refresh the data and email the latest sales report to the management team with this automated workflow in place you can now focus on analyzing the data and providing valuable insights to the management team without worrying about the manual process of importing and analyzing the data in PowerBI triggers and actions work together in configuring a workflow either based on time or specific actions a trigger is always required to initiate a workflow and prompt it to run additionally actions in PowerBI enable interaction with the data source through various functions automating tasks and processes with actions in your workflow can save time reduce manual effort and make your workflow more efficient moreover scheduled actions in PowerBI can automate tasks and actions based on specific time intervals by setting up a schedule reports and dashboards can be updated with the latest data regularly without manual intervention thereby improving data accuracy and streamlining workflows now we are going to explore how to set up a schedule data refresh when it comes to working with data in an organization having access to the latest and most relevant information is essential outdated data won’t be useful to the organization as it doesn’t reflect the current situation relying on old data can even hinder the organization’s growth since there could be more recent and applicable data readily available in this video we’ll explore the topic of automating tasks in PowerBI in PowerBI users have the option to create scheduled actions which enable them to automate tasks and actions at specified time intervals today you are going to help Adio a data analyst at Adventure Works and his job involves regularly updating sales report data sets according to a predetermined schedule by setting up a schedule data refresh Adio can now automate the process saving him valuable time and effort let’s begin by opening your browser and heading to https/app.powerbi.com/home powerbi.com/home to get to the scheduled refresh screen in the navigation pane on the left hand side of the screen select data hub next locate the data set you wish to work with in our case the sales report data set next select the ellipses and then select settings to expand the data set settings this will take you to a new screen where you can configure the trigger scheduled refresh section is where you define the frequency and time slots to refresh the data set let’s walk you through the steps to set up an online refresh schedule in PowerBI services here’s what you need to do step one turn the switch to on step two you can modify the schedule to fit your needs choose the frequency you want the data set to refresh such as daily select the time zone you want to use for example UTC London under time select add another time and enter a time for the refresh to occur repeat this step for additional refresh times as needed step three once you’re done simply select apply and you’re all set did you know that you can easily adjust the frequency time zone and time of your scheduled refreshes in PowerBI this allows you to ensure that your data is always up to-date and accurate plus you can even set up scheduled notifications to be sent to a specific email address how convenient is that beware if your data set hasn’t been active for 2 months the scheduled refresh will be automatically paused are you ready for a quick rundown on data refreshing in PowerBI great as a PowerBI user refreshing data typically means importing data from the original data sources into a data set you can choose to refresh data based on a predetermined schedule or on demand depending on your needs if your underlying source data changes frequently it may be necessary to perform multiple data set refreshes daily however it’s important to note that PowerBI limits data sets on shared capacity to a maximum of eight scheduled daily data set refreshes with these easy steps you can now create a refresh schedule that works perfectly for you in this video you explored the topic of automating tasks within PowerBI specifically using scheduled actions to automate tasks and actions at specified time intervals by automating processes such as data refreshing users can save valuable time and effort we walked through the steps to set up an online refresh schedule in PowerBI services and highlighted the importance of periodically checking the refresh status and history to ensure data sets are error-free good job congratulations on reaching the end of the first week in this course on how to extract transform and load data in PowerBI this week you explored how to work with basic and advanced data sources in PowerBI let’s now take a few minutes to recap what you learned this week this summary will help you review the concepts presented previously and clear up questions you might have you began the course by covering basic data sources you learned that for example by analyzing sales data alongside supplier data you can identify trends in customer demand you also learned that data from different parts of an organization may come from different sources and may be stored in different ways that’s when you identified the many different data sources supported by PowerBI like flat files relational data sources and NoSQL databases you also learned how to set up a flat data source after that you learned that local data sets provide data that is only available to a specific individual or organization and are typically stored locally local data sets are a good option for organizations or projects with few users that demand high security and need speed over quantity on the other hand shared data sets allow multiple individuals or organizations access to data and are usually stored on multiple locations or cloud-based platforms they are suitable for large enterprises or projects that require multiple users working at the same time then you had the opportunity to complete a practical exercise on how to set up an Excel data source in PowerBI after that you covered different storage modes in PowerBI you learned that you must think carefully about the benefits and limitations of each storage mode and select the one that best suits your needs import mode is a great option if you are working with small to medium-siz data sets and if the data is loaded into PowerBI data model in this model data must be refreshed manually on the other hand direct query mode connects directly to the data source and queries are sent to the source in real time so there’s no need to refresh the data manually however this mode might impact performance you also covered dual and hybrid modes as alternative storage modes after you explored these different storage modes you then learned how to configure them in PowerBI next you had the opportunity to apply your skills and configure storage modes in PowerBI you discovered that structured data also known as relational data is arranged into columns and rows by nature structured data is quantitative easily searchable sortable and analyzed using tools like Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or relational databases which can store large amounts of structured data on the other hand unstructured data does not have a predefined structure or format unstructured data is best used for qualitative analysis and usually resides in non-reational databases or unprocessed file formats some examples of this type of data are text documents audio and video files social media posts and images semistructured data is not as organized as structured data and it is not stored in relational databases this type of data uses tags for organization and hierarchy an example of semi-structured data is video files you then learned about connectors connectors are the bridges that connect PowerBI to different sources with connectors you can import data from databases files Outlook servers SharePoint and many other sources you also learned that before you start importing your data it’s important to understand what your business requirements are for the data source you then explored the two types of operations used for creating automatic workflows triggers and actions triggers are used to create efficient and effective scheduled actions for example Adventure Works can use triggers to automate parts of their PowerBI workflow like refreshing data and emailing reports next you undertook another practical exercise in this exercise you implemented triggers to automate your workflow in PowerBI you then tested your understanding of the concepts that you encountered in this lesson in the knowledge check finally you undertook a module quiz this quiz tested your understanding of all concepts that you explored in this module you should now be familiar with the fundamentals of data sources you should be capable of extracting data from basic and advanced data sources to work with in PowerBI great work i look forward to guiding you through the next week’s lessons in which you’ll learn about transforming data in PowerBI you’re making progress in your journey to become a data analyst you’ve learned how to extract data and now it’s time to learn how to transform it so you can make better use of it depending on your data sources data transformation can involve different activities such as cleaning merging and profiling in this video you’ll learn how to identify components of data transformation and understand why data transformation is required adventure Works CEO Jamie Lee has set a new goal for the company to increase sales she’s relying on company data to uncover trends and insights and make that goal achievable your manager Addio Quinn has asked you to create a PowerBI report that visualizes the data in a meaningful way but before you can start working with that data you need to clean and transform the raw data to ensure its accuracy and consistency in the first part of this course when you explored the extract stage of the extract transform load process you learned that data may come from different sources however the data from these sources may contain inconsistencies that make accurate analysis difficult data from different sources can be untidy incomplete and inconsistent making it difficult to draw meaningful insights that’s why data transformation is a crucial step it helps you prepare data for analysis now let’s examine some of the inconsistencies you may find in data by this point in the course you should know that data is classified into three main groups called structured semistructured and unstructured data each data group is suitable for analysis but may require different tools to ingest transform and store you can say that data coming from sources that you define as structured data is more ideal to work with and compliant with the rules since these sources are systems that have strict rules and prioritize data integrity data coming from conventional databases generally have a low probability of inconsistent or erroneous data however in semistructured data unstructured data and even in some types of structured data it is likely that there is data that needs to be transformed before starting the report design for example let’s say you are working on an analysis related to products in an e-commerce database for this task you need some relevant fields for your report however the table has hundreds of fields so you need to decide how to identify the relevant data to create your report an example of useful data transformation in this scenario is including certain columns from the data and excluding others before loading the data for analysis and reporting another transform example would be selecting fields and transforming by merging them such as in a customer table with fields for the first and last name but you want to display them as a single full name field by merging fields with a space between now let’s explore what data cleaning is data that is not structured is more flexible in terms of rules and therefore more likely to be disorganized and require cleaning you may not encounter as clean data as you would expect in Excel data or in data organized using delimiter symbols such as angle brackets or commas in such cases the data should have a preliminary examination to identify incorrect data or separate rows where content refers to the same values like where house written as two words and warehouse as in one word you can resolve these inconsistencies by passing them through filters with specific rules this examination is referred to as data cleaning another data issue you may encounter is the need to merge or append multiple data sources for example if Adventure Works has two data sources for sales one for online sales and another for in-person sales you’ll need the data from both to create a monthly sales report depending on the data formats you can use commands such as append or merge data transformations to combine the data for analysis in this video you learned that data transformation can help improve data quality by removing errors inconsistencies and inaccuracies this results in cleaner more reliable data for analysis it also allows you to standardize data when working with multiple sources with data transformation you can help organizations like Adventure Works use data that is more understandable organized and consistent to achieve goals like increased sales in this video you will explore some features of Power Query and learn to navigate the Power Query editor interface adio Quinn the data analyst at Adventure Works asks you to clean and transform the company’s sales data which is scattered across multiple sources in preparation for data analysis power Query can help you with this power Query is part of PowerBI desktop allowing for seamless data preparation within the PowerBI environment power Query is a data transformation and data preparation tool allowing you to connect clean and transform data from a wide range of sources it ensures that your data is ready for analysis enabling you to create insightful visualizations and reports let’s explore how Power Query helps you clean shape and organize data from various sources the first feature is data connectivity power Query connects to various data sources both on premises and the cloud directly within PowerBI desktop you can access data from traditional databases as well as file-based sources next there’s data extraction and transformation power Query’s interface allows you to extract and transform data with ease during the extraction process you can filter sort and apply custom transformations ensuring that you import only the required data then there’s the power query editor in PowerBI within PowerBI desktop which provides a graphical user interface or guey for designing and managing queries tabs such as home transform add column and view have data manipulation tools there’s also query reusability and applied steps power Query records each transformation as an applied step allowing you to review modify or delete any step this ensures that your data transformations are transparent and easily modifiable finally there’s performance and scalability power Query handles large data sets efficiently using various techniques that optimize performance and reduce memory usage let’s demonstrate these features in Power Query to achieve Jaime’s goal of increasing sales you must work with sales data from different regional teams stored in different file formats like Excel CSV and even a SQL database to get started you’ll need to import this data into PowerBI using Power Query to begin the import you must add a data source in the PowerBI desktop in the home tab select get data to choose a data source the Power Query editor opens in a separate PowerBI window where you can apply various data transformations such as removing columns changing data types and filtering data next you need to load the data select your data source and configure the connection settings if necessary select transform data to open the Power Query Editor now let’s discover how to navigate in Power Query the Power Query editor has several key areas let’s start with the ribbon the ribbon is the set of toolbars at the top of the window it helps you quickly find the commands that you need to complete your tasks the ribbon tabs such as home transform add column and view contain commands and tools for data transformation and manipulation the queries pane is located on the left side of the editor the queries pane displays a list of all the queries in your project select a query to view or edit its applied steps and data preview this pane is where you can manage and navigate between different queries in your project by selecting a query you can view the data and the applied steps associated with it helping you keep track of your work and maintain organization in your project then on the right pane below the ribbon there’s the applied steps section it displays the sequence of transformations applied to the selected query select a step to view the data state at that point or delete reorder or modify steps as needed the applied steps section provides a visual representation of the transformations applied to your data making it easier to understand the changes made by reviewing the applied steps you can identify errors redundancies or inefficiencies in your data transformations finally in the center of the Power Query window let’s explore data preview the data preview pane displays a preview of your data as it appears after the applied transformations you can interact with the data by sorting filtering or changing the data type of columns this pane enables you to review your data at different stages of the transformation process helping you to get your transformations accurate and effective before loading the data into the data model in this video you learned that Power Query is a versatile tool in PowerBI that streamlines data import cleaning and transformation from multiple sources its features such as data connectivity data extraction and transformation make it an integral part of PowerBI desktop it helps you prepare and transform data from different sources within Adventure Works to simplify analysis and create insightful visualizations and reports the Power Query Editor interface offers a userfriendly experience allowing you to perform various data transformations with ease thanks to the applied steps list in Power Query you can easily undo and reorder steps without losing progress in this video you’ll learn how to use the applied steps list to undo modify and reorder steps first let’s open the Power Query Editor in PowerBI to do this from the home tab select transform data after selecting your data source the Power Query Editor opens in a separate window next let’s locate the applied steps list in the Power Query editor you’ll find the applied steps list on the right pane below the ribbon it has all the steps you’ve performed on your data presented in the order of application the applied steps list is a visual representation of the transformations applied to your data by reviewing the applied steps you can identify errors redundancies or inefficiencies in your data transformations to view the data state at a specific point in the process select the corresponding step in the applied steps list the applied steps list makes it easy to correct a mistake or change your mind or undo a transformation to undo a step simply select the X icon next to the step to remove power Query will automatically revert the data to the state it was in before that step was applied please note that removing a step will also remove all subsequent steps in the list as they are dependent on the previous transformations what if you need to reorder the sequence of steps to reorder steps select and drag the step you’d like to move to a new position in the list power Query will update the data accordingly applying the transformations in the new sequence you should note that reordering steps might affect the results of subsequent transformations review your data and the applied steps list to check everything suppose you need to modify a step just select the gear icon next to the step this opens a settings window to edit the transformation parameters when changed select okay to apply the update as with reordering steps modifying a step might affect subsequent transformations always review your data and the applied steps list to ensure everything is as expected to add a new step use the Power Query Editor ribbon to choose a transformation such as filtering or sorting when you perform a new data transformation it’s added to the applied steps list with the Power Query Editor you can also add filters filtering is the process of narrowing down your data set by displaying only the rows that meet specific criteria it helps focus on a particular subset of data remove unwanted data that may affect your analysis or simplify your data set for better readability let’s check how to add a filter in the Power Query Editor select the column header for the column you want to filter this highlights the entire column with the column selected select the small down arrow next to the column header this opens a drop-own menu with filtering options such as text filters number filters or date filters depending on the data type in the column choose the type of filter and select okay notice the new filtering step has been added to the applied steps list you can also sort your data set sorting is the process of arranging your data in a specific order either ascending or descending sorting organizes data based on specific attributes such as alphabetical order numerical values or chronological order helping to identify the highest or lowest values in a data set select the column header for the column you want to sort in the home tab of the ribbon find the sort group choose sort ascending A to Z or sort descending Z to A to sort the selected column in ascending or descending order the data is sorted based on your chosen sorting order check the applied steps list to ensure the new sorting step is added finally for better organization and readability you can rename any step in the applied steps list just rightclick the step you’d like to rename and select rename enter a new descriptive name for the step and press enter renaming steps helps keep track of transformations making it easier to navigate and understand the data transformation process in this video you learned how to use the applied steps list in Power Query to undo modify and reorder steps it has a visual representation of the data transformation process making it easier to understand complex queries and track the impact of each action on the data set the applied steps list provides easy undo and redo functionality flexibility and reordering steps and efficient troubleshooting capabilities saving time and effort how do you efficiently remove and rename columns to focus on the data that matters you can do it with Microsoft Power Query in Microsoft PowerBI in this video you’ll learn how to remove and rename columns and promote header roles in Power Query in PowerBI as you continue to work on Adventure Works goal to increase sales your manager Adio Quinn asks you to prepare a report on sales and customer demographics you have a data set with numerous columns but you only need a few of those columns for your analysis you must get the data organized and streamlined but you’re not sure where to start that’s where Power Query comes in power Query is a powerful data transformation tool within PowerBI that allows you to connect to different data sources clean data and transform data with ease a common data manipulation you’ll encounter is working with columns working with columns in Power Query in PowerBI is an essential skill for data analysts and professionals who regularly deal with data one of the main benefits of learning to work with columns is efficient data preparation eliminating unimportant or repetitive columns allows you to concentrate on the most crucial data for your analysis minimizing the data set size and streamlining the data structure for easier manipulation and quicker processing another benefit of working with columns is improved data readability and interpretation removing unnecessary columns helps declutter your data set making it easier to read and understand renaming columns with more descriptive names helps you quickly identify the purpose and content of each column one other benefit of working with columns is that it allows for enhanced data analysis and reporting by focusing on the most relevant columns you can produce more accurate and meaningful analyses this allows you to deliver actionable insights to your team and organization leading to better decision making finally working with columns means time and resource savings efficiently removing and renaming columns in Power Query can save you a significant amount of time during the data preparation stage this means you can devote more time to analyzing the data and generating insights by streamlining your data preparation process you also reduce the computational resources required to process your data this can lead to faster analysis and in some cases cost savings particularly when working with cloud-based services that charge based on resource usage now let’s explore a step-by-step guide on how to remove and rename columns and promote header rows in Power Query let’s start by demonstrating how to remove columns the first step is to load your data into Power Query Editor open PowerBI on the ribbon select home select get data and choose your data source for example Excel or CSV once connected to your data the Power Query Editor opens displaying your data the next step in the Power Query Editor is to locate the columns you want to remove to select a single column select its header if you need to select multiple columns hold down the keyboard control key or the command key if you’re using a Mac and select multiple column headers to remove with the columns you want selected you’re ready to proceed right click on any of the selected column headers in the context menu that appears select remove columns the selected columns are removed from your data set you will notice a new step removed columns appears in the applied steps list on the right pane reflecting the updated data state now let’s cover how to rename columns first you select the column you want to rename in the Power Query editor select the header of the column to rename rightclick the header of the selected column in the context menu select rename a text box appears type in a new column name press enter to save the change again you’ll notice the new step in the applied steps list let’s check how to promote header rows the first thing is to identify which row in your data set contains the headers in most cases this is the first row if your data set has additional information or metadata above the headers you may need to scroll down to find the appropriate row now you can promote the header row once you’ve identified the header row on the ribbon use the home tab to locate the transform group select use first row as headers this promotes the first row to be used as column headers replacing the existing headers note if the header row isn’t the first row you’ll need to remove any rows above the header row before promoting it to do this select the rows you want to remove by selecting the row numbers on the left side of the editor then on the ribbon in the home tab select remove rows you will notice a new step removed rows in the applied steps list on the right pane reflecting the updated data state in this video you learned how to remove and rename columns in Power Query you also learned how to promote header rows these are important skills for you to master as an aspiring data analyst they empower you to transform raw data into valuable insights that drive smarter decision making and lead to a greater impact within your organization furthermore efficient data preparation saves time and computational resources when analyzing your data you need to ensure accuracy and reliability but data sets often contain errors that lead to inaccurate results using Power Query you can fix many common data set errors in this video you’ll learn how to identify common types of errors and discover how best to fix them using Power Query in PowerBI adventure Works is preparing to analyze its latest sales data worksheet however there are several errors in this data set like null values duplicate rows and inconsistent data types these errors must be resolved before analysis let’s take a few moments to help Adventure Works fix these errors using Power Query first you must import the data set to transform in this case it’s the Adventure Works sales data set on the home tab select get data and choose text CSV for the file type browse to the location of your data set and select open to import then select load to load the data next select transform data in PowerBI desktop the transform data button is in the home tab in the queries group of functions the button is positioned to the right of the recent sources button the sales data is loaded into Power Query it shows a list of bicycle products and key information about each product like name price weight category and description however several of these rows contain null or missing values these errors need to be resolved before the data can be analyzed to systematically identify missing or null values select the drop- down arrow in the column header for the variable you’re examining this opens a filter menu used to filter the data in the column based on specific criteria the filter menu contains options like empty or null available options depend on the data type of the column empty refers to blank cells in text columns null refers to missing values in numeric or date columns select the appropriate option to filter and display rows that contain missing or null values in the selected column inspect the data table in the editor and identify any rows with missing or null values in this data set two rows contain missing values row 16 and row 17 have a missing value in the product subcategory column now that you’ve identified the values you can resolve them there are three ways to resolve missing values you can replace them with default values replace them with values from another column or remove the rows containing missing values for adventure works the best approach is to replace its missing values with default values logical default values can represent the missing data without distorting the analysis or visualizations first in the ribbon at the top of the editor select the transform tab you use this tab to access the tools and functions for modifying and transforming the data next select the replace values button then select replace values from the drop- down menu you use this option to replace specific values in a column with a new value in this case you can replace all null or missing values a replace values dialogue box appears on screen it has a text box labeled value to find where you specify the value you want power query to identify and replace the aim is to find missing or null values in the product subcategory column so in the value to find box you can write null below the value to find box there’s another text box labeled replace with this is where you type the new value you want to replace the missing or no values with the new value should be consistent with the columns data type which is text so let’s replace the missing values in the product subcategory with the text value trail which represents the default category for trail bikes finally select okay to confirm and make the change when you select the okay button in the replace values dialogue box Power Query scans the sheet for the values you’ve instructed it to identify it then replaces each instance of these values based on the criteria you specified in the replace with box you can review a history of all data transformation operations you’ve applied to the data set by selecting the pane called applied steps on the right hand side of the power query editor window adventure Works has fixed the null values in its data set but there are still duplicate rows errors present the entries in rows 22 to 24 are duplicates of other records in the sheet and identical records also exist in rows 25 to 27 let’s help Adventure Works resolve these errors on the home tab access the data manipulation functions from these functions select the remove rows option and a drop-own menu appears select remove duplicates from the options power Query analyzes the data set and finds rows that have identical values in the selected columns it then removes all but one instance of each group of duplicates that’s good progress just one final error left in the data set inconsistent data types in the form of order dates let’s fix this final error the inconsistent data is in the column order date select the column header to select and apply changes to the entire column next select the transform tab to access the data modification options select the data type button then select the date data type from the drop- down menu this converts all values in the column to the select to data type meaning all data types in the column are now consistent thanks to your help Adventure Works has removed all errors from its data set it can now perform data analysis without the risk of producing inaccurate results you should now understand how to identify common errors in data sets like missing or no values duplicate rows and inconsistent data types you should also be able to resolve these issues using the tools available in Power Query identifying and resolving these errors is essential for making sure your analysis runs on accurate reliable and highquality data you are a data analyst at Adventure Works tasked with analyzing sales data across different product categories and regions using PowerBI understanding the importance of reshaping the data to uncover valuable insights you know you’ll need to transform the data so far in your introduction to transforming data in PowerBI in this course you’ve learned about Power Query data types columns and preparing a data set in this video you’ll gain further insight into PowerBI’s powerful data transformation capabilities by discovering unpivoting and pivoting in Microsoft Power Query unpivot and pivot operations are data transformation techniques that you can use to reshape and restructure data in PowerBI let’s explore each operation in turn the unpivot operation refers to the transformation of data from a wide format with multiple columns to a narrow format with fewer columns by reshaping the data structure it involves converting column headers into row values resulting in a more structured and standardized representation of the data the unpivot operation is useful in data analysis supporting data normalization by organizing data in a tabular format this facilitates analysis variable comparison and data aggregation and summary as related information is consolidated into a single column transforming data from a wide to a narrow structure can also enable data compatibility and integration with other systems or tools that require a narrow format for example in the case of the adventure works sales analysis you can perform the unpivot operation to convert the sales data which is organized in a wide format with separate columns for each region into a long format where the region specific data is stacked vertically in a single column this makes it easier to compare sales across different regions and gain a holistic view of the overall performance on the other hand the pivot operation refers to the transformation of data from a narrow format with fewer columns to a wide format with multiple columns by reorganizing the data structure it enables data analysts to convert rows into columns based on specific criteria or values this operation is often used to summarize and aggregate data create cross tabulations and represent data in a more structured easy to understand way for analysis and reporting to illustrate say you want to analyze the sales data based on different product categories as part of the Adventure Works sales analysis using PowerBI’s pivot functionality you can transform the rows containing individual product categories into separate columns this pivot operation enables you to present the sales data in a more concise and structured manner making it easier to identify trends top selling products and performance within each category you’ve been introduced to PowerBI’s unpivot and pivot operations to transform and structure your data as with other data transformation techniques reshaping the data can help your team gain deeper insights and support business success through datadriven strategies decisions and actions now let’s take a moment to work through a practical application of the unpivot and pivot operations to the Adventure Works sales data using Power Query in PowerBI desktop suppose Adventure Works uses two separate Excel files to assess their quarterly sales and product and category distributions the first Excel file contains the sales target data consisting of three columns month 2022 and 2023 within this file there are 12 rows representing each month and each row displays the target sales amount for the corresponding month and year to enhance the table structure for easier readability your manager asks you to perform an unpivot operation to create a table with columns for month year and target which will also increase the number of rows the second Excel file includes category and subcategory data showcasing the category and subcategory data as columns without the product names you are tasked with performing a pivot operation on this file to present the product count per category in a tabular format to address the tasks given to you by your manager you can start by downloading and importing the two Excel files into Power Query with each data source selected select the transform data option to open the Power Query editor where you can apply various transformations including the unpivoting and pivoting operations for the first Excel file containing the sales target data you need to perform an unpivot operation to unpivot the table columns select target query on the left menu highlight the 2022 and 2023 columns select the transform ribbon tab in Power Query and then select unpivot rename the attribute column to year and the value column to target amount you now have an unpivoted table where the columns are converted to rows to accomplish the second task and pivot the table columns in the Excel file with the product categories and subcategories select the product categories query on the left menu on the transform ribbon tab select pivot column then on the pivot column window that displays select the column subcategory from the values column list expand the advanced options and select the option count all from the aggregate value function list lastly select okay with the pivot column feature applied you change the way that the data is organized subcategory names are converted to columns and row count for each subcategory is added as a row value for each column in this video you explored unpivot and pivot operations in PowerBI and the application of both in practice by building your technical expertise and learning about effective data transformation techniques like unpivoting and pivoting you can maximize the potential of PowerBI to unlock valuable insights from business data ultimately contributing to growth and success of organizations like Adventure Works you’re making good progress in your journey to becoming a data analyst you’ve learned how to transform data by using Power Query and have worked on data sets now it’s time to learn how to combine different data sources so you can use it more effectively the capability to combine queries is valuable as it empowers you to combine and merge diverse tables or queries enhancing your data analysis capabilities in the next few minutes you will be introduced to why combining data may be necessary and how you can combine tables or queries adventure Works have recently acquired another bicycle business adventure Works CEO Jamie Lee has assigned a task to the sales department to ensure that sales data from this business is incorporated in the Adventure Works sales reports your manager Adio Quinn has tasked you with creating a PowerBI query that merges the data but before you start working on the data you first need to understand the reasons why it is important to combine data the first reason for combining data is that it allows you to consolidate information from various sources or tables into a single table this consolidation can provide a unified view of the data making it easier to analyze and gain insights the next reason why you would combine tables is to create relationships combining tables is crucial for establishing relationships between related data in PowerBI relationships between tables are used to create meaningful visualizations and enable interactive analysis by combining tables you can link data points across different tables based on common fields or keys combining tables also enables you to enrich your data by adding additional information for example you may have a table with client details and another table with product information by combining these tables you can create a comprehensive data set that includes both client and product details allowing for a more comprehensive analysis another reason to combine data is that it provides a broader scope for analysis by merging multiple tables you gain deeper insights by analyzing data from different angles and lastly combining tables helps simplify data management in PowerBI instead of working with multiple separate tables having a single consolidated table reduces complexity and makes it easier to handle data updates refreshes and maintenance tasks now that you understand the reasons why it is important to combine data let’s look at the ways to do it in PowerBI there are two ways to combine data append and merge when you append queries you are adding rows of one table or query to another table or query by adding multiple lists one below the other you will see an increase in the number of rows say for instance you have two separate classes class A and class B that need to take an exam together to do this you have to combine the 20 students in class A with the 20 students in class B resulting in a combined class list of 40 students on the other hand when merging queries you consolidate data from multiple tables into a single entity by leveraging a shared column between the tables for example data with specific content such as gender category and city is stored in different independent tables and referenced by main tables that require this information this allows you to use this information within a specific context enables easy data classification and ensures data integrity you will learn more about both of these operations over the coming lessons in this video you learned about data combination techniques and the reasons for using it combining data in PowerBI is essential for creating accurate comprehensive and interactive reports and visualizations it allows you to leverage the full potential of your data by consolidating relevant information from multiple sources establishing relationships and enabling more insightful analysis good job adventure Works has recently acquired an additional bicycle business your manager Adio Quinn tasked you with creating a PowerBI query that merges the current sales data of Adventure Works with the sales data from the newly acquired business and he needs the query by the end of the day but you do not panic you know that PowerBI can help you combine different tables and queries to consolidate information create relationships enrich data enhance analysis and simplify data management in the next few minutes you will learn why appending tables or queries may be required at the end of this video you will also be able to describe the operation of appending one table to another by now you know that there are two ways to combine data in PowerBI append and merge when merging queries you consolidate data from multiple tables into a single entity by leveraging a shared column between the tables you will learn more about merging in the coming lessons when you append queries or tables you add rows from one or more tables to another query or table in this video you will focus on append before I demonstrate how the append operation is done let me share a very important tip with you say your manager has asked you to list the Adventure Works products that have fewer than 100 units sold for the current year the products that have not been sold do not appear in the sales table so you have to identify them by subtracting the sold products from all the products as a result you have two data sets to be merged products with 100 or fewer sales and products that have never been sold if you only list the products with sales data of less than 100 you won’t include the products that haven’t been sold at all to overcome this problem you have to merge the products with total sales below 100 and the ones that haven’t been sold at all to present the complete picture back to the task audio set you before you append the adventure works sales.xlsx and the other sales.xlsx XLSX files you have to format the data of both files to ensure they have an equal number of columns and that the columns have the same names and data types if you don’t have an equal number of columns or different column names the extra columns will be added to the most right of the query by preserving their values in the originating query and setting null values for the matching new query in this example columns A and B are common columns in both data sets columns C and D are unique and added to the right of the merged list since the D column does not have any data in the first data set the row values will be null after the merge similarly in the second data set null values will be added for the previously non-existent C column this may be confusing so try to have an equal number of columns with the same column titles let’s explore how this is done to format tables select other sales query in the query pane at the left menu of the power query window rename the quantity column to order QTY name to product name and total to line total by selecting the column names once you have completed the reformatting process you can merge the queries on the Power Query Editor ribbon navigate to the home ribbon tab and select the append queries drop-down menu you can select append queries as new to create a new query or table from the appended output or select append queries to merge the rows from an existing table into another if you select append queries as new you will create a new master table this selection displays the append window where you can select the tables you want to combine from the available tables section and add them to the tables to append section when you select okay a master table is created that contains the sales data of both Adventure Works and the newly acquired company in this video you learned how to combine data by appending tables and queries by appending different sales data you can create a master sales table this will help you to consolidate and enrich data from multiple tables and queries and simplify data management combining or joining data from different sources is like putting puzzle pieces together to form a big picture the big picture can help you discover details you could have missed when examining the individual pieces in this video you will discover what a join is and explore the purpose of joining data and its importance in data analysis before we explore the power of joining data to unlock new perspectives you need to understand what a join is when you have data in two tables and the columns of those tables are exactly the same appending the data from one table to another is straightforward however to combine the data of two tables with different column structures you need to specify the method in which the two tables should be combined this is known as a join join is when you merge or combine data from different places to create a bigger and a more complete data set it helps you view all the information in one place like putting puzzle pieces together to understand the whole picture let’s look at an example your manager Adio Quinn has tasked you to list all products with their category names and indicate which category has the most products during your investigation you notice that category data is referenced to a table called categories it is also being used by the common columns named category key on closer inspection you notice the row with a category key of one has a category name of bikes and the row with a category key of two has a category name of accessories your conclusion is that any row with a value of one in the category key column has bikes as the products category one of the key usage areas of joins is merging the two tables in this manner and matching related data by using the relationship one of the key usage areas of joins is merging two or more tables and matching related data by using the relationship joining data is essential for PowerBI data analysts because it enables you to combine information from different sources giving you a complete picture of the data joining data can help you validate data accuracy make informed decisions and perform advanced analysis joining data also empowers you to gain a holistic understanding uncover valuable insights and make datadriven conclusions overall join is a powerful technique that enhances your data analysis capabilities and allows you to unlock the full potential of your data in a previous video you learned that there are two ways to combine data in PowerBI append and merge in both merge and append operations the use of join is essential for combining tables effectively let’s explore merge with join in more detail when you merge queries you’re combining the data from multiple tables into one based on a column that is common between the tables merge with join allows you to match related data integrate data and explore relationships when you append queries you are adding rows of data to another table or query append with join helps you to ensure consistency and allow you to expand your existing data set whether it’s a merge or append operation the use of join is essential for aligning integrating and combining data from different tables it ensures that the relevant information is properly matched and merged enabling you to analyze and understand the data in a meaningful way in this video you learned what a join is as well as the purpose of joining data and its importance in data analysis by now you are aware that combining data and using join keys can save you hours of searching through vast amounts of data for a specific product item but did you know that you can simplify your query even further by specifying how the data should be combined in this video you will learn about join types specifically the difference between left outer right outer full outer and inner joins a join type in Microsoft PowerBI refers to how tables of data are related to each other in the software the joins are important because they determine how data is consolidated from multiple sources into a single view understanding joint types and their implications is crucial to building accurate efficient and meaningful data models in PowerBI over the next few minutes you’ll be introduced to four different join types left outer right outer full outer and inner join let’s explore each join type and the way it combines data from multiple tables based on matching criteria let’s say we have two tables one on the left for sales and one on the right for countries the sales table has three columns date country ID and units the countries table has two columns ID and country the sales table country ID column can be used as a join key with the ID column of the countries table now let’s explore each join type and how they combine data first let’s start with a left outer join if a left outer join is used all rows in the left table are kept and the matching rows from the right table are merged in if the left table is missing columns that the right table has the columns are included as part of the merge it is important to note that if there is no match for a row between the tables default or null values will be used for columns where matching data is unavailable in this scenario the resulting table will have the columns from the left table date country ID and units along with a country name column since the right table did not have a country ID of four the country name is null a right outer join works similarly to the left outer join except that all rows in the right table are kept and the matching rows from the left table are merged in again if the right table is missing columns that the left table has the columns are included as part of the merge similarly if there is no match for a row between the tables default or null values will be used for columns where no matching data is available in our scenario the resulting table will have date country ID units and country name the full outer join is used when you want to retrieve all records from both tables regardless of whether they have matching values in the join condition in this scenario since the right table has an ID of four and the left table does not have a corresponding entry with a country ID of four a row is created with a country name for ID 4 and with null values in all other columns in the previous video what is a join you used full outer joins and appended with joins by matching related data for inner join only matching rows from both left and right tables are merged together this join type is helpful when you want to focus only on the sales that have corresponding data in another table and exclude any sales data that don’t match as a data analyst you often come across the requirement to combine data from different tables or data sets related to sales and product tables this is where merging operations specifically join types become crucial keep in mind that you should choose the combination types based on how you choose them taking into account the specific needs of the analysis the choice of join type will impact the inclusiveness of the data in your analysis it’s important to consider your analysis objectives and the specific requirements of your project each join type serves a different purpose and selecting the appropriate one ensures that you obtain the desired result set for your analysis of order and order details data as you start working with more and more data sources keeping all the different data in different tables will become quickly unmanageable identifying similar and related data that can be merged is an important skill for a data analyst over the next few minutes you will learn how to identify and merge tables using joins in PowerBI in relational data fields such as category or status are often kept in a separate table for instance when a new product is added the category information is associated with an entry in a different table instead of being manually repeated in multiple rows in the product table as you have previously learned data from two different tables can be linked by join keys this works for tables from individual and multiple data sources however sometimes you’ll be working with a single data source such as a database where these relationships are already established in these scenarios merging the data using a join is a straightforward operation a column in one table will act as a key to the column of another table in databases this is known as a foreign key relationship and the foreign key is used as the join key this is almost impossible for databases that have a large number of products for example an e-commerce business selling books or adventure works who sell a large number of product variants selecting from defined categories or any other parametric data ensures easy classification of data and enables us to work within a consistent and comprehensive data set consider a scenario where you are working in the sales department of Adventure Works a multinational bicycle store and you have been given a task by your manager Adio Quinn to consolidate orders and their corresponding details currently in two tables into a single table there is a typical foreign key relationship between the order and order details tables which is order ID adventure Works provides the following details to deal with situations such as this the orders table is created to store information such as the name of the store the date of the purchase the cashier’s name and so forth since there can be multiple individual products associated with a single order Adventure Works database has created a separate but related table to store these variable numbers of associated product purchases it allows you to add new products to your current purchase by opening as many rows as needed in this way you’ll develop a structure that is dynamic and flexible saving space and time by only storing the necessary information to truly understand the join operation or in PowerBI terms the combine with merge operation it is important to first understand the relationship between tables the merging operation arises from the need to separate tables avoid forcibly distributing data that can be stored in a single table into separate tables visualize relationships such as product category transaction status person city where the definition table and its rows need to be separated in the order example the order details can connect unique data with repeating data in a more efficient manner now you can complete your task to combine the two tables orders and orders details with merge go to home on the power query editor ribbon and select combine then merge queries drop-down menu and select merge queries as new this selection opens a new window where you can select the tables that you want to merge from the drop- down list next select the column that matches between the tables which in this case is order ID select left outer join in the join kind drop-down which displays all rows from the first table and only the matching rows from the second after you select okay you are directed to a new window where you can view your new merged query now let’s take a look at doing this in more detail in Microsoft PowerBI in this scenario you are working in the sales department of Adventure Works which is a multinational bicycle manufacturer and you have been given a task by your manager Adio Quinn to consolidate orders and their corresponding details which are currently in two tables into a single table in PowerBI you select the Excel workbook option in the data group of the home tab select order.xlsx and order details.xls XLSX there is a typical foreign key relationship between the orders and order details tables let’s try to understand this with an example from our own social life we have all probably shopped at a market at least a few times at the end of the shopping we go to the cashier scan our items make the payment and receive a receipt the receipt contains information such as the name of the store the date of the purchase the cashier’s name and various other details at the bottom of the receipt there is a section that lists the quantity unit price and total amount for each item purchased followed by a grand total or the amount paid now let’s explore how we can structure these commonly encountered pieces of information into a table format adventure Works provides the following details to deal with these situations the order table is created to store information such as the name of the store the date of the purchase and other details found on the receipt in our earlier market scenario since there can be multiple individual products associated with a single order Adventure Works database have created a separate but related table to store these variable numbers of associated product purchases it allows you to add new products to your current purchase by opening as many rows as needed in this way you develop a structure that is dynamic and flexible saving space and time by only storing the necessary information to truly understand the join operation or in PowerBI terms the combine with merge operation it is important to first understand the relationship between tables if there is a need to separate tables the merging operation arises from that need avoid forcibly distributing data that can be stored in a single table into separate tables visualize relationships such as product category transaction status person city where the definition table and its rows needed to be separated now in the example of order order details that we have learned you have connected unique data with repeating data in a more efficient manner now you complete your task to combine the two tables order order details with merge go to home on the power query editor ribbon and select combine then the merge queries drop-down menu where you can select merge queries as new this selection will open a new window where you can choose the tables that you want to merge from the drop- down list and then select the column that is matching between the tables which in this case is order ID you will choose to use a left outer join in the join kind dropdown which displays all rows from the first table and only the matching rows from the second after you click okay you will be routed to a new window where you can view your new merged query and that concludes how to combine tables with merge in PowerBI in this video you learned how to combine data by merging tables and queries it can help you to consolidate information from multiple tables and queries by using related fields with foreign keys good job adventure Works is looking to expand its business by identifying new product lines that it can market to its customers it hopes that the results of data analysis will identify potential new product lines meet Daniel he’s a talented data analyst with Adventure Works they’re in-house expert on configuring and transforming data in PowerBI including merging data in Power Query adventure Works has noticed that a lot of customers have been returning bicycles to their stores for repair and maintenance these are often very simple repair and maintenance tasks like replacing tires or tightening loose bolts and screws the company suggests that Daniel analyzes the customer and sales data related to these transactions perhaps these customers might be willing to purchase a service plan for their bicycles first Daniel identifies the relevant data sources he begins with an Excel sheet named sales data this worksheet contains data on each bicycle Adventure Works has recently sold including the categories they belong to a description of each bike the prices they sold for and the staff who sold them the worksheet also includes data on the repairs carried out on each bike like the names of the parts that were replaced there are other relevant data sets available on a sheet named customer data this worksheet provides information on all customers including their names contact details age the bikes they have purchased and the repairs they have requested daniel uploads these data sources to PowerBI where he configures them for data analysis by transforming the data sets in Power Query once the data has been configured and transformed Daniel then uses joins to merge these worksheets together to identify what kind of bicycles customers are buying which customers are sending their bicycles to the store for repair and what kind of repairs are required he uses the results of his analysis to segment customers into profiles that focus on data such as age groups location and purchases he then identifies related search engine queries for individuals who match these profiles through combining and analyzing this data Daniel discovers that many of the customers seeking repairs are adults between the ages of 18 and 35 who live in rural areas this demographic mostly purchases mountain bikes which they use for weekend biking excursions he presents his data insights to Adventure Works the company realizes that he can offer these customers a service plan or bicycle health check in addition existing store staff can carry out these repairs so no new staff are needed to deliver this product it also helps the business to retain and generate a new revenue stream from existing customers this scenario emphasizes the importance of combining or merging data sources in Microsoft PowerBI by combining data sets you can deliver new insights on topics in the case of Adventure Works Daniel was able to create a customer profile and identify the needs of that profile adventure Works then provided a new product to this customer profile when it comes to generating data insights the benefits of merging data sources can’t be overstated the more data you have on your topic the greater an understanding you can develop and all of this can be achieved with Microsoft PowerBI and a strong data analytics skill set congratulations on reaching the end of the third week in this course on extracting transforming and loading data in PowerBI you’ve now reached the end of this module let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned you began this module by exploring the process of transforming data in PowerBI you first examined why data needs to be transformed you learned that raw data is not always gathered or sourced in a condition that’s suitable to work with it might be incomplete inconsistent or have other errors so it’s important that you transform and clean your data you can clean data by setting up filters in PowerBI that identify and resolve errors this way the filter data is accurate consistent structured and easier to analyze you then reviewed Power Query and its interface you learned how to navigate this interface and locate useful tools and features for connecting cleaning and transforming data from a wide range of sources and you explored the steps for these actions by helping Adventure Works connect to its data sources and then clean and transform the data they contained an important part of this cleaning process includes the applied steps list an editable list of all transformations applied to a selected query you can use this list to undo and reorder steps in the process next you explored the different data types in PowerBI the data types you explored included number types data and time type text or true or false and binary you learned that these different data types are used to classify values to help you better organize and structure your data sets you also learned that when working with data sets you might need to remove and rename columns you were presented with many of the benefits of reworking columns like more efficient readable and enhanced data and analysis or significant time and resource savings you continue to explore Power Query by reviewing steps for dealing with common errors power Query can fix errors like null values duplicate rows and inconsistent data types it’s important to resolve these errors before analyzing your data in Power Query you then made use of your new knowledge by helping Adventure Works to prepare a data set by cleaning the data and resolving its errors you then undertook a knowledge check in this item you proved your understanding of the concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions finally you explored a list of additional resources designed to help you improve your knowledge of the topics that you covered this week in the second week of this module you explored advanced data transformation methods in PowerBI you began this week by learning about the importance of data combination combine information create relationships between tables improve data and analysis and simplify data management you then reviewed the two main methods for combining data in PowerBI which are append and merge append means to add one table row or query to another merge means consolidating data from multiple data sources into a single table and you examined the process for combining tables with append and power query editor you then put your new skills to use by assisting Adventure Works with appending tables in their database next you completed a knowledge check which tested your understanding of these concepts through a series of questions and you were presented with a list of additional resources that you could review to learn more about advanced data transformation in week three you learned about methods for combining data that you could use for data transformation you discovered that one method of combining data is to use a join a join is a useful way of combining data from different sources you also learned that join keys are the values used to link rows between tables you also learned that there are different types of joins these different types include the left outer join right outer join full outer join and inner join which of these join types you choose to use depends on your data transformation needs you then looked at how to combine tables using a merge operation in Power Query Editor by identifying the relevant keys and require join operations you can merge two or more tables to deliver new insights into your data next you demonstrated your competence with these new skills by helping Adventure Works to merge two of their data sources to deliver new insights into their business finally you undertook a knowledge check which tested your understanding of the concepts that you encountered this week and you completed a module quiz in which you demonstrated your understanding of all concepts you encountered throughout the entire module you’ve learned a lot about transforming data in PowerBI and as you approach the next module consider going through some of the learning material again to reinforce your understanding looking ahead you will expand your knowledge of the ETL process by diving into advanced ETL in PowerBI where you will learn all about loading and profiling data and advanced queries best of luck you have gained detailed knowledge about the extract and transform steps in the ETL process so far and you have applied this knowledge by considering scenarios and tasks in this video you will learn about the final step of the ETL process load the load operation in summary enables the transformed data obtained by reading from a data source to become available for reporting purposes considering that the ultimate goal of PowerBI is to provide data visualization through reports and dashboards the importance of making the data available for this purpose becomes evident up until the load stage you have completed tasks such as accessing data sources establishing connections extracting data and performing transform operations the purpose of all these operations was to bring meaningful and cohesive data into the reporting interface filtered based on specific criteria the load process ensures the visualization of all the extracted and transformed data there are two main ways to load data in the PowerBI user interface load and transform data let’s look at each option a bit closer starting with load with the load option data is loaded directly into the data pane in PowerBI if you choose to load data directly you can still transform the data at a later stage the second option transform data allows you to transform the data before loading it the changes to the data are applied to the data model and the data pane is refreshed in PowerBI visualizations can now use the applied changes whether you choose to load the data directly with the load option or transform the data before loading with the transform data option loading time can vary depending on the size of your data set optimizing performance and reflecting updated data from the source in reporting are of great importance in the data loading process in the upcoming sections you will gain detailed information about these topics in some cases you might have some source tables which are used during the ETL process that will not be used directly in the reporting area and some of these tables may not meet the production demands of your data warehouse in such cases you will need an intermediate state between the data source and the data warehouse called the data staging area a staging area serves as an intermediate storage location for raw or unprocessed data allowing it to be temporarily stored and prepared for further processing in a data pipeline the existence of a data staging area is not obligatory for your ETL jobs so you can execute ETL jobs without creating staging areas however it is recommended to simplify the process of data cleansing and consolidating data coming from multiple sources by now you know that the data loading process is the final step of the ETL operation and that it is the most crucial step for making the data available in the reporting environment to achieve this the data is loaded into Power Query either directly from the data source or after performing transformation operations additionally a staging area is often used as an intermediate step to store the data in a more organized manner aiming to facilitate maintenance and management tasks by completing the load stage you are now ready to explore the data create compelling visualizations and gain valuable insights to support decision-making for your organization data staging is one of the key concepts in data loading over the next few minutes you will learn the basics of data staging the reasons for its necessity and the advantages of using it in the overall ETL processes to better understand the concept of staging let’s use an everyday life example imagine you’ve invited friends over for dinner and you’ve bought ingredients from the grocery store to prepare the meal however you don’t serve the ingredients as they are you might marinate the meat in a pot cut the vegetables and place them in a bowl for washing and prepare other dishes like making a salad or putting appetizers on a plate in this example all the ingredients represent raw data while the processes of marinating washing cutting and waiting correspond to ETL operations the pots bowls and other utensils used before serving can be thought of as the staging area now let’s apply this everyday life example to data staging a staging area serves as an intermediate storage location for raw or unprocessed data allowing it to be temporarily stored and prepared for further processing the staging area typically acts as a bridge between the data sources and the data warehouse a staging area simplifies the process of data cleansing and consolidation of operational data originating from multiple source systems particularly for enterprise data warehouses that centralize an organization’s critical data remember a data staging area is not required for your ETL jobs you can still execute ETL jobs without creating one however based on your need to consolidate data coming from multiple sources it is recommended over at Adventure Works the company receives feedback about its products from various channels such as social media platforms and corporate websites your manager Adio Quinn has tasked you to prepare a data set by using these resources to consolidate and to prepare the data for use in reports and dashboards none of the feedback can be used in its raw form as they have different formats you must transform the data and then consolidate it in a unified list since you will only use this data in the ETL process it is appropriate to use a staging area let’s take a few moments to complete this task using Power Query the first step is to import the two data sets Adventure Works social media feedbacks one and Adventure Works Social Media Feedbacks 2 to transform and consolidate in the staging area to do this navigate to the home ribbon tab at the top of the PowerBI window select the Excel workbook button inside the data group in the middle of the toolbar select your data sets and select open then select your data sets and select transform data in the window that opened now you have two queries Adventure Works social media feedbacks one and Adventure Works social media feedbacks 2 in the queries pane at the left menu of Power Query to successfully complete your task you have to consolidate these two queries into a single query and add an extra column to indicate where the feedback came from to do this you have to use these queries and integrate the data into a more defined and optimized model to do this you need a staging area as you have to consolidate these two tables into one but also keep them separately you have to create a new group called the staging area in the queries pane at the left menu of power query select new group type staging area in the name text box and select okay now move both the data sets adventure work social media feedbacks one and adventure work social media feedbacks 2 to the staging queries group your tables are now organized according to your need select the Adventure Works Social Media Feedbacks one and Adventure Works Social Media Feedbacks 2 tables respectively and disable the load by clearing the checkbox enable load you will keep the include and report refresh option this way both tables will still be used in queries but will not be part of the data model you are now familiar with a concept of a staging area and how it is implemented in PowerBI imagine you have just started working at Adventure Works as a data analyst you have a lot of data to analyze to determine which products are preferred by which client and why to perform successful analysis on these many items it is necessary to have data that includes fields suitable for analysis with an adequate amount of data and a variety of data ranges representing the overall data over the next few minutes you will be introduced to data profiling and statistical analysis and why it is important when reviewing data sets by the end of this video you will have been introduced to a high-level understanding of data profiling and statistical analysis when reviewing data sets you will also learn about the distribution anomalies and outliers in the context of data profiling let’s first cover an introduction to data profiling before analyzing any data set it is important to examine and evaluate the data you are working with analyzing the data without evaluating its accuracy completeness and alignment with your objectives can lead to misleading results when examining a data set for the first time there are several aspects you should look at especially for numerical fields you should check these characteristics for each numerical field minimum or min maximum or max average or mean frequently occurring values or mode and standard deviation the best way to start assessing data is with data you can immediately troubleshoot imagine you are reviewing a data set that has an age field for instance there could be someone in the data set with an age of 200 which would be extremely unlikely to be true if so there may be an outlier in the data look at the minimum and maximum values such as appearing between 21 and 77 these are realistic ages unlike 200 the concept of distribution of data refers to how the data points are spread or arranged within a data set it describes the pattern or shape of the data when plotted on a graph understanding the distribution of data is crucial in data analysis because it helps you gain insights into the central tendency variability and overall characteristics of the data next let’s consider outliers the formal definition of an outlier in statistics is a data point that significantly deviates from other observations outlier data can be handled by applying a technique called min max scaling or normalization the aim is to adjust the mean and standard deviation of the data proportionally while preserving the ratio of the distance between outlier data and other data points analyzing the distribution allows you to make informed decisions identify outliers and choose appropriate statistical techniques for further analysis there are situations where there may be values in the data set that skew the average for example there may be examples close in age let’s say there are three individuals aged 80 and above if you solely rely on the average to evaluate the distribution these outliers can mislead you by increasing the average in this case it would be appropriate to examine the distribution more closely when taking a closer look at the data you may find that the distribution is normal but the three records mentioned in the example are outliers next let’s look at standard deviation standard deviation is a statistical measure that quantifies the amount of variation or dispersion in a data set it provides a way to understand how individual data points differ from the mean or average of the data set the main objective here is to prevent outliers from causing deviations in your analysis results minimizing their impact finally let’s return to the point of distribution of data the balanced distribution of data points that fall outside the outliers is another factor that affects data quality and your analysis results it is important for descriptive variables such as age gender income status occupation city and neighborhood to represent as many diverse groups as possible and be evenly distributed among others if not a cluster of records that closely resemble each other will lead to narrow intervals when defining norms which will mislead your analysis profiling and statistically analyzing data including examining its distribution min max mean and mode values detecting outliers if any and normalizing outliers ensuring that the data represents the entirety of the data set are the key elements that demonstrate data quality considering these factors will enhance the accuracy and quality of analysis and predictions made with this data by now you should have a good understanding of the concepts of profiling data and possible situations where you will need to apply the profiling techniques in this video you will learn about data profiling and statistical analysis and how to use them in PowerBI as well as this you will cover how to use profiling tools to inspect the data adventure Works recently conducted a field survey to increase sales and collected potential customer data this resulted in an Excel file containing information such as age gender occupation income level address and phone number of prospective customers since the survey data was collected manually it was not subjected to any validation therefore before analyzing the data it is necessary to confirm that the data is valid within the desired ranges and quantities and exhibits a good distribution before starting analysis on any data set it is important to examine the data by examining various aspects such as completeness accuracy uniqueness and consistency data profiling enables the identification of potential issues and anomalies within the data set this proactive approach allows you to make informed decisions about data cleaning transformation and enrichment ultimately leading to improved data quality additionally data profiling facilitates effective data exploration and visualization by providing insights into data patterns relationships and trends it empowers users to discover hidden insights uncover data inconsistencies and make datadriven decisions with confidence before delving into data profiling tools let’s first consider two important factors in data profiling unique and distinct in PowerBI unique is known as total number of values that only appear once distinct is known as total number of different values regardless of how many of each you have microsoft PowerBI offers the following two profiling tools in the Power Query editor column quality and column distribution let’s begin with column quality column quality focuses on valid error and empty rows on each column allowing you to validate your row values the column quality feature labels values in rows in five categories valid shown in green error shown in red empty shown in dark gray unknown shown in dashed green indicates when there are errors in a column the quality of the remaining data is unknown unexpected error shown in dashed red these indicators are displayed directly underneath the name of the column as part of a small bar chart the number of records in each column quality category is also displayed as a percentage by hovering over any of the columns you are presented with a numerical distribution of the quality of values throughout the column additionally selecting the ellipses button opens some quick action buttons for operations on the values column distribution provides a set of visuals underneath the names of the columns that showcase the frequency and distribution of the values in each of the columns the data in these visualizations is sorted in descending order from the value with the highest frequency by hovering over the distribution data in any of the columns you get information about the overall data in the column with distinct count and unique values you can also select the ellipses button and choose from a menu of available operations let’s consider column distribution specifically relating to distribution of distinct and unique amounts imagine that you have a selection of bike accessories that are supplied by four different suppliers supplier A supplier B supplier C and supplier D in this case there are four distinct suppliers now imagine you have two bikes each with a unique supplier to any other bikes you currently stock these would be considered two unique suppliers another type of profiling in PowerBI is column profile column profile provides column statistics such as minimum maximum average frequently occurring values and standard deviation and in addition value distribution on the selected column this is very important when assessing data to detect anomalies and outliers now that you’ve covered the basics of data profiling tools let’s apply this in PowerBI and inspect some data adventure Works conducted a field survey to increase sales and collected potential customer data this survey resulted in an Excel file containing information such as age gender occupation income level address and phone number of prospective customers the survey data was collected manually it was not subjected to any validation therefore before analyzing the data it is necessary to confirm that the data is valid within the desired ranges and quantities and exhibits a good distribution navigate to home at the top of the PowerBI window select Excel workbook inside the data group in the middle of the tab select potential customers.xlsx and select transform data in the opened window check the column quality check box inside the data preview group of view to assess column quality in the age column 89% of the values are valid 0% of the values are air and 11% of the values are empty rows to assess column distribution for the occupation column on the view tab from inside the data preview group check column distribution note that there are nine distinct values and two unique values computer programmer and accountant are the occupations which appear only once for each column note that if all the row values are distinct then unique and distinct amounts will be equal for example you can see that there are 19 distinct and 19 unique values for the surname column select the age column and then check the column profile checkbox note that maximum value for age column is 132 which is not acceptable examine the minimum maximum average and other column statistics and review the value distribution chart in this video you learned how to profile data by assessing column quality distribution and profile data profiling in PowerBI offers several advantages in the process of data analysis it helps you gain a comprehensive understanding of the data quality structure and distribution with its ability to assess data quality and provide valuable insights data profiling in PowerBI plays a crucial role in enhancing data reliability accuracy and overall analytical outcomes in the world of technology even the most meticulously designed software can harbor hidden bugs waiting to unleash chaos upon unsuspecting users imagine a scenario where a simple bug managed to infiltrate a company’s database threatening to compromise the accuracy of critical reports and potentially sending shock waves through senior management however thanks to the miraculous powers of data profiling with the aid of PowerBI disaster was averted and the company emerged victorious buckle up as we take you on a thrilling journey through the realm of software mishaps triumphs and the heroes who saved the day it all began innocently enough deep within the complex coding of a company’s flagship software a tiny bug had nestled its way into the system this bug had an uncanny ability to transform innocent data into deceptive monsters causing them to wreak havoc when unleashed into the wild the bug was sly and patient biting its time until the perfect moment to strike as the software went about its daily operations the bug began silently distorting the data it touched unbeknownst to the users inaccuracies were creeping into the system lurking beneath the surface reports that were once reliable now became unreliable leading to questionable decisions and raised eyebrows among senior management fortunately the company had an ace up its sleeve a team of brilliant data profilers armed with the mighty PowerBI with its robust data profiling capabilities PowerBI became the ultimate weapon against the deceptive bug and its corrupted data the team rallied together ready to utilize PowerBI’s analytical prowess and visualizations to uncover the truth hidden within the tainted database armed with PowerBI the heroic team embarked on a quest to hunt down and eradicate the corrupted data they connected PowerBI to the company’s database leveraging its intuitive interface and advanced algorithms to identify the anomalies lurking within the system powerbi’s data profiling features allowed the team to analyze and scrutinize every nook and cranny of the company’s data unearthing the bugs footprints one by one after days of tireless work the data profilers empowered by PowerBI emerged triumphant they successfully identified and isolated the distorted data ensuring its exclusion from future reports powerbi’s rich visualizations and interactive dashboards enabled the team to present their findings to senior management in a clear and concise manner further solidifying their victory as the dust settled the company took a moment to reflect on the incident they recognized the transformative power of PowerBI’s data profiling capabilities and the critical role it played in safeguarding their data integrity the bug had served as a wake-up call reminding them of the importance of incorporating robust data profiling tools like PowerBI into their systems helping them catch potential issues before they cascade into crisis in this thrilling tale of software mishaps and heroic data profilers we’ve witnessed how a simple bug had the potential to plunge a company into chaos however thanks to the power of data profiling with the aid of PowerBI accuracy was restored the diligent efforts of the data profiling team did not go unnoticed as senior management praised them for their exceptional work and dedication in resolving the crisis the successful outcome served as a reminder of the invaluable role data profiling plays in maintaining the integrity of systems it showcased the power of collaboration expertise and the remarkable capabilities of tools like PowerBI in conquering challenges and emerging triumphant as a data analyst at Adventure Works your team is responsible for analyzing vast amounts of data to gain insights into customer behavior and improve business operations microsoft Power Query is an essential tool in data analysis workflow enabling you to transform and integrate data from various sources you heavily rely on Microsoft PowerBI for your daily tasks preparing reports for business units by connecting to data sources and performing extract transform and load operations since adventure works strive for optimal efficiency and results your manager Adio Quinn has assigned you the task to research best practices for specific configurations performance preferences security and other related topics to ensure the most optimal use of PowerBI in your work over the next few minutes you’ll be introduced to best practices when working with data sources in PowerBI and also understand why these practices are important to implement let’s start by exploring how you and your team can apply best practices to enhance your Power Query workflows and improve data quality and analysis your first step is to plan and document your data transformation requirements you define the desired output identify the relevant data sources and outline the transformations needed you also ensure that data source credentials are properly documented and securely stored by maintaining an organized and consistent approach your team can streamline your Power Query process and avoid confusion next you carefully select the appropriate connector to connect to your data sources you consider factors such as the type and location of the data source the volume of data and the available connectivity options with PowerBI’s wide range of connectors you can seamlessly connect to databases cloud services files and APIs it is important that you evaluate the performance capabilities and scalability of the connectors to ensure optimal performance for your data requirements considering the performance and optimization of your data transformations and calculations your team follows the principle of do expensive operations last you prioritize and schedule resource intensive operations towards the end of the data transformation process this approach ensures that complex calculations merging large data sets and applying multiple transformations on a significant number of rows are executed efficiently leading to faster data loading and more responsive reports your team also pays attention to data type selection for columns aiming to improve performance and data accuracy you review and adjust the inferred data types manually preventing incorrect data interpretations and reducing memory consumption data profiling plays a crucial role in your team’s data analysis process you leverage PowerBI’s data profiling capabilities to gain a comprehensive understanding of data quality structure and distribution by examining aspects such as completeness accuracy uniqueness and consistency you identify potential issues and anomalies within the data set this proactive approach enables you to make informed decisions about data cleaning transformation and enrichment ultimately improving data quality to ensure smooth data processing your team implements error handling techniques such as conditional logic and custom error messages you also incorporate data validation checks to identify and handle unexpected data inconsistencies effectively the next best practice is to consider your merge strategy when merging or joining multiple queries you consider the most efficient merge strategy selecting inner joys whenever applicable you remove redundant fields to avoid unnecessary duplicate columns in the resulting merge query to maintain an organized work environment your team utilizes groups as containers for your queries you create nested groups when needed and easily move queries between groups by dragging and dropping them regularly reviewing and removing unnecessary steps in the Power Query editor is another practice you follow removing unused or redundant transformations helps improve processing time and simplifies query maintenance monitoring the performance of your Power Query workflows is an ongoing task for your team you evaluate the refresh speed resource consumption and overall efficiency by fine-tuning query settings such as parallel loading or data load options you optimize performance based on your specific requirements following these best practices when working with Power Query will enable you to effectively shape and transform your data while maintaining data integrity improving performance and streamlining your workflows remember consistent documentation efficient data filtering error handling and optimization techniques are key to achieving reliable and efficient data transformations with Power Query embrace these practices adapt them to your specific requirements and continue exploring new features and capabilities to become a Power Query expert in the world of Microsoft PowerBI data is the foundation of meaningful insights and informed decisionmaking however managing and preparing data for analysis can be a complex and timeconsuming process this is where data flows can help in this video you will explore what data flows are and why they are used in PowerBI you’ll learn the subscription level required to use them and engage with a fictional scenario showcasing their application and the advantages and limitations they offer adventure Works is a company operating in multiple regions each with its own set of data sources and reporting requirements to manage these multiple data sources Adventure Works wants to use the PowerBI data flows feature data flows allow you to connect to data sources perform data transformations and create business logic to build data entities that can be shared across different reports and dashboards they can also be published to the PowerBI service and in shared reports and dashboards data flows simplify the process of data preparation allowing users to cleanse transform and shape their data with ease you can apply business rules clean untidy data and create calculated columns through Microsoft Power Query a powerful data transformation tool within PowerBI data flows offer a visual interface for building data transformation logic making it accessible to users lacking coding skills you can use data flows in Microsoft PowerBI Desktop and Microsoft PowerBI service in PowerBI desktop you can create and manage data flows using the Power Query Editor this allows you to connect to various data sources perform transformations and define the structure of your data entities you can then publish these data flows to the PowerBI service for further use once published to the PowerBI service data flows can be accessed and managed through the PowerBI web interface you can schedule data flow refreshes configure data connectors and establish relationships between data flows and other data sets in your workspace additionally you can use the capabilities of Power Query online a cloud-based version of Power Query to perform data transformations directly in the PowerBI service by supporting data flows in both PowerBI desktop and PowerBI service powerbi enables a seamless experience for users to create share and collaborate on data flows throughout the entire data preparation and analysis process this flexibility allows users to work with data flows using their preferred environment while ensuring consistent and efficient data management across both desktop and cloud-based environments a PowerBI Pro license is required to use data flows in PowerBI however a PowerBI premium subscription is necessary for advanced features and capabilities such as incremental refresh compute engine selection and larger data capacity powerbi premium unlocks additional functionalities and performance optimizations that enhance the data flow experience advantages of data flows include reusability data flows enable the reuse of query logic and transformations saving time and effort in data preparation tasks data centralization data flows provide a centralized and consistent data source ensuring data integrity and reducing duplication collaboration users can collaborate on data flows making sharing and working on data preparation processes easier scalability data flows use cloud-based processing capabilities enabling efficient handling of large data sets and complex transformations limitations of data flows include data refresh data flows have specific refresh limitations such as the frequency and dependencies on data source availability data flow management currently data flows are managed individually and there is limited visibility into dependencies between data flows advanced transformations while data flows offer a wide range of transformations certain complex scenarios may require advanced coding or alternative solutions data flows in PowerBI help users streamline and enhance their self-service data preparation workflows by providing a scalable and collaborative approach to data integration and transformation data flows enable organizations to unlock the true potential of their data while data flows offer numerous advantages such as reusability centralization collaboration and scalability you must be aware of their limitations and consider alternative approaches for advanced transformations by effectively using data flows you can accelerate data preparation ensure data consistency and make informed decisions based on reliable and well-prepared data power Query is a powerful data transformation and manipulation tool within PowerBI that allows users to shape and transform data from various sources but performing repetitive steps on multiple queries can be a tedious task especially when the queries involve similar but separate sets of data one of the key features to solve this issue is through reference queries which provide flexibility reusability and efficiency in your data transformation process in this video you will learn about reference queries in Power Query and its importance in streamlining data workflows you’ll also explore best use cases for reference queries and data flows by establishing a query reference you can establish a connection between an existing query and a new query enabling data flow across sequential models any modifications made to the original query will automatically apply to the referenced query ensuring consistency and up-to-date information instead of modifying transformations individually in multiple queries you can make updates in the master query and those changes will be automatically applied to all reference queries this provides cohesion and makes it easier to maintain and update your data transformations so what are the benefits of query referencing let’s explore some examples first there is reusability by referencing queries you can reuse common data transformations across multiple queries this promotes consistency in your data processing and reduces the risk of errors that can occur when duplicating complex transformations next there is efficiency reference queries eliminate the need to repeat time-consuming data transformation steps instead you can leverage the results of a previously defined query significantly improving the performance of your data workflows lastly you have scalability as your data analysis requirements grow reference queries allows you to build modular and scalable data transformation workflows you can create separate queries for different data sources or transformation steps and combine them as needed providing flexibility and adaptability to changing business needs in Power Query you can reference a query by using the reference option by right-clicking any query in the queries pane reference will create a new query a copy of the original query but containing one single step you can rename the new query as you need and then start to use it in this way you establish a connection between the queries enabling data flow and transformation continuity let’s delve into this further through a scenario you are working as a data analyst at Adventure Works which recently acquired another bicycle business your manager Adio Quinn has assigned you the task of appending the product data from the newly acquired company to Adventure Works’s existing products prior to appending the new products you need to perform several transformation tasks such as changing column types and removing unnecessary columns however your manager has asked you not to modify the existing queries to preserve their original form and use them as a source for other operations to accomplish this you need to create references from the original queries rename the new queries apply necessary transformations and then append the data any changes made to the base queries will impact on the new queries this approach allows you to keep the original queries update the reference queries and ensure that any changes made to the base queries are reflected in the referenced ones query referencing creates many opportunities for advanced data transformation techniques you can apply conditional logic merge referenced queries or perform calculations based on reference data these advanced techniques further enhance the flexibility and power of your data workflows referencing queries in Power Query is a fundamental concept that allows you to streamline and optimize your data transformation process by leveraging query references you can improve reusability efficiency and scalability ultimately enhancing the overall productivity and effectiveness of your data analysis in PowerBI as data volume continues to grow so does the challenge of transforming that data into well-formed actionable information we want data that’s ready for analytics to populate visuals reports and dashboards so we can quickly turn our volumes of data into actionable insights however managing and preparing data for analysis can be a complex and timeconsuming process it’s important to consider the best approach for your data transformations and analysis in this video you will explore how to reference other queries and why a data flow may be more suitable choosing between referencing queries and data flows depends on the specific requirements of your scenario it’s important to evaluate factors such as data volume complexity of transformations user expertise and maintenance requirements to determine the best fit for your use case there are some performance considerations you need to bear in mind with regards to reference queries especially reference queries can contribute to slow data refreshes due to the nature of their referencing when a reference query is refreshed it needs to ensure that all the referenced queries are also refreshed to maintain data consistency this can result in longer refresh times especially if there are multiple layers of referencing involved furthermore reference queries can overburden data sources particularly when working with large data sets as reference queries rely on the data from other queries they need to fetch and process the data from the original sources this becomes more noticeable when dealing with complex transformations or frequent refreshes to mitigate these issues it’s important to optimize the design and usage of reference queries consider limiting the number of reference layers and optimizing the queries transformations to reduce unnecessary data processing additionally carefully manage the refresh schedule to avoid excessive load on data sources during peak usage times by implementing these best practices you can help minimize the impact of reference queries on data refreshes and prevent overburdening your data sources now let’s review data flows data flows offer a centralized and scalable approach for data preparation data flows are designed specifically for data integration and transformation tasks providing a self-service environment for business users to create and manage extract transform and load processes referred to as ETL processes with data flows you can connect to various data sources perform transformations using a visual interface and store the prepared data in the PowerBI service data flows are a feature available in both PowerBI desktop and PowerBI service data flows provide a cloud-based data preparation experience where you can build manage and share reusable data entities in summary understanding the differences and best use cases between reference queries and data flows is essential for optimizing your data processing workflows in Power Query reference queries in Power Query is a fundamental concept that allows you to streamline and optimize your data transformation process by leveraging query references you can improve reusability efficiency and scalability ultimately enhancing the overall productivity and effectiveness of your data analysis in PowerBI remember practice makes perfect experiment with reference queries in Power Query to gain hands-on experience and discover the immense value it brings to your data analysis endeavors at Adventure Works you have a task that needs separate analysis for three main bike product categories you soon realize that to complete the task you’re creating the same query three times the only difference being the change to the bike category it’s inefficient to completely rewrite queries whenever there’s a minor change in the data or a slightly different question from management what if there was a way to create adaptable reusable queries there is the query parameters feature in Microsoft PowerBI allows you to define one query that can be easily adjusted to handle different categories or variables this video will help you understand the concept of query parameters in PowerBI it explains how to effectively implement and manage query parameters let’s learn how query parameters can make your data analysis tasks more efficient and adaptable query parameters in PowerBI is a powerful feature that allows users to input a value which is then used in the data retrieval process from a data source essentially it’s a placeholder for information that can change the query parameter can be used in various operations such as filters transformations or creating new columns and tables let’s explore some possible uses of query parameters at Adventure Works adventure Works can use query parameters when connecting to its database to retrieve specific information rather than importing the entire data set for instance Adventure Works can establish a query parameter for a sales date range by inputting the dates PowerBI will only fetch data for that period saving resources and time parameters can also be used in Adventure Works data transformations if there’s a need to frequently adjust a specific value in the transformations using a parameter avoids manual changes each time the value only needs to be updated in the parameter parameters can control filters on Adventure Works data if the company wants viewers of a report to concentrate on a particular product category they could create a parameter for the product category this allows the viewer to select the category they’re interested in and PowerBI will adjust the report accordingly now let’s explore creating query parameters in Microsoft PowerBI first you’ll need to open the Power Query editor in PowerBI to do this go to the top left corner of the PowerBI desktop interface there is a set of tabs in a ribbon layout one of these tabs is home select this home tab once you are in the home tab select transform data this action will open the Power Query editor in the Power Query editor go to the Home tab select the manage parameters option this opens the manage parameters dialogue box where you can create parameters to create a new parameter select new now you are able to name your parameter and define its properties for instance you might name it product category filter under type from the drop-own menu select text as the data type next specify what values this parameter can take from the suggested values drop-down menu choose list of values in the input field that appears create your list by entering the different product categories from your data set therefore the values here are such items as mountain bikes road bikes and touring bikes once you’ve filled in these details select okay then okay again in the manage parameters dialogue to return to the Power Query editor query parameters can significantly enhance your PowerBI reports making them more flexible and interactive parameters enable efficient data retrieval and transformation by allowing for dynamic changes helping you cater to evolving business needs without having to rewrite entire queries the more adaptable your data analysis tools are the more capable you become in meeting your organization’s everchanging demands this makes your work more efficient and enables you to provide valuable insights that can guide your company’s decision-making processes keep exploring keep learning and embrace the power of query parameters in PowerBI to improve your analysis in previous videos in this course you learned about advanced query capabilities data flows and the differences between reference queries as mentioned before every instance of data transformation performed in Microsoft Power Query adds a step to the Power Query process these steps can be rearranged removed or modified as needed to optimize the data shaping process whenever you use the Power Query interface M language code is executed to perform each operation behind the scenes the M language is available for you to read and modify directly in the Power Query Advanced Editor in this video you’ll learn how to use this advanced editor to update an M query a core capability of Power Query is to filter and combine data from one or more supported data sources any such data mashup is expressed using the Power Query formula language Mquery although you don’t have to know M language to use Power Query being familiar with the language used behind the user interface as well as being able to update it when necessary is valuable for anyone using the tool for example you may need to perform custom transformations that cannot be easily accomplished using the Power Query user interface alone this is where knowledge of the M language and its syntax can be helpful using the M language you can perform advanced data manipulation tasks such as conditional filtering custom column creation data type conversions and merging multiple data sources the language is designed to be expressive and efficient enabling you to handle large data sets with ease when you access the M
language code there are certain group names and meanings that are called M syntax let’s explore the syntax using an M language code snippet this snippet showcases how to handle various CSV file operations in Power Query including setting up the initial data source and performing data transformations loading the file specifying the delimiter and encoding for the CSV document calculating the number of columns and assigning a value to a variable you can find more information on M syntax in the additional resources of this lesson it can also serve as template code for further data transformations using the Power Query M language in PowerBI which you can customize based on your needs the advanced editor provides syntax highlighting autocomp completion and error checking features making it easier to write and debug your AM code it also offers functions and operators that allow you to perform various data transformations calculations and aggregations now let’s explore how you can use the advanced editor tool in Power Query and modify steps by updating M language code using a practical scenario a report designer informs Adio Quinn your manager at Adventure Works about an error being received in the Power Query window he assigns you the task of identifying the cause of this error and resolving it you investigate the issue by examining the steps in Power Query and analyzing the problem using the M language discovering that the error is a result of a change in the source files location let’s outline the steps to resolve this issue using the advanced editor tool let’s start with the source file and adventure work sales spreadsheet in Excel if you navigate to the home tab at the top of the PowerBI window select Excel workbook in the data group followed by the Adventure Works sales file and lastly select transform data in the opened window you’ll successfully access the Power Query editor however suppose the location of the source file is unintentionally changed by another person for example the Excel file is moved to another folder this will cause an error in the Power Query window to explore what happens as a result of this error let’s navigate to refresh preview in the query group on the home tab and select refresh preview from the drop- down menu when you refresh the preview you now get an error message indicating that the source file is no longer reachable as the location has changed you can resolve this issue by using the advanced editor to do this you need to select advanced editor in the query group on the home tab next you’ll need to read the error message and code carefully to determine the necessary action in this case you need to correct the file path in this scenario I’ll change the path from C data C3 M3 L3 Adventure Works Sales.Xlsx to C data adventureworks sales.xlsx your file path will differ from this as it will specify the location of the file on your computer after you’ve completed your correction you can select done in the opened window with this edit you’ve modified the code using advanced editor correcting the file path and resolving the issue by using the advanced editor and familiarizing yourself with the M language you can unlock the full potential of Power Query whether for error checking or creating sophisticated data transformations that meet your specific requirements the advanced editor empowers you to manipulate and shape your data precisely congratulations on reaching the end of the third week in this course on extracting transforming and loading data in PowerBI you’ve now reached the end of this module let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned you began this module by exploring the final step of the ETL process load you learned that the load operation enables the transformed data obtained by reading from a data source to become available for reporting purposes you then explored the two main ways to load data in the PowerBI user interface load this option directly loads data into the data pane in PowerBI and you can still transform the data at a later stage and transform data the option allows you to transform the data before loading it with changes being applied to the data model next you discovered that in some cases you might have some source tables which are used during the ETL process that will not be used directly in the reporting area in some of these tables may not meet the production demands of your data warehouse in such cases you will need an intermediate state between the data source and the data warehouse called the data staging area a staging area serves as an intermediate storage location for raw or unprocessed data allowing it to be temporarily stored and prepared for further processing in a data pipeline you then made use of your new knowledge by helping Adventure Works transform and consolidate data by using a staging area next you undertook a knowledge check in this item you proved your understanding of the concepts you encountered by answering a series of questions in the second week of this module you were introduced to data profiling in PowerBI you began this week by learning about the importance of data profiling and statistical analysis when reviewing data sets you also learned about distribution anomalies and outliers in the context of data profiling and you learned about standard deviation next you explored the two profiling tools in the Power Query editor column quality and column distribution you then put your new skills to use by assisting Adventure Works with data profiling and statistical analysis using the profiling tools in PowerBI to inspect data next you completed a knowledge check which tested your understanding of these concepts through a series of questions in week three you discovered the best practices when working with data sources and why these practices are important to implement then you had the opportunity to complete a practical exercise importing a data set while considering the best practices you were then introduced to data flows you explored what data flows are and why they are used in PowerBI you learned about the subscription level required to use them and engaged with a fictional scenario showcasing their application and the advantages and limitations they offer next you explored reference queries and their importance in streamlining data flows reference queries in Power Query refer to the practice of using the output of one query as a data source or transformation step in another query you then explored the performance considerations you need to bear in mind when using reference queries next you demonstrated your competence with these new skills by helping Adventure Works to merge two of their data sources using reference queries to deliver new insights into their business next you explored the query parameters feature in Microsoft PowerBI you learned that this feature allows you to define one query that can be easily adjusted to handle different categories or variables and you examined the process for disabling helper queries in PowerBI after that you were introduced to the advanced editor and learned how to modify code you learned that whenever you use the Power Query interface M language code is executed to perform each operation behind the scenes and you learned that although you don’t have to know M language to use Power Query being familiar with the language used behind the user interface as well as being able to update it when necessary is valuable for anyone using the tool you then explored the various global options PowerBI offers that allow you to customize and optimize your experience when working with files you learned that these options provide flexibility and control over file settings ensuring a seamless workflow and enhancing your overall productivity finally you undertook a knowledge check which tested your understanding of the concepts that you encountered this week and you completed a module quiz in which you demonstrated your understanding of all concepts you encountered throughout the entire module you should now be familiar with the advanced ETL processes in PowerBI you should be capable of loading data with PowerBI profiling this data and using advanced queries in PowerBI great work you have almost reached the end of this course in this video you’ll consolidate key concepts you learned throughout you’ll revisit essential learnings related to the data analysis process for businesses and transforming data into valuable insights using PowerBI through your continuous effort you’ve gained a solid foundation in collecting data from and configuring multiple data sources in PowerBI preparing and cleaning data using Microsoft Power Query and inspecting and analyzing data to ensure data integrity you have demonstrated tremendous dedication to this course through your engagement with the videos readings exercises and quizzes what’s left now is to demonstrate the skills you’ve learned in the final course project this recap will serve as valuable preparation for your final course assessment and graded quiz in the final course assessment you’ll apply what you’ve learned by completing tasks that simulate a real world data analysis scenario to consolidate your learning you’ll then take a final graded quiz to assess the knowledge and skills you gained throughout this course let’s get started by revisiting your first week of learning in the first week you learned about data sources local and shared data sets working with Excel data types storage modes triggers and actions you primarily focused on data sources in the process you covered the skills to connect data sources choose the correct query modes either import or direct and setting up triggers and actions to stay updated with the frequently changing data week two began with analyzing the need behind the data transformation and getting familiar with the Power Query interface which will be used throughout the ETL operations you continued your journey with learning about columns data types applied step lists and common data errors and then you prepared a data set you also learned how and why to pivot and unpivot tables which are very popular operations finally you applied combining table operations which are appending merging and joining tables these week two contents are fundamentals for ETL operations week three began with loading data and staging area concepts you applied an end-to-end ETL operation then learned about data profiling which is very important for understanding data quality and distribution this helps you detect a potential anomaly in a data set before you start to analyze it you then explored how to use M language and advanced editor to apply detailed operations in Power Query finally you learned data flows and reference queries which are used to increase efficiency and productivity this course equipped you to use PowerBI and Power Query to construct end to end ETL solutions starting from understanding data sources then advanced transformation techniques and ended by loading data in PowerBI as you embark on the final course project and assessment you can approach it with confidence knowing that you’ve built a strong foundation of knowledge and skills by committing to your learning journey throughout the course however if you feel the need to review any of the concepts summarized for you in this video or require additional preparation remember that you have the flexibility to revisit any of the course items this might only be the start of your journey toward a career as a data analyst but you can be very proud of yourself for how much you’ve already learned and accomplished now you’re ready to tackle the course project and graded assessment quiz good luck you’ve got this well done on completing this course you should be proud of the progress you’ve made in your data analysis learning journey with Microsoft PowerBI throughout the course you explored how to extract transform and load data using PowerBI in depth gaining expertise in building ETL solutions using PowerBI and Power Query you explored collecting data from and configuring multiple data sources in PowerBI preparing and cleaning data using Microsoft Power Query and inspecting and analyzing data to ensure data integrity you learned about data sources and setting them up in PowerBI as well as some of PowerBI’s ETL capabilities including connectors storage modes and setting up triggers plus you discovered more about transforming data using Power Query whether you’re cleaning and preparing data sets in Power Query to deal with errors and inconsistencies or performing advanced transformations to combine data you are now better equipped to transform data using PowerBI and don’t forget that you now have more insight into loading and profiling data in PowerBI as well as performing advanced queries in Power Query you even practice transforming multiple data sources a key real world skill for a data analyst congratulations on the expertise you’ve gained in extracting transforming and loading data in PowerBI this insight marks a valuable milestone in your journey to comprehensively using PowerBI to unlock valuable insights from data completing this course contributes towards gaining the PowerBI analyst professional certificate from Corsera these professional certificates are designed to equip you with the necessary skills to become job ready for in- demand career fields the Microsoft PowerBI Analyst Professional Certificate in particular not only offers you the opportunity to enhance your data analysis skills but also gain a qualification that can lay the groundwork for a career as a PowerBI data analyst plus the professional certificate will help you prepare for the exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst by passing the PL300 exam you’ll earn the Microsoft certified PowerBI data analyst certification this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to prepare data model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX you can visit the Microsoft certifications page at http://www.learn.microsoft.com/certifications learn.microsoft.com/certifications to learn more about the PowerBI data analyst certification and exam this course enhanced your knowledge and skills in the ETL process in PowerBI but what comes next well there’s more to learn so it’s recommended you move on to the following course in the program whether you’re new to the field of data analysis or already have some expertise and experience completing the whole program demonstrates your knowledge of and proficiency in analyzing data using PowerBI you’ve done a great job so far and should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained will showcase your willingness to learn motivation and capability to potential employers it’s been a joy to take part in your learning journey keep up the excellent efforts and best wishes for all your future endeavors have you ever been confronted with large amounts of information at once it can be an overwhelming experience how do you make sense of everything with PowerBI you can create data models that act as visual representations of your records however this requires familiarity with the process and mastery of many different techniques so we’ve designed this course to equip you with the skills you need data modeling is creating visual representations of your data in PowerBI you can use these representations to identify or create relationships between data elements by exploring these relationships you can generate new insights into your data to improve your business microsoft PowerBI is a fantastic tool for creating data models and generating insights and you don’t need an IT related qualification to begin using it this course is designed for anyone interested in learning about building data models it also establishes a strong foundation for those pursuing a career in data analytics by exploring PowerBI you’ll learn how to create data models using schemas and relationships analyze your models using DAX also known as data analysis expressions and optimize a model for performance in PowerBI in the first week of this course you’ll explore the key concepts related to data modeling you’ll learn to identify different types of data schemas like flat star and snowflake you’ll create and maintain relationships in a data model using cardality and cross- filter direction and you learn to form a model using a star schema the second week of this course focuses on DAX or data analysis expressions this syntax is used to create elements and perform analysis in PowerBI you’ll start by writing calculations in DAX to create elements and analysis in PowerBI you’ll explore the formula and functions used in DAX and use DAX to create and clone calculated tables you’ll then be introduced to the concept of measures you’ll learn where measures are used and what types are available you’ll work with measures to create calculated columns and measures in a mode and you’ll learn about the importance of context and DAX measures finally you’ll perform useful time intelligence calculations in DAX for summarization and comparison and learn how to use these techniques to set up a common date table in the third week of this course you’ll learn how to optimize a model for performance in PowerBI you’ll begin by learning how to identify the need for performance optimization this means analyzing your data models to determine how they can perform more efficiently you’ll then learn how to optimize your PowerBI models for performance you’ll explore different techniques and methods for ensuring that you’re running efficient models and you’ll also learn how to optimize performance using DAX queries in the final week of this course you’ll undertake a project and graded assessment in the project you’ll build and optimize a data model for Adventure Works you’ll have to build this model from scratch and optimize it to run efficiently finally you’ll have a chance to recap what you’ve learned and focus on areas you can improve upon throughout the course you’ll engage with videos designed to help you build a solid understanding of data modeling in PowerBI watch pause rewind and re-watch the videos until you are confident in your skills then consolidate your knowledge by consulting the course readings and measure your understanding of key topics by completing the different knowledge checks and quizzes this will set you on your way towards a career in data analytics and form part of your preparation to take the PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst exam by the end of the course you’ll be equipped with the necessary skills to work effectively with data models in PowerBI good luck as you start this exciting learning journey as a data analyst you’ll often manage thousands hundreds of thousands or even millions of records but how can you generate insights from all this raw data you can convert it into data models in this video you’ll explore the basics of data models and learn how to create them over at Adventure Works the company needs to generate insights and increase sales from different data sources these data sources include customer sales and marketing data but these data sources are all in separate locations and the only way to generate insights is to combine them that’s where the data model comes in adventure Works can integrate its data sources as a data model in Microsoft PowerBI then generate insights in the form of visualizations let’s find out more about data modeling and learn how Adventure Works can make use of it at its core data modeling is creating a structured representation of data this representation can then be used to support different business aims in other words a data model shows how different data elements interact and it also outlines the rules that influence these interactions data models can be built in Microsoft PowerBI microsoft PowerBI is software that provides data analysts with a user-friendly interface for building data models other benefits of a PowerBI data model are that it can be used to define relationships between tables and assign data types you can also create calculated columns and measures and update your model as your business requirements change in PowerBI the foundation of creating reports and dashboards lies within the data model it’s important to understand how to design a data model that effectively aligns with the visual elements within your reports and dashboards there are several steps involved in building a data model in PowerBI connect to your data sources prepare and transform your data and configure table and column properties then create model relationships and finally create measures and calculated columns using DAX or data analysis expressions once your data model is in place you can analyze the data to generate insights to help you achieve your business objectives let’s explore some examples of how data models can be applied to business data by optimizing the data model you can significantly improve the performance of your PowerBI reports and dashboards it’s also easier to aggregate structured data in a data model thanks to the clear relationships and hierarchies with an effective data model you can perform more advanced analytical capabilities like complex measures and predictive analysis when your underlying data is structured organized and aligned your insights and reports are more likely to be accurate and reliable now that you understand more about data models let’s briefly explore how Adventure Works can build one with PowerBI to generate the sales insights they need first Adventure Works needs to connect to its data sources by executing a query in Power Query Editor the result is then loaded into the PowerBI data model as a table using Power Query in PowerBI Adventure Works can finish importing and cleaning their data sources this creates a data model that contains cleaned customer date employee and marketing data as separate tables each table in the model represents a specific business entity and each table also has its own related attributes the next step is to define the relationships between the tables in PowerBI’s model view the company can link its customers and sales tables using the customer ID column which is common to both tables with this relationship the company can now view each customer’s transactions adventure Works could also link its sales and marketing tables to understand which campaigns were most effective for boosting sales finally the company needs to create measures and calculated columns using DAX or data analysis expressions dax is a syntax used in PowerBI to analyze data you’ll learn more about it later in the course for now just know that Adventure Works can use DAX to create aggregations and custom calculations to generate insights on important aspects of their data like sales totals a strong understanding of data models will help you maximize your data’s full potential building sophisticated data models creates a robust foundation for data analysis and generating insights remember that your data model is the foundation of everything else generating business insights often means working through large amounts of data and it’s important that this data is stored and structured meaningfully with PowerBI you can structure your data using a schema in this video you’ll learn about different types of schemas and their advantages and disadvantages adventure Works wants to optimize its inventory and rework its sales strategy to sell more bicycles but first it needs to analyze the relevant data to determine the best way to approach this task these data sources include customer product and sales data along with information on other aspects of the business adventure Works can use a schema in PowerBI to organize and build relationships between these different data sources this way the company can generate its required insights let’s find out more about schemas and how Adventure Works can use one a schema refers to a structure that defines the organization and relationships of tables within a data set it represents the logical framework of how the data is organized and connected there are many benefits to using a schema in PowerBI which you’ll explore over the course of this lesson a schema plays a crucial role in defining the data structure it also enables efficient data analysis helps with the creation of visualizations and assists with generating meaningful insights from your data there are three different types of schema that can be used to organize and structure data a flat schema a star schema and a snowflake schema let’s review each of these schema types and find out how Adventure Works can use them a flat schema is the simplest form of a data model all attributes and fields related to the entity are stored in a single table as you discovered in earlier courses a table is a set of rows containing data with each row divided into columns each column represents a piece of information with a specified data type the required attributes and entities are stored in the rows and can be extracted as required from the columns there are several advantages to a flat schema it’s easy to retrieve data from it’s less complex to analyze flat schema data and it’s a simpler way to visualize data however even though it’s an easy approach to understand the flat schema still has a few disadvantages it requires large data sets which are difficult to maintain and slow to query it leads to data redundancy and inconsistency so is more suited to smaller data sets and it doesn’t allow for complex data sets which require more flexibility and detail next let’s explore the star schema data model a star schema is a more advanced approach to structuring and organizing quantitive or measurable data in PowerBI it allows for multiple tables to be connected through one central table in a star schema a central fact table connects to multiple dimension tables you’ll explore these concepts in a later lesson these connections look like a star shape so it’s called a star schema adventure Works can build a star schema using a central fact table that contains sales transactions the company can then link the fact table to dimension tables that contain records for customers employees dates and marketing campaigns let’s break down the components of the star schema using the example from Adventure Works database first there’s the fact and dimension tables you’ll explore these further in a later lesson and there are the table relationships there are many different types of relationships which you’ll also explore in a later lesson a star schema offers many advantages over a flat schema by storing data in separate tables star schemas help to reduce data redundancy and boost query performance it also provides a clear logical data model which makes it easier to understand the data structure however it’s also less flexible than other schema types adding or modifying tables can require extensive changes to the schema and the star schema can struggle to manage complex relationships next is the third and final model the snowflake schema a snowflake schema is an extension of the star schema it breaks down the dimension tables into multiple related tables existing tables in a star schema can be further denormalized into other tables which creates a hierarchy yet these tables maintain a relationship with the dimension and central facts tables for example Adventure Works can further normalize its product data into supplier and category data tables don’t worry about the terms normalize and denormalize for now you’ll learn more about these concepts later in the course extending a star schema into a snowflake schema offers several advantages it provides more efficient data storage and retrieval it improves data integrity and consistency and it reduces data redundancy it also offers scalability and flexibility by integrating new data tables as required yet there’s also disadvantages to a snowflake schema it’s more difficult to perform data analysis because of the extra relationships these new relationships also make the schema more challenging to understand and manage and they result in slower queries finally it’s important to validate your schemas to make sure they’re accurate when validating a schema you need to check for the following make sure each table column has been assigned the correct data type like text and numeric check that each column has the correct formatting applied confirm that all columns have clear descriptions with relevant context and make sure all table and column properties are correctly configured you should now be familiar with the different types of schemas in PowerBI and their advantages and disadvantages you can build on this knowledge to develop robust data models in PowerBI this way you’ll ensure that your data retains its integrity and simplicity and can be used to generate insights making datadriven decisions involves working with large complex data sets fortunately you can easily manage these data sets with a flat schema in this video you’ll learn how to create a flat schema in PowerBI and configure your table and column properties over at Adventure Works the company has received complaints from customers about incorrect and delayed orders let’s help Adventure Works build a flat schema to organize its data more efficiently the first step is to connect PowerBI to the data sources to connect to a data source in PowerBI desktop select the home tab then select the get data drop-down menu select the appropriate data source from this menu in this instance you need to select the Excel workbook option then navigate to the folder containing the Adventure Works spreadsheet and select open once you select the Excel data source PowerBI displays the available tables in the navigator menu for Adventure Works there is only one table in the Excel spreadsheet available to load adventure Works data select the table from the navigator menu a preview appears on the right hand side the preview shows the Excel sheet has one table which contains sales data for Adventure Works there are also other columns related to the data like product name category subcategory quantity and more you can perform transformations from this menu but in this instance you just need to load the data so select load to add the selected data table to your PowerBI data model next select the data set from the data pane on the right hand side of the PowerBI desktop interface then select data view from the left sidebar to view the data set you can now configure your table and column properties using the power query editor to access the editor select the home tab and then the transform data option for example you can select the properties feature to alter the spreadsheet name or add a description add some spacing to the spreadsheet name then add the following description Adventure Works sales data this makes it easier to identify the spreadsheet it’s particularly useful when working in a team now you can begin applying transformations to shape the data as a flat schema first you need to remove duplicate data from the order ID column select and rightclick on the order ID column in the drop-own menu select the remove duplicates option alternatively you can access the home tab and select the remove rows option in the drop-own menu select the remove duplicates option either action removes all duplicate values from the selected column you can also format the product weight column by changing the data to a decimal type select the column then select the transform tab select the data type option and select decimal number from the list of available options confirm your selection to change the column type when you’ve completed your transformations select the home tab and then select close and apply you’re then returned to the PowerBI desktop interface you can make further changes here using the table tools and column tools tabs for example from the column tools tab you can select the format option and change the product price column data type to currency the next step is to edit the model select model view from the lefthand sidebar to view the schema of the loaded data the model view shows that there is currently one table of data this shows that we are working with a flat schema since there are no other tables there’s no need to build any relationships however you can still make further changes to the table’s properties select the table in model view to open the properties pane you can make more changes here by selecting individual columns from the table you should now be familiar with creating a flat schema in PowerBI from your data sources and you should also know how to configure your table and column properties using PowerBI and Power Query creating a schema in Microsoft PowerBI is an essential skill for entry-level data analysts as you progress in your data analysis career you’ll explore even more complex schema structures to handle more intricate data scenarios as you discovered in an earlier lesson you can use schemas for data organization and two central components of all schemas are fact and dimension tables in this video you’ll explore these tables in more detail and learn how they can be used to build schemas adventure Works is dealing with an increase in delivery errors to help fix this issue the company needs to explore its data and discover the underlying cause it can use fact and dimension tables to find a resolution as you learned earlier a schema is a logical and visual representation of how your fact and dimension tables relate they’re the backbone of schemas in PowerBI fact tables are called fact tables because they consist of the measurements metrics or facts of a business process in other words they hold quantifiable measurable data let’s take the example of an adventure works fact table it sits at the center of a sample adventure works star schema it’s called sales orders and includes transaction details like order ID product ID customer ID quantity and total price these are core facts about transactions like the customer who made the purchase the price of the product they purchased and so on and this fact table is related to dimension tables dimension tables are typically textual fields and provide descriptive attributes related to fact data they offer the context surrounding a business process event in the Adventure Works star schema the dimension tables are linked to the fact table and include date customer sales and product data these are descriptive details that can be used to identify individual customers these two examples should help you understand how fact and dimension tables inform the building of a schema in the star schema model the fact table sits at the center the dimension tables radiate out like the points of a star each dimension table is directly connected to the fact table for example the sales order table is the central fact table in the adventure works star schema the dimension tables like date customer and product are connected directly to it this structure simplifies queries because you only need to navigate through two tables to answer questions like what were the total sales on a particular date and these fact and dimension tables can also be used to extend a star schema into a snowflake schema a snowflake schema makes use of dimension tables by normalizing them normalization means that existing tables within a schema are divided into additional related tables this technique creates a structure that resembles a snowflake this is where we get the name snowflake schema from for instance in addition to a central fact table Adventure Works product dimension table could be split into a product table connected to subcategory and category tables this schema reduces data redundancy but adds complexity to queries you can help Adventure Works use these schema designs to discover the cause of the delivery errors you can import the required data sources represent the data sets as a snowflake schema and perform data analysis your analysis might reveal that the errors are linked to inventory management issues or incorrect addresses on record with these insights Adventure Works can fix its delivery processes and avoid future errors you should now understand the importance of fact and dimension tables when building a database schema with these tables you can create different schemas that help to organize and make sense of your data and generate insights you’ll often have to untangle large data sets and make sense of the relationships between tables an understanding of cardality and table relationships can be useful in these situations in this video you’ll explore the concept of cardality and review the different relationships that can be created between tables in a database to help with its business planning Adventure Works asks questions of its data like what bicycle sells best in each region or what is the revenue of each store however the data required to answer these questions is stored across several tables posing a complex data analytics challenge adventure Works can solve this challenge using cardality and by identifying the table relationships before we find out how Adventure Works can solve its data issues let’s take a few moments to explore the concept of cardality in the context of data analytics cardality refers to the nature of relationships between two data sets in other words how tables in your database relate to each other it’s important that your cardality settings are correct incorrect settings can lead to inaccurate data analysis and flawed business decisions there are three types of cardalities or relationships between tables in PowerBI the first is a onetoone relationship in this instance a record in one column of table A corresponds to a unique record in one column of table B onetoone relationships are less common in data modeling but they are useful when dealing with specific scenarios for example a single business entity can be loaded as two or more model tables because the data might come from different sources this scenario is common for dimension tables for example in Adventure Works data set each bicycle model has a unique model ID listed in the product ID column and a separate table lists specific features for each model ID in a product features column together these columns form a onetoone relationship between the two tables next is the one to many relationship each record in a column of table A corresponds to multiple records in a column of table B but not the other way around adventure Works lists its stores in table A and it lists the employees of each store in table B the relationships between the stores and their employees establish a one to many relationship this is because each employee works for one store but each store has many employees this is the most common type of relationship in data modeling where one table acts as the primary table and the other tables act as related tables finally there’s the many to many relationship this is where multiple records in a column of table A are related to multiple records in a column of table B in both directions many to many relationships are often used to establish a relationship between two fact tables or two dimension tables in the case of Adventure Works a customer can purchase many different bicycle models logged in table B and each bicycle model can be purchased by multiple customers recorded in table A this creates a many to many relationship understanding these relationships and configuring your settings appropriately helps your queries and calculations flow correctly and generate accurate insights another important aspect when considering the cardality of your data is granularity granularity refers to the level of detail or depth of a data set the granularity of your data should align with the business questions you need to answer for example Adventure Works wants to view customer purchase histories over the past year with data granularity you can explore individual transactions to analyze individual customer behavior and identify purchase patterns however if you want to understand which specific bicycle models are performing well in a region you need sales data with high granularity high granularity data is the data set that captures detailed information about the transactions for example geographical sales of products can be captured as a continent country state city and all the way down to individual stores but for a more general analysis like total sales per store a lower level of granularity suffices low granularity data refers to the data set that captures a highle summary or an aggregated level over broader categories an example of this is monthly sales of a product category the sales data is summarized at the category level but only on a monthly basis understanding the granularity of your data is crucial for establishing correct cardality it also influences how you set up your cross filter direction in PowerBI which you will learn more about in a future lesson but be careful when judging the required level of granularity misjudging the level of granularity can lead to misrepresented data and incorrect business insights and excessive granularity can lead to too much data and slow down your queries by developing a keen understanding of cardality and granularity you can untangle complex data scenarios like the one at Adventure Works with confidence and ease understanding the relationships between multiple data sets requires an advanced tool and Microsoft PowerBI’s cross filters are the perfect fit in this video you’ll explore the concept of cross filter direction and learn how to identify different types of cross filters adventure Works needs to calculate which members of its sales team have sold the most product types and should be awarded a bonus however the data required to generate this insight is spread across multiple tables with fixed cross filter directions you can help Adventure Works analyze this data by changing the cross filter directions of its tables but first let’s find out what data analysts mean by cross filter direction in PowerBI cross filter direction refers to the pathway or the direction through which filtering happens between two tables in a data model it dictates how data from one table influences the data in another table this enables relational analysis without resorting to complex queries or manual data consolidation powerbi relationships are directional in nature unlike other database management systems the direction significantly impacts how filtering operates having a clear understanding of relationship direction is a crucial aspect of data modeling in PowerBI let’s look at how direction plays an important role the Adventure Works data set contains three tables product sales and salesperson the product dimension table is connected to the sales fact table using a one to many relationship based on the product ID column common to both tables and a oneto many relationship also connects the salesperson dimension table to the sales fact table based on their common rep ID columns there are two types of cross filter direction the first is single cross filter direction this is the default setting in PowerBI the filter propagates from one table to another but not vice versa a good example of single cross filter direction is the scenario you just explored adventure Works product and salesperson dimension tables are connected to the company’s sales fact table via a one to many relationship each arrow points in a single direction indicating that the relationships direction is single this means that sales data can be filtered by both product and salesperson so when the product table is filtered for product one the sales table is automatically filtered for all sales of product one the next type of filtering is birectional filtering birectional filtering is filtering against the direction of a relationship sometimes you’ll need to do this to answer a particular question for example as you learned earlier Adventure Works requires a report on employee performance the report must show the number of products sold by each salesperson you can generate this report using birectional cross- filtering to generate the required results you must filter from the sales fact table to the salesperson and products dimension tables so you need to change the direction of the filter to both let’s look at the process steps for this action you can apply a filter in the salesperson table for a specific sales team member this filters the sales table for all sales by that person the filter propagates to the product table as the direction is birectional we have now determined how many unique products the salesperson has sold however there are a few important points to note when using birectional filtering birectional cross- filter relationships can negatively impact performance and configuring a birectional relationship can also result in ambiguous filter propagation paths you can disable filter propagation within a relationship in PowerBI using the cross filter DAX function this setting can be particularly useful in certain advanced scenarios where you must isolate data for independent analysis you’ll learn more about DAX in the next module the direction of the relationships plays a very important role in data modeling in PowerBI properly applying these cross- filter directions can drastically enhance data analysis leading to more insightful and actionable conclusions different data sets are explored at different levels of detail depending on the questions to be asked answering these questions requires working with different levels of data granularity over the next few minutes you’ll explore the concept of data granularity and discover how it can help inform your data analysis over at Adventure Works the company needs sales data to help make strategic decisions about what products to stock it must identify the highest and least performing products using annual and daily sales data you can help the company generate these insights by using data granularity to analyze its sales records let’s begin by recapping what is meant by the term data granularity as you might recall data granularity refers to the level of detail or depth captured in a certain data set or data field granular data provides deeper and more precise insights this delivers more nuanced and valuable findings remember data granularity isn’t about always having the highest level of detail it’s about having the appropriate level of detail before you begin your analysis ask yourself do you require high granularity or low granularity the decision should depend on the specific requirements and objectives of the analysis it’s about striking the right balance between detail manageability precision and simplicity high granularity data is the data set that records very detailed information about each transaction this level of granularity provides a comprehensive overview of each transaction including specific attributes and metrics associated with the transaction let’s look at an example from Adventure Works database for instance in Adventure Works data analysis product related data can be captured as product ID category subcategory name price size and weight some benefits of high granularity include in-depth exploration of trends patterns and relationships within data sets to identify specific behaviors and anomalies the flexibility to aggregate and summarize data at various levels of detail and the ability to facilitate accurate decision making by drilling down into specific data points next let’s look at low granularity in low granularity data information is captured and analyzed at a high-level summary or an aggregated level the data is not broken down into individual records instead data is summarized over broader categories or periods here’s an example from the Adventure Works database for example Adventure Works can explore its sales quarter by business quarter or month the benefits of low granularity include a simplified view that’s easier to understand and allows for analysis without an overwhelming level of detail improved performance and reduced data volume which leads to faster query execution and a quick identification of trends and patterns for informed decision-m let’s take a closer look at data granularity and its role in data analysis in the context of data analysis high granularity data is often more desirable it offers a finer level of detail so it provides greater precision and potential for deeper insights for instance tracking sales hourly high granularity instead of monthly low granularity could reveal patterns like peak shopping hours during the day however working with high granularity data comes with its challenges the more granular your data the larger your data sets will be potentially slowing down data processing and analysis on the other hand low granularity data while offering less detail can provide a broader view of your data it’s also easier to manage because of the smaller data sets in Adventure Works the monthly sales data low granularity could help identify broader trends such as seasonal sales fluctuations of certain product lines for example bicycle repair equipment sells more during the spring and summer months this is because customers are more active on their bicycles you can ensure the relationships are accurate and produce consistent aggregations by matching the granularity levels it also helps with correct filtering and supports drill down analysis data granularity also has a significant impact on building relationships between tables in PowerBI for example to determine the highest and lowest selling products in the Adventure Works inventory you must produce reports of total sales and budget over time using the sales and budget data the sales data is in the sales table and has daily level granularity on the other hand the budget data is stored in the budget table and is monthly to establish the relationship between tables and produce accurate results you need to format the date table in both tables and then build a relationship based on a commonly formatted date column understanding and manipulating data granularity is a powerful skill that all data analysts must master the degree of granularity can impact the insights drawn and the ease with which data can be analyzed with a firm understanding of data granularity you can now approach your data analysis tasks with a refined perspective it’s time to discover the story that the right level of detail in your data can tell untangling complex intricate data is often too large a task for one individual thankfully a PowerBI star schema can simplify complex data over the next few minutes you’ll learn how to configure a star schema in PowerBI including differentiating between fact and dimension tables and configuring cardality and cross filter direction adventure Works needs to organize its data to understand what products have been ordered and where they need to be shipped you can help them to organize the data using a star schema but first let’s review the steps for setting up a star schema in PowerBI the first step is to disable autodetect powerbi auto detects relationships when you load multiple tables you need to disable the function so you can set your own relationships the next step is to load your fact and dimension tables into PowerBI select the required tables from your Excel spreadsheet or other relevant location and load them into the application once you’ve loaded the tables you must create relationships between them you can join tables by dragging relationships between key columns or from the manage relationship section of PowerBI desktop finally you need to set cardality and cross filter direction you must set cardality to determine how your database tables relate and you need to set the cross filter direction to determine the pathway through which filtering occurs between your tables now that you’re familiar with the steps for setting up a star schema in PowerBI let’s help out Adventure Works as you’ve just discovered the first step is to disable the auto detect function launch PowerBI desktop go to file and select options and settings then select options within the settings menu to open the options dialogue box on the left bar of the dialogue box select data load then deselect autodetect new relationships after data is loaded and select okay next you need to load your fact and dimension tables into PowerBI select home then get data select Excel workbook from the list of options in the get data drop-own menu navigate to the Adventure Works company data spreadsheet and select open the navigator menu appears on screen this menu displays a list of available tables within your spreadsheet you can select which tables you need from this menu you can also use the search bar to locate a table when working with larger spreadsheets a preview of each table appears in the preview pane when selected in this instance you require the product region sales and salesperson tables select these tables then select load the tables are now visible in the model view your next step is to create the relationships between the tables you must build a one to many relationship between the sales table and the product region and salesperson tables in this instance you can create a relationship between the product table and the sales table based on the product key column which is common in both tables similarly you need to relate the sales table to the region and salesperson tables based on the sales territory key column and employee key column respectively alternatively you can also create and configure relationships from the manage relationship section of PowerBI desktop from the model view select manage relationship select new to open a dialogue box called create relationship from here you can build and configure relationships select the sales table from the drop-own menu then select the product key column from the available options then select the product table and its product key column next you need to set up the cardality and cross filter directions to set up cardality select the cardality drop-own menu then select the appropriate relationship type in this case it is many to one finally under the cross filter direction drop-own menu select the filter direction powerbi’s default direction is single so leave this as it is for the current scenario however before you select a birectional cross filter make sure that you fully understand its implications select okay when finished you can repeat this process to create relationships between the other tables select new then work through the same steps again to create more relationships select okay from the create relationship dialogue box when finished then select close from the manage relationships dialogue box to return to the model view the star schema is now ready to use the sales table is the fact table it sits in the middle of the model and connects to the salesperson region and product dimension tables you should now be able to configure a star schema in PowerBI differentiate between fact and dimension tables and configure cardality and cross filter direction keep the data analysis needs of your organization in mind as you build and refine your star schemas with practice this powerful data modeling technique will become a vital tool in your data analysis toolkit data is not always structured in a way that provides quick insights but by leveraging the Snowflake design schema you can unlock your data’s full potential in this video you’ll explore the snowflake schema learn how to build your own and discover how to transition to one from a star schema adventure Works data is stored in a complex format it’s having difficulty retrieving the necessary information you can help Adventure Works build a Snowflake schema to enable more efficient data storage and make it easier to generate insights let’s begin with an overview of the Snowflake schema the snowflake schema is a type of database schema design that optimizes data storage and retrieval by normalizing the data into multiple related tables unlike the star schema which uses denormalized data with fewer tables the snowflake schema consists of a central fact table connected to one or more dimension tables the dimension tables are further connected to other related tables to create a hierarchy for example the Adventure Works sales data sets product dimension table has a product category and a product subcategory in a star schema all three fields exist in one dimension table however in a snowflake schema you can split this single table into three different tables and all these tables are related to one another via one to many relationships now when you filter a specific product category the filter is propagated through the tables from product category to subcategory product and then sales as the adventure works example has just shown the snowflake schema offers many benefits so it’s an ideal choice for complex data structures in PowerBI here’s a quick overview of some of these benefits it simplifies dimension tables by splitting them into separate tables simplifying dimension tables also improves data integrity because hierarchical relationships more accurately represent the data and splitting data sets into separate tables also helps to reduce data redundancy because each attribute is only stored once it also enhances data analysis because a more efficient structure means more accurate insights and finally a snowflake schema leads to better management of data using hierarchies now that you’ve explored the basics of the snowflake schema and its benefits let’s help Adventure Works build one before uploading the data set you first need to turn off PowerBI’s autodetect feature this feature automatically creates relationships between the tables but you need to do this manually to disable this feature open PowerBI desktop select file options and settings and then options within settings this opens the options dialogue box select the data load option to the left of the dialogue box then deselect autodetect new relationships after data is loaded then select okay now you can load the adventure works data set from the home tab select get data then select Excel workbook from the options in the drop-own menu navigate to the data set and select open the navigator menu presents a list of available tables from the data set select the following tables category product region sales salesperson and subcategory then select load the tables are loaded into PowerBI and presented in the model view you can now establish the relationships between the fact and dimension tables you can do this by dragging the primary key from the dimension table to the foreign key in the fact table for example drag the product key column from the products dimension table to the product key column in the select fact table you can then repeat this process for all related tables in the snowflake schema next you must create hierarchies in the dimension tables to enable greater data analysis create relationships between the product table and the category and subcategory tables based on the category ID and subcategory ID respectively via a oneto many relationship this creates a hierarchy of product dimensions but what if Adventure Works has already created a star schema let’s review the process for transitioning from a star to a snowflake schema open the PowerBI project that contains the star schema your first step is to normalize the dimension tables identify the tables in the star schema to be further normalized into related tables create separate tables and then link them using foreign and primary keys to create these tables you’ll need to use DAX you’ll explore DAX in greater detail in a later module for now let’s just use some basic DAX code select the table tools tab then select new table add the required DAX code to the formula bar to create a new category table repeat the same process with the required DAX code to create a subcategory table once you’ve created the new tables PowerBI attempts to detect the relationships between them remove any new relationships that it establishes between the tables next you need to update the product hierarchy in the dimension tables to reflect the new Snowflake schema structure build a relationship between the category and subcategory tables based on the subcategory ID then build new relationships between the product and category tables based on the category ID you can now use this hierarchy to interrogate data on individual products product categories and product subcategories configuring the Snowflake schema in PowerBI is a valuable skill by mastering these skills you can play a critical role in helping organizations make datadriven decisions optimize operations and drive growth choosing the right schema generates valuable data insights choosing the wrong schema generates incorrect and misleading insights so how do you select a schema in this video you’ll discover why the Snowflake schema is often the most suitable schema for your data sets adventure Works wants to use its data to generate business insights into its sales and marketing practices so it needs to structure its data in a way that enables efficient querying and analysis it considers using a star schema however the last star schema it used resulted in an overly simplified and denormalized data set so you suggest a snowflake schema to more accurately represent and analyze the complex relationships between its data components as you discovered in earlier lessons a star schema organizes data into a central fact table this central fact table is surrounded by dimension tables containing descriptive attributes this structure is suitable for certain kinds of analysis for example it’s useful for analyzing smaller data sets however it becomes problematic when dealing with more complex hierarchical relationships this is particularly true for the Adventure Works data set by using the star schema’s denormalized approach Adventure Works risks generating results that contain redundant data and a loss of data integrity this would make it difficult to perform an accurate analysis of the data on the other hand a snowflake schema would provide a much better approach as you discovered previously the snowflake schema optimizes data storage and retrieval by normalizing the data into multiple related tables this structure provides more flexibility in defining complex dimension hierarchies and it allows for the creation of subdimensions within these hierarchies this lets analysts explore data at much deeper levels of granularity however the downside is that increased table sizes result in slower query performance this impacts the team’s ability to derive insights and make datadriven decisions quickly the best approach for adventure works is to build a snowflake schema this schema uses a more normalized approach which is more beneficial for dealing with intricate data relationships it can be used to build out multiple levels of related tables in the form of a hierarchy this is much more efficient than a star schema which flattens a hierarchy into a single table you can normalize several of the tables in the Adventure Works data set for example the product dimension table can be split into two separate tables category and subcategory this structure makes it much easier to analyze the performance of individual products and their related categories through deeper granularity customer data can also be organized in a hierarchy the team can explore customers and their purchases by country state and city this level of granularity reveals insights into regional sales patterns and marketing campaigns another benefit of this hierarchical structure is that it helps the team to identify patterns and relationships between data sets a snowflake schema also eliminates data redundancy each attribute is stored only once in its respective table and a unique identifier ensures consistent and accurate data finally the normalization of dimension tables also helps to reduce the data model storage requirements this makes the snowflake schema a much more efficient approach choosing the right schema is crucial for data analysis especially when dealing with complex data sets as the case of Adventure Works shows opting for a snowflake schema can help avoid the risks of using a star schema for hierarchical data relationships as an entry-level data analyst understanding the importance of using the correct schema for your data set is crucial by recognizing when a snowflake schema is more appropriate than a star schema you can optimize your data analysis process leading to more accurate insights and better informed decisionmaking you might often encounter a data model that’s unsuitable or not fit for purpose and leads to data analysis issues when this occurs you can take steps to rebuild the model and fix these issues over the next few minutes you’ll learn how to identify and resolve some common challenges arising from unsuitable data models adventure Works uses a star schema for its data model in PowerBI to analyze sales and customer data however this data model is not effectively meeting the company’s analytical requirements adventure Works has very large data sets and the company’s departments want to visualize this data according to their specific needs however this is difficult to achieve with the currently employed model adventure Works needs your help to resolve these issues and create a new more suitable data model the first step is to analyze the existing model and identify its issues some examples of common issues you could find in a data model include inferior performance issues with data consistency and limited scalability let’s begin with the issue of inferior performance the current data model might not be optimized for query performance resulting in slow report generation and analysis complex calculations based on larger data sets contribute to slow performance this makes it difficult for business users to draw real-time valuable insights from that data the sales table in the adventure works model contains columns like product descriptions these columns can be normalized into a dimension table for faster insights the next issue identified with the data model is inconsistent data disperate sources of data can be integrated without being properly validated for example duplicate data or incorrect data types this can lead to inaccurate reporting in your analysis adventure Works data model contains multiple examples of duplicate and inaccurate data across its tables if these tables aren’t fully normalized this redundant and inaccurate data will enter the company’s reports the final issue that was identified is that of limited scalability in other words the model cannot scale alongside a company to accommodate its increased data volume and associated evolving analytical needs adventure Works current model cannot integrate additional data sources emerging business requirements or analytical needs so now that you’ve completed your analysis and identified the issues you need to resolve the model’s challenges you can propose the following measures as a line of action to resolve these modeling and analytical problems the first step is to conduct a thorough assessment of the current data model and find any other issues that might exist once you’ve identified all the issues you can plan a redesign of the data model you must also understand the following data model components to support meaningful analysis and decision making the model specific data elements and their sources and the dimension and fact tables the relationships that exist between the model’s tables and the model’s calculations and measures another important step is to collaborate with stakeholders and business users to define the analytical requirements and objectives to be achieved for example Adventure Works sales department wants to identify the top performing product categories for each region and the marketing team wants to understand the impact of marketing campaigns within specific territories understand these analytical requirements and objectives so you can redesign a data model that implements all these requirements from the stakeholders and management team based on your assessment you’ve decided to redesign the data model as a snowflake schema you can complete this process by performing the following actions normalize the dimension tables create new tables where necessary establish proper relationships and cardality and create hierarchies compute custom calculations and measures using DAX test and validate and document all changes these actions will bring the following benefits to the data model they’ll improve model performance and enhance data integrity they’ll also remove data redundancies and boost the scalability of data analysis you then need to carry out the final few steps transform and validate the data while also implementing data quality checks you can also optimize the model then test it to ensure it functions as required finally deploy the new data model and train users to make sure everyone is familiar with how it works by implementing these steps you can help Adventure Works resolve challenges posed by the not fitfor-purpose data model the newly optimized data model will meet Adventure Works’s analytical requirements improve its data integrity and guarantee adaptability to changing business needs congratulations on reaching the end of this first week in this course on data modeling in PowerBI this week you’ve explored concepts for data modeling let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned in this week’s lessons you began the week with an introduction to data models you learned how to identify the initial steps involved in data modeling like defining relationships between tables assigning data types and creating calculated columns and measures you then explored the process steps for building a data model in PowerBI this involves connecting your data sources preparing and transforming your data and configuring the table properties you also learned how to create model relationships and create measures and calculated columns with DAX and you reviewed the benefits of data models you discovered that data models can be used to enhance the performance of reports improve calculations improve analysis and insights and deliver more accurate reports you then explored schemas a schema is a structure that defines the organization and relationships of tables within a data set three types of schema can be used to organize and structure data the first is a flat schema this is the simplest data model form it’s a set of rows and columns containing data then there’s the star schema it’s a central fact table that links to multiple dimension tables these tables are connected through relationships and finally there’s the snowflake schema this is an extension of the star schema it breaks down dimension tables into multiple related tables you first learned how to set up a flat schema this involves removing duplicate data formatting columns and editing the tables properties in the lesson exercise you configured a flat schema for Adventure Works you also completed an activity configuring a flat schema with multiple sources finally you completed a knowledge check to test your understanding of data models and you reviewed links to materials for further learning in the additional resources item the next lesson focused on cardality and crossfilter direction this lesson began with an introduction to fact and dimension tables fact tables hold quantifiable measurable data on a business process it sits at the center of a star schema then there’s dimension tables dimension tables provide descriptive attributes related to fact data they radiate out from the central fact table a snowflake schema extends this design it normalizes the dimension tables by breaking them down into additional related tables next you explored the concept of cardality cardality refers to how your database tables relate to one another your cardality settings must be correct to ensure your insights are accurate there are three types of cardality in PowerBI the first is a onetoone relationship in this instance a record in one column of table A corresponds to a unique record in one column of table B next is the one to many relationship each record in a column of table A corresponds to multiple records in table B but not vice versa this is the most common relationship finally there’s the manny to many relationship this is where multiple records in a column of table A are related to multiple records in a column of table B in both directions you can understand these relationships using cross filters powerbi offers single cross filter direction and birectional filtering single cross filter direction is the default setting it propagates from one table to another as in table A to table B but not the other way birectional filtering is filtering against the direction of a relationship this means changing the direction of the filter to both so you can propagate the filter in the reverse direction another important aspect of cardality is granularity granularity refers to the level of detail or depth of a data set the granularity of your data should align with the business questions you need to answer do you need high granularity data in the form of a data set that captures detailed information about the transactions or low granularity data in the form of a data set that captures highle summary or at an aggregated level over broader categories you then tested your understanding of these concepts you completed a knowledge check to test your understanding of data models and you reviewed links to materials for further learning in the additional resources item in the fourth and final lesson you learned how to work with advanced data models the lesson began with an introduction to setting up a star schema in PowerBI the key steps in this process involve loading the required tables creating the relationships between the tables based on common keys and setting up cardality and cross filter direction you then completed an exercise configuring a star schema for adventure works in PowerBI and you compared your result against an exempller next you learned how to set up a snowflake schema in PowerBI the process steps are like those for setting up a star schema the key difference is that you must create hierarchies in the dimension tables to enable greater analysis you can also convert a star schema into a snowflake schema using DAX queries you then put this knowledge into practice by changing an Adventure Works star schema into a snowflake schema you continued your exploration of advanced data models with snowflake schemas you reviewed the importance of snowflake schemas including their key benefits and you explored the process for resolving challenges in data models finally you completed a knowledge check and module quiz to test your knowledge of the concepts you encountered you’ve now reached the end of this module summary it’s time to move on to the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you’ve learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson best of luck we’ll meet again during next week’s lessons what if you’re analyzing a data model and the data you need isn’t in the original model if it’s possible to derive the data from the original model you can use DAX data analysis expressions to create custom calculations to generate the data in this video you’ll learn about DAX and explore the basic syntax of DAX formulas adventure Works needs to identify its top selling products and calculate its revenue but these insights are beyond the scope of the original data model they can only be generated by calculating the existing data so Adventure Works must use DAX or data analysis expressions to complete this task let’s begin with an overview of DAX dax is a programming language used in Microsoft SQL Server analysis services Power Pivot in Excel and PowerBI it is a library of functions operators and constants used in formulas or expressions to create additional information about the data not present in the original data model with DAX expressions you can create custom calculations on data models to extract maximum information from your data to solve real world problems to master DAX you need to understand its syntax different data types the operators and how to refer to columns and tables using functions let’s begin with the syntax dax usually computes values over columns in a table so you need to know how to reference a column in a table first write the name of your new calculation then add the equal sign operator next write the name of your DAX function then parenthesis that contain the logic of your formula write a table name enclosed in single quotes followed by the column name enclosed in square brackets omit the table name if the reference column is on the same table let’s demonstrate this using an example from Adventure Works the Adventure Works sales table doesn’t include any data that denotes the total number of products sold the company could generate this data using DAX in the DAX expression sales is the table name followed by the column name quantity to be referenced and sum is the DAX aggregation function total product sold is the name of the new calculated column that holds the results of the calculation when executed this DAX formula adds a new column to the existing table that contains the required data next let’s review operators dax formulas rely on operators there are many different types of operators they can be used to perform arithmetic calculations compare values work with strings or test conditions some commonly used operators in DAX include parenthesis for grouping arguments arithmetic operators for performing basic functions like addition and subtraction and comparison operators for comparing values dax also uses logical operators to return true false values and concatenation operators to combine two or more values into a single string adventure Works can use operators in a DAX formula to calculate its total revenue in this example the multiplication operator multiplies the unit price by the quantity to compute the total revenue the parenthesis group the arguments of the expression and the sumx DAX function adds the arguments values to calculate the total revenue finally let’s move on to DAX functions dax functions perform various calculations manipulate data and create custom expressions as you discovered in an earlier example Adventure Works need to calculate their total revenue and they can perform this calculation using the sumx DAX function for now you just need to be familiar with the concept of functions you’ll explore functions in more detail later in this lesson it’s also important to understand that DAX is not just about formulas and functions it involves understanding the data model the relationships between tables and the context in which calculations are made for instance understanding how the tables relate to one another in Adventure Works data model is crucial for creating meaningful calculations there are several important aspects of a relationship that will help you to understand DAX tables connected via a relationship are not the same they are either on one or many sides of the relationship columns used to build the relationship are the keys of the relationship the column on one side of the relationship needs to have unique values and tables relationships can be either single or birectional the direction of the relationship determines the direction of automatic filtering remember mastering DAX requires practice start with simple formulas and gradually incorporate more complex functions and operators and ensure you understand your data model and the relationships within it as your comfort with DAX grows so will your ability to turn data into meaningful insights eventually you’ll be able to unleash the full potential of your data using DAX and gain valuable insights for decision-making dax is a useful language for generating business insights using formulas however data analysts need to understand that DAX generates insights from data based on the context of that data in this video you’ll explore the concepts of row and filter context and discover how they impact data evaluation in DAX adventure Works needs to answer business specific questions like what are the total sales for each product and what are the top selling items by category it can generate these insights using DAX dax formulas answer these questions by evaluating the relevant data according to its row and filter context let’s find out more about the relationships between DAX and context dax computes formulas within a context the evaluation context of a DAX formula is the surrounding area of the cell in which DAX evaluates and computes the formula this surrounding area is determined by the set of rows and filters to be evaluated in a DAX expression it determines which subset of data is used to perform calculations dax expressions adapt or refer to the context for evaluating dynamic and contextaware results let’s begin with an overview of row context row context refers to the table’s current row being evaluated within a calculation when a DAX expression is evaluated for a specific row it considers the values of the columns in that row as the context of the calculation this allows for calculations to be performed at row level and it’s especially useful for iterating through rows within a table for instance if you create a formula for a calculated column the row context for your formula includes the values from all the columns in the current row let’s demonstrate the concept using Adventure Works sales table the table contains sales data for multiple products over one month stored within the following columns date product category quantity and price adventure Works wants to create a total sales calculated column that shows the total sales data for each product in the table the company can use a DAX formula to multiply the quantity data in the quantity column by the price data in the price column for each item the formula iterates through the relevant quantity and price column values at the row level and returns the results in the total sales calculator column in other words the formula calculates the new values via row context next let’s review filter context as the name suggests filter context refers to the filter constraints applied to the data before it’s evaluated by the DAX expression in the previous example a different result was produced in each cell because the same DAX expression was evaluated against different subsets of data however with filter context you can determine which rows or subsets should be included or excluded from the calculation let’s demonstrate filter context using the Adventure Works sales table adventure Works must calculate the total sales for all items in category X the company can create a DAX formula containing filters that target all sales recorded against category X once the formula is executed it iterates through each row and retrieves only the data with the value of X row and filter context also interact with each other to produce results when a DAX expression is evaluated it first considers the filter context then the row context takes effect let’s demonstrate how this occurs with Adventure Works the company can use the filter context to narrow its sales data to the selected region the row context then iterates each row in the filtered results and calculates the sales totals as you’ve just discovered a filter applied on a table column affects all table rows filtering rows that satisfy that filter if you apply two or more filters to columns in the same table they are executed under a logical end condition this means only the rows satisfying all the filters are processed by the DAX expression in that filter context be careful when applying a filter in a large data model with multiple tables a filter context automatically propagates through the relationships between the tables in the data model based on the selected cross- filter direction of the relationships in this example this means that when data is filtered in the sales order table then data in the related tables is also filtered you can disconnect the tables to prevent propagation a row context on the other hand doesn’t automatically propagate through a data model’s relationships if you have a row context in a table you can iterate the rows of a table on the many side of a one to many or many to many relationship using the related table function you can also access the rows of the parent table using the related function of DAX understanding the context of DAX expressions at the row and filter level is important as you continue to build data models for reporting and visualization context affects how DAX interprets and analyzes your data so always consider the context when creating and executing your DAX formulas as a data analyst you’ll often have to perform complex calculations on large data sets beyond the scope of spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel in these instances you need to utilize formulas and functions in DAX in this video you’ll review some commonly used DAX functions and examples of formulas that use these functions adventure Works has experienced steady growth in recent months however this growth has led to data management issues so Adventure Works needs a better way to generate insights into its data fortunately DAX formulas and functions are the perfect solution for generating these insights let’s find out more about DAX formulas and functions and then discover how Adventure Works can make use of them you previously learned about operators the building blocks for creating a DAX formula however there are also many common formulas and calculations performed on data these are part of DAX’s extensive library of functions functions are reusable pieces of logic that can be used in a DAX formula these functions can perform various tasks including aggregations conditional logic and time intelligence calculations data analysts can use these functions to handle complex data challenges and drive meaningful insights to create a function you must be familiar with the syntax a function begins with the function name followed by parentheses containing the functions parameters dax function names are typically expressed using capital letters to help differentiate them from table and column names for example Adventure Works could use a function to get the distinct count of rows in the custom key column in a table named sales dax expressions can be difficult to write particularly complex calculations which require nested functions so you can use variables in your DAX formulas to simplify calculation results and store them for reuse you can use variables to store intermediate results in a temporary location they’re like a storage box that you can put information into to be retrieved later this improves reliability and readability and reduces the complexity of your expressions you can define a variable in DAX by placing var before your variable or expression follow the variables with return where the expression’s result is provided adventure Works can create a simple formula that defines two variables to generate insights into its sales and customer data sales amount and customer number are variables defined to determine the total sales and number of customers respectively the return statement divides one variable by the other the entire expression’s result is in the DAX query’s return statement although DAX functions can be classified into many broad categories there are some commonly used functions let’s review these and discover how Adventure Works could leverage them to resolve their business problems the calculate function evaluates an expression in a context modified by the specified filters adventure Works can use the function to analyze total sales for a product category based on the color of the products the company just filters the products based on a specified color like blue the calculate function evaluates the sum of the sales table sales amount column in a modified filtered context a new filter is added to the product table color column another useful function is average X the average function returns the average of an expression evaluated for each row in a table adventure Works can use this function to calculate the collective average for freight and tax the function calculates the average freight and tax on each order in the sales table it first sums freight plus tax amount in each row and then averages those sums you also need to be familiar with the summarize function the summarize function creates a summary table by grouping data based on one or more columns adventure Works can use the summarize function to generate a sales summary report displaying annual sales for each product category this function returns the summary of sales grouped around the calendar year and the product category the resulting table allows you to analyze the sales by year and product category dax is a powerful language for advanced data modeling and analysis its wide range of functions can be combined with formulas to generate deep insight and remember that DAX functions can be combined to create complex calculations that perform multiple operations this versatility and flexibility makes DAX an essential tool for data analysts you might not always be able to answer business questions using an existing data model it could lack the required data or be too complex in these instances you can use calculated and cloned tables to enhance your data sets and improve your analysis over the next few minutes you’ll explore calculated and cloned tables and learn how to create them from different sources using DAX functions adventure Works needs answers to business specific questions about its sales and marketing but its current data model isn’t up to the task however by creating calculated tables the company can compare and analyze its data to generate the required insights you can learn more about calculated and clone tables by discovering how Adventure Works can create them using DAX functions let’s begin with cloning a table cloning a table can be extremely useful for manipulating or augmenting data without affecting the original table this is especially true when working with tables that are refreshed periodically and any changes you made to the original table might be overwritten for example Adventure Works must augment its sales table to generate insights but it doesn’t want to alter the original data so the company can create and work from a cloned version of the table while leaving the original intact a table can be cloned using a simple DAX formula type the new table’s name an equals operator and the original table name in parenthesis add the word all to instruct PowerBI to clone all data from the target table this formula states that the clone table is equal to the original table adventure works can use this syntax to create a clone of their sales table called sales data you can also use DAX to create a calculated table based on data from various sources for example Adventure Works must combine customer data from a database with sales data from an Excel spreadsheet to analyze the relationship between its sales and customers the company can use DAX to merge these sources and enable its analysis calculated tables can also be used to normalize dimension tables adventure Works can use DAX to split their product dimension table into category and subcategory tables this creates a hierarchy that enables more efficient data exploration and reporting now that you’re familiar with creating and cloning calculated tables let’s help Adventure Works before we begin let’s quickly review the data model within our model the sales table is the fact table it’s connected to all other tables via one to many relationships and the cross filter direction is set to single for all relationships we’re now ready to start the first step is to create a new calculated table using DAX in the data view of PowerBI select new table from the table tools tab to expand the DAX formula bar select the formula bar and write an all DAX function that extracts all data from the sales table to create a new cloned version of the table press enter to execute the function and generate an exact copy of the sales table the new cloned table is listed as cloned sales next you need to create a calculated table based on different data sets this must be an annual sales summary table that references the sales and product tables from the imported data set select new table once again then access the formula bar and write a DAX expression that uses the add columns summarize and calculate functions to calculate and summarize the required data within the annual sales summary calculated table press enter to execute the formula and generate a new table called annual sales summary finally ensure you have the proper relationships set between the tables for the proper functioning of DAX review the new calculated tables and the relationships in the data pane and the PowerBI desktop model view adventure Works can now begin analyzing its sales data and answering specific business questions by creating visualizations and reports using the newly calculated tables and existing data calculated tables are useful in DAX and PowerBI for simplifying and enhancing data analysis you can deploy DAX functions to perform analysis without impacting the original data sets study these tools carefully and make them a central part of your skill set you might often encounter tables that don’t have the data you need you can generate this data by combining existing columns to create a new calculated column in this video you’ll explore the basics of calculated columns in PowerBI learn how to create them using DAX and evaluate their effectiveness in contributing to meaningful analysis adventure Works is analyzing the data in its sales table and realizes there’s no data for the profit margins on its product categories in the original data source calculated columns are the perfect solution to this problem adventure Works can add data on its profit margins using DAX expressions to create new calculated columns within the original data source before you begin helping Adventure Works let’s find out more about calculated columns a calculated column is a new column added to an existing data table in PowerBI data analysts can use calculated columns to derive new data from existing columns and add it to the data model once added these columns can be used in any part of a report or visual just like any other column traditional columns are filled with data imported from a data source a calculated column is created by defining a DAX expression you can create a DAX expression that calculates the data from two or more columns the result of this calculation is then added to the table as the newly calculated column write the name of your calculated column and an equals operator then write the names of the tables to be referenced in single quotation marks and their respective column names in square brackets include a relevant arithmetic operator depending on the operation required for example Adventure Works can create a total sales calculated column by multiplying the quantity and unit price columns in its sales table now that you’ve explored the purpose of calculated columns in PowerBI let’s help Adventure Works to calculate its profit margin from its sales data in its sales table by creating calculated columns launch PowerBI desktop and load the Adventure Works data set the workbook contains one table called sales the table tracks Adventure Works recent sales data access PowerBI’s data view to view the sales table adventure Works need to calculate its profit margin but to do this it must first calculate its total sales for the quantity of each item sold however the table is missing this data you can add this data to the table by creating a new total sales column you just need to multiply the quantity and unitpriced columns select the sales table from the data pane on the right hand side of PowerBI desktop in the table tools tab select the new column from the calculations group this opens the DAX formula bar write DAX code in the formula bar that multiplies the quantity column by the unit price column and adds the result as a new total sales column press enter to execute the code a new total sales calculated column appears under the sales table in the data view on the right hand side of the PowerBI interface you can use this new column in any report or visualization like any other table column now that you’ve identified the total sales data you can create a profit column to determine how much profit has been made on each item write another DAX formula that subtracts the cost from the total sales and generates the data as a new profit column press enter to execute the formula the new profit calculated column is added to the sales table now that you’ve identified the profits you can create the profit margin column select new column again then write another DAX formula in the formula bar that divides the profit and total sales columns and generates the result in a profit margin calculated column press enter to execute the formula the profit margin column is added to the data finally you need to format the calculated columns select the profit column and format it as currency then format the profit margin column as a percentage you should now understand the basics of calculated columns and be able to create them using DAX and evaluate their effectiveness measures uncover the information hidden in your data and help you to tap into its real potential over the next few minutes you’ll explore measures and their importance for data analysis you’ll also explore how calculated tables are built from pre-calculated measures adventure Works needs to calculate its sales data for all the products it has sold this month it also needs to ensure that this calculation can be updated monthly against new sales data the company can generate these insights using measures you can discover more about measures and how they function by exploring how Adventure Works uses them let’s begin with an overview of measures measures in PowerBI are used to perform calculations on data model fields measures play a pivotal role in data analysis and interpretation measures are used in PowerBI to perform aggregations calculations or evaluations on data that provide meaningful insights measures are typically used in data visualization elements examples of these elements include charts tables and cards by using measures you can compute aggregated values such as sums averages minima maxima counts or more complex statistical calculations measures in PowerBI offer several benefits in data analytics and reporting let’s explore some of the benefits measures are calculated in the context of the visualization a report they are used in this means they are dynamically updated based on filtering and other interactions within the report in other words if the context changes then so does the measure this dynamic calculation allows you to dive deeper into data and gain insights from different angles and perspectives measures are also reusable once created you can continue to recall them in your code this reduces the repetitive work of creating the same calculations and ensures data consistency across all reports another benefit is performance measures can be used to track the performance of different aspects of a business measures are commonly used to create key performance indicators or KPIs essential to monitor business performance kpis provide a quick snapshot of performance against predefined targets or benchmarks and finally measures also help to maintain consistency measures help maintain consistency in metrics across different visualizations and reports consistency ensures the same results show regardless of filtering or grouping in your measures your calculations must be standardized and uniformly applied throughout the analysis this ensures accurate and reliable reporting across various visualizations and dashboards measures can also be used to create calculated tables in PowerBI a calculated table is a table that you add to a model derived from existing tables by using a DAX formula adventure Works has created a measure called total sales this measure is the sum of all sales across all products now the company needs a new product table that lists each product alongside its respective total sales this can be done using a DAX formula in this DAX formula sales is the original table sales product is the product column in the original table and total sales is the measure Adventure Works created let’s take a moment to explore a sample of the syntax used to create such a formula begin with the name of your new measure followed by an equals operator then add the required expression that contains the logic of your measure for example Adventure Works can create a new measure called total sales that calculates the total sales amount from the sales table when executed this DAX formula will list each product and its total sales creating calculated tables from pre-calculated measures is particularly useful for creating a summary table from large data sets or for creating a table with data that does not exist in the original tables this can enhance data analysis visualization capabilities in PowerBI in this video you have learned about measures and their importance in data analysis you are also able to explain how calculated tables are built from pre-calculated measures measures in Microsoft PowerBI are essential to data analysis and interpretation they offer dynamic reusable and complex calculation capabilities enabling businesses to gain insights from their data and make datadriven decisions effectively and efficiently as a data analyst you want to be able to provide your business with answers and solutions to the questions they are asking using measures you can gain valuable insights into your data drive strategic decisions and enhance your business’s performance over the next couple of minutes you’ll explore the different types of measures in PowerBI adventure Works is using different types of measures to prepare its annual sales report to compile this report it must analyze its sales data across different regions and generate insights into specific products and sales team members let’s explore the different types of measures Adventure Works can use to prepare its report before we explore measures let’s quickly review the concept of additivity additivity refers to how measures behave when aggregated across different dimensions for example summing or averaging values however not all measures behave the same way so understanding the behavior and categorization of measures is crucial for accurate data analysis and visualization in PowerBI measures are essential for performing quantitative analysis and deriving meaningful insights from the data they provide a way to summarize calculate and compare data across various dimensions based on specific criteria and business requirements measures can be categorized into three types additive semi-additive and non-additive let’s explore these types of measures in more detail additive measures facilitate data aggregation across any business dimension like time geography or product categories the basic mathematical operations applied to these measures are addition and subtraction these types of measures provide consistent results regardless of how you group data additive measures also use the sum DAX function to aggregate over any attribute for example Adventure Works monthly sales analysis report shows revenue and quantities sold by product category and region this data is for a specific unit of time in this case per month you can use additive measures to aggregate revenue and quantity sold by summing them across all dimensions this allows you to view the total revenue and total quantities sold while analyzing the performance of various products regions and months of the year next is non-additive measures non-additive measures cannot be meaningfully aggregated across any dimension these measures involve calculations like ratios averages and percentages the result of aggregating a non-additive measure can be skewed or misleading and should be handled with caution for example at Adventure Works the average sales per customer is a non-additive measure the average sales per customer in January is $300 and in February it’s $350 however it doesn’t make sense to add these averages and state that the average sales per customer for the two months is $650 instead calculate the total sales and total numbers of customers for the two months combined then divide the total sales by the total number of customers to obtain the correct average sales per customer for the period finally let’s explore semi-additive measures semi-additive measures can be aggregated over some but not all dimensions they’re mostly used in situations where the data represents a state at a particular point in time they’ve meaningful aggregation for certain dimensions but not for all like with additive measures semi-additive measures use some to aggregate over some dimensions and a different aggregation over other dimensions examples of semi-additive measures that Adventure Works use include inventory balance and current account balance adventure Works has created a measure called inventory at hand it uses this measure to add inventory across different product categories or store locations but the measure can’t be used to add up the inventory across time like the change in inventory over a two-month period this is because it’s semi-additive for example Adventure Works had 50 bicycles in stock at the end of January and 60 at the end of February but it would not be accurate to say that it had 110 bicycles in stock for the two months the stock level changed over this period it wasn’t a fixed unit or measurement you should now be able to identify and distinguish between the different types of measures in PowerBI each of these measures plays a unique role in generating insights and guiding decision making as always with data analysis it is vital to remember that the value lies not just in the numbers but in their correct and thoughtful interpretation as a data analyst you’ll often have to identify trends from raw data supported by empirical evidence this sounds like a complicated task but you can make it easier by using statistical functions in this video you’ll explore the most common statistical functions used in measures and explore examples of each one adventure Works needs to identify trends in its business from raw data the company can use several basic statistical functions to generate these insights exploring Adventure Works use of these functions is a great way to understand how they work but first let’s begin by understanding what data analysts mean by statistical functions statistical functions calculate values related to statistical distributions and probability they also allow you to perform calculations and comparisons that reveal meaningful information about the data when it comes to quantitive data analysis statistical functions are the lifeblood of the process these functions enable in-depth analysis by providing insights into your data trends patterns and relationships some common statistical functions you’ll make use of include average median and count there’s also distinct count min which calculates the minimum and max which calculates the maximum let’s start with the average function also known as the mean this function sums up all the numbers in a data set and divides the result by the total count of numbers this function is frequently used to identify a central tendency in a data set it is beneficial when you need to find the middle ground or commonality within data for example Adventure Works can use the average function to identify its average sales amount the company can create a calculation to generate this data using the average function sales is the name of the table that contains the sales data and sales amount is the column that contains the numbers for which it wants the average the next statistical function is the median function this function calculates the middle value in a set of numbers it sorts the numbers in ascending order and then selects the middle number the median is the average of the two middle numbers for data sets with an even number of observations unlike the average the median is less affected by outliers and extreme values this makes it useful for data sets with skewed distributions for example Adventure Works needs to compute average response times for its customers service team with this data the company can measure the team’s performance and identify areas of improvement the data set contains the support table with the response time adventure Works can apply the median function to compute the median value support is the table name response time is the column containing the numbers for which the company requires the median which is response time in this case only numeric data types are supported in this function dates logical values and text columns are not supported next let’s explore the count function this function counts the number of rows in a column or a table it is often used to measure the size of a data set you can use it to count all rows or only rows that meet specific criteria the only argument in the function is column when the function finds no rows to count it returns a blank for example Adventure Works needs a report containing sales of product categories to generate this report it needs to analyze the count of sales for each product category it can use the count formula to calculate this category is a column name that contains values to be counted next let’s look at the distinct count function this function counts the number of distinct values in a data set this function is helpful when you need to understand the count of unique values or categories the only argument allowed for this function is a column you can use columns containing any type of data when the function finds no rows to count it returns a blank otherwise it returns the count of distinct values adventure Works needs to analyze the number of unique daily visitors to its website this data is stored in a website table containing a visitor ID column adventure Works can use distinct count to compute the number of unique visitors website is the table name for reference visitor ID is the column name that contains the values to be counted lastly let’s examine the min and max functions the min function is used to identify the smallest value in a column or between two scalar expressions the max function is used to identify the largest value in a column or the larger value between two scalar expressions both min and max functions can provide an overview of the range of your data adventure works can use these functions to analyze its store inventory the min and max functions identify the minimum and maximum product quantity from the inventory table using the quantity column inventory is the name of the table quantity is the name of the column that contains the values to be evaluated you should now be familiar with the most common statistical functions used in measures and be able to make use of them mastering these functions will undoubtedly elevate your data analysis skills do you want to create custom calculations for tables columns and measures you can create custom calculations by using DAX over the next couple of minutes you’ll learn about context and how it impacts DAX measures you will also examine different scenarios where measures are presented in various ways adventure Works wants to analyze its sales data determine which customers make the largest purchases and compute stock in hand across all stores in an inventory management scenario at this stage of the course you should be familiar with the concepts of DAX measures and contexts you’ll often create measures in the form of custom calculations but these custom calculations are contextsensitive it’s important to understand the influence of context because it can result in variations in your calculations these variations are based on the level of data you are evaluating the model structure and the visual you are using to represent it an understanding of context and variation helps deliver accurate data analysis and provides business intelligence to key stakeholders let’s recap the basics of context context in DAX comes in two primary forms row context and filter context row context is the current row being evaluated in an expression like racing bikes in the Adventure Works data set in contrast when you build reports in PowerBI you can filter the report data which results in DAX using the filter context this is the subset of data the calculation operates upon influenced by visuals or reports filters for adventure works it could be all cross-country bicycles sold in North America now let’s explore the impact of context on DAX to understand how the use of context in DAX measures can influence business decisions adventure Works wants to analyze and present a report on annual total revenue the company can use the sum xdax formula to compute the sum of all the quantity values multiplied by the unit price in the sales table by applying this measure to the sales table the formula computes the sum of all sales amounts but this measure utilizes only the row context adventure Works needs more insights to drive key decisions through data for example it must understand which products are selling the best to improve warehouse stock management and impact marketing decisions to identify the best performing product categories Adventure Works can filter the data set using a DAX query this query determines the total sales for products under the bikes category it incorporates filter context created by the category column from the product table in addition to the row context it incorporates filter context created by the category column from the product table in addition to the row context adventure works also needs to determine which customers make the largest purchases first the company must determine the average purchase amount using the average DAX function it can calculate the average sales amount per customer by applying this measure to the sales data set to compute the measure for the customer with the highest purchases you need to define a logic based on customer ID customer ID corresponds to the total sales amount of $2,000 and above as high purchase customers and those who spend less than $2,000 are average purchase customers in this case the customer ID is now acting as a filter context to compute the measure this instructs the sales and marketing team which customers to target in their campaigns you should now be familiar with the impact of context on DAX the contextsensitive nature of DAX is a powerful feature of PowerBI it enables dynamic calculations based on the context in which the DAX computes the formula understanding how context impacts DAX allows users to create more accurate insightful and dynamic reports that can be tailored to specific business scenarios powerbi is very effective for generating insights but writing DAX code to analyze data takes time fortunately you can create calculations and measures faster using PowerBI’s quick measures feature over the next few minutes you’ll explore the concept of quick measures learn about the different types available and review the process for creating them in PowerBI adventure Works wants to quickly analyze and monitor the performance of its sales team against several key performance indicators but constantly rewriting the same DAX code for each performance review is time consuming adventure Works can speed up the process using PowerBI’s quick measures feature let’s learn more about how quick measures work in PowerBI so you can help Adventure Works as you’ve just learned quick measures are a useful technique for performing commonly used calculations quickly and easily a quick measure runs a set of DAX commands behind the scenes then presents the results as a new measure you can use in your reports and visualizations in other words you don’t have to spend time writing DAX code the measure does it for you based on the inputs you provide there’ll still be times when you need to write DAX expressions for specific business case scenarios but quick measures can still act as a good foundation many different categories of DAX calculations are available to work with and you can modify these calculations to meet your specific analytical needs when creating quick measures in PowerBI you can choose calculation types depending on the nature of the analysis you want to perform types of quick measures include aggregate per category filters and time intelligence there are also totals mathematical operations and text quick measures in PowerBI offer several benefits for data analytics and reporting you can use quick measures to generate commonly used calculations with just a few clicks this eliminates the need to write DAX expressions making the process more efficient another benefit is accessibility you can create quick measures using PowerBI’s userfriendly interface this accessible UI means even users with limited DAX knowledge can create calculations quick measures also help with data they empower business users to take ownership of their data analysis and reporting this simple and accessible tool for creating calculations reduces dependency on data experts and quick measures also offer flexibility to iterate and refine calculations if you need to adjust a calculation or explore alternative metrics you can easily modify your quick measures without affecting the underlying data now that you’re familiar with the basics of quick measures let’s help Adventure Works use them to track the performance of its sales team before we begin let’s quickly review the model you’ve launched PowerBI connected to your data sources and loaded transformed and configured the following tables for your model products region sales and salesperson now you can begin creating measures in PowerBI the first step is to select the report view or data view to access the calculations group within this group select quick measure the quick measures window appears on the screen choose the required calculation type and fields to run the calculations alternatively you can select the ellipses next to the table name on the data pane then select new quick measure from the drop-own menu remember that the measure is created by default in the table you have selected from the data pane on the right side of the window choose select calculation this action opens a list of available calculation types in PowerBI adventure Works must calculate what quantity of each product each team member has sold so choose total for category filters applied next you must select the required fields from the right pane to perform calculations select the sales column from the sales table and assign it as the base value then select the category column from the product table and assign it to the category section then select add to add these elements to the measure the new quick measure appears in the fields pane and the underlying DAX formula appears in the formula bar adventure Works also needs to know how much revenue each team member has generated this year you can calculate this using a year-to-ate sales measure to create this sales measure you can repeat the same process as before select quick measure from the measure tools tab then select the year-to-ate total calculation type then select the sales column from the sales table as the base value and the order date column from the product table in the date section finally select add a new measure called sales YTD appears in the fields in the data pane thanks to your help Adventure Works can now quickly track the performance of its sales team using quick measures and you should now understand the importance of quick measures be familiar with the different types available and be able to create them in PowerBI measures are PowerBI features that let you explore your data to create meaningful reports and visualizations in this video you’ll learn how to create custom measures with DAX adventure Works needs to analyze its sales data to calculate its total sales and identify the top two best-selling products in each category and region you can use DAX calculations to create custom measures to help Adventure Works generate these insights custom measures refers to userdefined calculations or metrics created using DAX like traditional measures custom measures also generate insights about data let’s create custom measures to help Adventure Works generate insights into its sales data before we begin let’s quickly review the company’s data model you’ve launched PowerBI connected to your data sources and loaded transformed and configured the following tables in the model: products region sales and salesperson so within our model the sales table is the fact table it’s connected to all other tables via a series of active one to many relationships and the cross filter direction is set to single for all relationships we’re now ready to start creating measures the first step is to create a new measure called total sales using DAX in the data view of PowerBI select new measure from the table tools tab to expand the DAX formula bar type total sales as the name of your new measure be aware that any new measure added to the DAX formula bar is named measure by default if you don’t rename the measure all new measures are named measure one measure two and so on give your measures unique names to be easily identifiable particularly when creating several measures write the total sales measure using the sumx function to multiply the unit price and quantity columns from the sales table when you enter your formula a list of suggested functions appears after you type the equals operator you’ll need to ensure that you understand the functions on this list and that you select the relevant one for your calculation and once you reference a table or column name PowerBI displays a drop-own list of available tables and columns within your data model select the correct field when choosing a reference from the drop-own list to ensure your chosen measure functions as required press enter to execute the function and generate the new total sales measure you can view the new measure within the table you selected under the data pane on the right hand side of the PowerBI desktop interface next you must create a measure that identifies the number one and number two top selling products in each category you can use the total sales measure to create another new custom measure select new measure to expand the formula bar and write a measure called top two products the measure begins with a variable that defines the ranking of products using the DAX values function the return section returns the value with the required calculation the calculate function filters the results of the total sales measure based on the top two products the top function defines the top products based on their respective sales it uses the number two to represent the top two products this is a dynamic measure that you can use to present the number one and number two top selling products by product category color or region press enter to execute the function when executed the function displays the results of the measure in a matrix or table that shows the total sales amount for the top two performing products in each category you can dig deeper into the data by working through different business years thanks to your help Adventure Works now have the insights they require and you should now be able to create custom measures with DAX this is a valuable new skill you’ve learned when used correctly you can deploy dynamic calculations to generate insights quicker there may be times when you encounter a data model with a cardality and cross filter direction configured making it impossible to perform the necessary filters with the cross filter function you can change the cross filter direction for a specific measure while maintaining the original settings in this video you’ll develop an understanding of the cross filter function its syntax and its relationship to measures adventure Works needs to analyze its sales performance for the previous few years along with the performance of its sales team however its data model tables are connected via one to many relationships and single cross filter direction this prevents the company from filtering the data as required and changing the cross filter direction to both results in a permanent change fortunately Adventure Works can use the cross filter function to alter the direction while maintaining the original settings let’s explore how this works as you’ve just discovered the cross filter function changes the cross filter direction between two tables for a specific measure while maintaining the original settings in other words it specifies the cross filtering direction to calculate a relationship between two columns so how do you create a cross filter function a cross filter function can only be used within a DAX function that accepts a filter as an argument like the calculate function for example this means that the function receives two arguments the name of the table you want to filter along with the required column and the direction in which you want to filter let’s explore an example the syntax begins with the cross filter function the argument is then placed in parenthesis the argument is the name of each table followed by the names of the required columns in square brackets the first column name is typically the Manny side of the relationship and the second is the one side finally add the filter direction the first column name is typically the Manny side of the relationship and the second is the one side for example Adventure Works could filter between both sides of the relationship on its sales and products table using the product key columns common to both you might be familiar with cross filter directions from earlier in this course here’s a quick recap of the possible directions in which you can filter the relationships in your model you could use none which means that no cross filter occurs within the relationship there’s also the one-way direction filters applied on one side of a relationship propagate to the other however you can’t use the one-way option with a one:one relationship next is oneway right filters left in this instance filter propagation occurs from the right side to the left side of the relationship and finally there’s one way left filters right in which filter propagation occurs from the left side to the right side of the relationship let’s review an example of how adventure works can make use of cross filter function in the adventure works data model the sales fact table is related to the dimension tables via one to many relationships and single cross filter direction this means that filters propagate from the product table to the sales table but not in the other direction so when Adventure Works analyze products sold by year the results aren’t accurate because the model can’t filter the results correctly you could try to resolve this issue by changing the cross filter direction between the tables to both but this also changes how the filters work for all data between these tables instead you can create a cross filter function using DAX to change the filter only for the current measure create a new productby-year measure that computes the total number of products sold the distinct count function calculates the number of distinct values in the product key columns between the sales and products tables and the cross filter function alters the cross filter direction from single to both based on this column once Adventure Works analyzes the measure based on the year column from the date table the results are accurate according to the business analytical needs you should now be familiar with the cross filter function and how it works cross filter is a useful function to change the direction of a relationship without changing the relationship itself this function creates visualizations with custom filtering depending on the business needs you’ll often create measures that generate answers to specific data questions but what if you need your measure to answer another question you can use the calculate function to refocus your measure in this video you learn how the calculate function can alter the filter context for measures adventure Works needs to analyze its total sales for all its products it also needs to generate more granular data including sales of bikes blue colored products and sales within the US region it can calculate the total sales for all products using a standard measure but insights into the other data will require more specific filters adventure Works can use the calculate function to change the filter context and generate these insights let’s learn more about how quick measures work in PowerBI so you can help Adventure Works changing the context of a filter means changing the data that the filter must analyze for example Adventure Works needs to create a calculation or measure that analyzes its total sales for all its products this is the original filter context once this calculation is completed the company needs to explore its data in more granular detail by identifying how many bicycles it has sold it can combine the original total sales measure with a new bike sales measure that generates insights into how many bicycles have been sold so the filter context changes from all products to all bikes before you review some examples let’s review the syntax of the calculate function the calculate function can be invoked with an expression as its first argument a set of filters in square brackets then follows the expression these filters are defined or modified by expressions to find out more about how this works let’s explore how Adventure Works make use of the function adventure Works first needs to calculate its total sales the company can create the total sales measure using the sumx function the measure must multiply the sales table quantity and unit price columns this measure uses row context and iterates over each row of the sales table to compute the total sales of products for Adventure Works adventure Works can continue to use this measure in all the other calculations it needs to complete now that Adventure Works has a generic measure of total sales it can refocus its filters to generate insights into bike sales adventure Works can create a new measure called bike sales that uses calculate to analyze the sales of products in the bikes category when the category bikes is executed the formula calls the total sales measure again however this time it adds the bikes product category as an additional filter in the filter context in other words the filter context changes from all products to all bikes next Adventure Works needs to analyze all blue colored products in each category the company can write a new measure called sales of blue products when executed the expression incorporates the blue color from the product color column as an additional context for this calculation it calculates the total sales of blue color products from the entire data set you can also specify multiple filters in the same calculate function all the filters intersect regardless of the order in which they appear for example Adventure Works can create a measure called sales of blue products in USA that computes the total sales of blue products in the USA region this measure calculates the total number of blue products sold only in the United States by adding the country column from the region table in the overall filter context of the calculation but what if you’ve already created filters on these columns any existing filters will be overridden by those in your calculate function so how do you retain both sets of filters you can use calculate modifiers to keep the behaviors that already exist in your columns an example of a calculate modifier is keep filters you can add keep filters before your argument while placing the argument in parenthesis this ensures that existing active filters on your columns are not overridden or merged with new filters other examples of calculate modifiers include cross filter all and use relationship you’ll explore these modifiers in more detail later in this lesson you should now be able to use the calculate function to alter the filter context of your measures so you can create measures to generate insights into your data and modify your measures filters to ask and answer other questions about your data as a data analyst unlocking fresh insights requires exploring data from multiple angles with role-playing dimensions you can explore your data from different perspectives and eliminate the need for redundant data structures through active and inactive relationships in this video you’ll explore the concept of role-playing dimensions and active and inactive relationships adventure Works receives thousands of orders from all over the world and it’s important that the company continually analyzes its orders to avoid delayed or mistaken deliveries it can use multiple dimensions to explore its order related data from multiple angles let’s find out more about role- playinging dimensions by exploring how Adventure Works makes use of it in the context of PowerBI dimensions represent the various attributes or business entities used to organize data role-play dimensions are instances of the same dimension used multiple times in a data model each instance plays a unique role by representing different aspects of the data this provides the flexibility to analyze data from different viewpoints without duplicating data tables let’s demonstrate this with an example from the Adventure Works database adventure Works sales and shipping departments operate in sequence first new sales are recorded in the sales data set as order date then the orders shipping date is recorded in the sales data set finally the system automatically generates a delivery date when the customer receives the product so in Adventure Works sales data set the date dimension is used three times for new sales shipping dates and receipt dates adventure Works can analyze sales performance by order and shipping date without needing separate tables optimizing delivery time by delivery date analysis this helps the business to analyze sales performance based on order date and shipping date without creating separate tables for each date type when Adventure Works queries its data the role of the date dimension is based on the fact column used to join the tables for example the table join relates to the sales order date column when analyzing sales by order date an important part of role-playing dimensions are active and inactive relationships an active relationship is a relationship between two tables used for analysis reporting and visualization an inactive relationship is a valid relationship not being actively used in the current analysis to differentiate between active and inactive relationships PowerBI marks active relationships with a solid line and inactive relationships with a dotted line let’s examine an example from Adventure Works in the Adventure Works table the date and the sales tables have three relationships however there can only be one active relationship between two PowerBI model tables all remaining relationships must be set to inactive a single active relationship means there is a default filter propagation from the date to the sales table the active relationship is set to the most common filter used by the company’s reports which is the order date relationship you can utilize the inactive relationship for specific analytical needs using the DAX use relationship formula so how do active inactive relationships relate to role- playinging dimensions here’s a quick demonstration of how these concepts function in the Adventure Works database let’s begin with creating a role- playinging dimension after importing sales and date tables you can create two relationships between them one for order date and another for shipping date by default the first relationship is active and the second is inactive the date table serves as a role- playinging dimension for both order and shipping date any analysis reporting and visualization you require can make use of this active relationship occasionally you’ll need to analyze data from a unique perspective for example Adventure Works needs to calculate its total sales based on the shipping date however the shipping date is an inactive relationship so using this calculation requires a measure to create such a measure an inactive relationship needs to be employed this is where the DAX function use relationship comes in to use the shipping date the inactive relationship create a measure using use relationship for instance to calculate the total sales based on the shipping date you can create a DAX formula calculate is used here to alter the filter context of the entire measure sum is summing up the sales amount column of the sales table as the sales table is connected to the date table via order date column by default each DAX calculation is based on the relationship between the tables user relationship function in DAX overrides the relationship and establishes a temporary relationship based on the shipping date column of the sales table or inactive relationship the relationship becomes active only for the current calculation this formula forces PowerBI to use the inactive shipping date relationship for the calculation role-playing dimensions and active inactive relationships in PowerBI create an efficient data model for comprehensive analysis although it might take some time to get used to these concepts they will prove invaluable as you navigate your PowerBI journey as a data analyst you’ll often encounter table relationships that are difficult to perform analysis with fortunately you can alter or manipulate table relationships to facilitate more efficient analysis using the use relationship function over the next few minutes you’ll explore the use relationship function its syntax and its application adventure Works needs to analyze its sales data based on the shipping date it could create a calculated table for the shipping date and relate it to the sales table this might work well for a smaller data set but Adventure Works has millions of shipping records a more effective approach is for Adventure Works to use the use relationship function to create a measure that utilizes the inactive relationships between the tables before we explore how Adventure Works can analyze its sales data let’s find out more about the use relationship function the use relationship function is used within the calculate function it forces the inactive relationship between the tables for the considered calculation to be used this lets you switch contexts within your data model without changing the default relationship between the tables it’s most useful when there are multiple relationships between two tables the function allows you to create contextaware calculations that can analyze data based on different date dimensions or adjust analysis based on a different category of products the advantage of use relationship is that it enables you to perform analyses using different relationships available between the related tables without affecting the overall structure of the data model now that you’ve explored how the use relationship function works let’s review the syntax begin with the function and then place your argument in parenthesis the argument is the names of the required tables and their respective columns that define the relationship the order of the columns doesn’t matter for the accurate calculation this function doesn’t return a value but modifies the context of a calculation this changes the table relationships meaning that there is no scalar value or table returned as a function is executed instead it changes the context by overriding the relationship between tables let’s return to Adventure Works data model to explore the syntax in action as you discovered earlier Adventure Works data model has a sales fact table and a date dimension table the data model’s current active relationship is from the sales tables order date column and the date table’s date column as no shipping date dimension table exists in the data model Adventure Works needs to create an additional relationship between the sales fact table and the date dimension table using the sales table’s shipping date column by default the active relationship for any analysis and visualization is utilized however there may be a requirement to calculate the total sales using the shipping date to do this it can use the use relationship function within the calculate functions first Adventure Works creates a sales by shipping date measure then it inputs the calculate function followed by the required argument in parenthesis in this argument the sum expression calculates the total of the sales amount column from the sales table the use relationship function changes the context of this calculation by switching the active relationship from the sales tables order date column and date tables date column to the sales tables shipping and date date to sales shipping date and date date when executed this calculation results in multiple relationships between these tables an active relationship with the order date and an inactive relationship with the shipping date this affects only the calculate function where it’s used it won’t permanently alter the active relationship let’s review some important points to remember when working with use relationship use relationship only works within the calculate and calculate table functions if you try to use it elsewhere you will receive an error use relationship functions can be used multiple times within a single calculate function to switch multiple relationships the use relationship must exist in the data model but it doesn’t have to be active the use relationship function provides flexibility to derive insights from different perspectives within a data model this provides a layer of flexibility to PowerBI making it an essential function for data analysts to master it can be challenging for a data model to handle various roles for a single dimension so analysts deploy the use relationship function in their calculations to configure role-playing dimensions in this video you’ll learn how to configure a role-playing dimension in PowerBI using calculate and use relationship adventure Works wants to analyze its sales data based on the shipping date instead of creating a separate date dimension table it can use the use relationship function in DAX to roleplay dimensions helped the company achieve this by launching PowerBI desktop and loading the Adventure Works data set the data model contains two tables called sales and date the sales table tracks Adventure Works recent sales data access PowerBI’s model view to view the sales and date tables however after loading data the model is missing the relationships you can establish the relationships between the sales and date table in the model view of PowerBI select and drag the order date column from the sales table to the date table this is the active relationship between these two tables next select and drag the shipping date field from the sales table to the date column of the date table this is an inactive relationship represented by dashed line you can validate the relationship by selecting the connector line between the tables and doubleclicking it opens the edit relationship dialogue box you can observe the checkbox make this relationship active is unchecked next you need to create the measure total sales by shipping date in the home tab of data view select the new measure from the calculations group this opens the DAX formula bar write DAX code in the formula bar that uses use relationship function to create a custom relationship between the date column of the date table and the shipping date column from the sales table press enter to execute the code a new total sales by shipping date measure appears under the sales table in the data pane on the right hand side of the PowerBI interface you can use this new measure in any report or visualization to analyze monthly sales data based on the shipping date you should now be familiar with the process for configuring a role-playing dimension in PowerBI using calculate and use relationship by now you should be familiar with methods for generating insights into your data but the most powerful and effective data insights you can generate are timebased in this video you’ll explore the concept of time intelligence and discover its importance by reviewing some scenarios where it can be applied over at Adventure Works the company is preparing its sales strategies and marketing campaigns for the year ahead as part of its preparation it needs to generate insights into time related data like seasonal trends annual growth and specific sales periods adventure Works can generate insights into these timerelated aspects of its business by using time intelligence functions as the Adventure Works scenario suggests time intelligence functions refers to methods and processes that aggregate and compare data over time data analysts can deploy time intelligence functions to analyze data based on time related dimensions time related dimensions include dates weeks and months and quarters and years you can also generate comparisons of time related data over annual periods and yearto date or YTD so why do data analysts view time intelligence as important time intelligence provides the ability to analyze data within the context of time this enables a more in-depth understanding of trends and patterns as the earlier Adventure Works example demonstrates this data plays a significant role in a business’s ability to generate insights to help with its planning forecasting and decision-making processes let’s explore a few other benefits of time intelligence time intelligence is useful for trend analysis identifying trends in past business performance is crucial for future decisions for example Adventure Works can use time intelligence data to examine historical sales trends and recognize if certain products sell better at specific times of the year identifying trends in past business performance is crucial for future decisions insights derived from time intelligence also help with forecasting and predictive analysis adventure Works can forecast future trends and plan activity based on historical trends it can make informed predictions about sales and demands which helps with resource planning budgeting and risk management for instance if the data shows a consistent increase in mountain bike sales every spring the company can ensure adequate inventory before the season starts time intelligence also enables real-time performance monitoring this is possible by creating dynamic measures like year-to-ate or YTD and month-to-ate or MTD adventure Works can use these measures to monitor real-time performance against key performance indicators the company can then use these insights to respond quickly to changing conditions time intelligence calculations facilitate comparative analysis an example of this is year-over-year R Y functions adventure Works can compare its current growth rate sales performance and other metrics against data from previous years to analyze its progress time intelligence also facilitates the optimization of sales and marketing strategies adventure Works can analyze its sales trends and the impact of its marketing efforts over time it can then use the results of these analyses to fine-tune its marketing strategies and sales tactics to improve its results now that you know its benefits your next question might be how do I use time intelligence implementing time intelligence involves creating calculated fields and measures to analyze data over time you can use PowerBI’s automatic time intelligence features or deploy DAX formulas to create quick measures powerbi offers an auto date time feature that allows easy data analysis by year quarter month and date this is useful for smaller data models powerbi automatically creates one date table for each date column in the date model to analyze data by different date attributes this table is hidden from the user because PowerBI handles it automatically you can also use custom DAX calculations to shape your data model and implement time intelligence calculations with more complex and non-standard requirements time intelligence is essential for understanding and visualizing time related trends and patterns in data as a PowerBI developer mastery of time intelligence calculations is key to generating meaningful information from your data summarizing data over a specific period is a key skill for data analysts timebased data can generate temporal insights and trends within data in this video you’ll review the importance of using DAX based time intelligence functions to summarize data over time over at Adventure Works the company needs to generate insights into its recent sales trends the insights it requires includes revenue growth seasonal sales patterns and the impact of marketing campaigns adventure Works can generate these insights using time intelligence functions index to summarize its data over time so what does it mean to summarize data over time at its core summarizing data over time is identifying trends patterns and anomalies in business performance over a specific period like sales per quarter or annual growth you can generate these insights by using timebased data summarization functions some frequently used examples of these functions include total year-to- date year-to- date and dates between each function generates insights into different aspects of your data the functions are written by stating the function name and the required arguments in parenthesis this basic structure is similar across all functions but the syntax for the arguments varies r must be combined with calculate and other functions let’s begin with the year-to-ate calculation the year-to-ate calculation or YTD aggregates values from the beginning of the year to the specified date for example all sales from January 1st of that year to the specified date the year-to- date requires two mandatory and two optional arguments expression is the first mandatory argument it calculates the total sales from the sales table dates is the date column we use PowerBI default date dimension in the current lesson filter and year-end date are optional parameters for example Adventure Works wants to evaluate its realtime sales performance call the expression sales year-toate and add the total year-to-ate function after the equals operator in your first parameter reference the total sales column from the sales table and aggregate the values using sum in the second parameter reference the order date column from the sales table then add another date field in square brackets when you type the date field PowerBI allows you to select a field from the table next let’s review the date year-to- date function this function returns a running total in the form of a single column table containing year-to-ate or YTD dates in the current filter context this function is part of a group that also includes the dates MTD and dates QTD DAX functions for monthto date also called MTD and quarter to date or QTD you can pass these functions as filters into the calculate DAX function the syntax contains two arguments the first is dates the column containing the required dates and the second is the year end date an optional parameter while the total YTD function is simple it limits the filter expression to only one filter if you need to apply multiple filter expressions within year-to-ate values use the calculate function then pass the dates YTD function as one of the filter expressions for example Adventure Works needs a running total that calculates its year-to-ate sales on a month-by-month basis based on the order date column from the sales table it can calculate this by creating an expression called sales yearto date method 2 the expression does not refer to any separate date table instead the dates YTD function is combined with the calculate function so Adventure Works can incorporate further filters when executed the expression returns a calculated table with the required running monthly total the next function is dates between this function returns a table that contains all dates between a specified start date and an end date the syntax contains three arguments dates is the column containing dates start date is the date expression for the start of the calculation end date is the date expression for the last date for the calculation adventure Works wants to evaluate its total sales over the summer season so it must create a measure using the dates between function in DAX the DAX code computes the total sales between June 1st and August 31st 2023 the calculate function computes the values of the total sales column of the sales table and dates between defines the period for which the sales values are to be computed when executed the expression returns a calculated table with the required total sales figures as these examples have shown your data model requires a date table or dimension before you can use time intelligence functions however you can use PowerBI’s auto date time intelligence if you’re missing the date dimension or you can create a date dimension in PowerBI using Power Query or DAX as you’ve just discovered DAX-based time intelligence functions provide valuable flexibility in summarizing and analyzing timebased data you can use these functions with other DAX functions to build powerful and insightful data models as a data analyst it’s important to be able to compare data sets particularly those from different periods like previous years or months in this video you’ll learn how to use DAX for comparison over time using time comparison functions like date ad parallel period and same period last year adventure Works is preparing its marketing campaign for the holiday season as part of its preparations it needs to analyze and evaluate campaigns from previous years adventure Works can implement DAX time intelligence comparison functions to identify trends and patterns from marketing campaigns from previous years it can then use these insights to inform its current campaign before you can help Adventure Works let’s find out more about comparison over time comparison over time means as the term suggests comparing sets of data over specific periods for example comparing sales from this month to last month these comparisons are generated using time intelligence functions in DAX like same period last year date add and parallel period the basic syntax for each function is to state the function name followed by the required arguments in parenthesis however the rest of your syntax can vary according to the functions requirements and your analytical needs when executed the functions return insights in the form of a table let’s explore an example of each function from the Adventure Works database to learn more about how they work the same period last year function returns a table that contains a column of dates these dates are shifted one year back in time from the dates in the specified dates column in the current context in other words it compares the current period against the same period from last year the syntax for this function requires one argument in the form of specific dates adventure Works can use this function to evaluate its sales from the previous year to compare them against the sales team’s performance from this year it first creates a measure called revenue previous year then it defines var as the variable for the previous year’s revenue calculate computes the total revenue based on the same period last year function which takes the date column from the sales table as its parameter in this instance we are using PowerBI’s autogenerated date dimension finally the return function displays the value of the entire expression next Adventure Works wants to evaluate its year-over-year change in sales it can modify the measure it just created to calculate the change ratio it first creates a new measure called revenue year-on-year percentage variables used in the expression enhance the code readability and query performance and in addition to the previous calculation the divide function computes the change ratio of sales amount by dividing the difference by the previous year’s revenue the results of both measures can be visualized in table format the following table extract compares revenue for July and August over a three-year period next let’s look at the date add function the date add function returns a table containing a column of dates added either forward or backward in time by the specified number of intervals from the dates in the current context the syntax contains three arguments dates is the column containing the required dates the number of intervals is the integer value that defines the number of intervals to add or subtract from the date interval is the unit of time by which to shift the date the unit can be a year quarter or month for example Adventure Works can use the date add function to compare this month’s sales with the previous month’s sales the calculate function computes the total revenue based on the filter arguments previously computed in the revenue measure date add function takes the order date column from the sales table as a date reference one represents the unit of time and the negative sign indicates that the intervals are back in time month represents the unit of time you can also use day quarter or year the results of this measure can be visualized in table format the following table extract compares sales revenue for August to October over a 2-year period comparing data over time is a powerful method for deciphering business trends and growth patterns mastering this skill will enable you to provide valuable insights for your organization to help it strategize and grow when working with time oriented values your date table must be correctly formatted and configured to avoid issues with your analysis in this video you’ll explore the process for setting up and the benefits of a common date table adventure Works data model has multiple fact tables tracking different aspects of its business like sales products and resellers but the data model doesn’t contain a date table this means there’s a risk that the different fact tables might represent dates differently without a common date table this makes it difficult to compare or relate data from diverse sources let’s find out more about the role of a common date table then help Adventure Works to add one to its data model a common date table or date dimension is a prerequisite for time intelligence calculations you can’t execute them without a date dimension the date dimension must meet the following requirements there must be one record per day there must be no missing or blank dates and it must start from the minimum date and end at the maximum date corresponding to the fields in your parameters but what if your data model is missing a date dimension in this instance you can use PowerBI’s autodate time intelligence you can also create a date dimension in PowerBI using either Power Query or DAX this is useful when working on large data sets with complex calculations you can create a date dimension with DAX using the calendar and calendar auto functions both functions return a calculated table with a single date column and a list of date values when executed adventure Works could use the calendar function to create its date dimension the company can use the calendar function as a calculated table called date it can then include its required periods start and end dates as its arguments it can also use calendar auto the calendar auto function scans the data model for the date column it takes the start and end date from the order date column from the adventure works sales table fiscal year and month is an optional parameter if defined for a different end of the year month for example if you specify three the year starts on April 1st and ends on March 31st if not specified PowerBI takes the default year-end month which is December now that you’ve explored the basics of a common date table let’s help Adventure Works build one in its data model begin by launching PowerBI desktop and loading the Adventure Works data set the data model contains five tables: sales salesperson products reseller and region the sales table tracks Adventure Works sales data the data model has no date dimension table so you’ll need to create one navigate to the home tab and select new table in the formula bar that appears on screen write the DAX code using the calendar function to create the date dimension table this table must calculate all date values between the 1st of January 2017 and the 31st of December 2021 when executed the DAX code creates a table with a single column containing the dates specified in your code the date values in the column also have timestamps format the column as date format to remove the timestamps select an appropriate format from the drop- down list of the format section navigate to the home tab and select new table to populate the common date table you need to write more DAX code using the date related functions like year month week number and weekday these functions extract the relevant information from the date columns of the other tables next you need to mark the common date table as the date table navigate to the date pane select the ellipses to the right of the date table and select mark as date table from the drop-own list of options this opens the mark as date table dialogue box select the date option from the date column drop-own menu if these steps are completed successfully a validation message appears select okay this action overrides the PowerBI’s autogenerated date dimension for all time intelligence and datebased calculations in DAX within the data model finally access the model view of PowerBI and establish the new one to many relationship with single cross- filter direction between the date table and the sales fact table drag the date column from the date table to the order date column in the sales table the model is now configured for time intelligence calculations adventure Works can use the model to generate its timebased reports and visualizations you should now be familiar with configuring and formatting a common date table in your data model a common date table makes the data analysis process more accurate and efficient it’s an essential part of every data analyst’s toolkit to execute time intelligence functions your data model must contain a common date table in this video you’ll explore the process for setting up a common date table using IM language in Power Query adventure Works must execute time intelligence functions but its data model lacks a common date table let’s help Adventure Works by creating a date table using M language in Power Query m is a PowerBI developmental language used in Power Query to create new dimensions and tables within a data model it provides a much more visual approach to creating dimension tables to assist Adventure Works load the data tables into the PowerBI data model select transform data in PowerBI desktop to open the Power Query Editor access the Home tab and select new source select blank query from the drop-own list of options add the required IM language code to create the date dimension table in the editor the list dates function lists the dates in this code based on the provided date range in this instance you’re creating a 5-year table from January 1st 2017 to January 1st 2021 the syntax 365×5 represents all the possible dates within this 5-year range and duration specifies the duration of the period with one equaling one day once you execute the code PowerBI generates a list of dates these dates must be converted to a common date table navigate to the top left side of the Power Query editor in the transform tab and select to table this action converts the list of dates to a table with a column named list by default rename the column as date next you must change the columns data type to the date data type right click to open the drop-own list and select change type select the date option from the list now you need to populate the table with the related columns select the table’s date column and navigate to the add column tab of Power Query Editor select the date section to expand the drop-own list of options select the following columns to add to the table from the drop-own list year month name of month name of day and week of year access the properties name field in the query settings and rename the query as date then select close and apply to return to the PowerBI interface finally select the ellipses next to the date table from the data pane and mark the table as a date table select the date column from the dialogue box then select okay to confirm finally establish the required relationships between the data models date table and other tables the model is now configured for creating time intelligence measures using DAX and for creating reports and visualizations in this video you learned how to set up a common date table using IM language in Power Query this video is a short introduction to IM language and Power Query you’ll learn more about IM language as you continue your PowerBI studies meet Tina Adventure Works in-house expert on using time intelligence calculations in DAX adventure Works is looking to optimize all aspects of its business from sales and deliveries to financial planning using time intelligence calculations in DAX the company suggests that Tina analyze its data in these areas and generate insights that reveal where improvements could be made to the business first Tina focuses on sales she performs timebased trend analyses using year-to-ate functions to analyze trends and patterns in sales over time her analyses reveal seasonal spikes and downward trends in sales of certain products over different months and quarters adventure Works can use these insights to forecast demand for its products this means the company better understands what products customers purchase and when they will most likely buy them it can design and implement marketing strategies targeting consumers during the months they’re most likely to purchase specific products tina’s insights into sales trends also help Adventure Works to manage its inventory better by identifying what kinds of bicycles customers are likely to buy and when adventure Works can then ensure that these products are in stock in time for busy sales periods tina can also use time intelligence functions to track sales team performance she can compare current and past performance data to prepare for the upcoming sales period the insights generated from her comparisons are then used to set realistic targets for the team and identify the high performers the upcoming sales period also requires large investments in inventory and marketing fortunately time intelligence is also a useful budgeting and financial planning tool tina can compare actual financial data with budgeted values over different periods assess financial performance and track spending the company’s finance team can use these insights to make budget adjustments time intelligence functions can also identify issues and their root cause for example Adventure Works anticipated a high volume in sales of mountain bikes over the holiday sales period but sales declined over the season tina can use time intelligence functions to drill into the related data and isolate these sales anomalies to analyze the root cause of the slowdown in sales for example the decline in sales might indicate a shift in customer behavior that needs to be addressed time intelligence in PowerBI is an important tool that businesses can use to use the power of time dimensions in data analysis through the insights generated by time intelligence businesses like Adventure Works can generate valuable insights that drive informed decisionmaking and help resolve issues congratulations on reaching the end of the second week in this course on data modeling in PowerBI this week you’ve explored how to use data analysis expressions or DAX in PowerBI let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned in this week’s lessons you began the first lesson by learning about DAX dax is a programming language that adds new information about existing data it consists of a library of functions operators and constants these are used in formulas or expressions to add information missing from the original data model a key element of formulas is functions functions are reusable logic used in a DAX formula to perform tasks like aggregation or calculations commonly used DAX formulas and functions include calculate sum and average you then explored the syntax of a formula a formula begins with the name of your new calculated column or table followed by an operator typically an equal sign you then write the name of your DAX function and parenthesis that contain the logic of your formula you then learned about row and filter context dax computes formulas within a context the evaluation context of a DAX formula is the surrounding area of the cell in which DAX evaluates and computes the formula row context refers to the table’s current row being evaluated within a calculation while filter context refers to the filter constraints applied to the data this determines which rows or subsets should be included or excluded from the calculation you are then introduced to calculated tables and columns a calculated table is a new table created within a data model based on data from different sources a calculated column is a new column added to an existing table that presents the results of a calculation you then completed the lesson by putting your new skills to the test by assisting Adventure Works with its use of DAX in the exercise and completing a knowledge check in the second lesson you received an introduction to measures you learned that a measure is a calculation or metric that generates meaningful insights from data measures are an important aspect of data analysis and play a lead role in creating calculated tables and columns there are three different types of measures additive semi-additive and non-additive which type of measure is used depends on the needs of your data and its dimensions a key element of measures is statistical functions statistical functions calculate values related to statistical distributions and probability to reveal information about your data several common statistical functions are used in measures like average median and count you learned how to build statistical functions into your syntax and explored how to use common functions like using the average function to calculate the average of a data set you then discovered how context impacts DAX measures you reviewed Adventure Works business scenarios in which the context of measures influenced the company’s business decisions finally you tested your new skills with a knowledge check and explored additional learning material in the additional resources in the third lesson you expanded your understanding of measures you began by learning how to create quick measures in PowerBI using common calculations instead of DAX codes you then explored techniques for creating more complex custom measures with DAX next you learned how to use the cross filter function you can use the cross filter function to change the cross filter direction between tables for a specific measure while maintaining the original table settings a cross filter function can only be used with a DAX function that accepts a filter as an argument like calculate you can use calculate and its related modifiers to combine filters and generate more granular insights into your data you then tested your new skills by adding a measure to an adventure works data set in the exercise and you tested your understanding of the topics in a knowledge check in the fourth lesson you explored how DAX is used with table relationships you began the lesson by learning about role-playing dimensions instances of the same dimension used multiple times in a data model each instance plays a unique role by representing different aspects of the data this allows analysts to analyze data from different viewpoints without duplicating data tables in a data model relationships between tables are either active or inactive you can configure these relationships using the use relationship function alongside the calculate function to force the use of the inactive relationship you completed this lesson by helping Adventure Works to add a role-playing dimension between two tables in its data model you then tested your understanding of the topics in a knowledge check and explored further learning material in the additional resources in this week’s final lesson you explored time intelligence in DAX you learned that time intelligence functions refer to methods and processes that aggregate and compare data over time these functions can be used in PowerBI through the auto date time feature or DAX dax can summarize data over time by identifying trends patterns and anomalies over a specific period or it can be used for comparison over time by comparing data sets over specific periods these insights are generated using summarization and comparison functions that return the required insights there are also more complex functions that can be used with time intelligence a prerequisite for using time intelligence functions is a common date table or date dimension if this isn’t present in your data model you can build one using the calendar function or the calendar auto function both functions return a calculated table with a single date column and list of date values you also learned how to generate a calculated date table using language in Power Query you then explored a realworld scenario where time intelligence played an important part in a business’s decision-making process during this lesson you helped Adventure Works use time intelligence calculations in DAX during an exercise and activity you’ve now reached the end of this module summary it’s time to move on to the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson best of luck we’ll meet again during next week’s lessons imagine you’re a data analyst at Adventure Works a thriving multinational bike manufacturing company your role is significant it involves digging deep into the vast array of data sifting through it and translating it into meaningful actionable insights decision makers in Adventure Works rely heavily on your PowerBI dashboards which provide a window into the world of Adventure Works vast data landscape these dashboards through your analysis guide the company and reveal its successes challenges and opportunities however over time you start noticing an issue as the data volume is growing the reports are slowing down simple queries that used to take seconds now take many minutes even hours this bottleneck is frustrating staff delaying decisions and even starting to undermine the value of datadriven solutions there is an urgency to fix the situation and you must act before the issue escalates further that’s when you realize the need for performance optimization this video covers the importance of performance optimization in PowerBI and how it affects the overall performance of data models reports and dashboards by the end of this video you’ll understand the benefits of PowerBI performance optimization such as enhanced speed and efficiency informed decision-making improved user experience resource efficiency and timely report generation over the next few minutes you’ll learn about the challenges Adventure Works face due to growing data volume and how performance optimization in PowerBI can address these issues in the context of PowerBI optimization refers to the process of modifying tuning or streamlining your data models reports and dashboards to achieve the best possible performance at its core it’s all about making sure your reports and dashboards run as smoothly and quickly as possible when you’re dealing with small volumes of data performance isn’t typically a concern but as your data grows the performance of your PowerBI solutions can start to deteriorate this might manifest as slow report loading times sluggish response times when interacting with dashboards or even timeouts and errors performance issues can arise due to a variety of factors including inefficient data models complex DAX calculations and inappropriate visuals however regardless of the cause performance issues can have a significant negative impact on the user experience and the usefulness of your PowerBI solutions that’s where performance optimization comes in by understanding and applying optimization techniques you can improve the performance of your PowerBI solutions ensuring they continue to deliver value as your data grows now let’s dive into some of the benefits provided by performance optimization first enhanced speed and efficiency adventure Works manages enormous volumes of data from sales records production statistics customer interactions to employee information this data holds valuable insights that guide strategic decision-making by optimizing your PowerBI report and data model you can significantly cut down the loading and processing time of large data sets allowing you to execute queries faster this means the different teams at Adventure Works from sales to production to management can quickly access the data they need reducing weight times and enhancing overall productivity the next benefit of performance optimization is informed decisionmaking the ability to make timely and informed decisions at Adventure Works is critical to its success if there’s a sudden drop in sales of a specific bike model or if a new bike accessory becomes a hot seller company decision makers must know about it as soon as possible to adjust its strategies accordingly with an optimized PowerBI data model reports load swiftly enabling faster analysis of trends and thereby leading to more prompt informed decisions next let’s look at the improved user experience of optimizing performance in PowerBI at Adventure Works numerous team members rely on PowerBI reports for their tasks slow loading reports can lead to frustration loss of time and lower productivity in contrast an optimized PowerBI system can dramatically improve the user experience by ensuring reports load smoothly and swiftly this way team members can focus on deriving insights instead of waiting for reports to load as Adventure Works continues to expand the data it manages grows as well requiring more computing resources in this situation they need more efficient use of resources an optimized PowerBI data model can make more efficient use of the resources handling larger volumes of data without a noticeable drop in performance this is crucial as it allows Adventure Works to handle its growth and the accompany increase in data without requiring excessive increases in computing resources lastly there is timely report generation different teams at Adventure Works may require regular reports to function efficiently the sales team might need weekly sales reports while the manufacturing team might require daily production reports with an optimized PowerBI data model these reports can be generated and distributed in a timely manner facilitating smooth operations across the company and ensuring each team has the data it needs when it needs it by embracing the power of performance optimization in PowerBI you’re not just enhancing the speed and efficiency of reports and dashboards you’re helping Adventure Works to make better decisions faster remember every second saved in loading a report every query executed faster every frustration eliminated by a smoothly loading dashboard these are victories in your quest to unlock the full potential of data so continue to explore optimize and innovate for it’s through these actions that you make a difference in organizations industries and the world you are the data pioneer and the future is in your hands imagine it’s your first day at Adventure Works a multinational manufacturing company renowned for its premium bicycles as a newly hired data analyst you have an enormous challenge to analyze the constant stream of data generated by the company’s diverse operations every sale in North America every accessory produced in Asia and every customer interaction in Europe sends ripples through the vast ocean of data that Adventure Works amasses every day this data is a disorganized treasure trove filled with critical insights that can drive strategic decision-making and fuel the company’s continued growth but how do you extract these precious insights from an unoptimized data set that’s where your secret weapon comes in the effective combination of optimization techniques and PowerBI this video aims to assist you in understanding the fundamental concept of optimization in PowerBI using a relatable scenario set in the context of Adventure Works by the end of this video you’ll understand the various optimization techniques such as sorting filtering indexing and data transformation and how they contribute to enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of data analysis over the next few minutes you’ll learn the importance of optimization in decisionmaking and strategy formulation to recap optimization in the context of PowerBI is the process of transforming cleaning and organizing your data sets to achieve the best possible data performance optimization involves techniques like filtering sorting and indexing which can make your data more manageable and your searches faster improving overall efficiency adventure Works operates in a data inensive environment this includes sales data from diverse markets manufacturing data from various plants product management data on hundreds of items human resource data on employees from different regions and much more to help understand this let’s put ourselves in the shoes of Lucas Pereira an assistant data analyst at Adventure Works lucas is tasked with understanding the sales performance of their different bike models across North America the sales data in front of Lucas is vast filled with information about bike models sales dates customer details and regions this is where optimization becomes a vital tool in Lucas’s arsenal there are four tools that will help Lucas with his task: sorting filtering indexing and data transformation in PowerBI sorting is an optimization technique that allows Lucas to organize his data alphabetically by bike model this seemingly straightforward step is like putting on a pair of glasses it sharpens the focus on the sales patterns and performance of each bike model making the data set much easier to read and interpret the benefits of sorting go beyond simplicity and aesthetics it sets the stage for faster and more efficient data processing by grouping similar data the search operation is enhanced thereby saving time it allows Lucas to identify trends patterns and outliers more quickly leading to quicker insights and decision-m in the competitive environment that Adventure Works operates this speed can translate into significant business advantages lucas then moves on to filtering his data to focus on his area of interest North America filtering data enhances clarity and relevance it eliminates unnecessary noise making the data more manageable lucas removes all irrelevant data related to other regions filtering leaves him with a data set that focuses exclusively on North American sales and by doing so Lucas can conduct more precise and targeted analyses leading to more relevant insights and strategies it also reduces the processing time and computational load making the overall process more efficient if filtering takes place during the transformation stage it also reduces the amount of data stored within PowerBI like using a well-laidout map to reach a destination faster indexing enhances the data analysis process by providing faster access to specific data points lucas creates an index on bike models and regions this allows him to quickly locate the data for a particular bike model in a specific region without having to sift through the entire data set it saves time and makes the analysis process more efficient enabling Lucas to respond faster to queries or generate reports more quickly thereby enhancing the decision-making process finally Lucas applies data transformation to standardize the sales dates which are in multiple formats the key benefit of data transformation is the improvement in data consistency which facilitates more accurate and meaningful analyses standardizing the dates allows Lucas to conduct a proper date related analysis enabling him to track and forecast sales patterns accurately it helps eliminate potential errors in the analysis due to inconsistent data the cumulative effect of these optimization techniques turns data sets into a powerful instrument of insight lucas’s journey through the data set of Adventure Works demonstrates that by streamlining and simplifying the data set optimization makes the data more accessible and manageable by applying optimization techniques businesses like Adventure Works can harness the true power of their data turning information into actionable business strategies as you’ve seen through Lucas’s journey data is more than just numbers on a screen it’s a mosaic a narrative a path that can lead you to new insights strategies and victories but to interpret data effectively you must refine it shape it and most importantly understand it that’s what optimization techniques do they’re the compass the map and the light that guide you through the maze of data so step up to the challenge use the power of optimization in PowerBI to create your own stories of success imagine it’s a Monday morning at Adventure Works headquarters and sales data from the previous quarter has just arrived as a newly appointed data analyst you’re eager to dive in and extract meaningful insights from the data pouring in from several stores and customer orders worldwide in addition there’s data from various suppliers and manufacturers who deliver essential parts for Adventure Works diverse bicycle product line for this report you are tasked to trace the journey of a specific component from the Adventure Works suppliers data set to the products data set as you start loading the data into PowerBI things begin to slow down queries that should take seconds are taking minutes and some aren’t loading at all you notice that the performance issues intensify when dealing with relationships between the different tables in your data model specifically many to many relationships this video helps you to understand how to identify data model performance issues in relationships and how to resolve them by adjusting the cross filter direction by the end of this video you’ll understand how to edit the relationships and optimize the performance of your data model using PowerBI over the next few minutes you’ll learn how to balance accuracy and performance in your data model by applying birectional filters only where necessary to understand the issue let’s first dive into what a manyto-y relationship entails in a data model relationships in data models represent how data tables connect and interact with each other the simplest form is a onetoone relationship where one row in a table corresponds to one row in another however real world data isn’t always that simple often one record can correspond to multiple records in another data set and vice versa this is where you can encounter the many to many relationships in the context of Adventure Works consider the relationship between the products and suppliers tables each product at Adventure Works is made up of various components from multiple suppliers and each supplier can provide components for multiple products this mutual relationship where each entity can relate to multiple entities on the other side is what we call a many to many relationship now let’s dive into the cause of many to many performance issues and how you can resolve it your focus is on the model view so select the bottom icon in the model view your tables are represented as boxes with field lists lines connecting these boxes represent the relationships between these tables find and select the specific relationship you wish to edit in this case you are interested in the relationship between the products and suppliers tables if your model has many tables and relationships you might need to drag the tables around or zoom in and out using the scroll wheel or the zoom slider at the bottom right of the screen now that you’ve located the relationship it’s time to edit it double click on the line connecting the products and suppliers tables this action opens a new dialogue box titled edit relationship the cross-filter direction between the products and suppliers table is causing performance issues in the data model since you wanted to trace the journey of a specific component from the adventure works suppliers table to the products a one-way filter would be appropriate for this limiting the products data to only those that involve the chosen component in the edit relationship dialogue box locate the option labeled cross filter direction the current setting is both meaning filters can flow from the products table to the suppliers table and vice versa to change the cross filter direction to reduce this complexity select the drop-own menu for cross filter direction and select single or suppliers filters products now that you’ve made the desired changes it’s time to save them at the bottom right of the manage relationships dialogue box select the okay button this action will close the dialogue box and apply your changes to the data model by changing the direction of its filter you’ve simplified the data model this simplicity has made it more efficient and resolved the performance issues you’re a newly hired data analyst at Adventure Works your first task is to source prepare and analyze data to aid the marketing initiatives as you’re delving into the data you start to encounter an issue you notice that your PowerBI reports usually swift and reliable have started to slow down you discovered that this is due to high levels of cardality in this video you’ll explore the impact of cardality on performance and how high cardality affects your data analysis tasks by the end of this video you’ll have the practical knowledge to reduce cardality to improve the performance of your PowerBI reports over the next few minutes you’ll learn how to identify high cardality explore strategies to reduce cardality decimals and consider the implications of these changes on your data as you might already be aware cardality in the context of PowerBI refers to the number of distinct values in a column for example imagine analyzing a data set containing a column called product category within this column you might find several different categories each of these unique categories represent a distinct value and the total count of these unique items determines the cardality of the product category column a column with a high number of distinct values has high cardality when you have high cardality it can increase the size of your data model and the time taken to process queries slowing down your PowerBI reports imagine trying to find a specific book in a library that doesn’t have a categorization or indexing system that’s essentially what happens when cardality is high the PowerBI engine must sift through more unique values slowing down the process while high cardality can slow down the performance of your PowerBI reports identifying high cardality columns and modifying them appropriately can enhance your report’s performance powerbi itself is a high-erformance system that can handle large volumes of data with high cardality however there are always trade-offs in system design and reducing cardality can help when dealing with truly large data sets let’s explore some methods for reducing high cardality one strategy to reduce cardality is through summarization during transformation this step is similar to moving from a detailed view to a summary view of your data instead of looking at individual transaction data you can group them by categories such as product category order date or delivery date in Adventure Works instead of analyzing every unique bike sale you could aggregate sales data on a product category basis however that’s not the only method to reduce high cardality a second strategy is to reduce cardality by changing decimal columns to fixed decimals high precision decimal values can significantly increase cardality for instance consider the product weight column in Adventure Works sales table responsible for tracking the weight of each bike to the microgram the variation in bike weights is very large leading to high cardality by rounding these weights to a fixed decimal point you can significantly reduce cardality now that you’ve learned how to identify high cardality let’s look at how you can reduce it as you just discovered you can reduce the cardality of Adventure Works data model through summarization once you have located the column you want to summarize in this case product category select the columns header to select the entire column then go to the transform tab on the top menu bar in the transform toolbar select group by a new group by window will appear in this window you can specify the column you want to group by and the aggregation function you want to apply like sum count average etc based on the nature of your data after specifying these settings select okay this form of summarization lowers the cardality leading to improved performance and as the second strategy demonstrated you can also reduce cardality using fixed decimals to do this locate and select the decimal columns header you want to modify in this case the product weight column then select the transform tab on the top menu bar in the transform toolbar select data type a drop-own menu will appear with a list of different data types from this list select fixed decimal number after this the column’s data type will be changed and it should now contain fewer unique values effectively reducing its cardality by following these steps you can reduce the cardality of your data thereby improving the performance of your PowerBI reports however remember that reducing cardality might also result in less granular data so always take into consideration the requirements of your analysis before you decide to reduce cardality as you continue exploring the world of data always remember that it’s not about having less data or more data it’s about having the right data and when you master this you can turn raw numbers into insightful stories make informed decisions and create impactful change data enthusiasts are often required to look for real-time insights and dynamic visualizations to make informed decisions direct query in PowerBI enables you to dive into vast amounts of data with auto refresh functionalities though direct query connectivity has several benefits it comes with its own set of behaviors and limitations let’s walk through these elements of direct query as data connectivity options in PowerBI adventure Works has expanded its operations in recent years to various regions across the world the company wants to build a real-time sales dashboard to monitor sales performance across various regions categories and products adventure Works has a massive transactional database that records sales data in real time the company also wants to implement data security to ensure data access permissions are defined within the database and users only have access to the data they are authorized to view to meet the requirements of Adventure Works you need to establish a direct query connection in PowerBI to retrieve and analyze the data let’s explore what direct query is and how it can help you to connect to your data sources direct query is a data connectivity option in PowerBI that allows analysts to connect directly to the data sources without importing data into PowerBI model instead of loading data into the memory direct query sends queries directly to retrieve data from the sources for real time analysis although it is best practice to import data into PowerBI model there are times when using direct query is inevitable let’s review some of the benefits that Direct Query offers direct Query allows you to execute queries in real time for example in a multinational retail corporation new sales transactions are added every hour to the database this ensures that the sales dashboard always displays the latest data large data set imports to PowerBI models can cause performance problems and high memory consumption by using direct query PowerBI avoids loading an entire data set to the model optimizing memory usage direct query respects the data source level security ensuring that only the authorized users have access to the data the data access permissions defined in the underlying database are enforced providing a secure and controlled data access environment let’s examine the behavior of direct query connections when you establish a connection in PowerBI desktop via direct query if the connection is made to a relational database like SQL you can select a set of tables from the database that will return a set of data for example at Adventure Works you can select data from the central SQL data warehouse via direct query connection to perform realtime sales analysis data loading in PowerBI only loads the schema not the actual data reports and visuals send queries to the underlying database to retrieve the necessary data the visual refresh time depends on the performance of the underlying data source the tables you selected for Adventure Works are not imported to PowerBI model only the schema is therefore the data refresh cycle sends the query to the central database once added information is recorded to the source database the reports and visuals do not reflect the updated data immediately you will need to refresh the report to display the latest data for instance each new sale record of Adventure Works saved on the database will be reflected on the dashboard after you refresh the report if you publish a PowerBI report to a PowerBI service it displays the same behavior as with imported data except there is no data imported all the report elements can be used in creating a dashboard the dashboard titles are automatically refreshed as per refresh frequency that you can configure dashboard visuals will show data from the latest refresh when opened for example if your manager asks you to present the most recent dashboard every morning then you can set up refresh time an hour before the presentation time the use of direct query can have negative implications the limitations vary depending on the specific data source that is being used it is always faster to query data from memory import data rather than querying it from the server direct query the performance depends on the size of the data the database server specifications the network connection speed and optimizations to the data source you must understand these performance implications before deciding to use the direct query for your data analysis in PowerBI with direct query you can apply some data transformation in the query editor of PowerBI however not all the transformations are supported this also depends on the data source for example a SQL server supports some transformations while SAP business warehouse doesn’t support any transformation in the query editor in the latter case you need to apply transformation in the underlying data source data modeling and DAX are also limited in direct query mode for example PowerBI default date hierarchy is not available in direct query and some of the DAX functions such as parent child functions are also not available complex DAX measures also cause performance issues so it is advisable to start building simple aggregation measures and test the performance before moving to more complex calculations in DAX when using direct query mode almost all the reporting capabilities that you have with imported data are also supported for direct query models provided that the underlying source offers a suitable level of performance however when you publish your PowerBI report to a PowerBI service the quick insights and Q&A features of the service are not supported in direct query mode dax measures filters can cause performance implications in reports of direct query models direct query offers an alternative way to connect PowerBI to the data sources but it has some limitations data analysts must understand the behavior benefits and limitations of direct query before deciding to use it for their analytical and business needs direct query models demand consistent performance across all layers of the solution fortunately there are several optimization and query reduction strategies that you can use to help you along the way over the next few minutes you will learn how to optimize the underlying data source for better query performance adventure Works is experiencing poor report performance it is taking too long for pages to load in the reports table and matrix visuals are not refreshing quickly enough when certain elements of the report are selected while reviewing the data model you discover that the model is using direct query to connect PowerBI to the source data resulting in the poor report performance you will need to act in order to optimize the performance of the direct query model in direct query mode performance optimization is needed at each layer of the solution the first layer of the solution to be optimized is the data source you’ll need to tune the source database any optimization done to the underlying source database will enhance the direct query connection which will improve your PowerBI reports the following standard database practices apply to most situations avoid using complex calculated columns because the calculation expression will be embedded into the source queries review the indexes and verify that the current indexing is correct if you need to create new indexes ensure that they are appropriate powerbi desktop provides you with the option to reduce the number of queries sent to the database in direct query mode in PowerBI the default behavior of a filter or slicer is that when you select an item in that slicer or filter the other visuals of the report will be filtered automatically in direct query mode this will send multiple queries to the database for every selection within a filter or slicer these multiple queries will reduce the performance of your report for example you want to select multiple items but when you select the first item five queries are sent to the underlying database on selecting the second item another five queries are sent to the database this will result in a further slowdown of speed this is especially true when you have a multis select slicer or filter you can optimize the number of queries sent to the database in PowerBI desktop the optimization of performance through query reduction requires effective strategies and techniques aggregations allow for pre-calculated summary values that can be imported and stored in the memory engine of PowerBI an optimized data model can lead to efficient query processing simplifying relationships eliminating unnecessary columns and avoiding complex DAX expressions wherever possible can enhance query optimization by reducing the number of queries sent to the underlying data source you can limit the number of visuals and filters in a PowerBI report while working with direct query connectivity for example you can reduce the number of visuals on the report page or reduce the number of fields that are used in a visual in direct query mode performance optimization is vital to deliver a smooth and responsive user experience implementing query reduction strategies and focusing on query performance enhancements allows you to maximize the benefits of real-time data connectivity in PowerBI as a data analyst you’ll often need to optimize the query performance of direct query connectivity fortunately configuring the table storage will improve data retrieval speed and reduce the query workload on the data source over the next few minutes you’ll learn direct query performance optimization with table storage adventure Works is experiencing slow data retrieval speeds while trying to build its reports upon further investigation you discover that the cause of the slow retrieval speed is due to the query workload on the data source you will need to use table storage to reduce the query workload and improve the retrieval speed let’s explore what storage modes are and how they can be used to optimize the performance of your direct query data sets storage modes in PowerBI determine where the data of that table is stored and how queries will be sent to the data sources you can specify the storage mode of the table individually within your data model the storage mode lets you control whether PowerBI desktop catches table data in memory for reports storage modes in PowerBI offer the following benefits as users interact with visuals in PowerBI reports DAX queries are submitted to the underlying data set caching data into memory by properly setting the storage mode can boost the query performance and interactivity of your reports tables that are not cached don’t consume memory for caching you can enable interactive analysis over large data sets that are too large or expensive to completely cache into memory you can choose which tables are worth caching and which aren’t you can reduce the refresh time by only importing the tables that are necessary to meet your business and analytical requirements this will optimize the data refresh time and frequency now that you’re familiar with what storage modes are let’s examine the three storage modes that PowerBI supports if a table is using the import storage mode it means that the data of that table will be stored in the in-memory storage of PowerBI every query to the data would be a query to the in-memory structure and not to the data source for instance Adventure Works sourced a sales table from a SQL server but is using the import storage mode a copy of the data will be stored in the memory engine of PowerBI whenever you refresh a report in PowerBI desktop it will query the in-memory structure instead of sending queries to the SQL server data source tables using the direct query storage mode will keep the data in the data source for example if adventurework sales data is stored in a SQL server and a report is created within the storage mode PowerBI will send SQL queries to the data source and to retrieve the results because the table is using the direct query storage mode you can use SQL profiler at the same time to view manage and optimize the queries when using dual storage mode one table can act either as direct query or import with respect to the relationship to the other tables in some cases you will fill in queries from imported data while in other cases you will fulfill queries by executing an ondemand query to the data source for example to a SQL server let’s find out how various storage modes work in PowerBI desktop while connecting to direct query mode launch PowerBI desktop and connect to SQL Server via direct query navigate to get data and select a SQL Server from the drop-own list of options you’ll be presented with a SQL Server database dialogue box enter the server name and database name by default import mode is selected select direct query and select okay this action directs you to the SQL server containing an Adventure Works database named Adventure Works DW2022 here you can select the number of tables you want to load to PowerBI model select the following tables from the database the internet sales fact table and the product customer and sales territory dimension tables navigate to model view and expand the properties pane select the sales table scroll down to the properties pane and expand advanced access the storage mode drop-own menu to view the three storage modes select the import storage mode for the internet sales fact table once you have selected the import mode a dialogue box appears on screen this dialogue box warns that setting storage mode to import is irreversible you will not be able to switch back to direct query select okay you have now successfully optimized the storage mode of the fact table in the adventure works database you can further leverage this feature to decide which tables of the schema you need to import and which you can keep in direct query connectivity depending on the analytical requirements in direct query mode performance optimization is vital to deliver a smooth and responsive user experience by implementing query reduction strategies to optimize the number of queries sent to the underlying database and focusing on query performance enhancements you can maximize the benefits of real-time data connectivity in PowerBI aggregations in PowerBI are a great method of generating fast query performance and interactivity in your reports and visuals aggregations in PowerBI enable you to dive deeper into your data without compromising the speed and performance of your query in direct query connections powerbi not only provides a potential solution for small data sets but it also has the potential to handle large data sets by switching to direct query as direct query does not store data into the memory PowerBI sends queries to the underlying data source for every page of the report however direct query mode can be slow depending on the number of visuals in a report and the number of users interacting with the data at a given time for example imagine your report contains four visuals and every time you apply a filter to the data PowerBI sends queries to the data source sending queries to the data source with each interaction makes the direct query quite slow fortunately PowerBI has a solution to handle the slow response of direct query called composite mode composite mode allows you to use part of the model as a direct query which for larger tables is typically a fact table and use part of the model to import data for smaller tables usually dimension tables this approach allows you to achieve better performance when you work with smaller tables as they are just querying the in-memory storage of data however the tables that are part of direct query connection are still slow in response this is where a useful feature within composite mode called aggregations can come into play in PowerBI aggregation refers to summarizing or consolidating large volumes of data into more manageable summary tables to improve query performance by condensing detailed information into simpler high-level values aggregations are the solution to speed up the direct query connected tables within a composite mode with the help of aggregations you can create layers of pre-agregated values which are stored in memory storage of PowerBI for faster performance let’s consider these concepts in a scenario adventure Works wants to analyze data for the last 5 years of sales across all its products and regions the fact table might contain tens of millions of rows making it a huge data set for PowerBI’s import limit of file size in this example the objective of performing the analysis is to query the sales values by the year region product or customers category in short you are querying the fact table by aggregations of the dimension tables therefore creating and managing aggregations of the fact table will help you to reduce the file size of the sales table and optimize query performance for Adventure Works for example suppose you are aggregating sales data by calendar year the aggregated table can pre-calculate the sum of the sales amount for every calendar year in this case you only have five rows of data one for each year and that is smaller than the original fact table this pre-calculated aggregation can be imported to the memory of PowerBI and will be efficient in querying daily analysis furthermore if you want to analyze data at a higher level of granularity at a daily level the total number of data rows is still tiny in comparison to the millions of rows in the fact table as dimension tables are typically smaller than the fact table aggregated tables are always smaller than the fact table before you create aggregations in PowerBI you need to decide the granularity of analysis you want to perform on the aggregations for example evaluating sales amount at day level once you decide on the grain the next step is to create aggregations you can create aggregations in one of three ways you can create a table with aggregations at the database level for instance SQL Server database if you have access to the data source and then import the table to PowerBI you can create a view of the aggregation for example in SQL Server database and import the view to PowerBI if you have access to the data source you can use Power Query editor in PowerBI to create aggregations aggregations in direct query have several benefits let’s explore three specifically in case you are handling a large data set aggregations provide a faster and optimized query performance and assist you in analyzing the data they also reveal insights without querying the underlying data source that is slower in response and in worst case scenario the query times out if users at Adventure Works are experiencing slower refresh time of the reports in PowerBI you can create aggregations which help you to speed up the refresh process the smaller size of aggregated tables imported to memory reduces the refresh time enabling a better user experience adventure Works is anticipating a growth in sales volume for the upcoming year you can leverage aggregations to create and manage aggregations as a proactive measure to futureproof the solution thereby enabling a smooth scaleup of the company aggregations are the game-changing feature of PowerBI in optimizing the speed and performance when dealing with huge volumes of data with the help of aggregations you can have layers of pre-calculated tables stored in the memory of PowerBI always ready to respond to queries when users interact with the data in reports powerbi’s aggregation feature is useful for creating a seamless bridge between raw data and meaningful analytics in this video you’ll learn how to create and manage aggregations in Power Query Editor of PowerBI first you need to load the required tables launch the PowerBI desktop and connect to SQL Server via direct query navigate to get data and select SQL server from the drop-own list of options this opens a dialogue box called SQL Server database enter the server name and database name by default import mode is selected select direct query and then okay the action directs you to the SQL server containing the Adventure Works database powerbi opens the navigator window with the list of tables select the following tables to load the internet sales fact table and the customer and date dimension tables once the tables are loaded PowerBI autoestablishes the relationships between the tables in this instance you only need to review the relationship between the date and internet sales tables delete any inactive relationships between these tables next you need to create aggregations using Power Query Editor from the home tab select transform data to open the editor create an aggregated table based on the internet sales fact table note that this action converts the existing table to an aggregated table to keep the original table intact the first step is to reference the fact table select the internet sales table from the queries pane right click and select reference from the drop-own list this action duplicates the internet sales table rename the query as a sales or aggregated table next from the home tab of the query editor select choose columns this opens a select columns dialogue box for the current aggregations create an aggregation using the order date key and customer key columns from the list of columns first unselect all columns then select the following columns order date key customer key unit price and sales amount select okay next select group by from the transform tab to open the group by dialogue box by default basic is selected choose advanced the first section presented is grouping this is because you’ve selected two columns for grouping select add grouping to add another field select order date key and customer key from the first and second grouping columns respectively the second section is aggregations to find the new column name then the mathematical operation for the aggregation like sum count average and so on finally select which column the calculation should be based on for the current lesson add the following aggregations sum sales amount based on the sales amount column sum unit price based on unit price column and order count which will take the count rows operation and does not require a column reference select okay after adding and defining aggregations the action will add an aggregated table to the data model the new aggregated table is much smaller than the original table now you have created an aggregation based on fact internet sales keeping the original table intact the table is added to the data model next you need to establish the relationship between a sales table and the customer and date dimension tables build the relationship between the a sales table and the dimension tables customer key and date key columns finally you need to set the storage mode of the aggregated table as import navigate to the model view and expand the properties pane select the a sales table in the properties pane expand advanced select import from the storage mode drop-own list of options the action opens the dialogue box indicating the warning message setting storage mode to import is an irreversible operation this means that you will not be able to switch back to direct query there is another recommendation on the dialogue box the number of weak relationships can be reduced by setting the customer and date dimension tables to jewel the checkbox set affected tables to jewel was checked by default leave this checked and select okay this action imports the a sales table to PowerBI’s memory and converts the storage mode of the dimension tables to Juul the reason is that both dimension tables are connected to the original fact table that is direct query sourced and to the a sales table that uses import mode this means the dimension tables are set to dual storage mode so they can act both ways depending on the situation select the dimension tables and check the storage mode option in the bottom right hand corner of the visualization pane to confirm that dual storage mode is selected in this video you learned how to create and manage aggregations in Power Query Editor of PowerBI congratulations on reaching the end of the third week in this course on data modeling in PowerBI this week you’ve explored optimizing a model for performance in PowerBI let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned in this week’s lessons you began the week with an introduction to what optimization is and why it is necessary you learned about PowerBI dashboards you learned how dashboards can provide access to large volumes of data that can be used to generate insights on successes challenges and opportunities you then explored query lag and how simple queries that used to take seconds could begin to take many minutes even hours you investigated the challenges that growing data volumes can bring as well as how performance optimization can address those issues and you reviewed the benefits of performance optimization in PowerBI and how it affects the overall performance of data models reports and dashboards you then further examined optimization and what it is and how performance issues can arise due to a variety of factors including inefficient data models complex DAX calculations and inappropriate visuals you explored how optimizing your PowerBI report and data model can significantly cut down the loading and processing time of large data sets allowing you to execute queries faster next you examined how the benefit of performance optimization informs decision-making and how the ability to make timely and informed decisions is critical to its success and how with an optimized PowerBI data model reports load swiftly enabling faster analysis of trends and thereby leading to more prompt informed decisions you then explored the user experience and the benefits that an optimized PowerBI system can have dramatically improving the user experience by ensuring reports load smoothly and swiftly next you learned about resource efficiency and how an optimized PowerBI data model can make more efficient use of resources handling larger volumes of data without a noticeable drop in performance you explored optimization by example and how to analyze the constant stream of data next you examined optimization techniques such as filtering sorting and indexing which can make your data more manageable and your searches faster improving overall efficiency you are introduced to four tools that will help you to understand vast amounts of data: sorting filtering indexing and data transformation you learned how sorting made data sets much easier to read and interpret how filtering reduces the processing time and computational load making the overall process more efficient how indexing allows you to quickly locate the data for a specific region without having to sift through the entire data set and how data transformation facilitates more accurate and meaningful analyses next you moved on to resolving performance issues in data models which had you explore the different types of relationships such as onetoone and manny to manny you then learned how to identify and reduce cardality levels and how identifying high cardality columns and modifying them appropriately can enhance your reports performance you learned about the behavior and limitations of direct query connections you learned that direct query is a data connectivity option in PowerBI that allows analysts to connect directly to the data sources without importing data into PowerBI model you explored the benefits of direct query which are real-time updates reduced memory usage and data security you then investigated the negative implications of direct query which are its impact on performance its limited support for data transformation its limitations in modeling in DAX and its reporting limitations you explored optimizing direct query performance with query reductions you learned that in direct query mode performance optimization is needed at each layer of the solution and how PowerBI desktop provides you with the option to reduce the number of queries sent to the database in direct query mode you learned some effective query reduction strategies and techniques including aggregations optimizing the data model and report optimization you then explored optimizing direct query performance with table storage and how storage modes in PowerBI determine where the data of that table is stored and how queries will be sent to the data sources and that you can specify the storage mode of the table individually within your data model you examined the benefits of storage mode which are query performance larger tables and data refresh optimization you then learned about import mode and that if a table is using the import storage mode it means that the data of that table will be stored in the in-memory storage of PowerBI you also explored direct query mode and that tables using the direct query storage mode will keep the data in the data source you then learned about dual mode and that when using dual storage mode one table can act either as direct query or import with respect to the relationship to the other tables you then moved on to aggregations in PowerBI and how aggregations in PowerBI enable you to dive deeper into your data without compromising the speed and performance of your query in direct query connections you explored composite mode you learned that composite mode allows you to achieve better performance when you work with smaller tables as they are just querying the in-memory storage of data and how in PowerBI aggregation refers to summarizing or consolidating large volumes of data into more manageable summary tables to improve query performance by condensing detailed information into simpler higher level values you identified the three ways to create aggregations which are you can create a table with aggregations at the database level for instance SQL server database if you have access to the data source and then import the table to PowerBI you can create a view of the aggregation for example in SQL Server database and import the view to PowerBI if you have access to the data source you can use Power Query Editor in PowerBI to create aggregations finally you learned about the benefits of aggregations that in the case you are handling a large data set aggregations provide a faster and optimized query performance and assist you in analyzing the data they also reveal insights without querying the underlying data source that is slower in response and in worst case scenario the query times out and if users are experiencing slower refresh time of the reports in PowerBI you can create aggregations which help you to speed up the refresh process the smaller size of aggregated tables imported to memory reduces the refresh time enabling a better user experience as well as that you can leverage aggregations to create and manage aggregations as a proactive measure to futureproof the solution thereby enabling a smooth scaleup of the company you’ve now reached the end of this module summary it’s time to move on to the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you’ve learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson best of luck we’ll meet again during next week’s lessons you’re nearing the end of this course on data modeling in PowerBI you’ve put great effort into this course by completing the videos readings quizzes and exercises and you should now have a stronger grasp of the foundations of data modeling these include basic concepts of data modeling using DAX for analysis and optimizing a model for performance you’re now ready to apply your knowledge in the exercise and the final course assessment in the exercise you’ll build and optimize a data model putting everything you’ve learned into practice this is followed by the course assessment or graded quiz that consists of 30 questions related to topics you covered throughout the course but before you start let’s recap what you’ve learned in the first week of this course you discovered that data modeling is the process of creating visual representations of your data in PowerBI you can use these representations to identify or create relationships between data elements by exploring these relationships you can generate new insights into your data to improve your business microsoft PowerBI is a fantastic tool for creating data models and generating insights and you don’t need an IT related qualification to begin using it during your exploration of PowerBI you learned how to create data models using schemas and relationships analyze your models using DAX also known as data analysis expressions and optimize a model for performance in PowerBI you also explored key concepts related to data modeling you learned to identify different types of data schemas like flat star and snowflake create and maintain relationships in a data model using cardality and cross filter direction and form a model using a star schema in the second week of this course you focused on DAX or data analysis expressions this syntax is used to create elements and perform analysis in PowerBI you began by writing calculations in DAX to create elements and analyses in PowerBI you then explored the formula and functions used in DAX and used DAX to create and clone calculated tables you were then introduced to the concept of measures you learned where measures are used and what types are available you worked with measures to create calculated columns and measures in a mode and you learned about the importance of context and DAX measures finally you performed useful time intelligence calculations in DAX for summarization and comparison and learned how to use these techniques to set up a common date table in the third week of this course you learned how to optimize a model for performance in PowerBI you began by learning how to identify the need for performance optimization this means analyzing your data models to determine how they can perform more efficiently you then learned how to optimize your PowerBI models for performance you explored different techniques and methods for ensuring that you’re running efficient models and you also learned how to optimize performance using DAX queries now that you’ve built a solid understanding of the fundamentals of data modeling you’re ready to test your knowledge by undertaking the exercise and the final course assessment best of luck congratulations you’ve made it to the end of the data modeling in PowerBI course your hard work and dedication has paid off you’re making great progress on your data analysis learning journey and you should now have a thorough understanding of basic concepts of data modeling using DAX for analysis and optimizing a model for performance you should now have a firm knowledge of data modeling in PowerBI think about everything you can do with this new knowledge well done for taking the first steps towards your future data analysis career by successfully completing all the courses in this program you’ll receive a Corsera certification this program is a great way to expand your understanding of data analysis and gain a qualification that will allow you to apply for entry-level jobs in the field this program will help you prepare for the PL300 exam by passing the exam you’ll become a Microsoft certified PowerBI data analyst it will also help you to start or expand a career in this role this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to perform the following tasks prepare data for analysis model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX these are two concepts that you’ve explored in detail in this course and will continue to learn more about in future courses you can visit the Microsoft certifications page at http://www.learn.microsoft.com/certifications to learn more about the PowerBI data analyst associate certification and exam this course has enhanced your knowledge and skills in the fundamentals of data modeling in PowerBI but what comes next there’s more to learn so it’s a good idea to register for the next course whether you’re just starting out as a novice or you’re a technical professional completing this program demonstrates your knowledge of data modeling in PowerBI you’ve done a great job so far and you should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained will show potential employers that you are motivated capable and not afraid to learn new things it’s been a pleasure to embark on this journey of discovery with you best of luck in the future welcome to data analysis and visualization in PowerBI in this course you’ll discover the power of visualization in Microsoft PowerBI to create datadriven stories and solve realworld business problems data analysis and visualization are not only essential skills for data analysts to uncover and communicate data insights they are vital for organizations across different industries to flourish in today’s datadriven world from healthcare to finance data analysis and visualization play a critical role in informing decisionmaking and driving success with its extraordinary visuals PowerBI is a data analytics and visualization tool that you can use to transform data into intuitive visualizations it empowers you to present data in a visually appealing way that stakeholders can understand facilitating datadriven decisions you are currently on a path of discovery centered on data analysis in PowerBI exploring the skills tasks and processes that enable data analysts to create compelling data stories with PowerBI so what can you expect for this part of your learning journey you’ll start by diving into creating reports in PowerBI and exploring the various visualizations available to you and their potential to solve different business problems you’ll learn how to format these visuals and add them to reports and dashboards the powerful mediums through which you can provide stakeholders with insights in PowerBI you’ll master the art of designing reports and dashboards that are not just visually appealing but accessible userfriendly and interactive you’ll discover how to share your carefully crafted reports with stakeholders ensuring your hard work reaches the right audience and the journey doesn’t end there you can look forward to learning how to use visualizations and other features like AI to perform data analysis you’ll closely examine the data in your PowerBI reports discovering how to extract meaningful insights and value by using PowerBI’s analytical tools and performing advanced analytics by the end of this course you’ll learn how to recognize different types of visualizations in PowerBI add visualizations to reports and dashboards apply formatting choices to visuals incorporate useful navigation techniques into PowerBI reports design accessible reports and dashboards and use visualizations to perform data analysis to complete the course successfully you’ll need to apply the skills and knowledge you gain to a practical graded assignment in this assignment you’ll build reports and dashboards based on a realworld business scenario involving Adventure Works a fictional bicycle manufacturing company you may have encountered before in this program you’ll also need to complete a final graded quiz demonstrating your understanding of the key concepts in data analysis and visualization but no need to worry the videos readings exercises and quizzes in this course will gradually guide you through the learning material preparing you thoroughly for your assessment you have the flexibility to recap and revisit items as you need so watch pause rewind and re-watch the videos until you are confident in your skills the readings knowledge checks and quizzes will help you consolidate your knowledge and measure your progress ultimately this course is about more than just gaining knowledge and skills in data analysis and visualization in PowerBI it’s about setting yourself up for a career in data analysis by completing all the courses in this program you’ll earn a Corsera certificate to showcase your job readiness to your professional network plus the program prepares you for exam PL300 which leads to a Microsoft PowerBI data analyst certification globally recognized evidence of your realworld skills so are you ready to add data analysis and visualization skills to your data analyst toolbox well this course will equip you to recognize use and format different visualizations strategically design accessible and beautiful reports and dashboards and extract more value from your data using visualizations and advanced analytics best of luck as you embark on this learning journey renee Gonzalez the marketing director at Adventure Works walks into our office and finds a report on her desk the report is packed with data sales figures marketing campaign results regional statistics customer feedback and more but as she flips through the pages the strings of numbers and texts seem to blend failing to convey any meaningful story it’s like trying to decipher an alien language can she make informed decisions based on this data probably not data on its own is often meaningless but here’s the game changer when you apply the tools of data visualization and analysis the data starts to weave a story patterns emerge from the chaos trends become evident and the confusing jumble of numbers transforms into insights that can guide business decisions this is the power of business intelligence in this video you’ll explore the basics of business intelligence or BI specifically focusing on data visualization and analysis and the role it plays in making complex data accessible and understandable you’ll discover how business intelligence and data analysis go beyond data visualization providing deeper insights and forming the backbone of informed decision-making in its simplest terms business intelligence or BI is a technological approach to convert raw unprocessed data into meaningful actionable information for business analysis the heart of business intelligence is to create an environment where data informs strategic business decisions it’s about leveraging data to improve operations increase efficiency and boost financial performance bi uses several tools and methodologies to achieve these objectives including data mining analytical processing querying and reporting but two of the most critical tools in this toolbox are data visualization and data analysis data visualization is a graphical representation of information and data think charts graphs maps or any other visual format that makes complex data more understandable accessible and usable to grasp the power of data visualization let’s revisit the scenario at Adventure Works say the marketing director is examining the sales figures for different products in the last month the spreadsheet is dense with rows and columns of information you’d be hardpressed to discover any significant insights just by glancing at the raw data but imagine if you could take these numbers and transform them into a visually compelling line graph suddenly the sales trends are immediately visible it’s easier and quicker to identify high-erforming and underperforming products which can inform strategic planning and datadriven decision-making it may also provide insights into seasonality and the effect of marketing initiatives on income visualization is a powerful transformative tool used to spot patterns and anomalies identify trends and grasp complex data sets at a glance in addition to visualization another critical aspect of BI is data analysis while data visualization provides a graphical representation of your data data analysis dives deeper into these visualizations to undercover the reasons behind the trends and patterns data analysis is like the detective work of BI it sifts through data asks critical questions and uncovers the truth to illustrate the importance of data analysis let’s explore another term from BI profit margins the profit margin is a critical financial metric that provides insights into a company’s profitability you can calculate this by subtracting the cost of goods sold from sales revenue and dividing the result by the sales revenue but just knowing this profit margin figure isn’t enough let’s say for example that Adventure Works has a profit margin of 20% what does this figure tell you on its own not much but when you analyze this figure in relation to other factors the story begins to unfold for example to determine whether the margin is good or bad you can compare it across different periods or to the company average historical data or industry benchmarks you may also want to analyze the contribution of different products to profitability likewise you can also analyze the profit margin in relation to other financial metrics like sales revenue and expenses or external factors like market trends for a more comprehensive view of the financial health of Adventure Works data analysis helps you understand not just what is happening but also why it’s happening it allows you to diagnose problems spot opportunities and make informed decisions data analysis can also be pivotal in predictive analytics an aspect of BI that uses current and historical data to forecast future events behaviors and trends let’s imagine Adventure Works is planning to launch a new product line by analyzing past sales data customer behaviors and market trends you can predict how well customers might receive this new product its potential sales and even what type of marketing might be most effective this type of predictive insight can be instrumental in crafting successful business strategies as you embark on your own journey in the world of business intelligence remember that you’re not just a data analyst you’re a storyteller each strand of data is a part of your narrative and it’s up to you to assemble these strands into a narrative that guides a business to success remember data is just data it’s what you do with it that counts with data analysis and visualization you can transform data into actionable intelligence imagine a stakeholder at Adventure Works is handed a spreadsheet with numbers representing sales production and human resources data trying to draw conclusions or make decisions using these rows and columns is as challenging as navigating a dense forest with a paper map although the map may have all the information you need it isn’t easy to understand and interpret but what if there was a way to examine this data that’s immediately understandable and meaningful data visualizations can act like a navigation system with a clear interactive display that demonstrates how to navigate the forest of vast and complex data in this video you’ll learn about data visualization including its role in business intelligence and how data flows and is represented in visualizations in Microsoft PowerBI at its most basic a visualization is a graphical representation of data however visualizations are much more than just common graphical depictions converting raw data into a visual format using PowerBI can help you identify patterns trends and insights that might not be apparent in textbased data for example suppose Adventure Works wants to track the performance of its different bike types across various regions the data comes from several sources ranging from sales and regional reports to customer feedback in a spreadsheet this data would be complex and hard to digest however you can use PowerBI with its many ways to visualize data which you’ll learn about later to transform the data into a compelling interactive and easily digestible format visualizing data for business intelligence is crucial particularly in complex and dynamic business environments like Adventure Works let’s explore how data visualization in PowerBI can enhance business intelligence at an organization like Adventure Works the data generated from its operations is vast and complex visualizing this data simplifies the complexity transforming large intricate data sets into intuitive easy to understand graphical representations data visualizations can reveal patterns trends and correlations hidden in raw data for example Adventure Works could use a bar chart to visualize sales data demonstrating geographic regions where sales are the highest they could also use a scatter plot to identify correlations between marketing spend and sales performance powerbi’s interactive visualizations allow companies to dive deep into their data they can drill down into specific areas of interest such as analyzing sales trends for a particular product in a specific market over a given period leading to more precise datadriven decisionmaking visualizations make data more accessible to a broader audience not everyone at organizations like Adventure Works will be comfortable interpreting raw data but most stakeholders can understand a well-designed chart or graph as a result more stakeholders can engage with the data and contribute to datadriven decisionm visualizations are a powerful communication tool and can tell a compelling story with data making the insights more memorable and persuasive to demonstrate the success of a new product line to stakeholders at Adventure Works you could use visualizations to highlight key performance metrics in a visually engaging way now that you know more about the importance of visualizing data for business intelligence let’s explore how creating visualizations works in PowerBI creating visualizations in PowerBI begins with connecting to your desired data sources these can range from Excel spreadsheets to SQL databases once connected you can use Power Query to extract transform and load the data into PowerBI these transformations include renaming columns changing data types filtering rows and combining data from multiple sources you can then load this refined data into PowerBI’s data model for further manipulation using data analysis expressions or DAX a formula language for creating custom calculations the next stage of the workflow involves representing this processed data in visualizations powerbi provides a wide variety of visualization types such as bar charts scatter plots pie charts and even geographical maps after selecting a visualization type you map the data elements to different aspects of the visualization from adding values to the axes or fields to the color scheme PowerBI allows you to add slicers which are visual filters that allow viewers to segment and filter the data in real time to enhance the usefulness and interactivity of these visualizations the final step in the workflow involves arranging the visualizations on a report page and then sharing the report with other stakeholders the PowerBI service allows you to publish these reports enabling a broader audience to interact with them online even on mobile devices visualizations don’t only present data in a more understandable form they also enable realtime data analysis for example as sales figures at Adventure Works are updated the visualizations in PowerBI will update automatically this provides companies like Adventure Works with up-to-date accurate insights and enables them to react more quickly to changes in their business environment the next stage of the workflow involves representing this process data in visualizations data analysts must carefully craft them to communicate the right insights effectively this includes ensuring you select the correct type of visualization for the data you want to represent for example while pie charts are appropriate for displaying parts of a whole line graphs are more suitable for displaying trends over time an inappropriate choice of visualization can lead to misunderstandings or even misinformation visualizations are not only advantageous but essential in today’s datarich business environments rather than simple graphical representations of data used correctly visualizations are like keys to insights transforming the way stakeholders understand and engage with data and journey through the complex world of business intelligence with PowerBI you can guide stakeholders to strategic decisionmaking uncovering valuable insights and knowledge as a new data analyst at Adventure Works you’re overwhelmed with the vast amount of sales customer and manufacturing data you know the data contains invaluable insights about commerce customer behavior production efficiency and more but how do you translate it into meaningful information that stakeholders can understand and act upon you have a powerful solution PowerBI visualizations in this video you’ll learn about commonly used visualizations in Microsoft PowerBI you’ll discover their purpose and versatility in relation to data representation and interpretation you learned that data visualization is the graphical representation of data a method to uncover patterns trends and insights that may not be apparent in raw data visualizations communicate complex data sets in an intuitive and accessible way creating an approachable narrative that encourages datadriven decision-making let’s explore some of the common visualization types available in PowerBI and their practical uses in the context of Adventure Works the first visualization type is the column chart column charts are a clear straightforward way to compare different categories in a vertical orientation they can demonstrate data changes over time or illustrate comparisons among items column charts are generally used when there are fewer than 10 categories on the x-axis the horizontal axis at the bottom of the chart adventure Works could use a column chart to compare the sales of different bicycle models over the past year each column would represent a different product category and the height of the columns would indicate the sales figures allowing stakeholders to compare and contrast sales performance across models quickly bar charts are another powerful visualization for comparing different categories unlike column charts however bar charts are a horizontal representation of data the length of each bar corresponds to the quantity of the data it represents bar charts are useful for comparing larger quantities or categories with lengthy labels long labels are inappropriate for column charts as their vertical orientation means the labels appear sideways which can be challenging to read you can also use bar charts to display comparisons among discrete categories or non-ontinuous distinctly separate groups of data such as different payment methods for example Adventure Works could use a bar chart to compare the number of order transactions per payment category this clear and straightforward visual would make it easy for stakeholders to compare the performance of the different payment methods identify opportunities for payment option optimization and gain insight into customer behavior and preferences a further common visualization type in PowerBI is the line chart line charts are best suited for showing trends over time they connect individual numeric data points forming a line this visual is useful when you have a large data set and are interested in visualizing trends patterns or fluctuations in your data over time it’s particularly effective when used to represent many data points adventure Works could use line charts to track sales trends over time they might compare the monthly sales figures of different bicycles for the past five years to identify when sales peak and when they are slow helping inform strategic decisions about promotions and inventory powerbi also offers area charts which are in essence line charts except color or texture fills the area beneath the line these charts help compare two or more quantities and show part to whole relationships over time or across categories representing how individual segments contribute to an entire data set for example in an area chart for adventure works based on sales data each product type like mountain bikes or road bikes would be in an area on the chart showing its sales as a portion of the total sales this can help stakeholders understand how each product contributes to total sales and how this relationship changes over time now let’s explore pie charts pie charts are circular graphics divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportions this visualization type is ideal when you want to show a data set as a proportion of a whole each slice of the pie represents a category of data and the size of each piece is proportional to the quantity it represents from the whole adventure Works might use a pie chart to illustrate the proportion of sales made up by each product category each slice would represent a different product category and the size of each slice would be proportional to the revenue generated by that category this visual would enable stakeholders to understand which products contribute most to overall sales at a glance keep in mind that pie charts become less effective when there are too many categories to compare resulting in a high number of small slices in this case a bar chart might be better for clear visualization the last visualization type you’ll learn about in this video is the table tables in PowerBI are a way to view raw detailed data and exact numbers they display information in columns and rows providing a comprehensive numerical view of your data while they don’t offer the same visual impact as other chart types tables can display additional details that might be critical to stakeholder understanding of your data adventure Works could use a table to display a detailed monthly sales breakdown for each product category by region this would allow the relevant stakeholders to examine exact sales figures and make precise comparisons supporting detailed nuanced analysis in this video you discovered a range of common visualizations available to you in PowerBI each visualization type plays a unique role in data storytelling by understanding and effectively using the visuals in PowerBI you can transform raw data into a masterpiece that conveys insightful actionable information driving more thoughtful decision-making and improving business outcomes in a complex organization like Adventure Works sales reports are indispensable in coordinating sales efforts across regions and product lines let’s explore how to apply visualization items to a basic sales report once you’ve imported your data using get data on the home ribbon and cleaned and transformed it using the power query editor you can start adding visualizations to your report canvas first let’s add a column chart to visualize how sales are distributed among various product categories helping Adventure Works gain insight into the performance of different products from the visualizations pane select the clustered column chart button this will create an empty chart on your report page now that you have an empty clustered column chart it’s time to fill it with data you can find your data fields in the fields pane also referred to as the data pane or data section typically located on the far right side of the PowerBI interface these fields correspond to the columns in your data source find and select the product category field on your sales data source while holding the field drag it over to the Xaxis box under the visualizations pane releasing it will drop the field into the box by placing the product category field in the Xaxis well or input box you’re telling PowerBI to use the unique values from this field to create individual columns on the chart the next field you need to add to your chart is the order total field select and drag the order total field to the yaxis box as you did with the product category field and the x-axis when you drop a field into the y-axis box PowerBI will perform a calculation on that field for each category in this case it will calculate the sum of the order total for each product category and display this data in the respective column with this column chart stakeholders at Adventure Works can identify trends opportunities and challenges in product performance that can guide product development marketing campaigns and pricing strategies next let’s create a pie chart to represent sales distribution by different payment methods visually a pie chart will make it possible for stakeholders to determine how much of the total each payment method represents to start creating your chart select the pie chart button in the visualizations pane this will add an empty pie chart to your report page to start populating the chart with data find the payment method field in the fields pane and drag it into the legend well in the visualizations pane by putting the payment method field in the legend well you’re telling PowerBI to create a different slice of the pi for each payment method in your data after that find the order total field in the fields pane and drag it into the values well when you drop a field into the values well PowerBI performs a calculation on that field for each category by default PowerBI calculates the sum so it will calculate the sum of the order total for each payment method this pie chart can help Adventure Works understand key revenue streams and customer payment preferences and even guide decisions around payment processing partnerships finally let’s add a line chart visualization to the report line charts are effective for showcasing trends or changes over time for example this chart can help stakeholders recognize and understand the patterns and cycles in their sales data and identify any anomalies to create the line chart identify the line chart button from the visualization pane and select it this will generate an empty line chart on your new page to fill your empty line chart with data locate the order date field representing time and drag it into the xaxis field well located in the visualizations pane by doing this you’re instructing PowerBI to use time as the xaxis of your line chart which forms the basis for the trend analysis then locate the order total field and drag this field into the yaxis field well by default PowerBI will calculate the sales sum for each date and plot it as a data point on the line chart this offers stakeholders a practical way to visualize and understand sales trends over time stakeholders can use the line chart to inform strategic decisionmaking and drive business growth remember that PowerBI may make certain assumptions about your date data when creating line charts for example if your order date field includes specific times PowerBI might plot every unique timestamp to ensure PowerBI aggregates data according to your preferences select the drop-own arrow next to order date and choose your desired level of detail for example by year quarter month or day after creating your visualizations the next step is to save your report to ensure you don’t lose any of your work to save your report select the file option located in the upper left corner of the PowerBI interface a drop-own menu will appear from this menu select save a window will open asking you to name your report name it something descriptive to help you and others understand what the report is about such as Adventure Works Sales Analysis Report in this window select save again to finalize the process and there you have it you’ve learned how to apply visualization items to a basic report in PowerBI the sales analysis report complete with visualizations holds valuable insights for Adventure Works and will support datainformed decisionmaking imagine you are a data analyst at Adventure Works working with vast amounts of information daily while innovative and interactive charts can be flashy and captivating there are moments when your audience wants simplicity a straightforward no frrills presentation microsoft PowerBI’s table visualization is useful when you want to employ the classic clear-cut style of tables to ensure your audience can grasp the essence of the data quickly it elegantly presents refined data allowing viewers to immediately consume critical information and insights in this video you will learn more about the table visualization in PowerBI and how to configure it when you load a raw data set into PowerBI like an Adventure Works sales report with data from February March and April it is tough to pinpoint details quickly for instance figuring out the monthly sales for each region becomes a challenge and if you are trying to dive even deeper aiming to identify specifics like the number of orders that were either cancelled or shipped extracting this information from this raw format is a difficult task the table visualization in PowerBI can summarize all these insights and still present them in tabular format the same sales data is now presented using a table visualization the table displays summarized insights which is much more userfriendly to work with you can even customize the table visualization to improve its aesthetic appeal or aid engagement and comprehension now that you know more about the table visualization in PowerBI let’s learn how to configure this visualization once you load your data in PowerBI using a table visualization is quite straightforward open your report view and select the table visual from the visualizations pane this will instantly place this visual in the report area you can resize this visual by dragging the corners or sides while keeping this visual selected select as many data fields as you want for example you can select month and order total on the data pane this will give you an insight into monthly total sales if you want to break down the sales by different regions simply add the product region field from the data pane and the table visual will display monthly sales for each region adding another field order quantity to this visual gives you more insight into how many items were shipped cancelled or still under processing the visual even calculates the totals automatically displaying them at the bottom of the visual what if you want to see the order status in this table just select the order status field from the data pane notice how the table visual summarizes valuable information like order quantity and order total for each row you can sort any of these columns by selecting the column header for example selecting the product region column header sorts it in ascending order another click on the same header will sort it in descending order you can change the sequence of these columns by dragging the fields up or down on the visualizations pane let’s drag the order status after the product region notice how the visual changed the way it’s displaying the data it now shows the order status column right after the product region column you have the option to format this table visual and change its appearance by customizing various options available in the format tab expand the style presets option and select any preset from the available dropdown the appearance of your table will change instantly you can also further customize the table by expanding other sections for example you can display horizontal grid lines by expanding the grid section and selecting your desired color and width you can also change the table header font size color and other options by expanding the column headers section there are many other options to format the appearance and feel of the table whether to reflect your brand colors or to increase its visual appeal for your audience using raw data can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack it can be overwhelming messy and confusing but using table visuals in PowerBI is like sorting that haystack into neat manageable piles making it easier to find what your audience is looking for with data neatly laid out rowby row and column by column table visualizations present insights clearly and are an invaluable tool for bridging raw data and actionable intelligence your manager asks you to present a sales report to key stakeholders during a business meeting later in the week imagine you receive an Excel file containing all the adventure work sales data for the current year the sales department wants an appealing report that offers a comprehensive view of the company’s monthly sales volume and the number of processed orders and cancellations so what is your strategy for completing this task this is where Microsoft PowerBI’s bar and column charts can make you shine in this video you’ll discover the different bar and column charts in PowerBI that can help you efficiently represent your data you will also learn about the four field wells you can use to customize these charts axis legend values and tool tips previously you learned that bar and column charts are popular types of visualizations to display data in a clear and organized way they are beneficial for showcasing categorical data or data that can be organized into distinct groups bar charts display data horizontally whereas column charts display data vertically the simplicity and intuitive nature of bar and column charts make them effective tools for presenting data and identifying patterns or trends over time with six different types of bar and column charts in PowerBI you can convert raw data into visually appealing and meaningful insights let’s explore each of these chart options their features and how to add and configure them to PowerBI it can be difficult to identify patterns or insights when working with raw data sets containing text and numbers in this data set sales volume across different regions and the order status such as shipped or cancelled are organized into various columns let’s examine how to visualize this data using the different bar and column charts available in PowerBI to create a bar or column chart that demonstrates the number of orders by status and month select the month order quantity and order status data fields from the data pane with the relevant data fields selected let’s start by placing a bar chart on the report area you can do this by selecting the stacked bar chart icon on the visualizations pane you can resize it as needed by dragging its edges with this chart stakeholders can quickly compare and gain insight into the number of orders shipped cancelled or processed during February and March this is much easier to interpret compared to working with the raw data set you have the option to visualize this data using the variety of bar and column charts available to you to change the chart type select the chart you placed and then select the relevant icon from the visualizations pane such as the stacked column chart a stacked column chart is like a stacked bar chart but data is displayed as columns instead of horizontal bars another option for visualizing the data is a clustered bar chart in a clustered bar chart the values are displayed in individual bars instead of a group in the next option the clustered column chart the data is shown in individual columns the last two options are the 100% stacked bar chart and the 100% stacked column chart in both charts important insights are displayed on the tool tips for example if you hover your mouse over any of these bars or columns PowerBI displays the percentage and value of any grouped item such as the order quantity in PowerBI you can select any of the charts individual bars or columns to highlight them the other items fade making the selected items more prominent this is useful for highlighting specific areas or insights of interest now let’s explore four essential field wells in these charts the legend X and Yaxis and tool tips the field wells represent different sections of your chart that you can customize according to your requirements the first field well is called a legend it displays under the title or on the side of a chart the legend field controls the color coding or grouping of the bars or columns in your chart it helps to differentiate between different categories or subgroups within the data the legend makes it easier to understand which color in the chart represents which item you can hide the legend by turning it off in the format tab on the visualizations pane you can hover your mouse over the bar or column to display the data if the legend is not shown the next field wells are the X and Y axis each axis represents the data points you want to compare or analyze for bar charts the X-axis shows the values like order quantity and total sales and the Yaxis shows the categories like month or product regions for column charts this is reversed the x-axis shows the category and the y-axis shows the values like order quantity or total sales the final field well is called tool tips a tool tip displays data or extra information when you hover over the data points of a chart understanding the different types of bar and column charts in PowerBI such as stacked clustered and 100% stacked charts allows you to present your data in visually engaging and meaningful ways by using the four field wells axis legend values and tool tips you can create customized visualizations that are informative and insightful adventure Works is preparing for their annual sales conference your team leader has tasked you with presenting a report that portrays the direction of sales trends the report must also incorporate monthly information regarding delivered pending and canceled orders this is where Microsoft PowerBI’s line and area charts become instrumental in this video you’ll explore line and area charts when to use them and how to add them to your reports learning to use these charts is essential for creating attractive reports that empower stakeholders to make informed and effective decisions a line chart uses a line to connect individual data points it is the perfect tool for illustrating a sequence of values or displaying trends over a time period for example a line chart can help Adventure Works understand how sales are progressing monthtomonth or year to year a line chart with multiple lines can show sales across different regions over time and help the stakeholders understand the trend or sales performance while a line chart focuses on trends an area chart emphasizes the magnitude of changes it can display the part to whole relationships among your data making it easier to compare quantities for example regional sales represented by an area chart can help stakeholders intuitively understand and compare the degree each product region contributed to total sales for each month there’s a variant of the area chart called a stacked area chart where the data points from multiple categories are stacked on top of one another this can be useful when emphasizing the total across several categories for example you could use a stacked area chart to illustrate the total orders over a period and demonstrate how each product region contributes to the total so how do you decide when to use bar or column charts which you learned about previously or line and area charts when presenting a few items bar and column charts can be visually appealing and effective however when dealing with many data points these charts can become cluttered and difficult to read each bar or column takes up a certain amount of space and the chart can become overcrowded if there are too many to plot unlike bar and column charts area charts are effective for visualizing changes in multiple values over time both line and area charts are effective in visualizing the changes in values of multiple categories particularly over time while line charts are useful for identifying trends area charts offer a further benefit they help us interpret the magnitude of the values they also effectively illustrate the cumulative impact of the data points over the selected time providing an overall picture of the data trends now that you’ve been introduced to line and area charts let’s take a moment to explore how you can create them in PowerBI start by importing the Adventure Works quarterly sales data set file to a new PowerBI project in PowerBI the line chart area chart and stacked area chart icons are available in the visualizations pane to create a line chart select the line chart icon from the visualizations pane and place it on the report section open the data pane and select two fields month and order quantity the x-axis of the visualization is sorted by descending order quantity to modify it to ascending order navigate to the visual settings and select sort access and sort ascending a line chart is handy for illustrating trends for example this line chart displays the
total sales from February to April it clearly demonstrates an upward trend in sales for the quarter the sales team at Adventure Works may also want to compare the performance and trends of different regions across the quarter to do this select the line chart open the data pane and select the product region the line chart now indicates that although there appears to be a general upward trend in sales in all regions the European region outperformed both Asia and North America in February March and April as you discovered earlier you can display your data another way using area charts and stacked area charts to create a new area chart select the area chart icon from the visualizations pane place it on the report section and select the month and order quantity fields from the data pane using the visualization settings change the ascending order quantity to descending order in the x-axis to highlight the increase again for a more nuanced understanding of the number of orders for the quarter you may want to display the data by individual regions to do this select the product region field from the data pane while keeping this chart selected the sales team can get a better idea of how the regions contributed to the order quantity in February March and April you can also display the values in a stacked manner you can do this by selecting the visual and then selecting the stacked area icon on the visualizations pane this allows you to display the individual values as well as the total on a single chart in all these charts you can hover over the data points to display the values in a tool tip for example a tool tip could display the exact sales figure for a specific month this tool tip is one of the four essential field wells available in many visualizations in PowerBI the other three important field wells are the legend the X and the Y-axis you can configure the titles of these axes colors and other details by selecting the paintbrush icon on the visualizations pane this will open the format tab where you can make any necessary changes line area and stacked area charts are potent tools in PowerBI that can convert complex data into easily understandable visuals learning to use these visualizations and their essential field wells can equip you to deliver effective PowerBI reports that present clear and compelling comparisons of data over time and across different categories the sales manager at Adventure Works wants a comprehensive overview of how order quantity relates to overall sales performance for the past few months while bar charts can easily display the sales or the order quantity juggling these metrics on one chart could be a visual challenge likewise line charts offer an excellent way to track changes over time but won’t show the difference between sales and order quantities by visualizing the order quantity and total sales metrics for the past few months simultaneously the sales manager can quickly identify any patterns or trends and make strategic decisions to boost sales performance this is where combination charts referred to as combo charts in Microsoft PowerBI can help in this video you’ll learn more about these charts including how to create and format them in PowerBI a combo chart is a dynamic combination of a line and a column chart allowing you to visually represent two different yet interconnected data points powerbi offers two types of combo charts a line and a stacked column chart and a line and a clustered column chart a line and stacked column chart is helpful for displaying a total across the series of data and how each individual part contributes to the total for example you could create a line and stacked column chart for the sales team using columns to visualize total monthly sales each stacked by different product regions the line represents a different but related factor order quantity on the other hand line and clustered column charts are excellent for comparing several sets of data side by side this can be useful to track and compare different metrics over the same period for instance you might have columns representing the sales of each product region by month with a line indicating the average order quantity across all regions as a PowerBI analyst combo charts are one of the many essential visualization tools in your toolbox so let’s delve into the process of adding and setting up a combo chart in PowerBI suppose you need to create a combo chart in PowerBI using an Adventure Works data set containing sales data the purpose of the chart is to provide the sales team with insights into orders for February March and April including the overall performance of each month and each sales region to create this combo chart you’ll need four data fields: month order quantity order total and product region let’s start by placing a line and stacked column chart on the report area from the visualizations pane you can resize the visualization by dragging its edges select the chart while keeping it selected open the data pane on the visualizations pane and select the month order quantity and order total fields in the column yaxis field in the visualizations pane order quantity and order total appear together select the order quantity field and drag it to the line yaxis field both the line and column visuals now appear on the inserted chart now let’s add one more field from the data pane product region the chart now has a stacked look with each colored segment representing the contribution of each product region to the order total stakeholders can now not only compare the sales performance over the quarter but also compare the performance of each region monthtomonth you can also sort the chart in ascending order to do this select the three dots on the top right corner of the chart followed by sort axis from the drop-down menu and sort ascending you can change this chart to a line and clustered column chart by selecting the chart and then selecting the line and clustered column chart icon on the visualizations pane let’s briefly explore some of the key field wells for the chart the x-axis or shared access for the line and columns displays the categories in this chart month is used as the category the line y-axis is where you place the data to be displayed as a line like sum of order quantity the column yaxis is where you place the data to show as columns like order total and finally the legend is used to add categorical fields to the chart for example the product regions when you hover over a data point with your mouse some default values for the data point display if you’d like to add additional information to this displayed data select the appropriate fields from the data pane and drag them to the tool tip area combo charts in PowerBI are yet another tool in your data analytics toolbox with your knowledge and understanding of these charts and their functionalities you can present complex and related data points seamlessly and in a visually compelling way at Adventure Works your recent report made quite an impact your manager asks you to create another Microsoft PowerBI report adding visualizations other than the area charts you used previously your team suggests using pie and doughut charts which can offer similar critical insights to area charts but are clearer when many items have the same data range as it can be difficult to identify these items correctly in an area chart this is where pie and donut charts can be helpful in this video you will learn about these charts and how to use them in your PowerBI reports pie and donut charts are two types of visualizations available in PowerBI these charts which are circular and cut into slices provide a way to represent data proportionally while pie and doughut charts are useful for comparing different categories they become less effective when comparing large amounts of categories as the slices can become too small and difficult to distinguish between choosing between a pie and a donut chart depends on the specifics of your data and your report requirements let’s explore each type of chart starting with a pie chart in a pie chart each slice of the pie corresponds to a unique category from your data set the size of each slice is directly proportional to the quantity it represents suppose you have a quarterly sales data set with a pie chart you can visually compare the contribution of each month to the total sales the larger the slice the higher the sales for that month providing your audience with an immediate and intuitive understanding of the distribution of sales like a pie chart a doughut chart segments are proportional to the data they represent the difference between a pie and a doughut chart is that the doughut chart is ringing shaped with a circular central space you can use this space to provide context for the surrounding segments returning to the sales data example you could use the donuts chart center to highlight total sales average sales or any other key metric you’ll learn more about this later in the course when choosing between a pie and a doughut chart to represent parts of a hole the doughut chart may be a better choice if you’d like to display additional information in the space in the center having explored pi and doughnut charts let’s uncover the steps for adding and configuring them in PowerBI imagine you need to create a pie chart using a quarterly sales data set from Adventure Works for the pie chart you need to specify at least two data fields let’s start by placing a pie chart on the report area from the visualizations pane and resizing it by dragging its edges select the pie chart and while keeping it selected open the data pane and select two fields month and order quantity ensure that month goes to the legend field and the order quantity goes to the values field you can add more data to create a more detailed pie chart or illustrate additional insights for example you may want to examine the total order quantity by region to do this select the product region field from the data pane and ensure that it goes to the details field now the pie chart slices display the total order quantity sold in February March and April for Asia Europe and North America you can sort this chart by order quantity to display the slices in size order to do this select the three dots in the top right corner of the chart select sort axis and then sort ascending you can also visualize this data using a donut chart which also shows the relationship of parts to a whole to convert the pie chart to a donut chart select the pie chart while it is still selected select the doughut chart icon on the visualizations pane unlike a pie chart the center of the doughut chart is blank this allows space for additional information that can provide context for the surrounding segments to make your charts more interactive and display more data when presenting them to your audience you can enable drill mode for example select product category from the data pane and then select the drill down icon to turn on the drill mode ensure that product category goes to the legend field there is no visual change if you add the product category field when the drill mode is off once you turn on drill mode you can display the additional details by selecting each slice for example if you select the slice that displays the total sales in April more information is displayed to return to the main chart select the drill up icon in the dynamic world of data analytics the correct visualization can make all the difference pi and donut charts offer clean effective ways to visualize and compare proportions to illustrate the relationships within your data by using these visualizations in PowerBI you can present clear and engaging presentations you’ve been exploring the range of visualizations that Microsoft PowerBI offers one of these is a tree map chart like a pie or donut chart tree maps are another helpful tool in PowerBI for illustrating your proportional data however instead of circles tree maps use rectangles to display your data you might be wondering why do I need another chart if they serve a similar purpose using different chart types can enable you to make the best use of space in your reports and add variety by displaying data in new and exciting ways in this video you’ll become familiar with tree map charts understand their applications and how to craft them in PowerBI to create insightful presentations a tree map is a unique visual used to display hierarchical data or data that’s organized in a treelike structure as nested rectangles the entire chart represents the total data set or tree and each rectangle or branch represents a portion of the whole tree each rectangle’s size corresponds to the value or size of the data it represents while pi and doughut charts are familiar and widely used to represent data proportionally they have limitations for example pie and donut charts can become cluttered and difficult to read when dealing with many categories or variables or when the differences between data points are small however the design of a tree map chart allows for easier visualization and interpretation of larger data sets its rectangular nested structure means it can handle more data points without becoming overly complex to illustrate this pie chart represents sales at Adventure Works across Asia Europe and North America for one quarter when you convert the same chart to a tree map it becomes less cluttered and the information is presented in a more readable way now let’s create a tree map chart using a quarterly sales data set from Adventure Works let’s start by placing a tree map chart from the visualizations pane on the report area you can resize it as required by dragging the edges to create a tree map chart you need three fields to add data fields select the chart while keeping it selected open the visualizations pane and select month order total and product region from the data pane this visual automatically directs the selected data fields to the appropriate field wells month to the category well product region to the details well and the sum of the order total to the values well if you are not satisfied with this automatic selection of the field wells you can manually drag the data fields to the appropriate field well let’s compare this tree map chart to a pie chart created using the same data there is a legend in the pie chart which is absent in the tree map chart because the month names are already displayed in each branch inside the tree a separate legend is not required also the pie chart displays the data values by default which are missing from the tree map chart you can enable the data values in a tree map chart to do this select the chart and open the format tab on the visualizations pane select data labels to turn on the data values now the tree map chart displays the values beside the month and the region name similar to a pie and donut chart you can add more fields to the tree map chart and enable drill mode to add more data fields select the data field order status from the data pane while keeping the tree map chart selected a drill down arrow icon appears on the top right hand corner of the chart select the drill down icon to enable the drill mode then select any branch to display the detailed information making it interactive if you’d like to return to the main less detailed visual you can select the drill up arrow icon you can also customize your tree map by changing the font size of the category and data labels and colors of the categories to do this open the format tab on the visualizations pane then open the data and category labels section here you have the option to change colors and the font sizes of your chart as needed tree mapap charts offer a unique approach to displaying hierarchical data allowing for efficient use of space clear comparisons and effective handling of larger data sets while pi and donut charts are popular knowledge of tree map charts provides an added layer of flexibility and depth to your reports you now know what a tree map is and how it can elevate your data storytelling and presentation skills well done imagine you are in a sales meeting presenting a chart focusing on employee turnover rates at Adventure Works while this chart may help management understand why employees are leaving the company or make resourcing decisions it is not useful in the context of the sales department that’s because the chart is not representing a key performance indicator relevant to the sales department such as total sales revenue previously you discovered the importance of creating targeted charts to help stakeholders make informed decisions these charts are tailored based on the key performance indicators or KPIs relevant to different departments in this video you’ll learn more about visualizing KPIs by exploring the elements available in PowerBI to display KPIs in an engaging way kpis differ from regular charts and metrics because they align directly with strategic business objectives instead of simply presenting raw data KPIs offer insight into how that data impacts overall business goals and progress a well-designed KPI visual helps stakeholders clearly understand organizational or departmental goals and the metrics that signify progress by providing a concise summary of complex data KPI visuals make it easier and more efficient for stakeholders to comprehend a business’s overall performance progress and key metrics this empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions and implement datadriven strategies to promote successful business performance microsoft PowerBI offers a range of visualizations to display KPIs including cards multirow cards gauges and the KPI visual let’s explore each of these visuals and their uses the card visualization displays one value or a single data point this type of visualization is ideal for representing essential statistics you want to track on your PowerBI dashboard or report for example you could use a card visual in a sales dashboard to provide a snapshot of the total sales revenue enabling stakeholders to gain instant insight into overall financial performance next is the multirow card visualization that displays one or more data points with one data point for each row another visualization you can use is the radial gauge this visual is a circular arc that displays a single value measuring progress toward a goal or target or indicates the health of a single measure although radio gauges can highlight critical insights in a visually appealing engaging way they take up a lot of space compared to the insights they provide let’s examine the structure of this visual powerbi spreads all the data values evenly along the arc from the minimum leftmost value to the maximum rightmost value the default maximum value is double the actual value you should specify the target minimum and maximum values using the corresponding field wells in the visualizations pane to create a realistic gauge chart that represents your data the shading in the ark represents the progress towards your target and the value underneath the ark represents the progress value lastly the KPI visual in PowerBI is a powerful tool for tracking the performance of a metric against a target the KPI visual also includes a trend line or chart to show the data’s trajectory over time in this case the chart is showing the daily sales trend against the target of $10,000 it displays an indicator that shows whether the performance is above or below the target for example this KPI visual clearly indicates that the total sales amount on the last day is falling behind the target the KPI visual usually has three field wells indicator which is the primary measure you are tracing trend axis which shows how the indicator is performing over time and target goals which represents the benchmarks you are trying to achieve you’ll place the relevant measures or fields into these field wells to represent your data accurately and comprehensively with the chart key performance indicators act as a health checkup for a business providing stakeholders with insights into their progress toward reaching business goals by using PowerBI’s card multiro card gauge and KPI visuals you can make KPIs quick and easy to understand that means stakeholders can make informed decisions and reach their goals faster suppose you’re a data analyst at Adventure Works as the financial year ends you need to provide management with a report analyzing sales trends and financial performance across regions throughout the year ribbon and waterfall charts in Microsoft PowerBI can help you achieve this goal in this video you will learn about these specialist charts and how to use them in your PowerBI projects a ribbon chart is a form of stacked chart for visualizing data that changes over time and has a clear ranking order these charts stack the highest ranked series at the top of the chart making it easy to track shifts in the rankings over time they are also helpful for comparing the performance of different categories across distinct time intervals in the adventure work scenario management wants to understand the sales ranking of various regions throughout the year this ribbon chart effectively conveys how the different sales regions performed compared to each other and how their sales rankings varied from February to April waterfall charts show a running total as PowerBI adds and subtracts values these charts are useful for understanding cumulative effects in data analysis and visualization cumulative effects refer to how an initial value is affected by a series of positive or negative sequential factors events or changes over time for example a waterfall chart can be used in financial analysis to visualize how a company’s net income results from a cumulative effect of various financial elements including revenue costs and other factors like taxes this waterfall chart depicts how adventure work sales total changed from February to April for the different product regions showing a general upward trend with this visual stakeholders can intuitively grasp the overall sales performance as well as easily compare and contrast the contributions of each month and the regions to the sales total over time now let’s take some time to explore how to configure ribbon and waterfall charts in PowerBI you can start with a blank PowerBI file this data set contains sales data for Adventure Works across different regions over time let’s place a ribbon chart from the visualizations pane on the report area you can resize it as needed the aim of the ribbon chart is to demonstrate the change in sales value and ranking changes in categorical data like product regions and month so you’ll need to include three data fields to display the data properly while keeping the chart selected open the data pane and select the relevant fields month product region and order total ensure that month goes to the xaxis field product region to the legend field and order total to the y-axis field none of these fields is optional when creating a ribbon chart you can sort the category fields by selecting the three dots on the top right corner of the chart followed by sort axis let’s select sort ascending to ensure the months are sorted in the correct order note that each month has two distinct areas on this chart first is the actual sales value for each region the other shaded area shows how that region performed compared to the previous month’s data for example by hovering over this shaded area for Europe in April the tool tip reveals that Europe’s sales rank changed from second in March to first in April you can create a waterfall chart using the same process as you followed with the ribbon chart alternatively you can convert the ribbon chart you created by selecting it and then selecting the waterfall chart icon from the visualizations pane there are four field welds in this waterfall chart category breakdown order total and tool tips ensure that month goes to the category field which defines the x-axis and shows the individual positive and negative values then ensure the product region goes to the breakdown field which represents different segments in the category however unlike ribbon charts this field is optional in waterfall charts lastly ensure the order total goes to the yaxis field this field denotes the yaxis values to calculate the running total if there is a decrease in the sales total the waterfall chart displays red areas to observe this you can sort the chart in descending order by selecting the three dots in the top right corner then selecting sort axis and sort descending each month shows the total sales and how these regions are performing compared to the previous month’s data you can find out additional information about this performance using the tool tips field by hovering over any of the red or green areas you learned about two specialized charts in PowerBI ribbon and waterfall charts ribbon charts help represent rankings and their shifts over time which is ideal for sales performance analysis across categories waterfall charts on the other hand are perfect for breaking down the cumulative effects of various factors providing clear insights into financial performance these charts are impactful visualizations for complex data sets the sales manager at Adventure Works has noticed a recent decline in online sales despite continued marketing efforts and website traffic concerned that marketing strategies may not be converting leads into sales the marketing team asks you to create a visualization that represents the customer journey from lead or interest in the product to actual sales they’d like to gain insight into dropoff rates between the stages and identify areas they can improve their marketing strategies to improve sales performance funnel charts in PowerBI are one type of visualization you can use to represent the progression of data through different stages like a sales workflow in this video you’ll learn about funnel charts and how to implement them in PowerBI the funnel visualization displays a linear process that has sequential connected stages where items flow sequentially from one stage to the next funnel charts are commonly used in business or sales contexts they are well suited to visualizing data that’s sequential and moves through at least four stages where you expect a greater number of items in the first stage than in the final stage the charts can help reveal bottlenecks such as where a significant number of items are being lost are not moving forward in linear processes in addition you can use them to calculate a potential outcome by stages such as revenue sales or deals and track conversion and retention rates these rates relate to how many potential customers move through each stage of the sales process and stay in the process similarly you can use them to track the progress and success of click-through advertising campaigns now let’s take a moment to examine an example funnel chart representing the stages of a sales workflow each bar in the chart represents a stage the customer goes through during the sales process it begins with the lead stage at the top of the funnel representing customers interested in a product or service the qualify solution and proposal stages follow where these leads are evaluated for their potential presented tailored solutions and then sent formal sales proposals lastly the finalized stage is where the lead agrees to the proposal closing the sales deal each stage in the chart decreases as the lead conversion process progresses creating a funnel shape the narrowest part of the funnel represents the leads that resulted in actual sales now that you know more about funnel charts and their uses let’s explore how to create and configure a salesfunnel chart in PowerBI for the sales team at Adventure Works you’ll start with a blank PowerBI file the data set contains sales data including information about the lead conversion stages let’s start by placing a funnel chart on the report area from the visualizations pane you can resize it as needed keeping the chart selected open the data pane and select two fields sales ID and conversion stage ensure that conversion stage goes to the category field well and sales ID to the values field well category defines the stages of the process and values assigns the numeric data to each stage notice the shape of the funnel the highest value is displayed on the top gradually displaying the lower values each of the horizontal bars in a funnel chart is called a stage as mentioned before this is the typical pattern of the sales conversion process many people are identified as potential leads in the first stage but the number gradually decreases as they finally become the customer if you hover your mouse over each stage it displays information that compares to its previous stage and the highest or the first stage you can use the tool tips field well for providing this additional information when hovering over a specific stage you can format the colors of each stage whether to reflect your brand colors or improve readability and aesthetic appeal to do that go to the format tab on the visualizations pane and open the colors section then turn on show all and select the color for each stage you can also sort funnel charts in reverse order where the lowest value shows at the top and the highest value at the bottom you can do that by selecting the three dots icon at the top right corner of the chart then sort a access and sort ascending funnel charts are an invaluable tool for presenting sequential or staged data these charts provide a clear and concise visualization of various stages of a process such as a sales pipeline or customer journey enabling you to identify trends bottlenecks and opportunities by incorporating funnel charts into your PowerBI reports you can provide stakeholders with a comprehensive view of essential data supporting more informed and strategic decisionmaking suppose Adventure Works has been facing a steady decline in its profitability for some months marketing has invested heavily in advertising across multiple platforms and has run several promotional campaigns to boost sales the company is struggling to understand the relationship between its advertising spend and its sales revenue in this video you will learn about scatter charts their purpose and configuring them in PowerBI scatter charts are a powerful tool in data visualization they use dots to represent values obtained for two variables in a data set plotting these two numeric variables along two axes scatter plots help illustrate how one factor is affected by another representing correlations between the variables the relationship between the variables can be linear follows a straight line nonlinear follows a curved line or random scatter charts can help you identify trends patterns and perhaps most importantly anomalies like outliers in your data anomalies refer to deviations from the general pattern of the data outliers are a type of anomaly where valid data points significantly differ from other observations deviating from the general data trend they tend to lie far away from other data points in a scatter chart for example in a scatter chart representing the relationship between sales revenue and advertising spend at Adventure Works you might expect the data points to show a positive correlation where higher advertising spend is associated with more sales an outlier would be a data point representing unusually high sales revenue and low marketing spend this data point is worth investigating as it may indicate an effective marketing strategy able to generate revenue beyond what is expected based on the amount of money spent on marketing a keen eye for outliers is essential because they can dramatically skew statistical measures and data distributions though they might seem problematic at first outliers often carry vital information about the process under investigation or the data gathering mechanism they can help businesses gain valuable insight into potential issues or areas for improvement and optimization let’s help Adventure Works investigate the relationship between their advertising spend and sales revenue by creating a scatter chart the company can also explore any outliers using this chart enabling them to quickly identify issues areas for improvement and exceptional successes let’s use an imported data set containing Adventure Works sales and advertising expenditure data for this task to understand how various advertising media are performing with their advertising budget against the sales revenue you need to compare two fields the sales revenue and profit margin you need to identify each of these items via their campaign ID and platform type start by opening the report view place a scatter chart in the report area by selecting the scatter chart icon from the visualizations pane and resize accordingly while keeping the chart selected open the data pane and select these four fields campaign ID profit margin sales revenue and platform the campaign ID should go to the values field these represent your individual data points the profit margin goes to the xaxis field the sales revenue goes to the yaxis field and the platform goes to the legend field the x and yaxis field wells contain the data fields to compare against each other to display more data when hovering over a data point drag the advertising spend field from the data pane to the tool tips field now hover over any data point to see the updated tool tip this scatter chart is visualizing the correlation between marketing spend and sales the data points or markers are shown as dots you can manually change the size of these markers if needed by opening the format tab and the markers section the data points behaving as expected are closely gathered in the chart creating a cluster there are three outliers instantly evident this makes it easy to investigate these data points and gain insight into what caused the deviations from the expected pattern the data point in the leftmost corner represents a campaign that has an unusually high advertising spend compared to its sales revenue this is not in line with the trend seen in the other campaigns where a lower advertising spend usually correlates with a higher sales revenue marketing can use this insight to make decisions around resourcing for example reallocating the advertising budget to campaigns that are not underperforming in contrast the data point in the middle represents a campaign demonstrating a substantial deviation from the expected trend with a low advertising spend yet an unusually high sales revenue likewise for the data point on the top right corner sales revenue is exceptionally high given its relatively low advertising spend this campaign outperforms all others in terms of sales despite the minimal investment in advertising stakeholders can investigate these outliers to gain insight into the successful strategies and optimize other campaigns two additional field wells for scatter charts in PowerBI are worth noting the size field enables you to change each marker size dynamically it provides insight into how additional factors are affecting the data points for example let’s drag the advertising spend data field to the size field on the visualizations pane notice how the size of the data points change with the dot in the leftmost corner being the largest and the dot in the top right corner being the smallest the size of these points is now representing the advertising expense you can also add animation to your chart by adding a data field to the play axis for example let’s drag the advertising spend field to this play axis the chart now displays as a video like a player with a play button when you play it will animate each data point and display advertising spend in the top right corner this is useful for engaging audiences during presentations in this video you discovered scattered charts in PowerBI a type of visualization you can use to represent the relationship between two variables scattered charts are a powerful data visualization tool for uncovering outliers providing insights into trends and patterns and assisting datadriven decision-making they are an essential part of any data analyst’s toolkit congratulations you’ve completed the first module of this course creating reports in Microsoft PowerBI this week you are introduced to the different types of visualizations in PowerBI and how to add them to reports and dashboards with an emphasis on the significance of visualizations in presenting valuable insights to stakeholders you started the week by exploring the course overview and structure as part of your course introduction you set up your PowerBI environment and online account preparing you for the course exercises you also explored the importance of visualization and analysis in the context of business intelligence using real world scenarios and terms to enrich your understanding next you were introduced to visualizations in PowerBI starting with an overview of their importance in business intelligence you discovered the power of visualizations to simplify vast and complex data uncover patterns and trends enable detailed investigations of data make data accessible to and engaging for all kinds of stakeholders and communicate your analysis insights effectively you also explored creating visualizations in PowerBI a process that involves connecting to your data sources extracting transforming and loading your data selecting your visualization types and mapping data elements to different aspects of the visuals arranging the visualizations on the report page and finally sharing your report you learned how to apply visualization items to a basic report and were introduced to some common business reports you then familiarized yourself with the visualizations pane in PowerBI gaining hands-on experience in creating your own business report a sales report for Adventure Works you also explored how to pin visualizations in PowerBI in order to empower stakeholders to access key insights quickly encourage collaboration and promote a datadriven culture in your third lesson you delved deeper into basic visualizations in PowerBI you explored bar and column charts line and area charts combo charts pie and donut charts and tree map charts you not only learned how to create these different charts but also when and how to use them for maximum impact and effective data representation you also had the opportunity to practice your new skills by completing various activities and tasks using different chart types plus you discovered how important it is to target your data visualizations based on the needs of your audience with the basic visualizations covered you moved on to some of the specialist visualizations in PowerBI you learned about key performance indicators which are measurable metrics linked to an organization’s objectives and their vital role in business you were introduced to cards multi-roll cards gauges and KPI visuals visualization types in PowerBI that you can use to represent KPIs in business reports kpi visualizations provide stakeholders with a snapshot insight into overall performance and progress towards goals you also learned about ribbon waterfall funnel and scatter charts including their different purposes and how to configure each of them in PowerBI you then had the opportunity to put your knowledge to good use by creating a performance report for the marketing team at Adventure Works configuring visualizations that showcased relevant KPIs and answering realworld questions about performance over time you are now equipped with essential data visualization techniques and report creation skills in PowerBI you will build on your learning thus far discovering how to enhance the user experience and accessibility of your reports keep up the momentum and ensure you use the quizzes and additional resources to further consolidate your learning you’re a data analyst at Adventure Works a company that relies heavily on data analytics for decision-making the company recently added some talented individuals to its sales team including Logan who is visually impaired and uses screen reading software to access digital content soon after joining the team Logan realizes that the Microsoft PowerBI reports he receives are not entirely compatible with his screen reader he finds it difficult to interpret the visuals and graphics and there are some components that he cannot access recognizing the potential impact on Logan’s performance and the ability of the sales team to make datadriven decisions his manager immediately alerts the data analytics team while their reports are comprehensive and visually appealing the team has neglected the critical aspect of accessibility in this video you’ll learn about accessibility in data and reporting its importance in the business context and designing PowerBI reports that are accessible and inclusive to all in the context of digital systems accessibility refers to products applications websites and tools designed to allow all users to use them effectively regardless of whether they have any disabilities accessibility practices cover a wide variety of elements to ensure the usability and inclusivity of digital content this includes enabling digital content compatibility with assist of technology or AT which is used to increase maintain or improve the functional capabilities of people with disabilities such as Logan’s screen reader powerbi supports many accessibility standards that help ensure your PowerBI experiences are accessible to as many people as possible among these standards are the web content accessibility guidelines commonly known as WUKAG that help ensure web content is accessible to people with disabilities according to key principles of these guidelines web content including information user interface components and navigation should be perceivable operable understandable and robust or interpretable by a wide range of user agents including assist of technology implementing accessibility features in PowerBI reports can enhance the audience’s experience and comprehension of your reports in several ways firstly accessible reports promote inclusivity by designing PowerBI reports with accessibility in mind you ensure everyone can interact with and understand the data regardless of any limitations this results in a more inclusive and equal environment accessible reports also improve usability the practices used in creating accessible reports such as providing clear and concise titles adding alternative text descriptions for visuals and implementing keyboard navigation typically results in a better user experience for everyone in addition you can cater to different user learning and processing preferences by using various channels or methods to present information like text visuals audio and tool tips multimodal presentation can enhance comprehension and engagement for a wider audience accessibility features can also promote a clear interpretation of the data presented using techniques such as tool tips or descriptive titles can provide more context and reduce the chances of misinterpretation of the data finally accessible reports ensure compliance with various jurisdictional laws and regulations regarding digital content accessibility this keeps your organization within the legal framework and builds trust with your audience to promote accessibility which is vital in data and reporting PowerBI offers a variety of features for designing accessible reports powerbi visuals are fully keyboard navigable and compatible with screen readers facilitating user interaction and navigation powerbi also supports high contrast themes ensuring better readability plus users can use focus mode to expand visuals improving visibility and view data in a screen reader friendly tabular format with the show data table option for users with difficulty with color like color blindness you can use markers to convey different series in visuals like line or area charts similarly PowerBI supports pattern fills in visuals like pie or bar charts which you can use in addition to or instead of solid colors it also has some built-in report themes that consider accessibility guidelines when choosing colors and themes you need to ensure that there is enough contrast between text and background colors and be aware of color combinations that are difficult to distinguish you can add alt text which refers to alternative text descriptions to the visuals in your reports to make them more accessible alt text conveys essential insights even if users cannot see your visuals adding descriptive titles and labels to your visuals also enhances their accessibility as well as their understandability and usability finally some users may have motor difficulties and rely on assistive technologies that for example use keyboard commands for reading and interacting with your report content you can set the tab order of reports to help keyboard users navigate them in an order that matches the way other users visually process the report visuals in this video you discovered the importance of making PowerBI reports easy to use for all users and how to design accessible PowerBI reports which you’ll explore in more detail as you progress through the course accessibility ensures you follow the rules about being fair and inclusive makes your reports easier to use and helps everyone understand your data the usability and understandability of your reports play a vital role in communicating analysis insights and ultimately for stakeholders like Logan to apply data insights to decisions in the business context knowing the importance of accessible reports you need to include features that make your Microsoft PowerBI reports accessible to everyone in this video you’ll learn how to configure and format visualizations to improve accessibility let’s start by adding alt text or an alternative text description to a pie chart visual in an existing report for Adventure Works this is especially useful for people with visual impairment because screen readers can read this text when they select a visual to provide alt text for any object in a PowerBI desktop report start by selecting the object in the visualizations pane select the format section expand general scroll to the bottom and fill in the description in the alt text text box this text box has a limit of 250 characters alt text should include information about the insight that you would like the report consumer to take away from a visual because screen readers read out the title and type of visual you only need to add a description related to the data and main point of the visual for example alt text for this pie chart could be sales figures for February March and April in Europe North America and Asia combined next let’s explore how to set up tab order to improve accessibility by ensuring easy keyboard navigation navigate to the tab order page of the report to set the tab order select the view tab in the top ribbon in the show panes panel select selection in the selection pane choose tab order to display the current tab sequence for your report you can select an object then use the up and down arrow buttons to move the object in the hierarchy you can also select an object with your mouse and drag it to the position you’d like in the list now let’s move on to working with titles and labels to increase accessibility for visuals in your reports make sure that any titles access labels legend values and data labels are easy to read and understand let’s navigate to the titles and labels page of the report and compare the two-line chart visuals the visual on the left has no legend or access labels this makes it difficult to comprehend the insights the chart is meant to convey by including a legend the report consumer now knows which line in the chart corresponds to which product region and including the axis labels of February March and April makes it easier to interpret the trends in the data over time you can also add data labels to your charts to do that select the visual select the format section and find the data labels toggle and turn it to on turning data labels on for this chart displays the order total amount for each month along the lines representing the product regions this makes it easier for the user to interpret the visual at a glance with data labels you can even choose to turn on or off the labels for each series in your visual as well as position them above or below a series while PowerBI does its best to place data labels above or below a line sometimes it isn’t clear for example in this visual the data labels are jumbled and not easy to read to change the default position expand the data labels menu and select above or under from the position drop- down list positioning your data labels above or below your series can help ensure clarity especially if you’re using a line chart with multiple lines with a few adjustments the data labels are now clearer you learned that markers can also help to convey information in visuals like line area combo scatter and bubble charts adding markers improves accessibility by not only relying on color for users to interpret your visual and distinguish between data points for example different series in a line chart to turn markers on select the visual then the format section in the visualizations pane next expand the shape section scroll down to find the show markers toggle and turn it to on the line chart is now displaying markers to change the shape of the markers for each line separately select the format tab and expand markers from there select any series from the series dropdown and change the shape and size of the markers from the shape section lastly let’s explore the focus mode and show data option in PowerBI when a report consumer is examining a visual in a dashboard they can expand it to fill up more of their screen by selecting the focus mode icon in the context menu of the visual this displays only the selected visual allowing for better presentation and focus to return to the main report area select the back to report button to view the data in a visual in a tabular format select the three dots icon on the top right corner of the visual followed by the show data table in the visual context menu this displays the data in a table that is screen reader friendly you can also switch the layout to vertical or horizontal by selecting the layout button on the top right corner of the visual in this video you learned how to format visuals to improve accessibility and use various accessibility features in PowerBI integrating accessibility features improves inclusivity by ensuring users can access and interact with your content and can enhance the overall comprehension and usability of your reports your manager Adio asked you to design a report highlighting critical data within a table visual he wanted you to display data bars with sales figures for immediate recognition and to differentiate specific rows based on their data values for increased readability to implement this request you discovered PowerBI’s useful feature conditional formatting this feature enables the customization of charts based on diverse data criteria enhancing report readability and user engagement in this video you’ll learn about the conditional formatting feature in PowerBI and how to apply it to visualizations conditional formatting is a feature that allows you to apply specific formatting to cells or rows in a table or matrix based on specific conditions this feature is significant when you have vast amounts of data and want to highlight certain elements that meet specific criteria for example if the total profit displayed in a table was a negative value indicating a loss you could highlight this by using conditional formatting to change the value to a red color other visuals also support conditional formatting for example you can format a bar chart so that if the sales target for a specific product category goes beyond a certain threshold that category’s bar will change color conditional formatting offers many benefits it provides immediate insights allowing users to quickly spot trends anomalies and focal points without going through a vast amount of data one by one a more visually appealing report particularly one with colored data or data bars in a table can enhance user engagement making the information more accessible and readable in addition relying solely on manual analysis can result in users missing crucial details however with conditional formatting vital data points are automatically highlighted significantly reducing the potential for errors now let’s explore how to add conditional formatting to a table visual which offers excellent support for conditional formatting select the table visual from the visualizations pane you can resize it as needed in the report view now select the month product region order status order quantity and order total fields from the data pane from the format tab expand style presets and select the alternating rows preset from the drop- down menu if you’d like to resize the columns you can drag the column corners as needed you can also change the column headers by doubleclicking the fields in the column well on the visualizations pane let’s rename sum of order quantity to order quantity and sum of order total to order total now let’s show data bars using conditional formatting data bars display on columns with numerical values like order total or order quantity in this table to show the data bars rightclick the order total field in the column well on the visualizations pane select conditional formatting and select data bars this will display the data bars dialogue box in this data bars dialogue box you can select a color for positive and negative bars positive bars will display when the value is positive and negative bars when the value is negative select the colors and select okay the data bars will display in the order total field with your selected colors you can also change the background color of a cell using conditional formatting let’s try this with the order status column say you want to change the background color when the values are shipped cancelled and processing respectively to do that rightclick the order status field in the columns well on the visualizations pane select conditional formatting then background color this will show the background color dialogue box where you can set the conditions to apply specific formatting type shipped in the value text field and change the background color then select the plus new rule button to add a new rule in this new rule type cancelled and change the background color add one more rule and type processing and change the background color select the okay button and the table will update with the new conditional formatting instantly remember that you can add as much conditional formatting to each field as you want in this video you discovered how to implement conditional formatting in a table visual conditional formatting in PowerBI is an effective feature that you can use to enhance the clarity and usability of your visualizations making your data easily accessible and increasing visual appeal and user engagement during a recent project review you presented a report you carefully designed to the Adventure Works marketing team the presentation went smoothly engaging the audience with crucial data insights however Renee the marketing director noticed that the visual elements of the report didn’t align with the company’s brand colors and style guide renee asked you to update the design elements of the report to reflect the company’s brand aesthetics as you started selecting each individual item and manually adjusting their colors it was clear that this would be a tedious time-consuming task luckily your manager stepped in demonstrating how themes in Microsoft PowerBI could simplify the task at hand and save you a lot of time and effort in this video you will learn more about themes in PowerBI and working with them in your reports themes in PowerBI are predefined sets of colors fonts and visual styles that you can apply to your reports easily and quickly they ensure visual consistency across different reports and can save significant time that would be otherwise spent customizing individual items you can customize themes to align with company color schemes and design guidelines this can help enforce a strong brand identity in your reports and create a more impactful and professional appearance using themes in PowerBI can enhance accessibility in a variety of ways powerbi offers theme customization options you can use to cater to specific accessibility needs such as high contrast themes for users with visual impairments you can also enhance readability by using themes that employ distinct and consistent colors assisting users in differentiating between various data points and categories plus PowerBI provides built-in themes to help make your report more accessible for example by offering themes with colors that are easy to distinguish and visible to colorblind users this can broaden the accessibility of your reports to a more diverse audience not to mention a well-designed theme ensures that reports are userfriendly and easier to interpret let’s take a moment to explore how you can apply these themes in PowerBI you can choose report themes by going to the view ribbon in the themes section select the drop- down arrow and then select the theme you want to apply to your report these themes are similar to themes seen in other Microsoft products such as Microsoft PowerPoint here you can also find accessible themes which you can utilize to create accessible reports select a theme to apply it to your report instantly if you would like to customize the appearance of your PowerBI reports in the future changing the theme allows you to update all your visuals at once for more options you can also browse the collection of themes created by members of the PowerBI community by selecting theme gallery from the themes drop- down menu this opens the themes gallery in your browser in the themes gallery you can select any theme then scroll down and download the JSON file for the theme to install the downloaded file select browse for themes from the themes drop-down menu go to the location where you downloaded the JSON file and select it to import the theme into PowerBI desktop as a new theme this theme will instantly apply to your current report you can customize a theme directly in PowerBI Desktop to do this select a theme that is close to what you’d like you can then customize the theme by making any necessary adjustments to customize a theme from the view ribbon select the themes drop-own button and select customize current theme a dialogue appears where you can make changes to the current theme you can then save your settings as a new theme there are customizable theme settings in various categories you can name your custom theme and define color settings customized text settings such as font family size and color and visual settings which cover background border header and tool tips and adjust page elements like wallpaper and background as well as filter pane settings including background color transparency font and icon color size and filter cards after you make your desired changes select apply to save your theme you can now use the theme in your current report it will also be available in the custom themes section in the themes drop-down menu in this video you learned about themes in PowerBI using themes can significantly enhance the efficiency consistency and accessibility of your reports enabling you to effortlessly maintain a uniform look that aligns with brand guidelines learning how to use and customize themes is an essential skill that’ll help you make visually appealing easy to understand and professional reports quickly you need to present this quarter’s sales data to Adventure Works management team the data you’re dealing with is multifaceted and includes information like product categories regions stores periods and various performance metrics like total sales average sales and profit margin you include various charts and graphs that visually represent the overall sales trends regional performance and product category performance in a dashboard for management however the team also wants more granular and contextual information like store specific performance and individual product performance within categories due to the dashboard’s highle design displaying all these detailed data points could clutter the dashboard and overwhelm users you can use PowerBI’s tool tip feature to deal with this in this video you will learn about how this feature can improve the accessibility of your PowerBI reports and how to add custom tool tips you learned that tool tips in PowerBI display additional information about the data being displayed in your visuals when users hover over different data points you can create custom tool tips by adding extra items to the tool tips field well for a visual tailoring the content to the needs of your report users tool tips can contribute to improved accessibility of PowerBI reports and dashboards in various ways tool tips allow you to provide an extra layer of detailed information without cluttering the dashboard for example hovering over a specific region in a regional performance chart could show the top performing and bottom performing stores within that region this can make complex charts and graphs more accessible to all users including those with cognitive disabilities you can customize tool tips to provide contextspecific details for instance when a user hovers over a bar representing a product category in a bar chart the tool tip can display the top three best-selling products within that category for visually impaired users descriptive tool tips can provide crucial information that might not be readily accessible from the visualization screen readers can read out tool tips making the data more understandable for those with visual impairments tool tips are included in the show data table option for every visual tool tips can also support users that find distinguishing between different segments or lines in a chart based on color challenging such as colorblind users detailed tool tips can help these users by providing the necessary information when they hover over parts of the visualization even if they cannot visually distinguish between the colors users can discover new insights and patterns with tool tips in turn they may facilitate users who need additional support to interpret the visualizations and ensure insight clarity you can also use tool tips to explain or define the metrics and measures used in the visualizations enhancing users understanding of the data a further benefit of interactive features like tool tips is that they can make the data exploration process more engaging increasing user engagement lastly tool tips can help maintain a clean minimalist design in the dashboard by minimizing visual distractions tool tips ensure you don’t overwhelm the dashboard with additional details this allows users to focus on highle trends and patterns and explore details when necessary aiding their overall comprehension of relevant insights now that you know more about tool tips and how they can support report accessibility let’s explore how to configure and customize them in PowerBI if you hover over this ribbon chart PowerBI displays a tool tip that contains contextual information useful for understanding the visual for example hovering over this faded area shows various performance indicators for the Europe sales region such as monthly order totals and rankings the tool tip can also display other information related to this data point if you hover over the solid color it provides the month region name and the sum of order total you can customize this tool tip say for example some stakeholders want additional information related to order quantity and product stock to add this information select the visual open the visualizations pane and scroll to the tool tips field well drag order quantity from the data pane to this well powerbi will automatically convert it to sum of order quantity you can further customize a tool tip by selecting an aggregation function select the arrow beside the field in the tool tips well then select from the available options like sum average minimum maximum and many others as per your requirement you can repeat this process for product stock once tool tips are added to the tool tips well hovering over the same data point on the visualization also displays values for the sum of order quantity and sum of product stock you can also change the position of these fields in the tool tip by dragging them in the tool tips field well in this video you discovered how to add tool tips in PowerBI and how they can make your reports more userfriendly and accessible ultimately tool tips help add extra details without cluttering your dashboards and reports this feature can improve clarity and data comprehension and ensure all users including those with cognitive disabilities or visual impairments can access vital information the sales team at Adventure Works wants a comprehensive overview of their bicycle sales performance from overall company performance down to specific product models and different sales representatives setting up a hierarchy in a Microsoft PowerBI data model is a neat way to organize and explore related data from a general view to specific details in this video you’ll discover more about hierarchies in reports and how to create well ststructured hierarchies in PowerBI so that users can easily explore data at various levels of detail in your reports data hierarchies are a way to organize and structure your report data and visuals in PowerBI hierarchies group related data items by hierarchical relationships while you do not need to organize your data in PowerBI using hierarchies it can make it easier for users to understand the data and the connections between different components hierarchies in PowerBI also support data exploration making it possible for users to navigate from high-level data overviews to more detailed information these hierarchies enable drill mode in your visuals empowering users to drill down into detail within the same visualization or report for example PowerBI automatically creates a date hierarchy when importing date columns from data arranging dates from more general to more specific such as year quarter month and day in a data set with timebased sales data a hierarchy like this enables users to explore the sales totals from a broader point of view such as yearly sales to a more detailed one such as sales on a particular day let’s explore hierarchies further by considering the example of an adventure works data set containing sales records you can create a hierarchy by organizing the data points into a structured framework that starts with bike as the main category and further breaks down into subcategories which you can break down further into specific product names this way stakeholders can understand the overall sales of bikes at a glance and explore the data at a more detailed level such as the sales performance of mountain bikes versus road bikes or the sales performance of individual products similarly for a data set containing geographical sales data you can structure the data according to the hierarchy of continent country city area this way report users can drill down into the data by geographic level from exploring global trends to examining local successes or difficulties so how can you create hierarchies like these in PowerBI let’s take a moment to explore the process you can start by importing your data set in this case the adventure works sales data set into a blank PowerBI report you don’t need to transform any data then select the sales table followed by the load button if you open the data pane you will notice that PowerBI has automatically created a hierarchy with all the date fields such as estimated delivery date and order date for example if you expand order date then date hierarchy it shows the dates organized according to year quarter month and day how can you create a hierarchy of your own let’s create a hierarchy for product related data using the product category product subcategory color and product name fields imagine how this hierarchy should be constructed the product category should be the overarching or main category at the top rightclick the product category field in the data pane and select create hierarchy from the context menu this will immediately create a new item in the data pane called product category hierarchy if you expand this item the product category field is nested inside it to add more fields to this hierarchy right click on a field for example the product subcategory and select add to hierarchy from the context menu then select the newly created product category hierarchy the product subcategory field will be added to the product category hierarchy following the same process let’s add product color and product name fields to this hierarchy you can remove any field from the hierarchy by right-clicking on it and selecting delete from model you can instantly add a table visual to your report area by checking the check box before the hierarchy on the data pane you can resize this visual as needed alternatively you can create a visual and then apply the hierarchy to it select the tree map visual from the visualizations pane and resize it as needed while keeping it selected mark the checkbox of the product category hierarchy in the data pane now select the order quantity field the tree map visual will be ready with drill down mode instantly and you can dig down into as many levels of data as you want you can turn the drill down mode on by selecting the down arrow on the top right corner of this visual and make the report interactive understanding report hierarchy enables you to organize data for yourself and the stakeholders working with the report you’re creating hierarchies facilitate an understanding of how different data fields relate making the data less confusing and more userfriendly with hierarchies users can start with the bigger picture and smoothly zoom into different levels of detail as needed empowering them to make a range of informed decisions imagine you are asked to design an interactive visual for a report that displays crucial information while allowing users to delve into any chart element and engage more deeply with the associated data points users should have the flexibility to navigate through multiple layers and return to the main report as needed while drill down only allows users to navigate from a broader to more detailed level within the same visualization with PowerBI’s drill through feature users can navigate from a visualization to a separate detailed report page focused on the selected data point in this video you’ll learn how to configure the drill through feature in a PowerBI report for Adventure Works let’s start with a pie chart displaying total sales figures by month this visual provides stakeholders with a way to compare monthly order totals at a glance suppose you want to direct users who require more detail about sales performance to a separate page that displays the sales data broken down by region and order status you can add a new page to your report by selecting the plus icon at the bottom to add a page title doubleclick on this new page title and type regional sales add a table visual to the page and resize it accordingly then select month from the order date hierarchy order quantity order status and product region the table is now displaying all of this data at once so how can you have users land on this new page because the pie chart displays total sales by month you can link the table to the chart using the shared month field while keeping the table selected drag the month field from the order date hierarchy to the drill through field well notice how a back button is added above the table visual you can now press the control key on the keyboard and select this button to return to the main report returning to page one in our report area when you right click on any slice of the pie chart for example April a new item in the context menu called drill through displays select regional sales and notice how the table is now showing only the sales records for April returning to the main report if you rightclick on the March slice and select drill through followed by regional sales you are shown the regional sales table for only March’s sales data suppose some stakeholders also want insights into the performance of different categories of bikes let’s create a new page that displays the data by bike categories sold in every month and link it to the main chart using the drill through feature add a new page and rename it bike categories select a card visual resize it as needed and select month from the order date hierarchy on the data pane dragging it into the fields well next select a multirow card and resize it as needed select the order quantity and product category fields on the data pane drag the month field to the drill through well to link the new page to the main chart now let’s return to the main page and explore the new addition if you select any slice for example March there are two items available under the drill through menu in the context menu if you select bike categories you will be taken to the bike categories page but now data is showing for only March you can add as many pages as you need and link them to other report pages using the drill through feature in PowerBI in this video you learned how to use the drill through feature in PowerBI this feature is essential for professional and real life business data visualization enabling you to create multi-page reports with easy navigation allowing users to dive deeper into the data as needed without sacrificing clarity in reporting and visualization sorting and filtering functions can help users better understand the data presented in reports highlight patterns and trends and focus on information that’s relevant to them in this video you’ll discover how to apply and manage sorting and filtering features in PowerBI with PowerBI you can sort or order the data in your report visuals based on different data fields like ascending or descending order for example in a report on sales performance sorting a column chart depicting sales performance by region in ascending order makes it easier for stakeholders to identify the lowest and highest performing sales regions an unsorted visual can create confusion and make the visual unreadable and difficult to understand consider this line chart showing sales trends for the quarter the chart is sorted by sales amount by default and the months are not presented in logical chronological order if you do not sort the visuals by month users might have difficulty understanding or misinterpret sales performance over time as at a glance it seems like sales are declining however when properly sorted by month it is clear that sales increased in all three regions over time there are also many filtering options available to you when creating your reports filtering enables you to select specific data points or subsets of data as needed to ensure the data presented is relevant and clear this is helpful for excluding certain values when representing your data with different visuals for example this report displays the combined total of orders from different sales regions it includes all types of orders including cancelled orders or those still being processed in this example you may want to use filtering to exclude these data fields if you add an order status filter to show only the numbers for orders that have been shipped the picture changes dramatically by filtering out canceled orders and orders still being processed stakeholders can focus on completed orders and gain a better overall picture of actual sales performance in the different regions now that you know more about the sorting and filtering features let’s explore how to use them in PowerBI you can sort any chart in PowerBI by data fields in a variety of orders depending on your needs to sort select the three dots on the top right corner of the visual followed by your preferred sorting method some visuals like this line chart give you the option to sort the legend as well arranging the different categories presented in the legend in a particular order other visuals like this pie chart offer only sort access which refers to sorting data points along the horizontal or vertical axes in a particular order from the axis you can select various data fields and then also select to sort them in ascending or descending order let’s sort the stacked column chart in the bottom left corner of the report by month currently it is sorted by order quantity in ascending order select the three dots on the top right corner of this chart select sort axis then month followed by sort ascending the chart is now sorted by month in ascending order beyond sorting PowerBI offers powerful filtering capabilities there is a filters pane that you can use to apply different filters to the whole report page as well as individual charts let’s filter the line chart in this report to show the order total for the shipped orders only notice the filters on this visual section in the filters pane let’s filter the line chart in this report to show the order total for the shipped orders only here you can select relevant fields and apply filtering for example you can exclude Asia from this line chart by selecting the product region and then checking every region excluding Asia the line chart will update instantly it now displays sales data for Europe and North America only you can also add other filters like order status here drag the order status field from the data pane to the add data fields here box now check shipped the line chart will update and display the order total for only shipped orders instead of individually applying filters you can apply filters on all chart items at once from the filters pane unselect any chart item by selecting a blank area on the page and open the filters pane if it’s not opened yet notice the section called filters on this page this is where you can drag the relevant data fields and set filters for all visuals on the report page let’s drag the order status field from the data pane to this section and check shipped notice how all visuals on this page reflect this change instantly if you have a multi-page report you can apply filters to all pages by dragging any field to the filters on all pages section in the filters pane and then by setting the filters you can also remove a filter anytime by selecting the field you want to remove in the filter pane followed by the cross or X icon in the top right corner in this video you explored sorting and filtering discovering how these can provide stakeholders with a clearer picture of their data these features are fundamental to data analysis and reporting in PowerBI applying sorting and filtering to your visualizations makes it possible for stakeholders to focus on the vital relevant data points enabling faster datadriven decision-making imagine you’re presenting a report to key decision makers at Adventure Works one visual displays sales across a quarter while another portrays product categories arranged in descending order based on the number of orders the stakeholders request more interactivity in the report for example by selecting a specific month on the sales chart they wish to see corresponding product categories emphasized in the other chart this provides clarity on which products sold the most during a particular month microsoft PowerBI’s cross filter and cross highlight functionalities make it possible for you to emphasize related data across multiple charts or remove unrelated data in this video you’ll learn about these exciting features and how to use them in your PowerBI reports cross filtering refers to the practice of selecting an item or data point on one visual which in turn filters out unrelated data in another visual it creates a relationship between two separate visuals such that a selection in one visual affects the data shown in another for example with cross filtering selecting the mountain bikes column in a report will filter the table visual to display only sales data related to this product category the other product categories are no longer shown with cross highlighting when you select a data point in one visual it highlights the related data in other visuals instead of filtering out unrelated data this is the default behavior for most visuals in PowerBI to illustrate with cross- highlighting selecting the mountain bikes column in one chart highlights the sales of mountain bikes in February March and April for each region in the stacked bar chart unlike cross- filtering it still displays unrelated data however it’s dimmed or faded let’s take a moment to explore these cross filter and cross highlight features in PowerBI in this report there are four different visuals displaying various sales data let’s start by examining how default cross highlighting works in PowerBI using the stacked bar chart in the top left corner if you select any region for example Europe it highlights the bar related to Europe and dims the other bars notice how all other charts instantly reflect your selection and highlight data that is related to your selection in the stacked bar chart the bright areas represent data related to Europe and the dim areas represent data from other regions you can press the shift key on the keyboard and select multiple regions or even multiple units in the stacked bar chart every time your selection changes the other charts respond automatically by highlighting the related data take note that the table visual behaves differently rather than fading the irrelevant data it hides them based on your selection this is called cross filtering to clear your selection you can select the selected item again to return to normal view if you select data points on any of the charts on this page the other charts will cross highlight based on your selection instantly for example if you select mountain bike on the stacked column chart in the top right corner the other charts respond just remember that cross- highlighting means irrelevant data will remain visible but dimmed and cross filtering means irrelevant data will be hidden you can change the default behavior of interaction in PowerBI reports from cross- highlighting to cross filtering to do that select the file menu options and settings and then options this opens the options dialogue box from here select the report settings from the left sidebar and then check change default visual interaction from cross highlighting to cross filtering in the visual options section and select okay now if you select mountain bike on the stacked column chart notice how the stacked bar chart on the left reacts it is not showing the dimmed areas anymore and is displaying data related to the mountain bikes only in other words cross filtering hides all sales data unrelated to mountain bikes based on your selection in the other visual cross filtering and cross- highlighting are powerful features in PowerBI that can enhance the clarity and effectiveness of your reports having the ability to enable one chart to influence another you offer a more interactive and intuitive experience for report users this approach not only makes your report more dynamic but also simplifies the data analysis process as you create more interactive reports for your audience filtering data becomes increasingly important at Adventure Works the CEO asks you to set up a sales report that she can use in a presentation with the company’s shareholders next week you want to make this report as useful as possible for the CEO but unfortunately her schedule is busy between now and the presentation you know she will be filtering data but cannot predict every filter she will apply however you know that she’ll most likely filter the data by region and product this is a perfect scenario to use a slicer in Microsoft PowerBI in this video you’ll learn what a slicer is how it works and how to apply slicers to your reports a slicer is a great way to apply common filters to a report page quickly when added to a report you can use the slicer to display a list of commonly used or most important filters the slicer can be displayed in multiple formats depending on the field on which the slicer is filtering for example if you apply the slicer to a field with text data type the slicer can display as a list of unique entries in that field similarly if you apply the slicer to a field with a date type the slicer can be displayed as a date range selector however no matter which format the slicer is displayed in the underlying behavior is the same the slicer provides a list of filters that users can apply to the visualizations in the report when a filter is selected the visualizations will immediately update to reflect the filtered data it is important to note that you do not need to connect every visualization in a report to the slicer as a PowerBI data analyst you can configure which visualizations are impacted by the slicer selected filters you can also synchronize multiple slicers so that when a slicer applies a filter other slicers on different pages are updated to reflect the selected filter this is useful when filtering through multiple layers of data for example if you had one slicer for regions on a sales page and another slicer for regions on a costs page when you select a specific region the region is selected on both slicers this helps improve the user experience as filtering remains consistent as you navigate multiple pages of the report now let’s explore how to configure a slicer in a PowerBI report let’s begin with an existing sales report for Adventure Works the report has two pages sales summary and sales detail on the sales summary page you need to apply two slicers one for region and one for products let’s start by adding the region slicer navigate to the visualizations pane and select the slicer icon then select the slicer in the report and navigate to the data pane in the data pane select the region field in the region table notice that the slicer now lists all of the sales regions of Adventure Works if you select the entry for France in the slicer this will apply a filter for sales data belonging to France notice that when you apply the filter the visualizations update immediately next let’s add the slicer for products again navigate to the visualizations pane and select the slicer icon select the slicer in the report and navigate to the data pane this time select the product field in the product table the slicer now displays the lists of all products now let’s confirm that each visualization is connected to the slicers to do this navigate to the format option in the ribbon menu and select edit interactions each visualization will show a filter icon indicating that filters are being applied if you want to disconnect the slicer select the none icon in the visualization remember that you can synchronize the slicers across pages to reflect the current filter context let’s configure two slicers to synchronize with each other first I’ll create the same region slicer in the second page of the report by adding the slicer visualization and again applying the region field from the data pane next navigate to the view menu and select sync slicers this opens the sync slicers view select the region slicer in the report it is now displayed in the sync slicers view expand the advanced options drop- down menu enter the name of a group you want this slicer to belong to for this scenario let’s name the group region there are two additional options here sync field changes to other slicers and sync filter changes to other slicers for this report you need to select both options as you want to sync the slicers with each other when the viewer interacts with them and also for maintainability purposes so that if you change the filtered field in the data pane both slicers will update now select the region slicer in the first page and navigate to advanced options again once again enter the group name region while you can enter any name for the group you must name it consistently if you misspell the group name on a slicer it won’t synchronize correctly again select sync field changes to other slicers and sync filter changes to other slicers now it’s time to test the report when applying a filter using the region slicer for example by selecting France the visualizations on the first page update now when you navigate to the second page the region slicer on this page is already set to France and the data is filtered you learned about adding slicers to PowerBI reports in this video slicers are a dynamic tool that you can use to enhance the interactivity of your reports while also improving the user experience as you design reports for different audiences it is essential to consider their filtering needs and identify common or important filters to apply the world of apps has rapidly expanded over the past decade from apps on your mobile phone to apps in the web browser on your desktop with people already familiar with the app experience what if you could make your reports more app-like this could improve the user experience for your target audience immensely and encourage them to interact with and use the reports you build microsoft PowerBI comes with a built-in set of buttons that you can add to your reports to increase interactivity from navigation between pages to quickly applying filters in this video you’ll discover more about buttons and how they’re invaluable in your toolkit for building interactive reports buttons in PowerBI come with many configurable options the two most common configurations you will work with are the visual style and the action you can change the visual style of buttons to different shapes such as rounded rectangles pillshaped and arrows you can also change the colors of the buttons and their text if the business you work for already has other applications these options help you align with potential existing app and user experience guidelines the action of the button is how it behaves when a user interacts with it let’s explore the different options available back returns the users to the previous page of the report this action is useful for drill through pages bookmark allows users to capture or bookmark a particular state in the report it presents the report page that’s associated with a bookmark that is defined for the current report you’ll learn more about this later drill through navigates the user to a drill through page filtered to their selection without using bookmarks page navigation also involves navigation without using bookmarks it navigates the user to a different page within the report q&a opens a Q&A explorer window when your report readers select a Q&A button the Q&A explorer opens and they can ask natural language questions about your data apply all slicers and clear all slicers buttons apply all the slicers or clear all the slicers on a page lastly web URL opens a web page in a browser these buttons provide different means through which users can engage with your reports let’s explore how to enhance the interactivity of a report by adding buttons this PowerBI sales report has two pages sales summary and sales detail on the sales summary page there are slicers available let’s start by configuring buttons for page navigation to add a button navigate to the insert tab in the ribbon select the buttons dropdown and choose right arrow position the arrow in the top right corner of the report select the button in the report to open the format pane the format pane allows you to configure the different options of the button for now let’s expand the action section in the format panel in the action section first select the off button so that it changes to on enabling the action next select page navigation as the type and then choose the sales details page as the destination now let’s navigate to the second page of the report again navigate to the insert tab in the ribbon select the buttons drop-down and choose left arrow in the action section select page navigation and then the sales summary page as the destination finally position the arrow in the top left corner of the report page you can test the buttons by holding the control key and selecting the buttons given that there are slicers on the sales summary page you can ensure a good user experience by allowing the report viewer to clear the slicers quickly to do this navigate to the insert tab in the ribbon select the buttons drop-down and choose clear all slicers let’s position the clear all slicers beside the slicers on the report page for ease of access now when the viewer applies a filter using the slicers they can select the clear all slicers button to reset the state of all the slicers these simple changes will help improve the user experience of the report buttons are a useful way to improve the user experience for your target audience when building your next report consider how you can use buttons to simplify navigation add filtering and provide access to the Q&A feature as you progress with your learning you’ll explore how this feature is particularly useful when building reports for mobile devices at the end of the last financial year Adventure Works conducted a customer survey to determine how happy customers were with the way the company handled product orders and deliveries unfortunately a common complaint was that it took too long for orders to arrive after being placed to investigate the possible causes of this delay you have created a report in Microsoft PowerBI that tracks data from different sources including storefront orders warehouse fulfillment and courier delivery because you plan on sharing this report with multiple departments you know each department will want to filter the data specifically to align with their responsibilities rather than expecting users to apply complex filters they are unfamiliar with to isolate the data they’re looking for your manager suggests using the bookmarks feature to make this data easily accessible to them in the next few minutes you’ll learn what bookmarks are and how to add them to your reports in PowerBI bookmarks in PowerBI are a way to capture the current state of the report you are viewing and share this state with other viewers for example if you apply filters to a report you can save the filtered state as a bookmark viewers can then select the bookmark and the report will change to the filtered state you established when adding a bookmark there are four state options that you can save data properties such as filters and slicers display properties such as visualization highlighting and visibility current page changes which present the page that was visible when you added the bookmark and selecting if the bookmark applies to all visuals or selected visuals in the adventure works example bookmarks will enable different users to focus on different parts of the data without setting up filters every time you can also highlight specific insights and create customized views relevant to the different departments by default all states are saved for all visuals if you modify a report after you create a bookmark any visualizations not present when you created the bookmark will appear in a default state so remember if you change a report you should make sure to update your bookmarks to reflect the changes given that bookmarks in PowerBI are excellent for creating tailored interactive reports that users can easily navigate and extract crucial insights from it’s essential to know how to create them let’s take a moment to find out let’s start by filtering data in an existing sales report in PowerBI with two pages sales summary and sales details let’s filter data related to the France sales region by selecting France in the region slicer next let’s filter further by selecting the Mountain 200 Black 38 model in the product slicer now that the report is in a filtered state let’s create a bookmark to do this select view in the ribbon menu and then bookmarks this opens the bookmarks panel to create the bookmark select the add button this saves the state and creates a new bookmark with a default name to rename the bookmark select the three dots beside its name and select rename for this bookmark let’s rename to France if you don’t want the bookmark to open the current page you can select the three dots beside the bookmark again note that current page has a check mark beside it indicating that it is enabled for the bookmark to disable it select current page now let’s test the bookmark clear all slicers so that the report is reset if you open the bookmark panel again and select the bookmark you can observe the filters reapplied to the report bookmarks in PowerBI empower you to streamline data exploration and customize and tailor reports based on user needs by capturing states of reports such as data and display properties bookmarks allow different users to filter and focus on specific aspects of the data easily bookmarks are also a valuable tool for enhancing interactivity and creating tailored user-friendly reports that can support datadriven decision-making adventure Works has embraced the datadriven decision-making unlocked by Microsoft PowerBI however as you’ve continued building and updating various reports you’ve identified a significant time cost to maintaining them and when you need to add new visualizations to the company’s many reports moving all the existing individual visualizations is very timeconuming the lead data analyst suggests grouping the visualizations to make maintenance easier this video will demonstrate how to group and layer visuals to improve maintainability let’s start with an existing Adventure Works sales report the report has four visualizations sales revenue by region sales revenue by month sales units by region and sales units by month to make maintenance more manageable let’s create two groups one for the sales revenue visualizations and one for sales units visualizations to do this first select the sales revenue visualizations by holding down the control key and selecting the two visualizations then navigate to the format tab in the ribbon menu and select group next select the two sales units visualizations by holding down the control key and selecting them again navigate to the format tab in the ribbon menu and select group notice that now when you select and move the sales revenue by product visualization the sales revenue by month visualization moves too this is because they are grouped you can view all existing visualizations and groups using the selection pane to open the selection pane navigate to the view tab in the ribbon menu and select the selection button the groups created in this video are listed under the layer order tab in the selection pane inside each group are the visualizations that belong to the group to improve maintainability let’s rename the groups let’s doubleclick the first group’s name and rename it sales revenue similarly doubleclick the second group’s name and rename it sales units the ordering of groups and visualizations is important in the pane as this determines how the elements are layered for example moving the sales revenue group to overlap the sales units group results in this group displaying under the sales units group visually to change the visual order you can select the revenue group in the selection pane and select the upward arrow so that it moves above the units group in the layer order now suppose after reviewing the groups with a colleague you conclude that managing the visualizations as a single group would be better in the selection pane you can select and drag both sales units visualizations in the units group to the revenue group notice that the units group is automatically removed as there are no more visualizations belonging to it let’s add a title to the report page which is now more maintainable through its grouped visualizations and descriptive group name select the insert tab in the ribbon followed by text box in the text box add the text sales detail then select all the text in the text box and change the font size to 24 now let’s organize the layout of the report select and drag one of the visualizations and the group will move move the group to the bottom of the report page then move the report title to the top of the report and adjust its sizing as more pages are added to a report and future updates are made time is saved by organizing visualizations into groups in this video you discovered how to group and layer visuals in PowerBI grouping visualizations is a crucial activity for improving the maintainability of reports make sure to consider the benefits of grouping visualizations and how to implement groups effectively when designing reports in PowerBI data analysis expressions or DAX is a powerful language for creating custom calculations however DAX is contextsensitive so it’s important to understand how context influences the reports you build with it in this video you’ll explore how visualizations impact DAX context adventure Works is analyzing its total annual revenue the company needs to identify its total revenue based on different product categories as part of its analysis once the analysis is completed the results must be delivered to management as a visual presentation adventure works can use DAX filter context in visualizations to perform its analysis and create its reports let’s begin with a recap of what we mean by the term context in Microsoft PowerBI in data analysis context comes in two primary forms row context and filter context row context refers to the table’s current row being evaluated within a calculation whereas filter context refers to the filter constraints applied to the data before it’s evaluated by the DAX expression in other words you can determine which of your reports rows or subsets should be included or excluded from the calculation the interaction between DAX evaluation context and visualization is crucial for creating dynamic and interactive reports and dashboards each time you interact with the data like selecting a portion of a chart or an item in a slicer you alter the filter context let’s consider an example to find out more about how this works adventure Works can create a DAX measure of profit margin and then create a visual in the report canvas from this measure the visualization displays the profit margin of the entire data set because that is the current context let’s learn more by exploring how Adventure Works make use of DAX filter context in its visualizations adventure Works begins its analysis of its product categories by creating a DAX formula that calculates the sum of the quantity of each product sold multiplied by the unit price in the sales table when executed the formula computes the sum of all sales amounts the result of this formula is that Adventure Works has sold $3.5 million worth of goods over the past year however when this measure is added to a PowerBI report as a visual like a bar chart for example it isn’t very engaging it offers limited insight into the sales data by displaying only the total revenue the visuals become more engaging and display meaningful insights when used with filter context for example Adventure Works could generate more useful insights by comparing or contrasting total sales revenue across product categories by comparing sales of bicycles to other categories Adventure Works discovers that bicycles outsell all other products by a considerable amount adventure Works can still view the total revenue but each of these revenue figures now has a meaning which is the total revenue for each product category powerbi is displaying the sum of all sales within a specific product category but now it’s computing different values for different cells because of the evaluation or filter context total sales by category adventure Works can enhance these visuals further by using the year category from the date table as another filtered context or attribute once this context is applied a new visualization is generated each table cell shows a different value even if the formula is always the same you can place multiple fields in both rows and columns this is because both the row and column sections of the table define the context as you discovered earlier the interaction between the DAX evaluation context and the visualization alters the filter context interaction affects DAX calculations and alters the results in the visualizations let’s explore this process using an adventure works data set now that Adventure Works has calculated its annual total sales it creates two slicers in its report one for the region and the second for the month when a specific region is selected the profit margin measure recalculates and the chart dynamically adjusts adventure Works can also select a month to implement month as an additional filter on top of region the measure now displays the profit margin value for a specific region in a specific month the contextsensitive nature of DAX is a powerful feature it enables dynamic calculations based on the context in which DAX computes the formula by understanding how context impacts DAX you can create more accurate insightful and dynamic reports to tailor to specific business scenarios congratulations on completing the navigation and accessibility module of the data analysis and visualization with PowerBI course this module taught you essential skills for creating accessible well ststructured and interactive reports let’s recap what you accomplished you started with how to design accessible reports you discovered the significance of accessibility and the many benefits of implementing accessibility features in PowerBI such as improving your reports inclusivity usability and understandability you learned about some of the PowerBI features that can support the accessibility of your reports including keyboard navigation and tab order screen reader compatibility accessible themes and high contrast support focus mode and displaying data in a screen reader friendly table format markers and pattern fills and alt text titles and labels you explored how to enhance accessibility by formatting and configuring your visualizations using these accessibility features learning how to design reports that cater to a diverse audience who can all access and comprehend the information you present conditional formatting was a key focus empowering you to apply dynamic rules to your visualizations that enhance their clarity and usability you also engaged with themes in PowerBI and the ways they can enhance the accessibility of your reports such as enhancing readability in addition to other benefits such as visual consistency and enhancing clarity and brand identity in the process you learned how to apply configure and customize themes in PowerBI to further guide your journey you were introduced to best practices for designing accessible reports you then put your newfound knowledge of accessibility into action by applying formatting themes and design best practices to create an accessible report for Adventure Works you went on to learn how to enhance the accessibility of your reports even further by adding custom tool tips to your visualizations you also explored the many ways tool tips can improve accessibility in your reports such as making the data more accessible to users with visual impairments as tool tips are screen reader compatible and making complex charts more understandable to users including those with cognitive disabilities next you focused on report navigation and filtering you began by comprehending the concept of report hierarchies and learned how to configure them effectively in your reports these hierarchies empower users to drill down into your data as needed encouraging user interaction and engagement and enhancing user understanding you also learned how to configure PowerBI’s drill through feature which empowers users to navigate from a visualization to a separate detailed report page focused on the data point they select another key area of exploration was sorting and filtering data which are fundamental to data analysis and reporting in PowerBI you gained proficiency in applying and managing these techniques in PowerBI reports to enhance data presentation and exploration and highlight relevant insights you were then introduced to the concept of cross filtering and cross highlighting providing you with the knowledge to configure interaction behaviors for visualizations improving the interactivity of your reports whereas cross highlighting highlights the related data in other visuals when a user selects a data point in one visual cross- filtering filters out or removes the unrelated data from the other visuals you applied your skills by sorting and filtering marketing data in a report emphasizing and contextualizing the importance of sorting and filtering in the real world after that you took your PowerBI reporting skills to the next level with an indepth exploration of creating highly interactive reports you discovered the dynamic nature of slicers and how they can contribute to enhanced report interactivity plus you explored using buttons to add more interactivity to your reports and learned how to customize them to suit your needs you learned how to improve user experience and storytelling in your reports by adding bookmarks as well as how to add URLs to enrich your PowerBI reports further grouping and layering visuals provided a way to efficiently manage the visuals in your reports making report maintenance more efficient you put your skills into action by creating an interactive report demonstrating your proficiency in using the drill through button slicer and bookmark features finally you recaped the importance of filter context in DAX measures and how it impacts visualizations throughout this module knowledge checks were strategically placed to assess your understanding of key concepts covered in relation to designing accessible reports navigating and filtering data effectively and creating interactive reports keep up the excellent work and get ready to explore designing accessible dashboards and data sharing bringing you closer to becoming a proficient PowerBI data analyst and visualization expert the marketing director at Adventure Works receives an overwhelming number of data reports monthly sales numbers customer demographics market trends and product performance metrics all need to be analyzed and interpreted and she needs your help doing this luckily you know about dashboards a tool in Microsoft PowerBI that can help transform this data into valuable insights but what is a dashboard and how does it differ from a report in this video you’ll explore the concept of dashboards in a business context you’ll discover their importance functionalities and how they serve as key tools in data analysis and decision-making processes let’s start by exploring what a dashboard is consider the dashboard of a car it presents critical data like speed fuel level and engine temperature in a consolidated visually understandable way this information allows you to make necessary decisions while driving similarly in the business context a dashboard visualizes the critical information required to accomplish specific objectives skillfully arranged and consolidated on one screen for example a sales dashboard for Adventure Works might display total sales sales by region top selling products and trends over time dashboards can present data from different sources in various forms making it easier for stakeholders to understand they are interactive and real time allowing users to in essence have a conversation with their data and drill down into specific details when needed say you notice an unusual sales spike in one region at Adventure Works with an interactive dashboard you can delve deeper into the data inspecting the specifics of the sales transactions identifying the products involved and even the key customer demographics contributing to this sudden surge dashboards play an important role in today’s competitive business world where informed decision-making is vital to success with dashboards you can transform raw data into actionable insights providing a comprehensive view of business performance at a glance dashboards can serve as an essential navigational tool for tracking various aspects of business performance for example for Adventure Works dashboards can bring the different threads of data on sales trends production efficiency customer behavior and market dynamics together presenting a comprehensive view of the overall health and trajectory of the business suppose there’s a sudden drop in sales in a specific sales region without a dashboard recognizing this issue would require sifting through vast amounts of sales data a time-consuming process with the potential for oversight however a well-designed dashboard can quickly highlight this anomaly triggering a timely investigation and corrective action dashboards also play a vital role in promoting a culture of transparency and accountability within an organization they act as unbiased databacked mirrors that reflect the true performance of different business units against set targets and benchmarks by doing so dashboards can foster a sense of ownership and accountability among team members encouraging continuous improvement dashboards make data accessible to everyone break down barriers and encourage data sharing between teams as well as promote a shared understanding of business performance across departments but what is the difference between a dashboard and a report though often used interchangeably dashboards and reports serve different purposes in Microsoft PowerBI a report in Microsoft PowerBI is highly interactive users can slice and dice the data drill down into details apply filters and explore various facets of the data within the report itself in essence a PowerBI report provides an indepth interactive multi-perspective view of a specific data set or topic it’s like an exploratory journey through your data a dashboard on the other hand is like a summary or highlight reel of one or more reports it’s a one-page overview of the most important metrics or KPIs selected from the various pages of one or more reports a useful way to consider the difference between a dashboard and a report is to compare it to a news bulletin versus an indepth news article the news bulletin or dashboard provides key highlights summarizing the most essential points if a particular news point catches your attention you can read the full news article or report for a more detailed understanding as you continue your data analysis journey remember that the true power of data lies not in its volume but in its usability both dashboards and reports are vital navigation tools in the sea of data they provide visibility drive accountability facilitate understanding and ultimately inform decision making addio your manager at Adventure Works asks you to create a dashboard in Microsoft PowerBI that highlights key performance indicators and insights from a sales analysis report you and your team created this screencast will explore how to create and configure a dashboard in Microsoft PowerBI as well as how to configure the mobile view for the dashboard and customized themes previously you learned that a dashboard is a consolidated display of multiple visualizations reports and other data in a single layout to create a dashboard open your Microsoft PowerBI service and navigate to your workspace in the left navigation pane then from your available workspaces select the adventure works workspace let’s create a new canvas where you can pin your visuals on the top left corner select new and then select dashboard a popup appears asking you to name your dashboard let’s name it Adventure Works Sales Dashboard after typing the name select create once you have created your dashboard you can start adding visuals return to your workspace and open the sales report you and your team created each visualization in your report has a pin icon in the top right corner select the pin icon for the total sales by product category bar chart this opens a dialogue box where you can choose where to pin this visual select your newly created Adventure Works sales dashboard from the drop-down menu the bar chart is a good starting point for your dashboard as it provides a broad overview of sales distribution by product category then pin the monthly sales trends line chart this chart shows the sales pattern over time which is critical for identifying seasonal trends or growth patterns in the modern business landscape having mobile accessible data is key with PowerBI’s mobile layout feature you can configure your Adventure Works sales dashboard to be mobile friendly ensuring stakeholders can access insights on the go to switch to mobile view go to the main navigation bar find and select the edit menu from the drop-down options select mobile layout to switch the view from desktop to mobile once you select the mobile layout your screen adjusts to replicate a mobile devices screen size now instead of a wide canvas it displays a vertical layout this canvas is blank but don’t worry all your visuals are safe and where you left them you just need to decide which visuals to show on the mobile layout and where to place them a list of all the visualizations in your dashboard is displayed on the right side of your screen each visualization has a pin icon next to it to select the visuals you’d like to appear in the mobile layout select the relevant pin icons selecting these pins indicates the visuals you’d like to appear in the mobile layout you can select and drag each visualization to move it around on the canvas you can also resize each visualization by dragging its edges finally let’s explore how to change the theme for the Adventure Works sales dashboard start by navigating to the Adventure Works Sales Dashboard you just created in the upper menu find and select the edit menu this opens a drop-own list of view options select dashboard theme another drop-own list appears select switch theme a popup window displays various pre-made themes you can apply to your dashboard choose a theme that you feel best visually represents the data and select it then select save the theme is now applied to your dashboard and you’ll immediately observe the changes in color and style applied across all your visualizations and there you have it you now know how to create a dashboard configure the mobile view and customize your dashboard theme foundational knowledge that is vital to using dashboards in PowerBI and conveying key insights from your reports with its large scale of operation Adventure Works generates immense data volumes daily as a data analyst your role involves harnessing this data making sense of it and transforming it into insights that inform strategic decision-making but with such a large mass of data where do you start microsoft PowerBI has the answer it’s quick insights and Q&A features over the next few minutes you’ll discover how to optimize the usability of your PowerBI dashboards by adding quick insights and utilizing the Q&A feature you’ll also learn how to set up quick insights and integrate the Q&A feature into your dashboards quick insights is a feature in PowerBI that automatically searches data sets to discover and visualize potential insights it identifies patterns trends outliers and other useful insights that may not be immediately obvious for example uncovering sales patterns to help the marketing team at Adventure Works target their campaigns more effectively quick Insights not only presents the insights in an easy to understand format but also explains how it arrived at these insights this way even if you’re new to data analysis you can follow along and gain a solid understanding of the data let’s explore the steps to set up and use the quick insights feature in PowerBI open your Microsoft PowerBI service and navigate to your workspace on the left hand side of the screen here different data sets and reports shared with you are displayed select the data set or report you want to analyze open or select the ellipsus menu and get quick insights to initiate the automated analysis powerbi starts an automatic scan of your data during this process the function applies various machine learning algorithms and statistical functions to your data set it searches for potential patterns trends correlations outliers and other interesting attributes this process can take a few minutes depending on the size and complexity of your data set after the scan you can access the insights by selecting view insights this will lead you to a new page filled with cards each insight card visually represents a particular pattern or trend in your data hover over the visuals or select them to display more details this is where your data interpretation skills come into play in this case you have to understand what each of these visuals represents and how it relates to the Adventure Works business context if you find any insight particularly useful or wish to share it with others in your team you can pin it to a dashboard to do this hover over the card and select the pin icon in the top right corner of the card then select the dashboard you want to pin it to or create a new one now let’s move on to the Q&A feature the Q&A feature is a natural language processing tool in PowerBI it allows you to ask questions about your data in plain English and provides answers in the form of charts graphs or simple numeric results this feature is invaluable in the business context because it allows users of all levels to interact with their data and find specific answers without requiring deep technical knowledge the key advantage of the Q&A feature is its flexibility you ask questions ranging from simple questions like “What was the total revenue last quarter?” to more complex ones such as “Which product had the highest sales growth rate last year?” The more you use the Q&A feature the more it learns and adapts to your question style offering even more relevant and precise answers over time let’s explore how to set up and use the Q&A feature in PowerBI at the top of your dashboard there’s a field ask a question about your data this is the Q&A box place your cursor in the box to ask your question type your question in normal conversational language as you type PowerBI Q&A will start offering suggestions and autocomplete options based on the data in your dashboard for instance if you’re interested in sales trends you could type “What were the total sales last month?” or “Show sales by product category.” As soon as you finish typing your question PowerBI Q&A generates an answer in the form of a data visual such as a bar chart line graph or table this visualization is based on the best interpretation the Q&A can make of your question if the interpretation is not what you intended you can rephrase or refine your question the PowerBI Q&A tool uses machine learning so it becomes smarter and more accurate the more you interact with it if the visual answer to your question is particularly useful and you want to keep it handy you can pin it to your dashboard to do this locate and select the pin icon at the top right of the visual choose the existing dashboard where you want to pin it or create a new one with quick insights and Q&A you are well equipped to bridge the gap between data and decision-making these features simplify complex data analysis enabling you to deliver actionable insights faster and more accurately imagine you’ve prepared stunning visuals in Microsoft PowerBI for Renee Gonzalez the marketing director at Adventure Works showcasing sales trends across different product categories you’ve pinned these visuals to your dashboard for easy reference but as you start digging deeper into the data exploring trends and cross- filtering data you come across a snag the pinned visuals are static snapshots they don’t interact or update you realize you’ve hit a roadblock that prevents you from extracting the full potential of your data analysis frustrating right you’re not alone as that’s a common issue with pinned visuals in PowerBI in this video you’ll explore the limitations of pinned visuals in PowerBI and how to overcome these limitations by setting up and pinning live reports to your PowerBI dashboard in PowerBI a pinned visual is a snapshot of a specific piece of data or chart from a report that is attached or pinned to a dashboard you can pin various things like a line chart showing sales trends over time a bar chart comparing the performance of different product lines a gauge displaying progress towards a goal or even a simple card displaying a single important number like total sales or total customers pinned visuals provide an at a glance overview of specific insights however they have certain limitations
the main limitation is their lack of interactivity you can’t cross filter or drill through data using pinned visuals which prevents you from exploring data trends in greater detail for example imagine Renee is studying a pinned visual showcasing sales trends for different bicycle product categories as she scans the data she wants to filter it by region to understand which categories are more popular in certain regions this could provide valuable insights for regional marketing strategies however the static nature of pinned visuals prevents her from cross-filtering or drilling through the data leading to incomplete insights and potentially missed opportunities for datadriven strategies so is there a way around these limitations absolutely the solution lies in pinning live reports to your dashboard instead pinning a live report means attaching an entire report page to your dashboard as a live tile unlike standard visuals pinned to a dashboard live report tiles are dynamic and maintain the interactivity of the original report this includes the ability to drill through data cross filter and view tool tips which provides a more immersive data exploration experience directly from the dashboard pinned live reports retain the original report layout and formatting making the visuals aesthetically consistent the interaction between visuals within live reports reveals relationships and patterns that isolated visuals cannot while pinned visuals offer a quick view of specific data points pinning live reports significantly enhances data exploration and analysis capabilities providing a comprehensive interactive view of your data now let’s explore how to set up and pin live reports the first step is to select the report you want to pin to your dashboard if you’re starting from scratch you will need to create a new report once you have opened your report select the reading view button on the ribbon directly above your report then select the ellipses on the far right of the ribbon followed by pin to dashboard from the drop-own menu the pin live page feature lets you pin an entire report page as a live tile on the dashboard this means the tile will continually update and allow interaction something a simple pinned visual cannot do a dialogue box asks you to choose a destination for your pinned live report you can select an existing dashboard or create a new one by typing a new name into the text box after you’ve selected the destination select the pin live button in the bottom right corner to pin your live report to the selected dashboard to view your newly pinned live report navigate to your chosen dashboard by selecting the workspaces button on the lefth hand navigation bar and selecting the dashboard where you pinned the live report now a live interactive report is directly accessible from your dashboard it retains all its interactive capabilities in the report view allowing you to filter and drill down into the data directly from the dashboard any changes you make to the original report will reflect in the live report on your dashboard ensuring real time data updates by using live reports you not only enrich your data storytelling but also create opportunities for more deeper more insightful analysis pinning live reports to your dashboard can help you turn static one-dimensional visuals into dynamic insightful narratives your manager Adio asked you to create a comprehensive report on the sales of Adventure Works product lines across different regions you have cleaned and analyzed the data and created a final report that is visually appealing and informative now you need to share the data and insights contained in the report with key decision makers in Adventure Works this is where Microsoft’s PowerBI publishing reports feature comes into play over the next few minutes you’ll discover the process of publishing reports in PowerBI let’s start by exploring what publishing reports in PowerBI means when you publish a report you move it from your local PowerBI desktop and upload it to the more accessible and collaborative online platform PowerBI service publishing a report connects you with decision makers allowing you to share your reports with colleagues your whole organization or external stakeholders who need to draw insights from the data in data analysis the purpose of creating reports is to assist with decision-making guide strategies and provide insights into business operations and for that to happen you need to publish and share the reports for example you can publish and share your report with the regional sales managers at Adventure Works this enables them to access the report through the PowerBI service where they can identify bestselling and underperforming products analyze sales patterns such as seasonal trends and then plan and focus marketing efforts accordingly furthermore a published report is not static you can set up automatic data refreshes so the report is always up to date with the latest data let’s explore how to publish reports in PowerBI publishing a report to PowerBI service from PowerBI desktop involves a series of steps let’s work through these steps the first step is to save the report since PowerBI will not allow you to publish unsaved reports select file in the top left corner of the PowerBI desktop interface and then save as to save the report choose a location on your computer and give it a descriptive name like Adventure Works product sales report select save once you’ve saved the report the publish option becomes available in the home tab of the ribbon of PowerBI desktop select publish and a new dialogue box pops up in this dialogue box indicate where you want to save the report in PowerBI service select Adventure Works as your workspace and then the select button for larger projects or collaborations you can create and select different workspaces once you’ve selected the destination PowerBI starts publishing the report a loading dialogue appears indicating that the report is being published depending on the size of the report and your internet connection this could take a few moments once your report is published a new window pops up to confirm it says success and gives you two options you can either open the report in PowerBI service or you can cancel and open it later in this case let’s select open selecting open launches the default web browser on your computer and takes you directly to your report in PowerBI service the report now displays as it will appear to other users while data analysis is about facts and numbers it’s also about communication publishing reports in PowerBI is a crucial part of the data analysis storytelling process as a data analyst your reports are pivotal in driving datainformed decisions and a vital link in the chain of business intelligence as a data analyst at Adventure Works you are tasked with reviewing and sharing sales data since Adventure Works is a multinational company the final report contains large amounts of information which you need to present in a format that is more manageable for stakeholders microsoft PowerBI allows you to pageionate and export reports as a result you can break down complex sets of results into smaller more digestible parts and share them easily in this video you will learn how to create multiple pages of content in a PowerBI report and navigate between them you will also learn how to export these pages to a PDF file in PowerBI you can organize and present your data across multiple pages within a single report which is known as pageionation a page in a PowerBI report is like a page in a book pages make it easier for the reader to navigate and understand the content for example if you have a large data set with numerous visuals presenting all of them on a single page can make the report difficult to read and interpret by dividing your report content into multiple pages you make your report more organized and easier to navigate let’s discover how to configure pageionation and export reports in PowerBI desktop with PowerBI desktop open navigate to the file menu located in the top left corner of the applications home screen once you select file a side menu appears select open report and then select browse reports to open a dialogue box navigate to the location on your computer where your PowerBI report file is stored select the file and then open to load the report now that your report is loaded you need to make sure you’re in the right view to pageionate your report a vertical pane on the left of the screen contains three views in PowerBI report data and model select report this choice is now highlighted on the bottom left of the report view screen is a tab with the name current page to add a new page select the plus sign which is the new page option to rename this page appropriately to represent the data it contains right click on the page name and select rename page you can then move visuals and report elements by cutting and pasting them from your main report to these newly created pages you can navigate between pages by selecting the tabs this allows you to organize the data in your report and makes it easier to review and understand if you need to present this report in a meeting or share it with colleagues who don’t use PowerBI you can export it to a PDF format select file in the top left corner of your PowerBI desktop screen on the menu that opens select the export option a side menu opens with the different export formats available select the to PDF option to begin the process of exporting your PowerBI report as a PDF document depending on the complexity and size of your report this may take a few seconds to a few minutes once the export is completed the PDF file will open automatically to display the result creating multiple pages and exporting to PDF can help you to produce effective PowerBI reports pageionation and exporting in PowerBI help you break down and categorize data clearly to enhance understanding and easily share insights that can drive informed decisions you’ve spent hours working on a sales report for the management team at Adventure Works and are confident that it will not only meet but exceed their expectations the feedback unfortunately is not about the insights your report offers it’s about the loading time your sales stats visuals load at a sluggish pace causing the stakeholders to become impatient despite your effort in creating the report its slow loading time overshadows its merits sounds like a nightmare right but it doesn’t have to be this is where Microsoft PowerBI’s performance analyzer comes into the picture over the next few minutes you’ll learn about the vital role of PowerBI’s performance analyzer in optimizing the performance of your reports by the end of this video you will understand why it’s important to measure current performance before implementing changes using the performance analyzer so let’s get started the performance analyzer a tool in PowerBI is designed to help you understand the load time for each visual element in your report this functionality is crucial in scenarios where a report has various visuals filters and calculations each of which can potentially impact the overall performance of the report it is critical to measure current performance before making changes to a report in data analysis just as you wouldn’t make business decisions without first analyzing relevant data you shouldn’t implement changes to your PowerBI report without understanding the current performance situation and identifying any problem areas with insights from the performance analyzer you can take targeted actions improve the performance of the lagging visuals and transform your report into a fast loading efficient tool the performance analyzer doesn’t just highlight what’s wrong it also shows you what’s right not all visuals or filters in your report will be problematic many of them might be well optimized and load swiftly recognizing these efficient components allows you to learn from them and apply those best practices to other reports or visuals now let’s dive into the interface and discover how to activate the performance analyzer in PowerBI desktop after your report is open and loaded select the view tab find and select the performance analyzer option at the top middle of the screen a new pane titled performance analyzer opens on the right side of your screen displaying buttons for starting and stopping recording refreshing visuals and exporting data the performance analyzer pane has a button labeled start recording to begin gathering performance data for your report select this button once activated the performance analyzer starts monitoring any actions taken on the report capturing useful performance metrics for each visual element on the page now that the recording has started you need to generate the actions you want to analyze this could involve refreshing a report page to load all the visuals or navigating through different report pages if it spans multiple pages you can manually refresh the page by selecting the refresh visuals button in the performance analyzer pane this action causes PowerBI to reload all visuals on the page and the performance analyzer records the performance data for each visual during this process the performance data displays in a list in the performance analyzer pane with each visual on a separate row this list contains information such as the name of the visual the duration of time it took for the visual to render the time it took to run the DAX query for the visual and more this information can help you understand how long it takes for each visual to load and render and identify any potential bottlenecks in your report expanding the row by selecting the plus icon reveals more granular details about the performance of that visual this includes a breakdown of the time it took for each operation such as the DAX query execution visual display rendering and any other operations the actual DAX query run and more the performance analyzer lists visuals in the order they were rendered on the page by default however this order may not always be the most useful when diagnosing performance issues you can reorder the list by selecting the duration column header this sorts the visuals by the time taken to render allowing you to quickly identify which visuals are taking the longest to render and could be potential targets for optimization once you’ve gathered the performance data you need you can stop the performance analyzer recording select the stop button in the performance analyzer pane to conclude the data capture you can always start a new recording session by clicking the start recording button again as a data analyst your task isn’t just to ensure that your reports are accurate or comprehensive but also that they’re efficient a well optimized report can mean the difference between insights that sit on a virtual shelf gathering dust and insights that spark change and propel a business forward in the world of data speed isn’t just a convenience it can enhance the impact of your reports lead to better decision-making and drive business success imagine you’re a data analyst in Adventure Works working through streams of data finding patterns making connections and uncovering insights that could improve business performance you’re in the middle of an exciting project where you’ve created a new complex DAX query to analyze sales performance and uncover trends but as you load your PowerBI report you’re not met with a rush of insights but rather a slow loading screen that seems to drag on forever this isn’t just frustrating it’s a barrier between you and the crucial insights needed to drive Adventure Works forward as these performance issues make your data exploration and analysis frustratingly slow you remember a helpful tool the performance analyzer in this video you’ll discover the role of the performance analyzer tool in diagnosing and resolving DAX performance issues you’ll become familiar with the process of identifying if a DAX query is causing a delay and learn how to optimize it for improved performance at the heart of PowerBI’s data modeling is DAX or data analysis expressions as you may recall DAX encompasses a wide range of functions operators and constants that you can combine to create different formulas and expressions the power of DAX lies in its flexibility with DAX you can build custom calculations within data models thereby allowing you to analyze data in unique and powerful ways however just like a powerful vehicle it requires skill and care to operate effectively and efficiently while DAX has immense analytical power it can sometimes run into performance issues these issues arise when the DAX queries that are created based on your formulas and visual configurations become complex making the engine work harder and longer to return the results for example suppose you are dealing with large adventure work sales tables that need to be sifted through your DAX formulas might be complex and inefficient or you might have a data model that’s been improperly structured regardless of the case these issues can lead to slow report loading times sluggish interactions and an overall frustrating user experience to help identify and resolve these performance issues PowerBI has a built-in tool called the performance analyzer this tool provides detailed timing breakdowns on all the various components and processes that occur when your report is refreshed it helps you spot which visuals fields or DAX calculations are taking up the most time and hence slowing your report down let’s explore how to identify and resolve DAX query performance issues using the performance analyzer once you’ve loaded your PowerBI sales report you first need to open the performance analyzer on the ribbon interface at the top of your PowerBI report locate and select the view tab within the view tab find and select the performance analyzer option in the performance analyzer pane locate and select the start recording button now it’s time to refresh your report you can accomplish this in two ways either by selecting the refresh button situated in the home tab of the ribbon interface or by directly interacting with the report interactions could be in the form of changing a filter selecting a slicer or simply navigating to a different page of the report as you interact with the report while the performance analyzer is recording it will track and document the time taken to load each individual visual item this data is crucial for diagnosing performance issues once the report has finished refreshing review the performance analyzer pane you’ll see a list of all the visual items in your report and their respective load times pay special attention to any visual items that take a significantly longer time to load compared to others for the visuals with slower load times you can drill down into the details by selecting the arrow beside the visuals names this will provide a detailed breakdown of the DAX query time and the visual rendering time helping you understand where the bottleneck lies if the DAX query time is high then your effort should be directed towards optimizing the DAX measures in this case it appears that the average sales by product category is slowing down the report performance as it has a considerably larger DAX loading time locate the average sales field from the data view on your right and select it to view the underlying DAX formula the filter and all functions used in this formula iterate over the entire data table to calculate the average sales for each product across all stores this operation becomes particularly slow when working with larger data sets to simplify the DAX formula eliminate the filter and all functions and instead use the average X function the average X is a function that evaluates an expression for each row of a table and then returns the average result however since it operates directly on the data context which is already filtered based on the report’s current context it avoids the need to iterate over the entire data table finally rerun the performance analyzer to test if the optimization was successful the advantage of applying an optimized formula is that it simplifies the calculations and reduces the computational load by avoiding the iteration over the whole data table it leads to a significant speed up in query execution you’ve now seen how seemingly simple tasks like generating a sales report at Adventure Works can become complex it’s in these complexities that you as the data analyst can create value by optimizing your DAX queries and delivering faster smoother reports you can empower stakeholders to make quick and informed decisions remember data analysis isn’t about delivering vast amounts of information it’s about delivering the right information in the right format at the right time each time your report loads a little faster or your DAX query runs a little smoother you’re not just improving a technical process you’re contributing to better faster and more informed business decisions you are now better equipped to find the hidden inefficiencies in your DAX queries confront them headon and turn them into opportunities for learning and growth adventure Works has a rich set of data from manufacturing to sales the data is vast and you are responsible for developing a comprehensive dashboard that compiles all these data sources into meaningful insights you start creating a report in Microsoft PowerBI and use DAX the formula language in PowerBI as you create complex DAX expressions you realize that the report starts to lag the calculations are getting more complex and timeconuming and you wonder if there’s a more efficient way to handle all this data without sacrificing performance in your search for solutions you discover DAX variables which are said to have the power to make PowerBI dashboards more efficient could using DAX variables be the answer to you improving your report performance in the next few minutes you’ll discover DAX variables and their importance in PowerBI you’ll also learn how to effectively implement DAX variables to optimize the performance readability and accuracy of your PowerBI reports dax or data analysis expressions is a formula language that includes functions operators and values you can combine to construct formulas and expressions in PowerBI and Power Pivot in Excel in programming and formula languages a variable acts as a storage container you can put something into it like a number or a string or even the result of a more complex expression once you’ve assigned a value to a variable you can reference that variable by its name elsewhere thus saving you the need to recomputee or refetch that stored value in DAX variables serve a similar role but with a twist catering to its analytical nature instead of thinking of them as simple storage containers think of them as computational snapshots when dealing with complex data sets like the multi-layered operations at Adventure Works recalculating the same values or expressions can be resource inensive especially if done multiple times in a single report or visualization this is where using variables in DAX for PowerBI is beneficial let’s explore the benefits of using DAX variables in more depth using variables allows for storing intermediate results complex calculations done multiple times can be stored in a variable and referenced thereafter saving computational effort and time this optimization leads to faster report rendering and performance enhancement especially in large data sets dax formulas can sometimes become quite lengthy and complex by breaking down these formulas and storing parts of them in variables the main formula becomes more streamlined and easier to read improving readability also once a value or a result is stored in a variable it remains consistent throughout the formula this ensures consistency and no variation due to repeated calculations leading to more accurate results in addition to ensuring consistency reusing variables in multiple expressions within a formula means you don’t have to recalculate or redefine commonly used values or results and provides flexibility in formula construction should there be an error or an unexpected result in your report having your formula broken down into variables makes it easier to pinpoint where things might have gone wrong instead of sifting through a long complex formula you can check variable values individually making debugging easier lastly breaking down complex expressions into smaller parts held within variables makes your formulas more transparent and easier to understand this reduced complexity can be immensely beneficial when working in teams where other data analysts or report developers might need to decipher or modify your DAX expressions for example if you were to calculate the total sales for Adventure Works in the last year and then use that figure in multiple parts of your DAX formula without variables the same total sales value might get recalculated every single time it’s referenced this redundancy isn’t just a waste of computational resources it’s a drain on performance by using a variable you compute the value once store it as a snapshot and then reference this snapshot wherever needed in your formula ensuring both clarity and improved performance now let’s examine how to use a variable in DAX to improve report performance in PowerBI let’s start by opening the existing Adventure Works sales PowerBI report once your report is open you’ll notice various panes on the screen on the right side you’ll find the data pane which lists all the tables that your report is connected to select the sales table that contains the empty sales measure upon selecting the sales measure the formula bar will open where you can start writing your DAX formulas begin the formula with the var keyword this is the starting point for declaring a variable after typing var add a space and then name your variable it’s a good practice to name your variable something meaningful for instance if you’re calculating total sales for the last 12 months you might name your variable sales_12 months next you’ll provide the DAX expression that calculates the value for the variable after the equal sign write out the DAX formula you want the variable to hold this expression calculates the sum of sales amounts over the last 12 months after defining all necessary variables the next step in your DAX measure is using the return keyword this keyword indicates the final output of your DAX measure after performing calculations using your variables once you’ve written out your measure press enter with the measure saved to your table you could use the variable you created to quickly compare the last year’s sales figures across different product categories or regional markets by leveraging the pre-calculated variable the report would render these comparative visualizations much more quickly using variables in DAX within PowerBI offers a streamlined approach to handling complex calculations and improving report performance as you get more accustomed to this feature you’ll find yourself employing variables more often to make your DAX measures both efficient and maintainable using variables to optimize your data models and make them efficient can ensure not only quick results but more accurate insights every line of DAX you write every measure you create and every insight you derive has the potential to influence decisions shape strategies and drive success adventure Works has seen soaring sales this year with mountain bikes especially flying off the racks like never before but as you sift through your PowerBI dashboard a nagging feeling settles in the mountain bike sales data for the past 12 months that you have been visualizing through a complex DAX formula isn’t tallying up with the raw sales numbers questions whirl through your mind is there a missing link an error in the formula maybe the weight of potential inaccuracies weighs on you mistakes mean mistrust in data and mistrust in data can lead to poor business decisions in this video you’ll learn how to use variables in DAX to troubleshoot issues like this one to recap a variable in DAX lets you store a value or a table to be used later in your formula think of them as placeholders or temporary storage units for your data by breaking down your DAX formula into smaller pieces and storing parts of the calculation in variables you can keep track of each step making the process more comprehensible and easier to debug returning to the earlier adventure works example suppose you’re faced with a formula representing the sales for the last 12 months given the vast amount of data and interconnectedness of the business processes ensuring accuracy in the formula is paramount so let’s help Adventure Works troubleshoot their mountain bike sales data for the past 12 months before you can do any troubleshooting understanding the overall structure and components of the formula is essential without a comprehensive grasp of what the formula consists of determining what might be causing an issue becomes like finding a needle in a haststack once you have opened your PowerBI report on the right side of the interface you’ll notice the fields pane within the fields pane scroll until you locate the DAX measure you wish to troubleshoot in this case the measure to troubleshoot is the sales_12 months upon selecting the measure a formula bar appears above the report canvas this bar allows you to view the DAX expression while carefully examining the expressions present you can identify components like the calculate function sum aggregation and dates in period function as each of these plays a role in the calculation once you identify each component of the measure it’s time to create variables for each part by breaking down the formula into smaller parts and assigning them to variables you can address each segment separately this modular approach aids in understanding which part of the formula might be behaving unexpectedly on the upper ribbon select the modeling tab and select the button named new measure this indicates you’re creating a new formula or metric that isn’t present in your data upon selecting new measure the formula bar becomes active for you to define the logic of your formula and break it down into variables start by typing var which stands for variable followed by a space then provide a name for your variable like current date using the equals sign assign the function today to this variable and return the result now let’s create a new measure and add a variable called last year sales for the dates in period section with variables holding specific parts of the formula analyzing them individually allows for isolated testing by evaluating each variable separately you can confirm its correctness ensuring that each foundational block of the formula is sound before the whole formula is put together finally let’s create variables for the product category and subcategory to return the result for each on the right hand side locate the visualizations pane select the card icon to place a blank card onto your report canvas a card visual is useful because it displays a single prominent value ideal for scrutinizing individual variables once the card is active you’ll notice areas named values and axis in the visualizations pane locate your variable named current date in the fields pane select hold and drag it to the values area of the card the card will now dynamically showcase the current date as you continue the troubleshooting process create new card visuals on the canvas and drag the sales filtered by category and sales filtered by subcategory measures to the cards to provide a snapshot of the isolated categories after assessing individual variables it’s crucial to observe how they interact together sometimes even if variables are correct when isolated they may not interact as expected when combined this step ensures that the overall logic of combining the variables is correct let’s create a new measure called mountain bike sales to weave these variables together with the calculate function calculate modifies or extends the context in which a calculation occurs so combining these variables essentially tells PowerBI to consider only sales amounts of mountain bikes in the cross country subcategory for the last 12 months to visualize the combined logic drag the newly made measure mountain bike sales onto a new card visual if everything is functioning correctly this should vividly illustrate the mountain bike sales restricted to the last 12 months for the cross country subcategory you notice that the sales filtered by subcategory card is significantly different in value from the mountain bike sales card based on your troubleshooting you uncover that while the technical logic of your DAX calculation is correct a pre-existing filter was applied onto the sales filtered by subcategory card that skewed your calculation showing sales for the past 6 months to resolve this select the sales filtered by subcategory card visual and clear the applied filter in this video you learned how to use variable for troubleshooting you discovered the importance of breaking down a DAX formula piece by piece understanding each element and its interaction and how this modular approach provides a systematic method for troubleshooting you also explored the process of defining DAX variables and combining them to ensure their interactions produce accurate results imagine you’re a captain navigating the seas of business data your compass is your understanding of key performance indicators your sales are your dashboards and your map is Microsoft PowerBI the winds of analytics fill your sales pushing you towards better informed decision-making this module bringing data to the user has equipped you with the navigational skills needed to sail through the waters of business analytics you’ve not only discovered the pivotal role of dashboards in steering organizational decisions but also ventured into report navigation and publishing configuring mobile views fine-tuning report performance and sharing leveraging features like quick insights and Q&A and optimizing reports using DAX variables let’s recap key concepts including dashboards in business decisionmaking including how to create and customize them sharing information with stakeholders such as PowerBI workspaces publishing reports and optimizing pageionation for better navigation and user experience and the usage of the analyze in Excel feature in PowerBI and optimizing reports using DAX variables thereby making your report easier to debug and more efficient you started with a deep dive into creating dashboards you explored the concept of dashboards in the business context their importance functionalities and how they serve as key tools in data analysis and decision-making processes much like a car’s dashboard that shows critical data like speed and fuel level you learned that a business dashboard provides a consolidated real-time visual display of key performance indicators or KPIs such as sales trends and customer behavior while they share similarities with reports dashboards differ in that they offer a one-page summary of the most important metrics in contrast reports provide a more indepth multi-perspective view you also recognize the need to understand the visual and interactive nature of dashboards their role in promoting transparency and accountability within organizations and how they aid in breaking down barriers to information sharing your exploration continued to how to build a simple dashboard configure the mobile view and change themes you started by creating a new report dragging and dropping various data fields to make visual charts like bar graphs and line charts once you had your visuals you combined them into a single dashboard for a comprehensive view of important metrics to elevate your data analysis capabilities you explored how to optimize the usability of your PowerBI dashboards by adding two key features its quick insights and Q&A features you also discovered the limitations of pinned visuals in PowerBI how their static nature can prevent deep data exploration and how to overcome these limitations by setting up and pinning live reports next you delved into sharing reports with stakeholders you learned about PowerBI workspaces and their importance alongside the stepby-step process of creating a simple workspace workspaces are essential as containers that hold various components such as dashboards reports workbooks and data sets you explored the step-by-step process of publishing reports in PowerBI as well as the concept of pageionation and why it’s beneficial for creating organized reports publishing reports serves as a bridge connecting you the data analyst with decision makers and team members who need to draw insights from the data pagionation affirmed that dividing your report content into multiple pages makes your report more organized and easier to navigate akin to chapters in a book your journey then led you to understand the different elements of report page properties including page information canvas settings canvas background and wallpaper report page properties let you customize your report pages giving you control over how your report is presented influencing aspects like page size view and background enhancing overall readability and effectiveness you also learned how to use the analyze in Excel feature in PowerBI to take your reports and further analyze them combining the visual capabilities of PowerBI with the analytical depth of Excel it provides a live connection from an Excel pivot table to the data in PowerBI so when data in PowerBI is updated you can simply refresh your Excel report to see the new data you also explored the practical aspects of tuning report performance you grasped the role and function of the PowerBI performance analyzer the process of activating it starting a recording refreshing visuals analyzing performance data and exporting data for further analysis the performance analyzer helped you identify the parts of your report slowing things down by providing a detailed breakdown of loading times for each visual you also identified if a DAX query was causing the delay and took the necessary actions to optimize it for improved performance the process of simplifying a DAX formula involves reducing the complexity of the formula which might include eliminating unnecessary calculations using more efficient functions are avoiding iterating over large tables this can make the formula more efficient and less demanding on the DAX engine reducing the computational load in the final part of our journey you explored the importance of DAX variables how to use variables to enhance the performance and accuracy of your PowerBI reports and the steps to effectively implement them for optimal performance using variables in DAX formulas enhances readability by breaking down complex and lengthy expressions into more digestible smaller parts variables act as named references for parts of these formulas making the main expression streamlined and easier to interpret throughout this module you journeyed from understanding the foundational significance of dashboards to the details of optimizing DAX formulas at every step you’ve gained skills and techniques that empower you to bring data to the user a fundamental aspect of data analysis and visualization these skills and techniques aren’t just tools they’re instruments of change that can drive organizations like Adventure Works towards innovation efficiency and success the marketing director at Adventure Works Renee was captivated by the Microsoft PowerBI reports you produced recognizing their value in the company’s decision-making process Renee wants to delve deeper into the data introduce statistical results categorize data patterns and make predictions about future trends although these tasks have been vital for businesses for decades immensely helping their decision-making they were traditionally complex and timeconuming however the analytics in PowerBI has changed this powerbi offers a versatile and userfriendly toolbox to tackle analytical tasks effortlessly making these processes much more efficient and accessible but how can you use the analytics in PowerBI in your reports over the next few minutes you’ll be introduced to the concept of analytics and explore the analytics capabilities offered by PowerBI analytics refers to systematically using data statistical and quantitative analysis and predictive modeling techniques to uncover meaningful patterns insights and trends within data sets although these tasks have been vital for businesses for decades immensely helping their decision-making an essential part of analytics involves interpreting and visualizing data to extract valuable information resulting in actionable insights for informed and strategic decisions powerbi empowers you to transform raw data into meaningful insights through its various advanced tools and functionalities analytics in PowerBI unlocks many ways to enrich your visualizations adding significant value to your reports as you progress through this course you’ll explore the many ways analytics in PowerBI can enhance and elevate your reports for now let’s explore some of the PowerBI features available for analytics leveraging the statistical summary tool you can easily add functions to your visualizations like calculating averages and middle and median values you will also learn how to use the topend analysis in a visualization to highlight critical data points saving you time from repetitive tasks and manual calculations another feature you’ll learn about is DAX measures which can enhance PowerBI’s visualizations to find unusual data points called outliers with grouping and bin data for analysis you can classify two or more associated data points into groups or separate them into equals-sized groups respectively mastering organizing your data into meaningful categories can reveal trends and patterns in your data helping you make smarter decisions applying clustering techniques empowers you to discover another way of associating similar data points in a subset of your data using the clustering algorithm using a straightforward feature that identifies similarities and dissimilarities in the attributes values your data gets divided into subsets called clusters unveiling valuable patterns in your data powerbi empowers you to conduct time series analysis timebased data analysis with the time series involves exploring trends and patterns occurring over a range of time as you explore this feature further you’ll learn how to predict future trends using time series forecasting and discover captivating visuals to support your timeass associated data like the play axis an advanced visual containing a dynamic playback of data over time powerbi also offers the analyze feature this powerful feature automatically detects relationships and connections in your data revealing valuable insights that might have gone unnoticed with the press of a button on any data point PowerBI runs a rapid analysis to provide users with automated generated insights you can leverage advanced analytics custom visuals to create exceptional reports there are a variety of custom visuals in PowerBI called advanced analytics custom visuals or AI visuals powerbi leverages machine learning algorithms to provide insights on the data you provide on the chart visuals like key influencers and decomposition tree will take your data reports to a new level another AI powered feature of PowerBI service quick insights generates valuable information from your data sets in the form of a dashboard with the press of a button this will save you time and help stakeholders make better decisions faster plus you can uncover predictive and prescriptive insights with PowerBI’s AI capabilities you can generate AI insights with functionalities like sentiment analysis which visualizes emotions or attitudes in data and key phrase extraction which identifies phrases in text data these AI capabilities empower you to forecast future trends and stakeholders to make datadriven decisions with confidence you’ve now been introduced to the PowerBI features available for analytics in upcoming videos you will delve deeper into each one of the features and witness their magic at work exploring the powerful tools of analytics in PowerBI unlocks a world of possibilities for you to drive datadriven decision making with your reports by harnessing the power of analytics in PowerBI you can help organizations optimize their strategies and stay ahead in today’s dynamic business landscape adio your manager at Adventure Works just imported the company’s sales data for quarter 1 into a Microsoft PowerBI report there is an air of anticipation as your team brainstorms ways to extract valuable insights from this information despite the raw nature of the data set only containing product details order dates and the total order amount the team sees immense potential to build upon the aim is to create a report that can answer crucial questions like what was the total order amount per product category what were the average and medium amounts per product category did the early March ad campaign have any impact on sales adio is confident that PowerBI’s statistical summary capabilities can easily transform these questions into an insightful report in this video you will learn about these capabilities exploring the process of integrating a statistical summary into a PowerBI report data and statistics are closely intertwined as statistics serve as the essential language to articulate and analyze your data powerbi captures the power of statistics offering a comprehensive range of statistical functions you may already be familiar with some of the functions commonly used in data analysis such as sum of totals average for mean calculations and medium minimum and maximum to find the middle smallest and largest values in a data set powerbi not only provides rich features to seamlessly incorporate these functions into your visualizations and reports but also utilizes the DAX language that encompasses all of these statistical capabilities this powerful combination is referred to as the statistical summary in PowerBI using Adventure Works sales data set let’s examine two different ways of adding the average statistical function to a visualization this will help the sales team identify which product category accumulates the highest average order amount in addition to identifying whether Adventure Works early March ad campaign impacted orders the marketing team also needs to retrieve the number of orders per day from the data set as you are learning to integrate a statistical summary in a report let’s extract and utilize just three columns of Adventure Works sales data product category order date and order total which is the total order amount to prepare for our statistical summary exploration let’s create a few simple graphs to work with first let’s create a clustered column chart and select product category first to represent it on the xaxis and order total second as its yaxis to visualize the total amount of orders for each product category adjust the visual to the screen and click on an empty space of the canvas to deselect the bar chart and create the second visualization a line graph right below the column chart which will contain the order date on its x-axis using just order date without the date hierarchy and then the order total again as its yaxis this visualization depicts the total order amount of each date lastly let’s create a table graph in the right corner of the screen add product category as its first column and order total as its second column this will provide a better view of the numerical data when adding a numeric column to a visual the default function displayed is the sum or total of the amount however there are numerous built-in functions that you can apply to your graph these functions display on the popup menu in the visualizations pane directly at the right of your column such as average median and deviation to better understand how this works let’s add the order total column again in the same graph and adjust the function to calculate the average order amount of each product category instead you can also create your own calculations using DAX expressions which include a rich set of statistical functions let’s produce a similar result using a straightforward DAX measure in the ribbons home tab select new measure assign the measure a name and use the median function specifying the order total column for the calculation lastly modify the column chart to a line and column chart add your measure to the y-axis and observe the result now let’s explore the time series data let’s add the number of orders for each day to the line graph to do this drop the order total column into the secondary yaxis and use the count statistical function this is a helpful function that counts table rows in the graph based on the filter context it is given in this case where each row represents a single order the count function counts the number of orders by using statistical summary in PowerBI you explored how you can effortlessly calculate statistical measures and add them to your visualizations all the critical questions were answered in the report as it displays the average and median value of each product category and even displays the impact of the ad campaign in March when the count of orders doubled with just three columns as your data source you unlocked the power of analytics in PowerBI with the aid of statistical summary many business requirements can be met and questions answered with ease thanks to the array of statistical features tailor made for data analysts by PowerBI renee the marketing manager at Adventure Works has just finished a critical meeting with other marketing team leads to discuss new approaches and strategies for attracting new customers after the meeting she promptly reached out to the data analytics team to discuss the implementation of these approaches in their reports during the meeting the marketing leads for North America and Europe decided to take different approaches for each continent’s market this requires grouping country orders by continent a task that hasn’t been implemented in the existing data set additionally the marketing team agreed on launching ad campaigns in 10day intervals microsoft PowerBI’s visualization options already include automatic monthly and weekly breakdowns but the challenge is to figure out how to assemble orders into 10-day groups the data analytics team quickly searches for a solution and discovers that you can address both these problems using analytics in PowerBI particularly the grouping and binning data features these features both associate data points with each other in their respective ways grouping in PowerBI gives you the ability to manually divide data points into separate groups of your choice on the other hand bin automatically separates data points into segments referred to as bins giving you two options to do so you provide the number of outcome bins with PowerBI splitting the data points between them or you provide the size of bins and PowerBI splits the data points into any number of bins required to fit your data into the specified sized bins now the question is how can they effectively implement these features in the customer report in this video you’ll be introduced to the concept of grouping and bin and you will learn how to differentiate between the two concepts you will also learn how they can be effectively implemented in a PowerBI report to clarify information and provide easy to understand deliverables let’s start by helping Adventure Works group the orders from each country by continent to visually highlight orders for Europe and North America you need to group them in the report first let’s select a stacked bar chart and set the country on the Y-axis and the sum of order total on the X-axis hold down the shift key and select in the visual all the countries that belong to North America including USA Mexico and Canada while still holding the shift button down right click on the visual and select group data from the drop-down menu this action automatically creates a group and assigns it to the legend field resulting in a different color for the countries that were grouped together now let’s explore how to edit the group created earlier the new group appears as a new column in the table with an icon on the left side indicating that it is a super group of another column right click on this new group and select edit groups from the menu to open a new window now you have the option to rename the existing group let’s change Canada Mexico and USA to North America similarly you can select all European countries while holding the control key select group and create a new group called Europe once you are done select okay in addition to highlighting categories of data you can also use the newly created groups as an axis in your visuals to do this create a doughut chart and add the sum of order total to the values field then add country groups to the details field this will help you visualize the distribution of the order amounts between North America Europe and the other regions the doughut chart clearly represents how the orders are distributed among these different groups making it easier to analyze the data at a glance to create bins based on the 10day campaign interval right click on the order date column and select new group select bin as the group type and size of bins as the bin type in the bin size select the 10day interval to align with the campaign requirement and select okay next create a line chart and use the new bin on the x-axis and the sum of order total on the y-axis this creates a visualization of the 10day ad campaign interval by using this technique the marketing team can effectively analyze the data based on the 10day intervals gaining valuable insights into the trends and patterns within the data set as you know by now grouping and binning data has always been crucial in data analysis as it organizes data points into similar meaningful categories uncovering patterns hidden within them powerbi introduces this capability in its engine allowing you to seamlessly group or bin columns in a simple manner without having the hassle over delivering the result in code language to fully grasp the power of this feature let’s compare them with the complexity of using DAX code to achieve the same bin technique with just a few clicks the data analytics team publishes the report quickly leaving Renee astonished by the powerful capabilities of groups and bins in PowerBI the marketing team can now easily identify trends within the groups of North America and Europe enabling them to make immediate comparisons with the rest of the countries moreover they can analyze and assess the 10-day campaigns effortlessly gaining insight into critical information on their performance well done the sales team at Adventure Works is so impressed by your Microsoft PowerBI report that they ask you to add more analytics to the data set the team wants to analyze if there is a trend in the order amount identify the largest order of each day by order amount and determine the top 10 best and worst sales days for the business you can accomplish this by including a histogram in the report and using the topend analysis feature but what is a histogram and how do you add topend analysis in the next few minutes you’ll learn how to identify and build histograms as well as filter data points into a topend analysis showcasing only the most significant data a histogram is a way to visualize a topend data query result while the topend function in PowerBI is a built-in DAX function that retrieves the topend records from a data set based on specific criteria it compares the parameters provided and returns the corresponding rows from the data source the n in top n refers to the number of values at the top or bottom data points are grouped into ranges or bins making the data more understandable a histogram is a great way to illustrate the frequency distribution of your data as you already know a typical chart visual relates to two data points a measure and a dimension incorporating them on its X and Yaxis respectively adventure Works has an existing bar chart to track the total order quantity for different product categories but they would like to know how often quantities occur to do this they would create a histogram of the quantities the x-axis contains the quantity groups and the yaxis contains the frequency that these groups occur the most used charts for histograms are bar charts and area charts sorting a field in ascending or descending order is a relatively common process in data analysis reporting but what happens when there are so many attributes that the columns completely cover the canvas area hiding the crucial information the top end analysis prevents this by sorting the data to display according to a category’s best or worst data points this enables stakeholders to quickly identify the top or bottom values in the data and make datadriven decisions efficiently now let’s explore how to create histograms to analyze sales data and visualize the top 10 dates and sales by implementing top-end analysis in a visualization for the adventure work sales team let’s start creating a histogram to analyze trends in order amounts the first step in creating a histogram is to create a bar chart and to add order total to the X and Y axes ensure you select the sum of order total and not the count resize the chart by dragging its edges so it’s clearly visible notice that having numerous data points on the X-axis may make it difficult for users to interpret the analysis histograms directly address this issue by grouping X-axis data points in groups to achieve this use the bin technique you learned about previously rightclick the order total column and select new group from the drop- down menu select bin as the group type and number of bins as the bin type for the bin count enter 20 and then select okay to create the new bin in the order total column now replace the new bin on the x-axis instead of the standard column in both charts congratulations you have now created your first histogram bar charts are one of the most common histogram charts with area charts being a close second while having the visualization selected select the area chart to modify it using histograms the distribution of order amounts per amount ranges is clearly visible with the most revenue being accumulated through orders that were just over the $2,250 mark now let’s explore how you can visualize the top end data points of a column to achieve this you need an attribute and a sorting column the sorting column will be used to create ascending or descending order on the attribute column before the attribute column is filtered to its top end values let’s observe a topend analysis implementation creating a chart to highlight the top 10 days by sales amount create a funnel chart which is one of the most popular top- end charts and add order date without hierarchy to the category and order total to the values to limit the chart to a top 10 analysis navigate to the filter pane select the arrow on order date and select top N as the filter type select top 10 to display the best days you would select bottom for the worst days and add the total amount to the buy value to sort by this amount you now have a better understanding of the capabilities and potential of histograms and top end analysis in PowerBI by working through this lesson you discovered how to construct histograms transforming data into visualizations that uncover distribution patterns furthermore you’ve practiced your topend analysis skills to isolate key data points to inform actionable insights during a recent strategy meeting at Adventure Works stakeholders discussed adjusting prices to align with the business strategy however the current sales data set seems disconnected and lacks cohesion making it difficult to use recognizing the importance of optimizing the company’s product offerings you’d like to apply advanced analytics to categorize products based on order details and pricing your goal is to establish meaningful connections between the products to enable datadriven pricing decisions having explored groups and bins in Microsoft PowerBI you’ve learned to organize data points hierarchically with groups or into equal-sized bins but what if you want to group data points based on similarities in their values that’s where the clustering technique in PowerBI comes into play this video aims to equip you with all the relevant knowledge needed to apply the clustering technique to a data set including how to cluster data in scatter charts and identify outliers with clustering clustering is a powerful feature that enables you to discover groups of similar data points within your data set efficiently it is enabled in scatter plot visualizations as they are the optimal charts for analyzing data dispersed and identifying outliers by analyzing your data the clustering technique identifies similarities and dissimilarities in attribute values and then separates the similar data into distinct subsets known as clusters these clusters provide valuable insights and aid in understanding patterns and relationships within your data it covers the valuable insights that clustering can offer using the earlier example as a practical demonstration let’s begin exploring patterns in the Adventure Works products based on their sales data launching a new PowerBI report with the sales data set imported select the scatter chart icon on the visualizations pane and resize it on the screen for better visibility add product name in the values field as this is the field you want to separate into clusters for the axes use product price as the x axis and order total as the y-axis ensure the sum function is correctly applied to both as the default aggregation with this setup you can now apply the clustering technique to gain valuable insights from the data with the dots scattered across the graph let’s apply analytics to identify similarities between these data points that would group them into categories select the ellipses in the top right corner of the chart to see the visualization options now select the automatically find clusters option a pop-up window on your screen provides various clustering options you can adjust name the cluster group product cluster and for the description use clusters for product name based on product price and order total then you have to choose how many clusters you want the data points separated into or even let PowerBI automatically choose the number for our example let’s input three as the number of clusters and select okay the clustering technique has divided the product data points into three clusters the first cluster comprises products with low prices leading to low order amounts the second cluster includes products with high prices but relatively lower order totals compared to cluster three where high product prices also resulted in high order totals continuing with the clustering analysis you can leverage the newly formed clusters as axes for additional visuals allowing you to gain further insights based on clustering patterns select a horizontal clustered bar chart and set product category as the yaxis and sum of order total as the xaxis adjust the chart size to cover the right part of the canvas from top to bottom to add the new data grouping into the analysis add product cluster as the small multiple to do this navigate to format in the visualizations pane then small multiples and select three rows and one column to compare these multiples easily lastly include the product name in the tool tips of the visualizations by analyzing the clusters in both graphs you can directly gain insights from your data set while most ebikes and road bikes appear to belong to the high-erforming cluster three there are some exceptions in the lowerforming cluster 2 hovering over these product categories allows you to display the product names that belong to this category providing valuable information for future business decisions by clustering the products you helped the pricing department make crucial decisions to improve the promotion of specific products and embrace datadriven strategies at Adventure Works by analyzing products belonging to the low performing categories they adjusted their prices strategically aiming to achieve better results and optimize the overall market performance in this video you have gained valuable skills in using the clustering algorithm in your scatter plots to group data points effectively by applying clustering you learned how to identify hidden relationships and patterns within your data making it possible to optimize various aspects of business such as product pricing promotions and overall strategies you received a new report requirement this morning your task is to build a customer demographic analysis leveraging the sales and customer data sets to derive valuable insights about the customers to fulfill the business needs for visualizations based on country customer age and order dates you will have to use both axes categories categorical and continuous axes but what are these categories and how do you decide which one to use in each visualization over the next few minutes you’ll be introduced to categorical and continuous axes and learn how to differentiate between them you’ll also explore how to configure these axes in Microsoft PowerBI let’s start by exploring categorical axes you can use a categorical axis to represent discrete non-numeric data points it organizes data into distinct categories such as names categories are groups with no inherent numerical order common examples of categorical data include product names geographic regions and employee roles when you use a categorical axis PowerBI automatically arranges data points in the order they appear in the data set categorical axes are best suited for displaying qualitative information and facilitating comparisons between distinct entities or categories bar charts stacked bar charts pie charts and categorical line charts are common visualizations that use categorical axes on the other hand a continuous axis is designed to represent numerical data points with an inherent order and can be measured along a continuous scale these data points are typically represented by real numbers and can be integers or decimal values examples of continuous data include sales revenue temperature time and age continuous axes are ideal for visualizing quantitative information allowing users to identify trends patterns and correlations within the data common visualizations that use continuous axes are line charts area charts scatter plots and histograms now let’s explore how to use these two axes in your reports using a realcase scenario let’s explore both axes to understand their use better open a new report with sales and customer data sets imported the first visualization you’re going to work on is sum of order total by order date add a clustered column chart and insert order date on the x-axis without date hierarchy and order total on the y-axis resize the visual by dragging the edges the visual displays spaces with no data for the dates that held no orders this is because PowerBI automatically selects the continuous access type when given a date column in its access field by selecting the categorical access the bar chart displays no space by removing the depiction of dates with zero order total keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to visualize the data and there are no numeric differences between the two axes the choice of axis type should be the one that best addresses the business need to explore the categorical axis let’s create a second visualization using a sum of order total by location to do this insert a clustered bar chart and add location on its y-axis and sum of order total on the x-axis move the visualization to the right part of the screen and resize it so it fits the screen top to bottom location has no inherent order so PowerBI automatically implements a categorical axis and turns off the option of turning it into a continuous axis for the last graph let’s explore another possibility of a continuous axis customer age is a column with an inherent numerical order so when you add a line chart and insert age on the x-axis and order quantity on the y-axis PowerBI uses the continuous type of axis you can observe a major difference between the two axes if you try to access the visualization sorting method through the ellipsus you will notice that continuous access doesn’t allow you to use a different sorting other than the one inherited by the numeric column to change the default sorting you need to use a categorical axis understanding categorical and continuous axes and their roles in data visualization will enable you to select the correct axis based on the nature of the data you’re analyzing with this knowledge you can create more effective and informative visualizations making it easier to compare discrete categories or identify trends and patterns within numerical data renee the marketing manager at Adventure Works relies heavily on analytics using Microsoft PowerBI to equip herself for important executive meetings as part of her preparation for a high-level meeting with the company’s executives Renee has created several reports and presentations based on the results of the most recent marketing campaigns run by her department renee takes great care when preparing the analysis however she worries that there could be essential data insights that she and her team have overlooked seeking expert advice she turns to Lucas the data analyst for guidance lucas suggests using the analyze feature in PowerBI with this feature they can examine the data from different perspectives and ensure that no valuable aspects have been missed but what is the analyze feature and how can it be added to reports the analyze feature provides you with advanced analytics to automatically detect patterns trends and anomalies in your data in this video you’ll explore the analyze feature and how it can be used to identify trends and patterns now let’s help Renee to examine her data from different perspectives with the customer and sales data sets imported let’s create a new report and add visualizations first you’ll create a line chart and insert the order date on the x-axis without the date hierarchy and then the sum of order total on the y-axis you will also add an area chart next to it with the age field as the x-axis and the sum of the order total field as the y-axis finally on the bottom of the page you’ll add a clustered column chart with the product category as the x-axis the sum of order quantity as the y-axis and the order status as the legend then resize it to fit the screen now let’s start using the analyze feature on each of these visualizations to discover what insights it can add to your analysis starting with the line chart it is obvious that the biggest order was placed on the 7th of March to explore this further select this specific date rightclick and select analyze now you can select the explain the increase option once this is selected a variety of different visualizations appear these analyze the increased order figure on this day based on factors such as product size payment method product categories and others clusters that were created manually in the table will also be included in the analysis by scrolling through these automatically generated visuals you can gain a clear picture of the factors that caused the increase in the order amount now let’s run the analyze feature on the second visualization the area chart since using distinct ages isn’t very informative for analysis you’ll first create bins to group the age data to do this right click on the age column and choose the option new group apply size of bins as the bin type with 10 as the bin size and select okay to create the age groups separated by decade then drag and drop this new bin to add it on the x-axis and use the x button on the previously used age column to remove it from the chart to investigate further with the analysis feature let’s select the first bin with decreasing values right click on it select analyze and then explain the decrease just as with the analysis in the first visualization this action causes a number of visuals to appear these help us to identify all relevant aspects that might have contributed to the decrease in the age group above 40 years now let’s explore another useful aspect of the analyze feature in the bar chart which shows product category and status you may notice that road bikes have an unusually high number of canceled orders to investigate what might have caused this right click on the blue cancelled bar for road bikes and select analyze if you select find where this distribution is different a variety of visualizations are generated these illustrate the factors that played a significant role in the large number of cancellations of orders for road bikes this feature can highlight contributo factors such as country and location product cluster and more every visualization generated by the analyze features includes a thumbs up and a thumbs down option on the upper right corner this allows you to provide feedback to PowerBI regarding the usefulness of its analysis for your report when you are using the explain the increase or explain the decrease features you have the flexibility to select different visualizations to display the results that best suit your analysis requirements finally if the analysis feature provides an insightful visual that you’d like to include in your report you can quickly add it to the report by selecting the plus sign button in the top right of the visualization in this video you explored how to generate valuable insights from your data using the analyze feature in Microsoft PowerBI in this demonstration you learned how to work with diverse visualizations and interpret the results effectively the analyze feature provides you with advanced analytics automatically generating visualizations from your data sets aiding you to automatically detect patterns trends and anomalies in your data time series analysis involves analyzing a series of data in chronological order to identify meaningful information and reveal trends in this video you will explore how to create an insightful report analyzing adventure work sales data over a period of 3 years time series analysis involves analyzing a series of data in chronological order to identify meaningful information and reveal trends in this video you will create an insightful report analyzing Adventure Works sales data over a period of 3 years in your PowerBI report three Adventure Works data sets have already been imported these are sales product and date you will now add four visualizations as the basis for the time series analysis first add a simple card visualization with sales amount as its field second add a horizontal clustered bar chart with product in its y-axis and sales amount in its x-axis using the filter pane add a top 10 analysis on the visualization by sales amount so the highest selling products are highlighted line charts and scatter plots are the two most common visualizations used in the time series analysis with the first two basic visualizations already created let’s add these two types of graphs to the report add a line chart and include the date field from the date table in the x-axis this should not include the date hierarchy use sales amount from the sales table in the y-axis add a fourth visualization which is a scatter plot use the sum of total product cost from the sales table in the x-axis add the sales amount from the sales table to the yaxis include the category field from the product table in the legend section and the sum of sales amount from the sales table in the size section resize and move all the visuals so that they are better placed on the page now that the visualizations are created let’s explore how time series analysis can give you different perspectives on these visuals before you can create a time series analysis you must first import a custom animation visual from Microsoft AppSource microsoft AppSource is an online store offering custom visualizations that are built by industry-leading software providers to access the Microsoft App Store first select the ellipses in the visualizations pane and then select the get more visuals option this will take you directly to the PowerBI custom visuals in Microsoft app source search for the term play access to find the certified play access dynamic slicer visualization when you have located it choose add you should now have the play access button imported into the visualizations pane now let’s explore how to use the play access button as a dynamic filter in the report the play access button automatically filters all the other visuals using the chronological order of the date field that is added to it first select the new playaxis visualization in the visualization pane add month from the date table as a field this will ensure that the play access visualization will filter the report in a monthby-month sequence in the format your visual section there are three different formatting options that you may use specifically for the playaxis visual first there is animation settings it is possible to set the animation to auto start or to run on a loop for a specified time frame the second option is the time which you can use to modify the rate of filter transition here you will set it at 750 milliseconds which is a smooth transition speed the next format option relates to the color of the visual and specifically the color of each action of the play access button in this area you can specify colors for play pause stop previous and next actions the last format option is enable captions if you set this feature to on the button shows the value of the field that you have inserted and how it changes during the animation press play on the play access button to watch the sales data change month by month the play access button makes the report interactive by updating all the visuals simultaneously this provides a dynamic picture of the data outcomes over time and provides a more detailed analysis of the trends in adventure works sales you now know how to do a time series analysis and implement the playaxis visualization you can also use the play axis to conduct time series analysis decision makers in all areas of businesses require answers to very similar questions typical questions asked of the data analyst might be can we compare daily sales against the sales average is there a way to uncover trends in order quantity within our visualizations can we manually add a sales target threshold into our visualizations the senior management at Adventure Works consult with their data analyst Lucas they would like to see key information such as trends or averages to be clearly visible on certain visualizations lucas identifies reference lines as the key Microsoft PowerBI feature which will fulfill this requirement a reference line is an additional element that can be added to a visualization to draw attention to a key insight or piece of information powerbi offers a variety of reference lines that can be added to a visualization to include an additional measure for comparison with the data points the implementation of the line is based on integral calculations in the line type you’ve selected or on settings which you can customize let’s explore the different types of reference lines an average line represents the average value of a data series it is useful for identifying how individual data points relate to the overall average a median line shows the median value of a data series it is particularly helpful when dealing with skewed data distributions a percentile line identifies a specific percentile value such as the upper percentile within a data set helping you understand data distribution an x-axis or yaxis constant line is a straight line that represents a constant value on a visualization it is used to indicate a fixed threshold target or benchmark value for comparison a trend line reference line helps to identify trends or patterns in data different types of trend lines can be added to capture relationships in data it’s important to note that each visual within PowerBI supports its own set of reference lines this means that not every reference line type might be available for every type of visual powerbi intelligently offers reference lines that are contextually relevant to the type of data and visualization you’re working with for instance certain reference line types like trend line and average line are more applicable to line charts or scatter plots where data trends are easier to discern other reference lines like min line and max line are often used in bar charts to quickly visualize data ranges in some visualizations such as maps reference lines are disabled due to their limited interpretability within the visual context in the next few minutes you will be able to follow a practical demonstration on how to implement reference lines in PowerBI reporting this PowerBI report has two data sets already imported customer and sales you will create three graphs and add reference lines to them as another layer of visual information first create an area chart add age bins as the x-axis value and sum of order quantity as the yaxis value and resize it on the screen next add a line chart use order date as the x-axis value without using the date hierarchy and order total as the y-axis value resize this visual finally add a horizontal bar chart include location as the yaxis value and order total as the xaxis value and resize it to fill the screen now let’s add reference lines once you have selected the area chart a magnifying glass icon appears in the visualizations pane selecting this opens the analytics pane this pane lists the types of reference lines that can be added to the visualization add a trend line by selecting the on button a reference line appears which depicts the trend of order quantity over age groups it shows that older people order significantly less than younger people you can use the options below the trend line to adjust the line color transparency and style so that it stands out more for the next example select the line chart you will now add an average line which will help identify the days where the order total amount was above or below the average of each day in the analytics pane select average line and add line when the average line appears the choices underneath can be used to format it or to add a data label lastly in the bar chart it is important to easily identify the locations which are over a minimum target threshold select the bar chart in the analytics pane select constant line and add line add 3000 as the constant line value format the line if required it is now obvious that three locations Chicago Shanghai and Buenosaurus are below target thresholds of order total when choosing visualizations keep in mind that they do not all support reference lines for example if you change the bar graph to a map you can see that the line disappears in the analytics pane the message analytics features aren’t available for this visual appears you’ve now explored how adding reference lines to visualizations can highlight trends and data sets and simplify comparative analysis between data points adding reference lines to your report extends the capabilities of visual customization and allows you to meet the diverse demands of different business scenarios planning for the future is crucial for all businesses one business may need to plan for seasonal fluctuations in orders or revenue another may need to plan for growth and/or expansion what is critical in either situation is that key decision makers have reliable data and information and that they also have a realistic picture of future outcomes data analysts use forecasting to examine previous trends and patterns in business to predict whether they will continue and how they can affect future outcomes microsoft PowerBI contains a forecasting tool which can assist in this process renee at Adventure Works is currently formulating a 2-year development plan for the department she manages she has already been impressed by the reports that she has seen in PowerBI she approaches Lucas the data analyst to see if there are any visualizations available that could apply predictive models and forecast results lucas informs her that one of the core charts in nearly every report is already equipped with forecasting capabilities she’s excited to find out more the forecasting tool in PowerBI is directly built into line charts and it allows analysts and business users to predict future trends and values based on historical data they can make informed decisions and plan more effectively users can tailor their predictions to align with specific business needs and data patterns with forecasting options let’s look at three important concepts confidence interval in forecasting is the range of values within which the actual feature outcomes are likely to fall with a certain level of confidence it quantifies the uncertainty associated with a forecast for example a 95% confidence interval indicates that there’s a 95% likelihood that the actual future values will fall within the forecasted range this helps decision makers understand the potential variability in the predictive values seasonality refers to recurring patterns or cycles that appear at regular intervals in time series data patterns could be daily weekly monthly or yearly they often result from external factors like holidays or seasons or economic cycles recognizing and accounting for seasonality allows forecasting models to capture the expected fluctuations in data that repeat over time lastly ignore the last is a feature that allows users to selectively exclude the most recent data points from the historical data set when generating forecasts in PowerBI anomalies or abrupt changes in the data may occur in the latest periods which might distort the forecasted results by ignoring the last few data points users can focus the forecasting model on the more stable and representative patterns in the earlier data now let’s step through a practical example of including forecasting results in a line chart forecasting in PowerBI starts with a line chart adventure Works sales and date data sets have been imported into a new report in the visualizations pane select a line chart to add it to the canvas add date from the date table to the x-axis do not add the date hierarchy add sales amount from the sales table to the y-axis this basic configuration is all you need to apply forecasting to access the forecasting capabilities select the line chart then select the magnifying glass to open the analytics pane of the visuals select forecast in the list and turn it on a predictive section has already been added in the line chart select the arrow on the left to open the forecast settings options is the first and most important section here you can define the rules for how the forecasting line will be drawn units is set to points points refers to the date unit currently used in the visualization in forecast length you can specify a number of these date units and this will determine the length of the forecasting line in this case to forecast a whole year of values select 365 points to forecast a whole year period for confidence level select 90% confidence interval and select apply the forecast line also contains options to customize the line select the forecast line select a blue color so that it is similar to the actual line with the style option you can choose a dashed dotted or solid forecast line adjusting the transparency setting changes the visibility of the forecasted plot the confidence band choices allow you to customize the style of the upper and lower bounds changing it from fill to line the none choice will display no confidence bounds at all the forecasting feature in Microsoft PowerBI can create predictions of future trends from historical data adding these to your reports can provide you with valuable insights you are now familiar with using forecasting in a line chart and with concepts such as confidence intervals seasonality and ignore the last you’ve learned how to capture recurring patterns and how to allow for uncertainty these skills will allow you to design reports containing accurate forecasting the accurate anticipation of future outcomes will drive informed decisionmaking understanding the forces driving sales trends is a continuous concern for businesses advanced analytics tools are an accessible avenue to understanding these forces this is precisely the avenue your team proposes to navigate within Adventure Works sales data set with the robust capabilities of Microsoft PowerBI’s key influencers visuals you aim to identify all primary factors contributing to the rise and fall of sales figures in this video you’ll discover the power of the key influencer visualization an advanced analytics visualization in PowerBI you’ll learn how to include it in a PowerBI report and use it properly to obtain valuable information the key influencer visualization is one of the main advanced analytics visualizations in PowerBI it uses advanced algorithms to uncover relationships buried within data shedding light on the influential factors behind specific outcomes whether you want to understand the triggers behind a surge in sales or the reasons for a sudden decline the key influencers visual offers a concise snapshot of what truly matters now let’s explore the capabilities of the key influencers visual let’s start with an empty report with imported adventure work sales data select the key influencer icon on the visualization pane to add it to the canvas your aim is to apply AI insights to analyze the factors behind increases and decreases in the sales amount to do this drag and drop this sales amount field from the sales table in the analyze field the key influencer visual is now declaring that there are no fields in explain by requesting any number of relevant fields to the sales amount to initiate the analysis an AI analysis on all those factors will take place locating which of them are the main contributors behind sales amount surges and decreases to ensure the visualization provides insightful results you can add various relevant fields to the analysis for example let’s add the country region field from the customer table and the color and subcategory fields from the product table notice that as you add fields the visualization is already running a background analysis on the correspondence between the sales amount with all fields added in the explain by section let’s observe the results the top influencers affecting the sales amount are displayed on the visuals left side you can view the analysis results in detail by selecting any of them let’s select the red color influencer to delve deeper into the analysis when you select an influencer bar chart with a color field an analysis of sales amount compared to the average of sales per color displays you can observe the influence the red and silver products have on the sales total at a glance in contrast with the multi and white colors that barely made any sales to analyze the factors behind low sales amounts select the what influences sales amount box to change it to decrease apart from highlighting the key influencers affecting the sales these advanced visuals also group these influencers showcasing segments of influencers that played a significant role in sales increases or decreases select the top segments option in the upper border of the visual and in the field when is sales amount more likely to be choose high to identify the segments that perform well in sales now select the largest circle to view the results red road bikes have the biggest impact on sales with mountain bikes in the second position in this video you’ve explored the key influencers visualization an advanced analytics feature in PowerBI in just a few minutes with the support of AI algorithms powering the key influencer visual you extracted insights from your data set shedding light on the driving factors behind sales trends whether positive or negative you can also incorporate advanced analytics into your reporting process elevating the quality and depth of your analytical insights the marketing team at Adventure Works was fascinated by the impact the previous advanced visualization key influencers had on their data set they are now eager to explore what other advanced visualizations can accomplish your manager Addio wants to introduce decomposition trees another specialized analytics tool in Microsoft PowerBI if you’re wondering where and how to include the decomposition tree visual in a report this video is for you in the next few minutes you’ll be introduced to the decomposition tree and how to use this visual to navigate through data hierarchy levels which refer to the arrangement of data points in a structured format where elements are organized into levels or tiers based on their relationships you’ll also learn how to activate its AI potential letting the visual guide you through the critical factors behind outcomes but first what are decomposition trees the decomposition tree visual in PowerBI lets you visualize data across multiple dimensions it automatically aggregates data and enables drilling down into your dimensions in any order it is the optimal solution when analyzing the hierarchical structure of data being an AI visual it can also leverage the hierarchical graphical representation of the visualization to automatically explore dimensions based on certain criteria here is an example of how the decomposition tree breaks down Adventure Works sum of sales amount into hierarchical groups referred to as branches to analyze the distribution of the amount in its subcategories the user can navigate through the branches manually by selecting any data point or enable the AI capabilities of the visual to automatically navigate through the branch based on the most influential components to start our journey with decomposition trees let’s launch a new report using the Adventure Works sales date and product data set locate and select the decomposition tree visual in the visualizations pane to add it to the report readjust the visual so it fits the whole screen add the sales amount into the analyze field before looking into its AI powered capabilities let’s explore the basic functions of decomposition trees decomposition trees excel at analyzing data structured in a hierarchical fashion so let’s find a structure built like this in the data set navigate to the data view of the report and to the product table you can see that each model belongs to multiple supercategories which have the following sequence product model subcategory and category let’s add this hierarchy to the decomposition tree to utilize its basic features add all four components of the hierarchical structure into the explain by field in any order a plus sign appears just right of the sales amount bar navigate through the hierarchy components in the order they are being used in the data set to get a complete breakdown of the sales amount between products in the data set although you can use the plus sign in any order you want utilizing the hierarchy sequence will give the best decomposition possible hit X anytime to remove a column from the decomposition tree and use the lock button to prevent a user from removing it now that you have a basic understanding of the decomposition tree let’s look at its AI capability to explore this potential let’s remove the model and product fields and add two other dimension fields to the chart color from the product table and year from the date table start at the first level of decomposition the category and select the plus sign you can now see that besides the columns added on the explain by field there are two more options high value and low value with a light bulb on their left side by selecting either one of them the decomposition tree will automatically choose the main driving factor between all fields added in the explain by section and highlight it for you to look at its capability select the high value of accessories to identify that the helmet subcategory was the driving factor of the accessory sales while in the clothing category the main reason behind the accumulation of the high amount was the superb clothing sales of 2019 on the other hand by removing the generated column and selecting a low value in the bikes category you can identify that blue colored bikes were the lowest performing attribute in bike sales with each lowest point being in 2020 in this video you learned about the capabilities of the decomposition tree an advanced visualization in PowerBI the decomposition tree is a unique tool for ad hoc exploration and root cause analysis of the factors behind any outcome in a data set combining both basic features with advanced AI capabilities it can convert information into valuable insights and contribute to business decision making by providing a deeper understanding of the underlying insights in a data set in the modern age of technology where information is all around us imagine you could uncover a map that reveals the hidden pathway that leads to success this is the exciting world of identifying patterns and trends in Microsoft PowerBI a journey that transforms raw data into secrets for success and numbers into opportunities this module gave you the experience of a modern-day explorer equipped not with a compass but with PowerBI’s analytical tools so let’s briefly recap some of the key concepts covered in the identifying patterns and trends module your foundation of identifying patterns and trends was laid through an introduction to analytics in PowerBI and its statistical summary capabilities you are equipped with the knowledge needed to incorporate a range of statistical functions into your reports supported by practical examples and a detailed cheat sheet of available statistical functions within DAX language you learned the importance of grouping similar data points into segments to highlight hidden patterns to empower you in this concept you explored PowerBI’s grouping bin and clustering techniques which helped match the precise needs of your analysis covering histograms top-end analysis and continuous and categorical axes you gained even more tools to include analytics in your data sets advancing and focusing on trend identification you engaged with the exceptional tools of the analytics pane including reference lines error bars and forecasting these tools significantly enhance chart information depth enabling not just data point comparison but also future trend prediction these tools have the capacity to explain data fluctuations providing a variety of insightful visuals that you can instantly add to your reports moreover you gained an initial glimpse into PowerBI’s ability to generate insightful visualizations via the analyze feature automatically these tools have the capacity to explain data fluctuations providing a variety of insightful visuals that you can instantly add to your reports lastly your introduction to AI visuals in PowerBI completed the picture you learned how to conduct root cause analysis within your reports using specialized visualizations like key influencers and decomposition trees these visuals are invaluable for uncovering key drivers behind data set fluctuations you also explored the Q&A visualization a powerful tool capable of transforming any business user into a data analyst formulating queries and crafting visualizations this natural language processor empowers you to translate language into graphs with remarkable efficiency ultimately your journey through the identifying patterns and trends in PowerBI has equipped you with a multi-dimensional toolkit from mastering statistical functions to unraveling hidden insights through segmentation and powerful analytics techniques you’ve become a data explorer skilled at revealing the story within the numbers with the ability to predict trends and harness AI powered visuals you are now better prepared to translate data into strategic decisions imagine yourself as an explorer in a maze of data surrounded by a vast and complex landscape of information somewhere deep within beyond the twists and turns lies pathways to hidden insights and unchartered opportunities awaiting discovery navigating through this data maze without proper guidance or tools could mean missing out on these hidden treasures entirely microsoft PowerBI serves as your modern-day explorer’s toolkit equipped with advanced mapping techniques helpful clues and expert data navigation it helps you cut through the noise interpret the data patterns and go directly to the heart of the insights buried within during this course you’ve transformed from a curious data wanderer into a skilled navigator prepared to guide businesses like Adventure Works toward newfound opportunities and business success using data analysis and visualization in this video you’ll consolidate critical lessons from your journey through this data analysis and visualization with PowerBI course you’ll have a refreshed understanding of creating visually engaging dashboards and reports you’ll also recall concepts related to making your PowerBI dashboards and reports more userfriendly accessible and inclusive sharing your dashboards and reports with users and optimizing reports using DAX language and using visualization and AI in PowerBI to perform data analysis and identify patterns and trends your journey began with a foundational understanding of PowerBI acting as your compass you delved into the details of PowerBI service PowerBI desktop and PowerBI mobile in this part of the course you are introduced to choosing between PowerBI Pro and PowerBI Premium the limitations and advantages of each and how these choices impact data storage sharing and collaboration capabilities you also became well-versed in the administrative interface getting to grips with workspace creation and data set management this was like understanding the maz’s structure and its very pathways setting the course for your data journey you learned how permissions and roles in PowerBI can influence the accessibility and security of your data much like how an explorer’s team is structured based on roles and expertise in navigation you gained insight into diverse visualization forms from simple bar charts to more complex waterfall and funnel charts your journey went beyond surface level exploration introducing you to the DAX language for calculated columns and measures to make your visuals more dynamic and informative you also explored advanced customization options such as using slicers for real-time data manipulation or conditional formatting to highlight key metrics these tools became guiding tools for precise data interpretation you also picked up the importance of visual hierarchy and storytelling along the way realizing that a well ststructured report can convey a narrative that empowers decision makers making your insights both accessible and inclusive became your next focus you learned how to make your PowerBI dashboards and reports accessible to users with disabilities this involved implementing high contrast color schemes adding alt text to visuals and ensuring tab navigation compatibility moreover you explored the built-in translation features of PowerBI ensuring minimal data language barriers these strategies ensure your data exploration is inclusive and reachable for all additionally you covered how to create mobile responsive reports understanding that accessibility also pertains to the variety of devices used to access data navigating through advanced functionalities was your next challenge here you deepened your knowledge of PowerBI’s more robust features such as using drill down and drill through functionalities to navigate between different layers of your data you also tackled data modeling understanding how to create relationships between various tables and sources your expedition delved deeper to uncover query parameters and their role in making your reports dynamic and interactive these tools enable you to interpret the data in the maze precisely without losing sight of the broader context you even ventured into APIs and custom connectors expanding the realms of data sources you can bring into PowerBI finally you were introduced to PowerBI’s AI capabilities like text analytics and the integration of machine learning models you explored time series analysis to forecast trends and discovered how to generate predictive models understand correlation and create data simulations your exploration continued to discover how to generate predictive models understanding correlation and create data simulations this makes it possible to predict and prepare for future trends much like an experienced explorer reading signs from the environment to prepare for what lies ahead you were guided through the process of automated machine learning in PowerBI making it possible to create predictive models without indepth programming knowledge like finding shortcuts and secret pathways within the maze as you conclude this course take a moment to reflect on your expedition you began as a budding explorer and now stand as the guide of others navigating through the intricate and sometimes bewildering maze of data analytics with confidence you’ve mastered the navigational tools and the instruments at your disposal with PowerBI and learn the art of reading and interpreting data in its deepest forms remember the world of data is vast and the technology that helps us navigate it is ever evolving you’ve acquired the skills strategies and insights to embark on countless more adventures but the maze remains boundless with every question you answer you’ll discover new ones that provoke your curiosity and challenge your understanding that’s the beauty and the challenge of data analytics embrace the ongoing quest for knowledge wisdom and growth with optimism in your heart and curiosity as your guide the best adventures still await congratulations on completing the data analysis and visualization with PowerBI course your dedication and hard work have paid off and you’ve gained knowledge skills and tools that will help set you on a path to excel in the world of data analysis you have successfully covered the following topics adding visualizations to reports and dashboards applying formatting choices to visuals adding useful navigation techniques to reports designing accessible reports and dashboards and using visualizations to perform data analysis you should now be well grounded in data analysis and visualization with Microsoft PowerBI you’ve learned how to use the power of data visualization and reporting in PowerBI to create compelling data stories and use formatting navigation and filtering to create interactive user-friendly and accessible reports that are engaging and informative from using visualizations and AI features to uncover data trends and patterns to sharing your insights effectively you are now better positioned to support businesses like Adventure Works in making datadriven decisions and driving business success but remember this is just one step on your data analysis journey by completing all the courses in this program you’ll receive the Microsoft PowerBI Analyst Professional Certificate from Corsera this program is an excellent opportunity to enhance your proficiency in data analysis in PowerBI and gain a qualification that opens doors to entry-level positions in the data analytics field this program will also help you prepare for exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst by successfully completing the PL300 exam you’ll earn the Microsoft Certified PowerBI data analyst certification which will position you well to begin or advance your career in this role this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to prepare data model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX which you will learn about throughout the program to learn more about the PowerBI data analyst certification and exam visit the Microsoft Certifications page at http://www.learn.microsoft.com/certifications your journey through this course has not only provided you with essential skills in data analysis but also has laid the groundwork for your future endeavors your ability to recognize different visualizations apply formatting choices design accessible reports and dashboards and perform data analysis using PowerBI will undoubtedly set you apart in the world of data professionals but there’s still more to learn and room to grow so why not register for the next course in the program whether you’re a novice in the data analysis field or an experienced technical professional completing the entire program will showcase your knowledge of and proficiency in analyzing data with PowerBI your dedication to learning and growing in the world of data analysis is commendable and you should be proud of your progress and accomplishments your commitment will show prospective employers that you are capable motivated and driven and eager to learn it’s been a pleasure to be part of your educational journey wishing you all the best as you continue to explore the endless possibilities that data analysis with PowerBI has to offer congratulations once again and best of luck hello and welcome to the creative design in PowerBI course businesses and organizations obtain data from many sources these include government financial economic health and scientific data to name just a few as a data analyst it might be your job to extract insight from this large pool of data you could use Microsoft PowerBI to import this data and create data models but how will you then present the results of your work would you agree that a more creative presentation approach is required especially when dealing with large volumes of data you might aim for a more userfriendly presentation of the data so we’ve designed this course to give you the skills you need to visually share your data insights with your intended audience in this course you will learn how to creatively design dashboards reports and charts you’ll make visuals that the audience can quickly understand and you’ll know when and how to include specialist elements such as videos streaming data and QR codes as part of your business intelligence presentations you’ll be introduced to the theory and practice of visualization and design this includes the design principles of data display and visualization let’s now quickly summarize the course material to give you an overview of all you’ll study in this course you’ll begin by learning how to create a cohesive report design based on the characteristics of your target audience you will identify key information so that you can produce audience focused reports in week two you’ll learn how good design enhances the comprehension of data in your reports you’ll apply visual clarity use multi-dimensional visualizations insert map visualizations and implement custom visualization such as Python-based visualizations with these methods you can design powerful report pages that improve the enduser experience then it’s time to visit the concepts of dashboard design and storytelling you’ll compare the design of a dashboard with the design of a report and you’ll explore the principles of data storytelling advanced dashboard features such as embedding media and QR codes are part of your studies this week during the course you can watch pause rewind and re-watch the videos until you’re confident in your skills consolidate your knowledge by consulting the course readings and measure your understanding by completing knowledge checks and quizzes in addition the course discussion prompts allow you to share and chat with other learners by connecting with your classmate during discussions you can help grow your network of contacts your studies prepare you for a final project and a graded assessment that you’ll undertake in the last week of this course in the project you’ll get a pre-made Adventure Works data set and model in PowerBI your challenge is to use the data to prepare reports for the sales team and the executive board you’ll need to use data storytelling and cohesive design you’ll also be asked to use the data to highlight new business opportunities after this hands-on learning you will complete a final graded assessment be assured that everything you need to complete the assessment is included in the course and of course as part of your preparation for assessment you can always review the content of any lesson to revise the relevant videos readings exercises and quizzes businesses need data sourcing preparation and analysis presenting the insights gained is often the last part of this data processing it’s a key factor in ensuring that the benefits of the analysis are understood by all stakeholders is this course for you hopefully the outline of the course content and topics will help you decide you don’t need an IT related background to take this course it’s for anyone who likes using technology and has an interest in presenting the results of data analysis whatever your background to complete this course you need to have access to some resources you need a laptop or desktop computer with a recommended 4 GB of RAM an internet connection and a Windows operating system version 8.1 or later it should have a .NET Framework version 4.6.2 or later installed and a subscription to Microsoft Office 365 you will also need to install PowerBI Desktop available as a free download the courses in this program prepare you for a career in data analysis when you complete all the courses in the Microsoft PowerBI analyst professional certificate you’ll earn a Corsera certificate to share with your professional network taking this program not only helps you to become job ready but also prepares you for exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst in the final course you’ll recap the key topics and concepts covered in each course along with a practice exam you’ll also get tips and tricks testing strategies useful resources and information on how to sign up for the exam finally you’ll test your knowledge in a mock exam mapped to the main topics in this program and the Microsoft Certified Exam PL300 ensuring you’re wellprepared for certification success earning a Microsoft certification is evidence of your real world skills and is globally recognized a Microsoft certification showcases your skills and demonstrates your commitment to keeping pace with rapidly changing technology it also positions you for increased skills efficiency and earning potential in your professional roles the topics covered in the practice exam include prepare data model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets in summary this course introduces you to how a data analyst using Microsoft PowerBI applies data design techniques to create compelling stories through reports and dashboards i hope you are ready to start creating compelling and cohesive reports and dashboards using the best visual techniques to optimize audience focus i don’t have to tell you that a social media photograph gets way more likes and shares than a message that contains text only we choose to look at images first your brain processes visual data thousands of times faster than text that’s the main reason we prefer visual communications it’s also why right now all over the world people are using data visualization software to make sense of large complex data of course humans communicated visually long before we had technological power let’s check in on how we progressed from using just numbers for data presentations prepare to understand the real meaning behind the numbers as our understanding of the impact of visuals increased the approach to creating visualizations changed and in 1933 Harry Beck created the London Rail Underground Map inspired by electrical circuit diagrams it simplifies a complex layout by focusing not on rail line geography but on how a commuter uses the rail system it’s a visual style still used today to make data easier to understand visualizations that successfully connect with users have a lasting impact on how we communicate data let’s say you want to use data visualization to illustrate a much larger rail network it could be 10 times bigger or a thousand times bigger scale it to 100,000 times and you have an idea of the data volumes now available data visualization tools help us understand big data in the world around us just compare older 2D maps to how satellite mapping reveals a different vision we can zoom in for more detail to give a granular understanding of the area zoom further into a city’s layout and reveal data insights with visual markers while always being able to place our insight in the context of a global landscape businesses benefit from data visualization by understanding the impact of their decisions businesses can create better products and services that improve the lives of their customers but data visualization is not just for business it improves data accessibility for governments organizations and citizens for the first time we all have access to detailed and accurate data about the planet professor Hawkins from the University of Reading created global warming strikes like this a simple visual with no text no numbers but its message of the danger of global warming is clear despite technological advances the goal of data visualization remains the same to make data accessible and easier to understand imagine a world where large-scale decisions are better understood through visualizations of this data you can use data visualization tools to enhance your communication skills reveal insights on a global scale and help build a better world how do you choose an outfit from your wardrobe when choosing which clothes to mix and match it’s important to know what colors go well together after all you want to look your best the same goes for your reports and dashboards to look their best they need to have the best mix of colors and shades that’s why you are now being introduced to color theory in this video you’ll explore color theory its basic concepts and how it assists you in creating presentations and data graphics color theory is the collection of design rules and guidelines used to communicate with users through effective color schemes color theory involves the meaning and use of colors and how to pick the best colors in different situations to build harmonious and visually captivating color combinations as a data analyst understanding the principles of color theory is essential for creating visually captivating and effective designs colors can evoke emotions convey messages and enhance the impact of reports color theory is a practical guideline for the visual effects of color combinations it includes the color wheel color harmony color psychology and color symbolism it gives you a powerful toolkit to create visually pleasing and meaningful designs the color wheel represents the relationship between colors it consists of primary colors red blue yellow secondary colors which are mixes of primary colors such as orange green and purple and intermediate or tertiary colors which are mixes of primary and secondary colors the color wheel guides your choice of colors leading to color schemes that create harmonious compositions color harmony is another important concept color harmony refers to the arrangement of colors in a specific design that is visually pleasing to the viewer you create visual balance and enhance the overall impact of your design by choosing the correct color combination here are a few methods used to combine colors into a color scheme complimentary colors this system uses opposite hues on the color wheel analogous colors uses groups of colors that are next to each other on the color wheel triadic is a color concept that uses a three-pointed triangle selection of colors from the color wheel monochromatic color combinations use several variations of the same color the psychology of color is one of the most important aspects to consider during your design colors can evoke emotions and influence behavior for instance when designing marketing materials for Adventure Works outdoor adventure products incorporating vibrant and energetic colors like orange and yellow can evoke feelings of excitement and enthusiasm colors can often carry symbolic meanings and cultural associations different cultures may interpret colors differently so it’s important to consider cultural context when selecting colors for global designs for instance while red may symbolize luck in Eastern Asian cultures it can represent danger in some Western cultures by understanding color symbolism you can ensure that your designs effectively convey the intended message across different cultural backgrounds given the importance of color theory it’s crucial to consider accessibility when working with color in design as not all individuals perceive colors in the same way color blindness is a condition where individuals have difficulty distinguishing certain colors or perceiving color differences the most common type of color blindness is red green color blindness where individuals have trouble differentiating between shades of red and green to ensure that your designs are accessible to individuals with color blindness use color combinations that have sufficient contrast this means avoiding color combinations that may appear similar to individuals with color blindness it’s recommended to use high contrast color combinations such as black text on a white background to improve readability additionally providing alternative ways of conveying information beyond color is crucial for example if you’re using color to indicate different categories or data points consider also using patterns labels or symbols to supplement the color coding this ensures that individuals with color blindness can still understand and interpret the information accurately by considering color theory and accessibility together you can create designs that are not only visually appealing but also inclusive and accessible to a wider range of individuals mastering color theory is a vital skill for any artist designer or creative professional by understanding the principles of the color wheel color harmony color psychology and color symbolism you can create visually captivating designs that effectively communicate messages and evoke emotions in your audience as you embark on your colorful journey at Adventure Works let color theory be your guide in transforming ordinary designs into extraordinary visuals if I tell you that the temperature is very hot what color comes to mind most people answer in the range of orange to red color is a crucial design element for business intelligence dashboards and reports to make them visually intuitive and understood by all viewers by the end of this video you will understand how colors evoke psychological associations and convey symbolic meanings let’s explore the science of color in communicating datadriven stories in business communication colors serve as navigational tools directing users attention and facilitating efficient information access here are some roles colors can play in designing your reports and dashboards background is the color of your report or dashboard background or the background of an individual visual within the report use low saturation colors that is a color that is not too vivid rich or intense then the background will not distract users from the main story the dominant or primary color gives viewers the first impression of the color theme it’s typically used in a lot of elements to create contrast within your report an accent color is used for focal points of your report capturing users immediate attention examples include call toaction buttons alerts and warning messages semantic colors are colors that have an
actual meaning and they aid a seamless comprehension for example commonly employed colors for alerts are red for bad orange represents average and green signifies good semantic colors are usually used for conditional formatting on texts and charts once you choose colors for your reports you can create a color palette powerbi can upload a color palette as a JSON file to design a custom theme for your reports and visualizations by using a JSON file you can create a report theme file that standardizes your charts and reports making it easy for your organization’s reports to be consistent use these colors to amplify insights for example identify certain values or groups within your data that are good or bad use contrasting colors to differentiate between different values use shades of the same color to demonstrate the strength or weakness or various grades for instance using shades of the same color in a geographical visual to represent the ascending or descending values of sales use a dull color for something less important and a bright color for crucial information at Adventure Works you must create a report showing a table of sales data with profit margins the profit margins will be emphasized using effective color combinations while considering accessibility requirements let’s explore color selection in data visualization launch Microsoft PowerBI desktop and open the project salesbyear.pbix pbix navigate to the report view of PowerBI desktop to the report containing a table with sales and profit margin values and a column chart emphasizing the profit margin to remove the sum of prefix from the column titles go to the visualization pane and in the columns list doubleclick on the column name and delete the sum of text this can be done for all columns that need to be renamed to change the theme of the visualization navigate to the view tab of PowerBI and select the accessible city park theme from the theme drop-down list this will change the entire color combination for the current report the theme contains colors that satisfy accessibility requirements to ensure accessibility for the broadest range of consumers you can increase the font size and change the font color throughout the report to maximize visibility and contrast for instance increase the font size of the table values to 18 point select the table and navigate to format visual visual expand the value section and change the font size to 18 expand the column header section and change the font size to 18 then to accommodate the new size of the table move and resize the two visuals the next task is to highlight the most valuable information in the table the profit is the most important information for the executives you can use color psychology to emphasize this section of the visual select the table visual and go to the visualization pane in the columns list select the drop- down arrow beside the profit margin column and move the cursor to conditional formatting in the drop- down list this opens a submen of the drop-own list font color is what is needed from this list this opens the font color format dialogue box for the profit margin column values select rules from the format style drop-own menu and select values only from the apply to section profit margin is selected under the what field should we base this on section leave this column selected next to define the rules for the first rule the process is to select the greater than or equal to symbol and enter zero for the value then select number from the drop-own list just after the and part of the rule select less than and write max in values and select number from the drop-own list finally in the then part of the rule select the green color from the theme color selection section to set up the second rule continue to select a new rule with the plus icon to add a new rule to the list in the first control select greater than or equal to from the drop- down list and remove zero it will automatically select min and then select number from the drop-own list after the and of this rule select less than write zero in the values and select number from the drop- down list finally select a red color from the theme colors select okay the conditional formatting will change the color of the text to red if the profit margin is in the negative range this is a format that the company executives expect it allows them to quickly assess this part of the report to colorize the column chart representing the profit margin select the chart and in the visualization pane navigate to the format visual tab from the expand the column section where you can assign individual colors to each column select a red color for financial year 2022 and keep the green for 2020 and 2021 finally change the text size of the column chart to 12 point this means in format visual changing the font size for x-axis values y-axis values title and data labels that example transformed a report lacking clear visuals and without Adventure Works branding into an attention-grabbing report by the intelligent use of colors as a report designer understanding the key role of color is crucial to creating visually compelling and impactful work you get a report or a page of information on your screen how do you decide if the content is important enough for you to read many designers include headlines subheadings and other design devices such as callouts elements like these highlight key parts of the information allowing you to decide faster if the content is relevant to you you’ll use similar tactics in your Microsoft PowerBI report and dashboard designs over the next few minutes you will be introduced to the concepts of positioning and scaling by strategically placing and sizing visual elements such as charts tables and text you guide the viewer’s attention and indicate the level of importance of the information let’s say you are asked to create a complex report for Adventure Works to present the company’s annual revenue growth by region to achieve effective positioning and scale you place a bar chart in the middle of the report clearly displaying revenue figures for each region to provide additional context you position a map visualization alongside the bar chart showing the geographic distribution of revenue growth by placing the two different visual elements together you can enable viewers to make connections between regions and their respective revenue performance for the most effective delivery you must plan your report think about the positioning of different portions of data use scaling techniques and create a good user experience in your report positioning is the strategic placement of visual elements within a report to guide the viewer’s attention and convey key information it’s essential to consider the flow of information and the logical sequence in which the audience will consume it the placement of data and insights can significantly impact how they are perceived for example when presenting sales figures for Adventure Work’s latest product line you would position the most important metrics such as revenue and units sold at the top of the report this ensures that viewers immediately grasp the success of the product line before diving into further details additionally you must pay attention to the logical flow of information you arrange sections of the report in a way that follows a natural progression enabling viewers to easily navigate through the data supporting details such as product specifications or regional sales performance are strategically positioned below the main metrics providing contextual information to support the overall narrative now let’s explore scaling scaling refers to the relative size and proportions of visual elements within a report it is important to recognize that finding the right scale is crucial for ensuring readability and visual clarity heading and titles are carefully sized to be larger and bolder drawing the viewers’s attention to important sections for instance when showcasing the company’s quarterly sales performance you can use a larger font size for the title to make it stand out and capture the viewer’s interest in contrast data labels and annotations are scaled down to avoid overwhelming the viewer with unnecessary information additionally the scale of charts and graphs should be carefully considered to represent the data accurately access labels tick marks and legends should be appropriately sized and positioned for easy interpretation by maintaining consistency in the scale of measurement across multiple charts and graphs in your reports you enable the viewers to make meaningful comparisons and draw insights effectively overall the positioning and scale of information in report design should aim to create a visually pleasing and intuitive experience for your audience by effectively organizing and presenting data you can enhance understanding facilitate analysis and effectively convey your message for report design mastering the art of positioning and scale is vital by considering the logical flow emphasizing key information and balancing scale you create visually compelling and informative reports that captivate viewers as a data analyst adopting these principles can elevate your report designs and effectively communicate insights to your audience adventure Works has a salesperson performance Microsoft PowerBI report with total sales and quantity sold however the visuals are randomly positioned and the information is overwhelming the task is to redesign the report to better present the data let’s explore how this is done the report contains a clustered column chart showing total sales by year and salesperson a clustered chart showing quantity by salesperson a card showing the top three salespersons and the company logo the first issue with the current report is the density of information presented in a single visual for example the column chart of total sales by year and salesperson is busy with too much information and the second is that all the visuals are randomly located on the report canvas to begin the redesign in the view tab from the theme drop-down options activate the accessibility city park theme themes are standardized color schemes that can be applied to your entire report to maintain consistency throughout your report the accessibility support in this theme includes a color palette that provides contrast between content background and adjacent colors so the text and graphics are legible to ensure accessibility for the broadest range of consumers increase the font size and change the font color throughout the report to maximize visibility and contrast to make the text color of the axis titles and labels consistent throughout the report customize the theme to do that navigate to the view tab and in the themes dropdown select customize current theme the customize theme dialogue appears select advanced from the middle pane and select a black color for the second level elements select apply then select the total sales by year and salesperson column chart in visualization build visual scroll down and remove the salesperson field from the legend section the legend is busy with too much information in a small area the primary objective of the chart is to show the total sales per salesperson by removing the salesperson field and creating a slicer we can present the same information with better clutter-free visuals resize the column chart and drag it to the left of the canvas then navigate to visualization format visual visual to expand the Xaxis and scroll down to change the title toggle to the off position move the second chart out of the way for now for the first chart going to visualization format visual visual expand the column section and select FX to open the conditional formatting dialogue box in the dialogue box select the total sales from the drop-own of what field should we base this on section then select the black color in the lowest values check add a middle color and select a green color for the midval section select the darker green color for the highest value section then select okay to finish setting up conditional formatting the conditional formatting converts the columns to the shades of green and black color that you specified with the shade based on the column value it also adds a color legend to the column chart the legend is an unnecessary element in the chart that can be deleted to make the design cleaner to remove it go to visualization format visual visual legend and turn the toggle to the off position finally change the text size of the chart X and Yaxis and data labels to 12 points as the original visual was created to represent the salesperson’s performance add a salesperson slicer to the report to do this from the data pane bring the salesperson field from the salesperson’s table to the report canvas and select the slicer option from the visualization pane selecting the slicer go to visualization format visual visual slicer settings options there from the style drop-own list of options select the drop-own choice resize the slicer and drag it to the top right position of the report canvas next select the sum of quantity by salespersons column chart and replace the salesperson field from the x-axis with the year field from the order date column of the sales table the reason for this change is that we have a salesperson slicer and we can create a consistency between it and this chart by having year on the xaxis then the salesperson slicer will interactively present the sales generated by each salesperson in each year from visualization format visual general expand title and rename it as quantities sold rename the y-axis label as quantity sold then remove the x-axis title apply conditional formatting to the column colors remove the color legend and change the text size the column chart is resized to the same size as the previous one and dragged to position it parallel with the previous visual next resize and drag the top three salesperson’s card below the slicer and adjust the position and size accordingly for better visibility and accessibility change the text size and color of the salesperson’s name on the card go to format visual visual expand the card section change the title font size to 18 and color to black finally drag the Adventure Works logo to the top left of the canvas and add a report title of salesperson’s performance the report now has a structured layout with a logical flow of all the information originally presented this report demonstrates that proper positioning and information density adjustments improve comprehension and engagement placing visual elements optimizing scale and ensuring clarity of labels allows organizations to effectively communicate insights and make datadriven decisions in the realm of report design the organization and presentation of information plays a crucial role in capturing the attention of viewers in this video you will explore the concept of cohesive pages and the importance of striking the right balance between chaos and cohesion in report design drawing inspiration from Adventure Works you will delve into how thoughtful design choices contribute to cohesive pages that effectively convey information and captivate audiences before going into the dynamics of chaotic versus cohesive pages let’s recap the significance of cohesion in report design in previous videos you learned how elements such as color positioning and visual hierarchy contribute to cohesive designs by utilizing consistent color palettes strategic positioning of elements and clear visual hierarchy designers can create reports that are visually appealing easy to navigate and convey a unified message consider that your company Adventure Works needs to showcase its product lines performance across different regions in a report to create a cohesive page you need to employ a clean and structured layout you have to utilize consistent color schemes such as using brand colors to highlight important information and differentiate regions graphs and charts are thoughtfully positioned aligned and scaled to facilitate easy interpretation in this scenario a chaotic page would feature disorganized graphs overlapping text and a mix of unrelated colors leading to confusion and a lack of clarity chaotic pages suffer from a lack of structure coherence and intentionality they are characterized by cluttered layouts conflicting color schemes and elements positioned inconsistently chaos not only hampers visual appeal but also creates confusion and hinders effective communication of information in an Adventure Works report a chaotic page may include confusing graphs overlapping text and inconsistent use of color making it challenging for viewers to understand the intended message when working for Adventure Works you recognize the significance of cohesive pages and strive to create designs that engage and inform viewers effectively by adopting cohesive design principles you ensure that your reports are visually appealing organized and easy to navigate for example when presenting quarterly sales performance you carefully arrange key metrics in a logical flow utilizing a consistent color palette that aligns with their brand identity this approach creates a cohesive page that guides viewers through the information in a structured and comprehensible manner adventure Works demonstrates how thoughtful design choices contribute to cohesive pages you ensure that fonts colors and other visual elements align with the brand identity creating a consistent and recognizable aesthetic throughout your reports by utilizing whites space effectively you allow elements to breathe and improve readability clear headings and subheadings along with intuitive navigation elements further enhance the overall cohesion and user experience by incorporating these steps into your report design process you can improve cohesiveness and create visually appealing reports that effectively communicate information cohesiveness is not just about aesthetics but also about facilitating understanding and engagement for the intended audience creating a clear visual hierarchy is essential for guiding viewers through the report and highlighting key information use font size color and formatting to differentiate between headings subheadings and body text ensure that the most important elements stand out and draw the viewers’s attention adopting a consistent color scheme throughout the report enhances cohesiveness and strengthens brand identity choose a color palette that aligns with the company’s branding guidelines and use it consistently across charts graphs text boxes and other visual elements this consistency helps to establish visual harmony and reinforces the overall design aesthetic pay attention to the positioning of elements within the report ensure that related information is grouped together logically and presented in a sequential manner use alignment and spacing techniques to create a sense of order and structure avoid cluttering the page with unnecessary elements and maintain sufficient white space to enhance readability and visual appeal utilize grids and guides as design aids to achieve precise alignment and spacing grids help maintain consistency and alignment across different sections of the report while guides assist in positioning elements accurately these tools provide a framework for maintaining cohesiveness and ensuring that elements are visually aligned consistency and typography is crucial for creating a cohesive look and feel choose fonts that are legible and align with the overall design style use a limited number of font styles and sizes to maintain consistency throughout the report consider the readability of the chosen fonts and ensure that they are suitable for the target audience regularly review and refine your report design to identify areas for improvement seek feedback from colleagues or stakeholders to gain fresh perspectives analyze the report’s effectiveness in communicating the intended message and make necessary adjustments to enhance cohesiveness continuous improvement is key to achieving optimal results in the dynamic world of report design finding the balance between chaos and cohesion is essential for creating engaging and impactful pages by recapping the importance of cohesion exploring chaotic examples and showcasing the best practices you have gained insights into how color positioning and other design elements contribute to the creation of cohesive pages as you embark on your own report design journey remember the value of cohesive pages thoughtful design choices including consistent color schemes strategic positioning and attention to visual hierarchy can elevate your reports and captivate your audience by creating designs that balance order and clarity you will effectively communicate your message empower viewers with valuable insights and leave a lasting impact let’s take a poorly designed sales performance report and redesign it into a cohesive report the report view of PowerBI desktop displays a sales performance report called adventurework sales.pbix the report is poorly designed with randomly placed visuals and lacks coherence the redesign will change colors reposition and scale visuals and format text the report contains two line charts one funnel chart and two card visuals a logo and a report title the first step is to change the theme from the theme drop-down activate the accessible city park theme to ensure accessibility and impose a consistent style the theme contains colors that satisfy accessibility requirements customize the theme to enhance the label and access colors to ensure accessibility for the broadest range of consumers increase the font size and change the font color throughout the report to maximize visibility and contrast now drag the company logo to the top left of the report canvas also drag the title box to align with the logo let’s change the color of the title to black and make the text bold to align with the color palette of the theme select the sum of total sales card visual and rename the title as revenue to match the intent of the data in visualization format visual general effects change the background to theme color 2 both cards will have the same background color differentiating them from the report background and letting the viewer know that they both hold related data and contain the most valuable information in visualization format visual visual callout value change the font size to 32 and change the color to white to indicate the importance of this item for category label change the color to white and font size to 18 for better visibility against the new background then repeat these steps for some of quantity card visual and rename that visual as units sold now reposition both card visuals to the top right of the canvas and make sure these are of the same size because they are of equal importance you can rescale the card by selecting and dragging any side of the visual next select the sum of total sales by month line chart and rename it to a more appropriate title of revenue by month remove the x-axis title by turning the title toggle to the off position navigate to visualization format visual visual expand x-axis and scroll down to turn the title toggle to the off position x-axis represents monthly sales with the month name the month title on the axis does not add any relevant information rename the y-axis to total sales USD to clarify the sales details and currency now to add grid lines to the line chart in visualization format visual visual grid lines select dashed as style and black as the color next select the sum of total sales by month and country line chart and change its title to revenue by country remove its xaxis title as done in the previous chart and rename the y-axis as total sales USD next to format the legend navigate to visualization format visual visual and scroll down to the legend section in the legend section turn the title toggle button to the off position change the text size to 12 points and select the top right position from the position drop-down list of options the legend title is redundant because the country names provide sufficient information add grid lines to match the other visuals ensuring items such as title legends axis values and font size are formatted consistently for all the visuals helps report cohesion select the funnel chart and rename the title to revenue by category in visualization format visual visual conversion rate labels toggle to off as this is not relevant to the sales go into visualization format visual visual and expand the color section and select FX to open the conditional formatting dialogue in the dialogue select the total sales from the drop-down of what field should we base this on section then select a blue color called theme color five for the lowest values check add a middle color and select mid green theme color one for the midvalue section select the dark blue color theme color two for the highest value section select okay to apply conditional formatting converts the bars to shades of blue in descending order of sales amount dark blue represents the highest sales values next change the text size of the funnel chart to 14 points for better accessibility and visibility likewise change the font size of the axis titles and labels of both line charts to 12 points finally rescale and reposition the visuals making sure the distance between the visuals is equal to maintain design integrity adjust the position by dragging and rescale by selecting and dragging any side of the visual it’s good practice to review your work and possibly invite comments from colleagues a quick review right now suggests some slight improvements for instance to finish increase the size of the titles on each chart to 18 points that’s a demonstration of how to create cohesion in a report by applying and customizing an accessible theme ensuring consistent formatting for all visuals and scaling and positioning visuals in a logical hierarchical way to deliver a coherent data story imagine you’re planning a musical performance but you are playing for two different audiences one a group of classical music enthusiasts and the other a crowd of young energetic music lovers satisfying both audiences is a challenge it’s like the challenge you have when presenting data understanding your target audience is crucial and catering to their unique needs is the key to success it’s impossible to please everyone but the data must be readily understood by the majority with essential insights highlighted for your specific audience a key visualization success factor is understanding the audience you must tailor presentations to the specific needs and preferences of the target audience that is the specific group of people that your content is intended to reach it is the group of individuals most likely to be interested in or benefit from your data identifying and understanding the target audience is essential for communication and allows tailored strategies that can connect with this specific group’s preferences needs and characteristics every audience has unique characteristics including their level of technical expertise roles and responsibilities demographic information and other specific needs in this video you will explore the importance of knowing the audience and how the characteristics of your target audience influence the creation of your data presentation because of their characteristics you may be able to identify an audience’s needs an executive board needs highle summaries and key performance indicators while a marketing team wants detailed customer insights and marketing analytics when considering the target audience for a report or presentation assess some factors this will help identify the audience’s characteristics and needs enabling you to tailor your design to meet their specific requirements here are some key factors to consider identify the different roles or job functions of the potential users for example are they executives analysts marketers or sales representatives each row may have distinct data requirements and preferences determine the audience’s level of expertise and familiarity with the subject matter or the software being used are they beginners intermediate users or advanced professionals this helps you gauge the complexity of the information and the level of detail needed understand the goals and objectives of the audience what specific information or insights are they seeking for example executives may be interested in highle performance summaries while analysts may require more detailed data for in-depth analysis determine the specific information needs of the audience what kind of data or metrics are most relevant to their decision-making process for instance marketing teams may focus on customer demographics and campaign performance in contrast finance teams may require financial metrics and profitability analysis consider the preferred communication style of the audience some individuals prefer visual representations and charts while others prefer textual reports or interactive dashboards adapting your content to their preferred format enhances engagement and understanding assess cultural and demographic factors influencing the audience’s preferences and understanding this includes language preferences cultural nuances and accessibility considerations recognize the time constraints of the audience are they busy executives who require concise and summarized information or do they have more time for in-depth exploration tailoring the level of detail and presentation format can ensure that the information is effectively conveyed within the available time frame by considering these factors you can gain valuable insights into the target audience and align your report or software design to meet their specific needs once the target audience is identified the next step is to use data visualization techniques to address audience requirements it’s important to find the right balance between providing the required data and ensuring that it is understood by most of the audience when creating for diverse audiences it is crucial to simplify complex concepts and avoid jargon or technical terms that may be unfamiliar to non-technical stakeholders adventure works for instance may use clear and concise language to explain intricate manufacturing processes or market trends which your internal team would be familiar with however if presenting to external partners or users from outside the company they may be unfamiliar with manufacturing processes and therefore the technical terms should be avoided it’s important to identify and highlight the most relevant insights for the target audience for instance when presenting to the executive board the focus may be on financial performance market share and strategic initiatives on the other hand when presenting to the marketing team you can focus on customer behavior campaign effectiveness and market segmentation by tailoring the content to the specific interests of each audience data presentations become more engaging and actionable incorporating examples and scenarios that your audience is familiar with can help them connect with the data when presenting to the executive board a case study on the success of a recent product launch or a comparison of sales performance across different geographic regions can provide valuable insights similarly presenting market research findings or customer feedback to the marketing team can help them fine-tune their strategies and campaigns knowing the audience is vital in creating impactful data presentations by understanding the target audience’s needs preferences and roles within the organization data analysts can tailor their presentations to ensure maximum impact and understanding focusing on simplifying complex concepts highlighting relevant insights and using real world examples specific to the audience can significantly enhance the effectiveness of data presentations balloons are great fun at every party they brighten the room and raise the celebration mood but the same balloons that you used at a retirement function you don’t expect them to work as well at a kid’s birthday party for that party you’ll have balloons in different shapes and colors it’s the same situation when it comes to presenting data designing with the end user in mind is the key to success in data visualization the age range of the target audience is a vital consideration age related design considers the unique needs preferences and capabilities of different age groups in this video you’ll explore the significance of age related design in Microsoft PowerBI and discover specific considerations when designing visualizations for younger children aged 5 to 12 teenagers adults aged 18 to 64 and older adults aged 65 and above before exploring age related design considerations let’s briefly revisit the fundamentals of color theory color plays a crucial role in data visualization evoking emotions conveying meaning and aiding comprehension when designing for different age groups it’s important to select colors that are visually appealing to the group easily distinguishable and aligned with the intended message now let’s examine age related design in detail designing for younger children requires a simplified and engaging approach use vibrant and engaging colors younger children are attracted to bright and bold colors a visually stimulating color palette can capture their attention and enhance their engagement use simple and intuitive icons complex visual elements can overwhelm young children choose simple and recognizable icons that are easy to interpret interactive features such as buttons or dragable elements make the experience more interactive and enjoyable for young users incorporate playful illustrations and characters for example adventure works could use animated bicycle characters or friendly animal mascots in their visualizations to make the content more relatable tell a story through the data to capture the imagination of younger children adventure works could create a virtual journey such as showcasing different bicycle models in color and visually appealing environments for adults use a clean and professional design choose a visual style that meets the target audience’s expectations avoid excessive use of playful elements or overly casual designs ensure the visual elements have sufficient contrast and use clear readable typography for easy comprehension use text that is clear legible and easily readable choose appropriate font sizes typography and contrast to enhance readability adults appreciate a clear and intuitive user interface use logical navigation structures like menus and breadcrumbs to help users quickly navigate the content streamline the user interface and minimize complex interactions consider the audience’s needs for efficient data analysis and decision-m design dashboards and reports that provide relevant information quickly and concisely incorporate advanced visualizations appropriately consider using advanced charts graphs and interactive elements to provide deeper insights and facilitate data exploration allow users to personalize their dashboards or reports according to their preferences and priorities providing customization options can enhance user engagement and satisfaction designing for older adults requires additional focus on clarity legibility and ease of use use large and well spaced elements aging eyes may need help with small text or densely packed visuals enlarge fonts and provide ample spacing between elements to enhance readability and prevent visual clutter designing for different age groups requires consideration of their unique characteristics and needs by incorporating age related design principles you can create Microsoft PowerBI visualizations that cater to the specific requirements of groups like younger children and older adults from vibrant colors and interactive elements for children to clear typography and simplified interactions for older adults every design decision should prioritize the target audience’s ease of understanding and engagement age related design is one important aspect of creating inclusive and compelling visualizations continually exploring and understanding the needs of diverse user groups will help you focus the features of PowerBI to deliver impactful and accessible data visualizations for all imagine you’re preparing a delicious meal carefully selecting the finest ingredients your focus is on the flavors that will make the meal great in a similar way when presenting data focusing on the key details is crucial much like those food ingredients your audience craves the most relevant and impactful insights prioritizing key information ensures your message fulfills and satisfies the audience understanding the needs and preferences of your audience allows you to focus on the most relevant data points highlight outliers and provide the right level of detail for effective communication in this video you will explore the importance of prioritizing key information in Microsoft PowerBI and how it can enhance data insights for your audience before exploring the details of prioritizing it is vital to know your audience and their specific needs for instance presenting to the executive board requires a highle overview with emphasis on the big picture and key insights while presenting to a sales team may require more detailed information about performance evaluation consider a report for the executive board with an overview of quarterly sales and an emphasis on product categories the data also indicates that the executives need to focus on France and the United Kingdom for their marketing efforts by understanding your audience you can tailor the presentation to their specific needs ensuring that the key information is appropriately highlighted it allows you to customize the content format and level of detail in your presentation by adapting the presentation to the preferences knowledge level and goals of the sales team you increase the chances of delivering a compelling message that meets their needs when presenting data it is essential to capture the attention of your audience quickly by focusing on headlines or the most important findings and trends you can convey the main message effectively in the case of Adventure Works annual sales report key headlines may include overall revenue growth top selling product categories and regions with significant sales increases by highlighting these headlines you provide a clear and concise overview that immediately grabs the audience’s attention in any data set there are often outliers or data points that deviate significantly from the norm these outliers can provide valuable insights or indicate areas that require attention by highlighting them visually such as using color or annotations you draw the audience’s focus to these critical data points for example adventure works may have a particular product that experienced a sudden spike in sales or a region that underperformed compared to others by highlighting these outliers you prompt further exploration and discussion ensuring that the audience does not overlook essential information while headlines and key findings are crucial it is also essential to provide access to detailed information for a closer inspection when appropriate different audience members may have different levels of expertise or specific questions that require a deeper dive into the data in tailoring presentations the availability of detailed information for closer inspection should be carefully considered aligning with the needs and preferences of the specific audience for instance in an annual sales report from Adventure Works presenting to the executive board may emphasize highle trends revenue figures and strategic directions while a presentation to the sales team might delve into granular details like regional performance customer segments and sales targets adapting the level of detail ensures that each audience receives the information that aligns with their decision-making requirements optimizing the impact of the presentation microsoft PowerBI allows for interactive exploration where users can drill down into specific data points or filter the information based on their interests by providing this level of detail you enable further analysis and empower your audience to extract insights relevant to their specific needs the definition of significant information can vary across different audiences what may be crucial for one group may not be as relevant to another therefore it is crucial to adapt your presentation to align with the preferences of your audience for example the executive board may prioritize overall revenue and market share while the sales team may be more interested in product specific details or customer segmentation by understanding these preferences you can ensure that the key information presented is meaningful and resonates with your audience prioritizing key information in Microsoft PowerBI is a critical skill for effective data visualization and communication you can enhance data insights by understanding your audience focusing on headlines highlighting outliers providing access to detailed information and adapting to audience preferences the key to successfully prioritizing information is understanding your audience and tailoring your presentation to meet their specific needs picture a vault where your most valuable possessions are stored now imagine that this vault doesn’t have a strong lock leaving your treasures vulnerable to theft just as you’d prioritize security for your valuables safeguarding data is paramount in our digital age data the lifeblood of modern organizations is subject to a range of threats cyber attacks breaches and unauthorized access ensuring the security of this digital gold mine isn’t just a choice it’s a necessity let’s explore the world of data security where the keys to protection lie in understanding the risks implementing robust measures and fostering a culture of vigilance in the world of data visualization ensuring the security of data is of utmost importance from protecting sensitive information to maintaining data integrity incorporating robust security measures is crucial in this video you will explore the significance of security in data visualization and discuss key considerations for safeguarding data throughout the visualization process adventure Works a fictional multinational bicycle manufacturer is used as an example to illustrate the concept of data security in practice data visualization often involves working with sensitive information such as customer data financial records or proprietary business insights ensuring the security of this data is essential to maintain trust comply with regulations and protect against unauthorized access or data breaches let’s examine the key aspects of security and data visualization controlling access to data is vital to ensure that only authorized individuals can view or interact with specific data sets by implementing role-based access control data can be restricted or served in a controlled manner to the individuals who need to access it this helps protect sensitive information and reduces the risk of unauthorized data exposure additionally access logs and audit trails can be implemented to track and monitor data access providing accountability and visibility into data usage in Adventure Works you implement role-based access control to ensure that sensitive data is accessible only to authorized individuals in data visualization processes for instance the finance team has access to financial data while the marketing team can view customer demographics for targeted campaigns this granular access control prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing data beyond their scope safeguarding sensitive information anonymizing data is an effective technique for protecting privacy and confidentiality by removing personally identifiable information or replacing it with pseudonyms the data can be used for analysis and visualization while preserving privacy anonymization techniques such as generalization suppression or noise addition ensure that individuals cannot be identified from the data generalization involves simplifying or aggregating data to a higher level of abstraction often to protect privacy or reduce complexity suppression is the deliberate removal of certain data elements to prevent identifying individuals or sensitive information noise edition introduces controlled random variation into the data to make it more challenging to deduce specific details about individuals or confidential data these techniques are commonly used in data anonymization and privacy preservation to strike a balance between sharing useful information and safeguarding sensitive details ensuring data remains useful while reducing the risk of privacy breaches organizations should follow best practices and guidelines for data anonymization considering factors such as the nature of the data regulatory requirements and the intended use of the visualizations in Adventure Works you conduct market research and collect customer feedback to protect customer privacy you employ data anonymization techniques when visualizing the data personal information such as names addresses and contact details are replaced with pseudonyms or aggregated to preserve anonymity this allows Adventure Works to analyze and prevent valuable insights without compromising the privacy of customers maintaining data integrity is crucial to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the visualized information data integrity aspects include data validation error detection and consistency checks data validation involves verifying the accuracy and integrity of input data to ensure it meets predefined criteria error detection focuses on identifying mistakes or anomalies in data helping prevent erroneous information from causing problems consistency checks ensure that data conforms to established standards or matches other related data maintaining a reliable and cohesive data set these practices collectively help maintain data quality minimize errors and ensure that information is reliable and useful for decision-making and analysis implementing data validation rules and performing regular audits help identify and rectify any anomalies or inconsistencies in the data ensuring the visualizations reflect accurate and reliable insights furthermore employing data encryption techniques can prevent unauthorized modifications and tampering of the data maintaining its integrity throughout the visualization process in Adventure Works you prepare quarterly reports on sales performance which are shared with the executive board to ensure data integrity you implement data validation checks to detect any anomalies or errors in the sales data by cross- referencing the data with your customer relationship management system or CRM and performing consistency checks Adventure Works ensures the accuracy and reliability of the visualized sales information this data integrity provides the board with confidence in making informed decisions based on reliable insights when transferring data between different systems or sharing visualizations with stakeholders it is essential to prioritize secure data transmission using encrypted connections such as HTTPS or SSLTS ensures that data is encrypted during transit making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to intercept or manipulate the data https hypertext transfer protocol secure is a protocol that provides secure communication for website connections allowing user data to be transmitted in an encrypted manner this encryption relies on security protocols such as secure sockets layer SSL or transport layer security TLS secure sockets layer transport layer security SSLTS is used to ensure privacy and integrity during data transmission over the internet protecting user data from malicious attacks and ensuring its security these protocols enhance users online experience by providing a more secure environment when conducting online transactions and sharing sensitive information additionally organizations should consider secure file sharing methods such as using virtual private networks or VPNs for the connections using two-factor authentication or 2FA for authenticating users using Microsoft one drive for business Google workspace or Dropbox business for enterprise level cloud storage solutions and using secure protocols like secure file transfer protocol or SFTP and also utilize secure cloud-based platforms for distributing visualizations s ensuring data remains protected throughout its journey adventure Works collaborates with external partners and distributors sharing visualizations and sales data for joint business planning to ensure secure data transmission you utilize encrypted connections such as SSL TLS when sharing sensitive information over the internet this encryption protects the data from unauthorized access during transit maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the shared visualizations and data data visualization often involves working with data that is subject to legal and regulatory requirements such as general data protection regulation or GDPR compliance with these regulations is crucial to protect individuals rights and maintain legal obligations data visualization practices should adhere to the relevant regulations including obtaining appropriate consent anonymizing data when necessary and implementing necessary safeguards organizations should stay informed about evolving data protection regulations and ensure their data visualization processes align with the correct legal frameworks adventure Works operates in various regions with different data protection regulations when visualizing data they ensure compliance with relevant regulations such as GDPR they obtain appropriate consent from customers anonymize data where necessary and implement necessary security measures to protect personal information this ensures that Adventure Works aders to the legal requirements and maintains the privacy rights of individuals security is a fundamental aspect of data visualization ensuring the confidentiality integrity and availability of data by implementing robust security measures such as access control data anonymization maintaining data integrity secure data transmission and compliance with data regulations organizations can build trust protect sensitive information and deliver reliable insights to their stakeholders as the importance of data continues to grow prioritizing security in data visualization is essential for maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of information in today’s datadriven world kim grew up in a small town in rural America the town had seen better days the region’s economy was in decline there were few career prospects for a young woman kim had to stay in her hometown and take whatever jobs she could find luckily she was an avid social media fan with a recent smartphone the phone allowed her to connect online even though the town’s wired internet connections were slow and often failed completely she vented her career and life frustrations on social media and very soon she got many suggestions for alternative careers and educational paths kim explored the opportunities available to her taking advantage of the low barrier of entry offered by the internet she used her phone and computer to take online courses and to research business ideas she had an eye for fashion and makeup an affinity for emerging styles and an ambition to succeed that combination led her to establish a business venture offering a few products online luckily for Kim the launch of her online business coincided with the upgrade of the town’s broadband to fiber connectivity yes you can work from anywhere with an internet connection but if you’re at all competitive it’s nice to be somewhere that has fast internet speeds the world is now a global village the internet is at the heart of this transformation and is an integral part of our everyday lives that’s why the need for better speeds and greater coverage has been felt around the world in the USA average connection speeds increased from 25 megabytes per second in the past to over 100 megabytes per second in recent times this is largely due to the widespread adoption of fiber optic technology which gives us faster speeds and improved coverage kim started slowly but her business grew as more and more people in her small town began to connect to and use the internet more because of its better speed her business expanded as the world grew more connected through fast internet connections kim started to use data from her customers to visualize and identify preferences and grow her business further despite the lack of local resources Kim was able to run a global business from her small town people both in rural and urban areas can access the internet easily with predictable costs and 247 access thanks to new technologies such as mobile broadband connections on 4G and 5G when traveling Kim can run her business using her smartphone connected to a cellular network or using one of the many Wi-Fi hotspots supplied by cities across the world the rise of global internet connectivity allowed Kim to access a wide array of resources with fast access to a global network she was able to stay upto-date with the latest trends in international business she made connections with professionals in other countries and was soon collaborating on new business deals and markets she couldn’t have considered before what was once an impossibility is now a reality for Kim she continues to explore global internet connectivity and use customer data analysis to expand her international business and explore new opportunities welcome to this high-level recap of the lessons covered this week this summary will help you revise the concepts of visualization and design during the course various adventure work scenarios were used as real life simulations of a multinational bicycle retailer operating in multiple countries these scenarios are designed to facilitate understanding and provide relatability and will be mentioned again in this recap as you review color theory positioning scale and density of information chaotic versus cohesive pages knowing the audience age related design prioritizing key information and security in data color theory is a crucial guideline for mixing colors and understanding the visual impact of specific color combinations it includes concepts like the color wheel color harmony color psychology and color symbolism by grasping these principles you gain a powerful toolkit for crafting visually appealing and meaningful designs the color wheel illustrates the relationships between colors including primary secondary and tertiary colors enabling you to navigate various color schemes for harmonious compositions color harmony focuses on arranging colors pleasingly in a design achieved through complimentary analogous triad or monochromatic combinations enhancing balance and impact color psychology explores how colors evoke emotions and influence behavior helping you use colors strategically for specific messages for example using yellow and orange can often evoke vibrant and energetic emotions symbolic meanings and cultural associations of colors are also essential ensuring effective communication across diverse cultural backgrounds mastering color theory empowers designers to create captivating designs effectively convey messages and evoke desired emotions making color theory a guiding force in transforming ordinary designs into extraordinary reports and dashboards color is a fundamental component in report design and data visualization impacting the quality and effectiveness of reports color influences emotions perceptions and the overall visual impact of your data visualization each color holds unique psychological associations and symbolic meanings generating diverse emotional responses for example warm colors like red and orange convey energy passion excitement and attention or warning while cool colors like blue and green evoke calmness serenity and harmony by skillfully selecting and combining colors designers can effectively convey the intended emotional message in report design while also considering cultural interpretations for global designs positioning in report design involves strategically placing visual elements to guide the viewer’s attention and convey essential information adventure Works recognizes the importance of this ensuring key data points like revenue and units sold are prominently placed at the top of a report the logical flow of information is also considered with supporting details arranged beneath the main metrics creating a natural narrative for easy navigation scaling information in the report and dashboard design is also crucial for clarity visual hierarchy and emphasis proper scaling optimizes space ensures responsiveness and reduces cognitive load chart selection plays a pivotal role in optimizing scale of information for example bar charts are used for presenting nominal and original scales while line charts work with interval and ratio scales once an appropriate chart is selected all associated elements can be scaled proportionately according to the degree of emphasis overall mastering the art of positioning and scale enhances report designs creating engaging informative reports that effectively communicate insights to the audience positioning in design involves arranging visual elements to guide attention and convey messages effectively adventure Works understands this importance ensuring key data is presented clearly and avoiding overcrowding techniques like grouping related info consistent spacing and visual hierarchy are employed to enhance information density while white space prevents clutter allowing viewers to focus their attention aligning elements guides the narrative and helps the flow of information proper positioning and information density are crucial in data visualization for comprehension and engagement enabling organizations to communicate insights efficiently cohesive page design is crucial contrasting with chaotic layouts that lack structure and coherence cohesive designs engage viewers utilize clear visual hierarchies and maintain a consistent color scheme aligned with the brand identity thoughtful positioning effective use of whites space and strategic typography contribute to organized visually appealing reports the incorporation of grids guides and regular reviews will refine the design ensuring a cohesive presentation of information by mastering these principles you create compelling reports that communicate effectively and leave a lasting impact on your audience the crucial first step in creating a successful report or presentation is identifying the target audience’s unique characteristics such as their roles expertise goals information needs and preferred communication style adventure Works for instance uses clear language and visualization elements to explain complex concepts while highlighting relevant insights for different groups such as the executive board or marketing team where possible incorporate real world examples and scenarios to help the audience connect with the data this targeted approach ensures data presentations effectively convey meaningful insights and contribute to the business success of Adventure Works to optimize data visualization designing with the end user in mind is crucial and age related design is a significant aspect to consider designing for all age groups requires understanding their unique needs by following age related design principles Microsoft PowerBI users can create visually appealing and engaging visualizations that cater to the specific requirements of different age groups the goal is to prioritize ease of understanding and engagement for the target audience prioritizing key information is a crucial aspect of data presentation by understanding your audience you can tailor your presentation to meet their specific needs ensuring that the most relevant data points are appropriately highlighted when presenting data capturing attention quickly is essential identifying outliers and important data points is another critical strategy providing access to detailed information for closer inspection is essential for those in your audience who need to drill down to reveal more data that’s part of adapting to your audience’s preferences prioritizing key information in Microsoft PowerBI is a critical skill that enhances data visualization and communication by considering your audience focusing on headlines highlighting outliers providing detailed access and accommodating audience preferences you can drive more meaningful decision-making based on data insights during your data visualization work security has a vital importance when dealing with sensitive information this includes data such as customer data financial records or proprietary business insights ensuring proper data security is crucial for maintaining trust complying with regulations and preventing unauthorized access or breaches by implementing robust security measures such as access control data anonymization maintaining data integrity secure data transmission and compliance with data regulations organizations build trust protect sensitive information and deliver reliable insights to their stakeholders access control involves controlling who can access specific data sets reducing the risk of unauthorized exposure you can implement role-based access control granting access only to authorized individuals and ensuring that sensitive data is protected data anonymization preserves privacy by removing identifiable information allowing analysis and visualization without compromising personal details maintaining data integrity is crucial to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the visualized information data integrity aspects include data validation error detection and consistency checks compliance with data regulations such as general data protection regulation or GDPR is essential and you can obtain consent from customers anonymize data as needed and implement security measures to comply with relevant regulations during this week you explored color theory positioning scale of information and information density chaotic versus cohesive pages knowing the audience age related design prioritizing key information and security and data by applying these techniques you will have more control over data visualization and design in Microsoft PowerBI the difference between insight and noise is clarity is the message of your report clear to the viewer or is the insight hidden by the noise in your presentation crafting compelling visualization in PowerBI is a necessity in this video you will learn to transform raw data into captivating stories where charts and graphs are not just shapes they bring essential clarity to your story data visualization helps convey complex information in a way that is easy to grasp and interpret microsoft PowerBI offers a wide range of visualization options from simple bar charts to intricate custom visuals allowing you to tailor your presentations to your audience and data however the true impact of data lies not just in its presentation but also in the clarity and visual appeal of the visualization when considering the importance of clarity charts data and visuals are all crucial components clear and visually appealing charts make it easier for stakeholders to understand complex data the right chart type can simplify complex information making it accessible to broader audiences data is only valuable when it communicates an insight and supports a decision visual impact ensures that your data presentation is engaging and persuasive cluttered visuals can lead to misinterpretation and therefore erroneous conclusions visual clarity in your reports reduces the risk of drawing incorrect insights let’s explore some best practices to create visual clarity and impact selecting an appropriate visual to present the data is critical for ensuring clarity and visualization it helps to display data accurately for instance a pie chart can be used to present a data set showing parts of a whole this might be a breakdown of total sales by each product category but what if you have 20 product categories pie charts will get cluttered and difficult to read if the data set is too complex break it down into smaller more digestible parts you can create summarization and aggregation measures within your data model you can employ drill down functionality of PowerBI to present details about your data although you can use colors to highlight key data points overuse of colors can lead to confusion you need to include clear and concise data labels for data points in your chart type avoid overcrowding the chart axis as this creates clutter in your chart and the overall report becomes unreadable you need to maintain a formatting consistency across all charts of your report pages you can use and customize report themes to ensure a cohesive look the data quality also contributes to the visual clarity of the report visualizations are only as good as the data quality they represent you need to make sure the data is clean accurate and formatted when choosing a chart for your report consider key elements such as the data type the message the context and the audience understand the nature of your data is it numerical categorical or geographical this helps you decide the appropriate chart type determine the data story you want to convey in your report are you showing comparison trends distribution or proportions this influences the chart selection evaluate how your visualization will be used dashboards presentations and interactive reports require distinct types of charts and visuals consider your audience’s familiarity with data visualizations select a chart type that connects with their experience although PowerBI provides tools and the flexibility to create stunning visuals it’s up to you as a data analyst and report designer to use them to eliminate clutter and impart visual appeal by prioritizing clarity selecting an appropriate chart and following best practices you can transform your data into captivating and meaningful stories that deliver insights in the dynamic world of data visualization creating visually appealing and compelling reports is essential for effective communication and decision-making however as you design these reports you must not forget about accessibility in the context of data reporting and visualization accessibility refers to the design and implementation of reports that can be easily used and understood by all individuals including those with disabilities this involves creating reports in a way that accommodates various needs such as providing alt text for visuals ensuring sufficient color contrast enabling keyboard navigation and providing compatibility with screen readers ensuring that your reports are inclusive and accessible to all users regardless of their abilities is a crucial aspect of responsible and user centric report creation because of its global operations Adventure Works executive management want to design its reports and dashboard to be used by a broader audience therefore as a data analyst your task is to consider the accessibility features of PowerBI before you plan and execute data analysis and design reports and dashboards now let’s explore a project file in PowerBI to learn how to create reports that are userfriendly and accessible to all audiences the project file contains three data tables sales products and region the first task is to create a line chart by dragging the total sales month and country fields from these tables into the respective wells of the line chart visual next create a donut chart representing the total sales by product category select the total sales and category fields to add to the chart for users with visual impairments these visuals may not be accessible add alt text to make your reports inclusive select the line chart and access visualizations format visual then general and scroll down to the alt text box enter the following descriptive text for the line chart monthly regional revenue analysis for adventure works this description acts as a text alternative that screen readers can access this lets users understand the content even if they cannot see it your users can also expand a specific visual from the report or dashboard select the line chart then select the focus mode icon on the top right corner of the visual the chart fills the entire screen select back to report to exit focus mode you can also view the data in a tabular format that is more screen reader friendly from the visual context menu select show as a table from the drop-own list this displays the line chart with a data table visual and report page titles are important accessibility features that serve as reference points let’s add some access visualizations select general then select the chart title provide a descriptive title of the chart like month sales by country next you need to name your report pages select the page number and rename the page to better represent the data both the X and Yaxis titles should also be readable and provide sufficient information in the line chart a color on its own might not be sufficient to convey information use markers to help distinguish the different data sets used in the visual select the line chart and turn the markers toggle to the on position select a different shape marker for each country you can configure the marker shape size and color for each line powerbi’s tab order feature provides a way to arrange all visual elements logically to accommodate keyboard users this ensures a natural order of visuals that keyboard shortcuts can access navigate to the view tab of PowerBI desktop and access the selection pane from the show panes group this opens a selection pane with two tabs layer order and tab order in the tab order tab you can rearrange the order of visuals in your report you must ensure screen readers effectively interpret and convey visuals and text this way you can ensure that the report is properly interpreted and conveyed to users with screen readers finally choose an appropriate accessibility theme and the high contrast windows option from the view tab to help ensure report accessibility this generates contrasting text and background colors to help make the content readable for users with visual impairments or color blindness if you use a high contrast mode in Windows PowerBI desktop automatically detects which high contrast theme is being used in Windows and applies those settings to your reports lastly test your reports with diverse users including those with disabilities to gather feedback and identify accessibility issues real world feedback helps you improve report design there are accessibility features available in PowerBI to help you successfully create a report design that can be accessed by a wide range of consumers integrating PowerBI accessible features into your workflow is not a limiting factor in designing compelling reports and dashboards it is the correct way to generate reports usable by a broader audience including those with disabilities you created a canvas of charts and graphs in Microsoft PowerBI to visualize your data but as you review your report it seems incomplete it’s as if one piece of the puzzle is missing that critical piece is the assessment of its clarity and impact a report is not just a collection of individual charts its clarity and its impact come from combining these visual elements into a compelling narrative this video will explore strategies and best practices to ensure your PowerBI reports are not just a canvas of information but are visually compelling engaging and impactful guidelines for creating an impactful report include deciding on the report objective establishing a visual hierarchy using branding and themes carefully composing the report employing storytelling techniques and optimizing the report performance for the best user experience what do you intend to communicate in your report and what is your target audience having a clear understanding of these aspects guides your design decisions the use of visual cues such as size color and visual placement builds the visual hierarchy to emphasize key insights or data points and assist navigation use branding and themes to help create a professional report design brand guidelines enforce a consistent style that adds credibility to your reports when composing your report consider layout and composition factors such as whites space alignment and screen real estate optimization whitespace means ensuring proper spacing between report elements like headings visuals and brand elements alignment is about aligning report elements to create a structured layout and a sense of order that emphasizes the data story screen real estate refers to the available space on the report canvas of PowerBI finding the right balance between presenting enough data to get your message across while avoiding overwhelming your audience is crucial when dealing with a lot of data points think about incorporating interactive elements like tool tips slicers and drill through such features keep the main visual clear but allow users to expand specific data points telling a story with your data significantly enhances the engagement and impact of your PowerBI report sequence items on the report canvas to make a natural storytelling flow for example a clear introduction key insights supporting details and finally a conclusion slow loading or unresponsiveness leads to a poor user experience that can diminish the impact of a report optimize report performance by eliminating unnecessary data minimizing complex DAX logic and aggregating data choosing an appropriate chart type based on the data type is critical in designing a clear and impactful report we will now explore use cases strengths and limitations of some commonly used chart types bar charts can compare discrete categories or values displaying rankings and trends over time easy to interpret useful to display data with few categories can come in the form of a bar chart where the bars display horizontally and in a vertical orientation when it displays as a column chart not suitable for continuous data and can become cluttered with too many categories display trends and patterns over time with a line chart to identify changes in data over a continuous scale excellent for visualizing time series data and to display multiple series for comparison less effective for comparing individual data points and not suitable for categorical data pie and donut charts display the composition of a whole showing parts of a percentage and they emphasize relative proportions easy to understand and they work well with a small number of categories not suitable for use beyond eight categories scatter plots are great for visualizing the relationship between two numerical values identifying outliers and spotting correlations it reveals patterns clusters and trends and is effective in displaying highdensity multi-dimensional data the visual may be overwhelming with too many categories a gauge chart displays a single value in relation to a predefined target such as key performance indicators or KPI provides a visual representation of performance against a goal not suitable for displaying multiple data points tree map is ideal for visualizing hierarchical data structures showing the proportions of categories within a whole visualizing hierarchical relationships by effective use of space and color coding may not be suitable for non- hierarchical data and it gets complex when there are deep hierarchies a strategic approach to report design in Microsoft PowerBI can create a clutter-free and engaging data story by having a clear objective maintaining a visual hierarchy implementing consistency and adhering to best practices in all design choices such as chart selection you can create a report that makes the best impression on the audience data is not just numbers it is a compass that guides you through the maze of business performance highlighting exactly where you underperform and where opportunities await a key performance indicator chart is one way to transform numbers into insights stories and to uncover hidden messages from raw data often used for sales marketing and customer service KPIs act as performance benchmarks measuring progress and identifying trends a KPI visual typically displays a single metric and its performance against a target or baseline this makes it easier for viewers to quickly judge performance and identify problems microsoft PowerBI has a built-in KPI visual but gauge charts and bullet charts can also be used to present KPI values kpi measures a value and shows trends and status the value is the main measure that you want to evaluate for instance current sales the element you want to compare the value with is the target for example the sales target the trend is how the value performs over time for example are the sale values going upward or downward the KPI visual can be adjusted from a desktop design to a version that works well on mobile devices to optimize a KPI chart for mobile devices keep the charts layout uncluttered use appropriate font sizes and contrasting colors focus on presenting the essential data points and avoid excessive decorative elements adventure Works wants insight into sales figures and an assessment of sales targets let’s design a sales performance KPI visual in PowerBI desktop and optimize it for mobile devices first launch PowerBI desktop and open the adventure work sales report to create a KPI chart to track sales performance against the target drag the total sales and target fields from the sales table to the report canvas powerbi automatically generates a column chart from these values you don’t need this chart so select KPI visual from the visualization pane to convert it to a KPI this action results in an empty chart with no data hover the cursor on the information icon the icon indicates that both values and trend axes are needed for this chart the three elements of the KPI chart are in the build visual tab of the visualization pane these elements are value target and trend to compare the sales values with the target add the total sales measure to the value section of the visual for the trend axis add months to view monthly sales trends remove the target values and drag the month field from the order date hierarchy to the trend axis this action generates a KPI visual that charts sales values by month it’s like creating an area chart with month as an axis and sales as values the main value indicated in the visual is sales but is this total sales or a filtered value the value represented at the center of the KPI visual is the last data point shown in the trend axis this means that if the trend is a month then this is the last month sales only in this report it’s the sales for December 2018 if the data set contains sales for multiple years then the value indicates the sales for December of all years if the data set contains the values for the full year then it’s for December but what if you only have sales for certain months access the visualizations tab then format visual visual and date turn on the date toggle to display the values date you’ve presented the sales data but must compare the value to the target drag the target measure from the sales table to the target section of the KPI visual adding the target generates color coding in the visual by turning the value and the area chart red an exclamation mark appears beside the value indicating that the sales values are behind the target the target is represented as the goal by default the percentage difference between the sales and the target is displayed in parenthesis which is minus 6.59% in the current report if the sales values meet or exceed the target then the color of the value and area chart turn green with a check mark next you must format the chart using font style and size changing color or adding background color for instance you can choose the sentiment color red as bad or red as good based on the nature of the value lastly optimize the KPI visual for mobile devices navigate to the view tab and select mobile layout drag the KPI visual from the page visuals pane to the mobile layout page positioning and rescaling the visual to adjust it the visual is now optimized for mobile devices a KPI chart represents the sales trend against the target value with the help of KPI visuals Adventure Works can identify which product region or sales representative is underperforming and as a result devise strategic decisions for performance improvement the key to revealing insights from raw data is using the appropriate visualization techniques have emerged using specific data types and analytical methods to produce tailored visualizations dotplot is one such visualization that is popular when presenting categorical data in relation to a numerical value to display the relationship between two numeric variables you can create a scatter plot that defines the correlation between variables a variation of a scatter plot is a bubble chart that can display the relationship between three variables the third variable represented in the size of a bubble a bubble chart is like a dot plot but instead of numeric data you use categorical information on the x-axis dotplot charts are a simple yet effective data visualization technique used to display the distribution of data points along a single axis in a dot plot chart each data point is represented by a dot and dots are stacked vertically above the corresponding data values on the axis this makes dot plots especially useful for visualizing the distribution and frequency of categorical data powerbi does not have any visual named dotplot or dot chart but you can create a dot plot by converting a scatter chart to a dot plot however there are certain custom visuals available in the PowerBI marketplace that are used to directly create dot plots in PowerBI let’s quickly check on a few reasons dot plots make such a useful chart type a dotplot chart is easy to use it is easy to interpret for non-technical users it’s particularly useful when visualizing categorical data giving a clear comparison between categories it displays the distribution and patterns in the data it can visualize a large amount of multi-dimensional data and it’s a compact chart that’s cell phone friendly adventure Works needs insights into regional product category sales performance they need to know the quantity sold for each category and the revenue per country the challenge is the number of variables to be presented in a single visual as a PowerBI analyst you can deploy a dot plot to present categorical information such as category or country on the x-axis sales on the y-axis and quantity as the size of the dot let’s jump into PowerBI and use a dot plot to analyze and visualize the Adventure Works information open the Adventure Works sales project the PowerBI core visualization pane has a no dot plot or dot chart visual so you need to begin with the scatter chart and convert it into a dot plot adventure works must present sales quantities country and category data drag the sales and total quantity sold measures from the key measures table to the report canvas powerbi autogenerates a column chart select the scatter chart from the visualization pane to convert the column chart to a scatter chart powerbi autofills the x-axis section with sales and the y-axis field with total quantities sold this is your scatter chart the sales data is numeric but you need to bring categorical data to the x-axis drag the country column from the region table to the x-axis field of the visual and move the sales data to the y-axis next drag the category column from the product table to the visuals legend section when I hover the cursor on a single dot in the chart a tool tip appears displaying the country category and sales amount for the category in that country to add more data drag the quantity sold measure from the key measures table to the visual size section the dot size changes in proportion to the quantity sold the tool tip now displays quantity information in addition to the previous data the chart still resembles a bubble chart to change it navigate to the format visual tab and expand markers in the shape drop-own list select the square dot you could also select distinct shapes for each category the dot size can also be adjusted here next format the aesthetics first add a chart title description then adjust the legend position legend title and font size format the axes to display clear labels and titles add and format the grid lines then add background color to improve the report’s accessibility select different shapes for each category finally you must add analytics lines select analytics in the visualization pane represented by a magnifying glass icon to display a range of different analytical lines expand the average line drop-down and select add line to add an average line to the chart format the line color and toggle the data label button to the on position to add average sales value data other analytical lines can be added to the chart as required adventure Works analytical needs were fulfilled by presenting categorical data in a single visual the dotplot chart allows you to visualize multi-dimensional data with more than two variables and categorical information instead of numerical values on the x-axis of the chart interactive visualizations breathe life into data revealing hidden patterns and relationships between variables powerbi’s core visualization pane offers a visual where numbers are transformed into dynamic bubbles bubble charts can depict multi-dimensional data in a single view making intelligent use of space in addition to the X and Y axes a third dimension of data is represented through the size of each bubble this approach enables you to highlight complex relationships between variables and identify patterns that might not be immediately evident in traditional two-dimensional scatter plots the bubble charts ability to convey multiple data dimensions simultaneously gives analysts and decision makers deeper insights into their data these insights can lead to more informed choices and strategies across a range of applications such as market analysis financial planning sales performance evaluation and resource allocation one example of applying a bubble chart effectively is in market analysis suppose you are analyzing the performance of various products within different markets the X and Y axis can represent market share and revenue while the bubble size corresponds to the total number of units sold by examining this data in a bubble chart you can discern valuable insights such as which products are dominant in specific markets based on market share and revenue and how sales volume relates to these factors highdensity data refers to data sets containing a substantial number of data points which can lead to visual clutter and hinder effective data interpretation with bubble charts you visualize data point density and use sampling techniques to manage data representation on the chart by adjusting the size of the bubbles or employing dynamic filtering options you can focus on specific areas of interest and maintain a clear and coherent chart despite the data’s complexity adventure Works wants to get insight into their data about the performance of different product colors the correlation between total revenue and profit margin the management wants to know the number of units sold of each product color sales profit margin product color and quantity together make the analysis and visualization challenging you can utilize a bubble chart in Microsoft PowerBI desktop to give all the required information in a single visual let’s transform those raw numbers into dancing bubbles of information and help Adventure Works make datadriven decisions about product colors the data model displays information on total sales and profit margin measures the product table has product color information to begin visualizing profit margin and sales select scatter chart from the visualization pane to add a placeholder visual to the canvas drag the sales and profit margin measures from the key measures table on the data pane to the x and y axis this generates a scatter chart with a single data point to make the chart more interesting bring a third data dimension to the chart fields this converts the scatter chart to a bubble chart then drag the color column from the product table to the legend field of the visual the tool tip now displays information about the total sales amount of a specific color product and the profit margin associated with that product color adventure Works needs to know the unit sold so bring the quantity sold measure from the key measures table to the size section of the visual another important feature of bubble charts is the play axis which you can use to animate your visuals drag the year field from the order date hierarchy from the sales table to the play axis now you can also analyze the data by year select play on the left side of the axis powerbi animates the bubbles to represent the variations in sales quantities and profit margins over the years next navigate to the analytics tab represented by a magnifying glass in the visualizations pane add a medium line based on sales and another for profit margin these chart lines provide analytics on the median sales and profit values the analytics pane provides interesting insights about the data now you need to format the chart first change the bubble shape and size to convey additional information and insights select visualization format visual visual and then markers in the shape dropdown change the shape of an entire series or individual categories in the size section adjust the size you can apply further formatting by changing the font style size and color adding background color and so on adventure Works can now visualize dense and multi-dimensional data in a compelling visualization to draw meaningful insights for future strategic plans in this video you discovered how a bubble chart delivered an engaging visualization to Adventure Works about the correlation between profit margin and sales based on the product color units sold and year you also explored the analytical capabilities of the bubble chart by adding the median and average lines to the chart to convey additional insights about the data you are working with a large data set when you discover that no one is interested in the data that’s a big surprise to you then you realize that it’s the insights people want presented not the data when dealing with data sets containing an abundance of data points presenting the information without overwhelming the viewer is vital in this video you will explore advanced display techniques in Microsoft PowerBI techniques such as presenting highdensity data using maps drills and 3D visualizations in PowerBI highdensity data is where you have a large amount of data points or values within a small area on a visual it often leads to visual clutter and makes it challenging to accurately interpret the visual some techniques to handle highdensity data include use aggregations and summarization drill through and drill down color coding such as heat maps and geographical maps and using 3D and custom visualizations let’s check some PowerBI visualizations that use these techniques and evaluate their potential for use in reports the first one to explore is heat maps heat maps are a powerful tool for visualizing the density and distribution of data across geographical regions or grids using color gradients to represent values heat maps allow viewers to quickly identify patterns trends and hotspots within large data sets for example imagine you are analyzing sales performance across various regions for Adventure Works a heat map could represent the sales figures using a color spectrum highlighting regions with the highest sales in vibrant hues while cooler shades indicate lower sales the heat map visualization is not available in the PowerBI core visualization pane you can import a heat map from PowerBI marketplace you can also use a Python-based heat map visualization in PowerBI you will learn about that option later in the course another visual to consider for highdensity data is called tree maps tree maps are ideal for displaying hierarchical data and comparing the proportions of data points across different levels in a tree map each rectangle represents a category and its size correlates with the proportionate value it represents this technique allows viewers to analyze the overall composition and the data point breakdown in a single visual for instance you can use a tree map to display the distribution of sales by product categories and subcategories within Adventure Works now let’s explore the functionality of drill through and drill down where analysts and viewers can dig deeper into the data a drill down in PowerBI allows users to move from a higher level of detail to a more granular level while a drill up does the reverse for example Adventure Work sales data is plotted on a time scale the viewers can use drill down to look at the sales data on a data hierarchy that goes from a year to each quarter to month and all the way down to a daily level there are two drill through situations to explain chart drill through lets users explore additional detail within a visual by clicking on specific data points for example in a bar chart representing sales figures for various products at a summary level selecting a specific bar say product 3 can trigger a drill through action revealing a detailed report highlighting sales trends in various regions product details and customer information related to that specific product page drill through allows users to navigate to a different page with associated information this advanced technique is especially valuable for creating summary pages with high-level insights while two-dimensional visualizations are more popular 3D visualizations can offer a new dimension of insights for instance a 3D scatter plot can showcase the distribution of products with a three-dimensional space revealing potential correlations and patterns such as a presentation of a product’s performance based on three parameters: price sales volume and customer satisfaction a 3D map can present data points in an interactive three-dimensional map space 3d mapping adds a sense of depth and realism to geographical data making it easier for users to identify spatial trends and analyze data use Microsoft PowerBI’s advanced display techniques to extract insight from large complex data sets while considering enduser requirements master highdensity data display drill through capabilities and the world of 3D visualization to improve your PowerBI reports and deliver impactful insights do you only access your social media accounts from a desktop computer no like most of us you probably spend most of your internet time on a mobile device accessing data on the go has become the norm decision makers expect to be able to access critical information anytime anywhere as a report creator you must be able to optimize report layouts for mobile devices that way you ensure your insights appear on smaller screens without losing clarity and usability creating a mobile friendly report layout involves careful consideration of visual placement font sizes and content organization to do that use the tools and settings in the mobile layout canvas of Microsoft PowerBI when optimizing a report for mobile one of the key considerations is responsive design a responsive layout automatically adjusts to fit different screen sizes and orientations ensuring that the report looks and functions optimally on various mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones the adaptability is crucial as mobile devices come in various screen sizes it ensures report access without the user needing to zoom or scroll horizontally another critical aspect of mobile optimization is the selection of visuals and data presentation not all visuals are suitable for mobile viewing due to their complexity or size you must choose visuals that convey essential insights while maintaining readability on smaller screens simplified visuals such as line charts bar charts and KPI cards are often preferred for mobile layouts as they can present data clearly font sizes play a crucial role in mobile optimization text that appears legible on a desktop monitor might become challenging to read on a smaller mobile screen use appropriate font sizes that ensure readability without straining the user’s eyes headers and labels should be clear and concise while data points should have sufficient spacing to avoid clutter in addition to visual elements interactivity is another aspect to consider when optimizing mobile devices you must choose visuals that convey essential insights while maintaining readability on smaller screens some interactions such as tool tips and drill through actions may work fine on desktops but might not translate well to touch-based mobile devices test and adjust interactions to ensure a smooth and intuitive mobile user experience as a best practice testing your mobile optimized report on various devices is crucial to identify potential issues and ensure consistency across different platforms emulating different mobile devices or using responsive design testing tools can help verify the reports performance and appearance on various devices adventure Works executive management wants to visualize its product sales summary it must be a mobile friendly sales summary dashboard so that it can be accessed anytime anywhere let’s use PowerBI desktop to optimize the Adventure Works sales summary report for mobile viewing before optimizing a report for mobile it is essential to review its current layout and design you need to identify elements that may not translate well to smaller screens and those that require adjustments to maintain readability and user friendliness let’s optimize the adventure work sales summary report for mobile devices the report contains one column chart representing the yearly sales amount a donut chart displaying sales by country or region and two card visuals showing sales and profit to begin navigate to the view tab and select mobile layout the mobile layout page has three panes: visualizations page visuals and mobile layout the page visuals canvas displays all the visual elements of the original report the mobile canvas has a precise grid layout for rescaling and repositioning the visuals on the screen with snap to grid functionality additionally you can select the checkbox lock objects from the view ribbons page options this action locks the visual elements in place to avoid any accidental movement use this once you are satisfied with the position and scale of your visual next drag all visual elements from the page visual pane and drop them to the mobile canvas one at a time first move two card visuals to the mobile canvas align both cards to the top side by side of the mobile screen now the main values on the card visuals are no longer visible so navigate to visualizations then visual expand the call out and in the value section change the font size to 18 in the label section change the font size to 12 in the spacing section change the vertical spacing to five pixels you can adjust font size independently for mobile and desktop versions of reports repeat this formatting for the second visual make some fine adjustments in positioning and scaling of the cards to optimize the readability and design next drag and drop the column chart to the mobile canvas enlarge the chart to fill the screen size and align it below the two card visuals finally move the donut chart to the mobile canvas enlarge it to fill the screen below the column chart in the mobile layout the donut chart legend values are not completely visible a small arrow is visible on the right end of the legend this suggests navigating for more information navigate to visualizations visual and expand legend in the position drop-own menu select center left you can also adjust the font size if necessary this changes the position of the legend from the top to the left all values are now visible without further navigation you can perform more adjustments for scaling the visuals and aligning them in the mobile layout screen the Adventure Works sales summary report is ready for anytime anywhere access on mobile devices optimizing report layouts in Microsoft PowerBI for mobile devices is an essential step in meeting the needs of today’s onthe-go business environment the world of data visualization continues to evolve and Microsoft PowerBI is at the forefront of introducing innovative ways to present and interpret data one of the latest additions to PowerBI’s visualizations is the shape map a feature that allows users to create geographic visualizations to uncover insights from geographical data in this video you will delve into the concept of shape map visuals their purpose and cover a step-by-step guide on how to add and configure them in your PowerBI reports adventure Works have recently expanded into territories across the globe as an analyst you realize the traditional table and chart visuals might not effectively communicate the geographical aspects of analysis you can use shape map visuals in PowerBI to better represent geographical and sales data to better showcase data topics such as population density competitor location and market demand across different regions a shape map visualization empowers users to tell stories using geographical data unlike traditional map visuals that plot data on a geographical map shape maps go a step further by enabling users to work with custom regions or shapes such as countries states or provinces sharing your report with a PowerBI colleague requires that you both have individual PowerBI paid licenses or that the report is saved in premium capacity powerbi Premium provides extra features like the ability to store more data cloud features and improved performance for PowerBI workspaces you can also use it to deploy reports and data sets and share content with users reliant on free licenses let’s help Adventure Works to craft a shape map visual to better present their performance across various geographical territories the shape map visual is only available in PowerBI desktop and in preview mode since it is in preview it must be enabled before you can use it to enable the shape map you need to select file options and settings options global preview features then select the shape map visual checkbox followed by okay you will then need to restart PowerBI desktop after making this selection now you need PowerBI to display the Adventure Works shape map visual the data set contains two fields sales and states these fields contain state names and corresponding sales amounts in PowerBI desktop after the shape map visual is enabled you select the shape map icon from the visualizations pane to add a shape map placeholder to the report canvas after adding the shape map to your report canvas you should add data to the data fields drag the state field to the location well and drag the sales field to the color saturation well of the map visual you can select the view tab to change the color scheme to a more accessible one such as accessible city park if you have an additional data set like product category or product color you can move them into the legend well to create a divergent color in this case as there is no category available in the data set you can apply gradient colors to the map go to format visual visual fill colors and turn the gradient toggle to the on position then add light blue for the minimum purple for center and black for the maximum you can also change the border color to black and three width now you need to display the map keys select the map settings dropdown then view map type key this action opens a dialogue that lists the map keys these keys are for US states you can change the map type to view keys for other countries if required the next option in this menu is projection you can use this option to present a 3D object on a 2D map powerbi selects Alber’s USA map style by default but three other options are available one option is equi rectangular this is a cylindrical projection that converts the globe into a grid each cell in the grid has the same size shape and area merc is another option this is a cylindrical projection with the equator depicted as the line of tangency polar areas are more distorted than equictangular projections and finally there’s orthographic this is a projection from an infinite point as if from deep space it gives the illusion of a three-dimensional globe next you’ll access the zoom dropdown and toggle on the zoom on selection and manual zoom options these options allow you to zoom in on states when selected finally to format the chart title access the general tab then expand the title drop-down and use the design effect options to change the title’s properties as required in this video you learned about shape map visuals discovered their purpose and explored a step-by-step guide on how to add and configure them in your PowerBI reports you specifically learned how to create a shape map visual with color coding to represent the sales amount for Adventure Works cororoplathth maps also known as filled maps stand out as a powerful tool for representing and analyzing spatial patterns by color coding geographical regions based on data values Cororopath maps offer a compelling way to visualize variations in data across different locations in this video you will explore the fundamental aspects of Cororoplathth maps their use cases and examples of the type of data best suited for this visual format adventure Works executive management realizes that simply looking at raw data in a tabular or columner format is not sufficient to comprehend the regional distribution of scales they need a visual that instantly communicates the variations in sales across various geographic regions as an analyst you can resolve this issue by employing the Cororapath map visual in PowerBI which allows you to present sales data on a geographical map with color-coded regions to indicate sales performance across various territories a cororoplath map is a geographic representation in which areas such as countries states or regions are shaded or patterned to illustrate quantitative data values each region on the map is assigned a color or pattern that corresponds to a specific data value allowing viewers to identify patterns and trends instantly the intensity of the color or pattern represents the magnitude of the data value enabling easy comparisons and highlighting regional disparities corroplath maps are most effective when the data being visualized has clear geographic boundaries when designing a cororopath map it is crucial to carefully select colors or patterns that are easy to interpret and distinguish using a color scale that smoothly transitions between values can enhance readability it is also essential to provide a clear legend or data scale to help users understand the relationship between colors or patterns and the corresponding data values now let’s consider some detailed use cases for cororoplath maps cororoplathth maps are ideal for visualizing population distribution across different regions by shading regions based on population density or total population you can quickly identify densely populated areas and areas with sparse populations corroplath maps are widely used to showcase various economic indicators such as GDP per capita unemployment rates or poverty levels across different geographic regions this helps policymakers and economists in understanding the economic disparities and making informed decisions corropath maps are valuable in displaying health and education related metrics such as disease prevalence vaccination rates literacy rates and school enrollment levels they provide insights into regional health and education challenges and aid and resource allocation cororoplath maps can effectively display environmental data such as air quality temperature variations or levels of pollution these maps help environmentalists and policy makers in assessing environmental conditions and devising appropriate conservation strategies but how can a cororoplath map best help adventure works in their business activities one example is to break down sales performance data per country as well as per state within those countries in this example of the United States states with higher sales are represented by darker shades while lighter shades indicate lower sales corropath maps offer a captivating way to explore and comprehend data patterns through geographic visualization their ability to showcase variations in data across different regions makes them a popular choice for a wide range of use cases from health economic indicators environmental data and population distribution with Cororoplath maps data analysts researchers and policy makers can gain valuable insights and make datadriven decisions with geographical context as an essential tool in the data visualization toolkit cororoplath maps assist in deeper understanding of the world around us cororopath maps have become an essential tool in data visualization for representing and analyzing data in a spatial context cororoplath maps also known as field maps are particularly effective in displaying quantitative data across geographical regions in this video you will explore the steps to create and utilize field maps in PowerBI focusing on a scenario involving the Adventure Works company by the end of this video you will have the skills to configure and display data on a cororoplath map allowing you to transform complex data sets into insightful visualizations before diving into creating a cororopath map it’s crucial to know how to select the appropriate data for analysis in the context of adventure works let’s consider a scenario where the company wants to understand the sales performance across different regions in a specific country the data should include at least two columns one representing the geographical regions and the other containing the relevant quantitative data such as total sales revenue or profit corresponding to each region in PowerBI creating an effective data model is the foundation of any compelling visualization the data should be structured in a way that PowerBI can understand the relationship between the geographical regions and the quantitative data you must ensure that the columns representing regions are in text format and contain matching names or codes for the regions present in the map data visualization similarly the quantitative data should be in numerical format for accurate analysis with the data model ready it’s time to create a corropath map visual in PowerBI to achieve this you can navigate to the visualizations pane and select the filled map option and PowerBI will automatically detect the columns representing the geographical regions and the quantitative data and position them on the respective fields to enhance the visualization and make it more meaningful you can customize the coroplath map further powerbi offers several customization options to help you fine-tune the visual representation for example you can adjust the color scale to highlight different intensity levels of the data making it easier to interpret variations additionally you can format the map’s title legend and other visual elements to suit your report’s aesthetics and readability let’s apply the steps mentioned above to a specific scenario involving Adventure Works a multinational bicycle manufacturer the company wants to analyze its sales performance across various states in the United States and identify regions with the highest and lowest sales for the very first step map and cororopath map visuals are disabled you must enable them by accessing file options and settings options global then security then check use map and filled map visuals the Adventure Works data set contains two relevant columns state for the geographical regions and sales for the quantitative data representing sales revenue in each state you must ensure that the state column is formatted as text and each state name matches the corresponding states in the map data visualization similarly the sales column should be in numerical format in this instance you will format it as currency you can select the visualizations pane and click on the filled map icon drag the state field to the location well and sales to the tool tip well of the visual to apply the color coding to the map visual go to visualizations format visual and then visual select fill colors and then select the FX icon to apply conditional formatting in the conditional formatting dialogue box add three rules for the color coding of the map based on sales values based on the data the maximum sales value is $400,000 and the minimum value is $81,000 so you can define the following rules rule one all sales values between $80,000 and $149,000 must be colorcoded yellow rule two all sales values between $150,000 and $249,000 must be red rule three all sales values between $250,000 and the maximum value must be purple you then expand the map settings in the style drop-own list you will select a map style powerbi has five styles: Aerial dark light grayscale and road you will select the aerial map style expand the controls option and turn auto zoom to the off position turn the zoom buttons and lasso tool to the on position this gives you control over zooming into a specific area of the map to make the corroplath map more informative you can customize the color scale to represent varying sales levels across states regions with higher sales revenue can be displayed in darker shades while regions with lower sales values can be represented in lighter colors formatting the map title and adding a meaningful legend will help convey the information more effectively lastly you can access the general tabs title dropdown to format the title of the visual and apply other effects as required cororopath maps are powerful tools that empower businesses to visualize and understand data across geographical regions with their ability to display data variations using color intensity these maps provide valuable insights into spatial patterns and trends by following the steps outlined in this video and applying them to a scenario involving adventure works you can master the art of configuring and displaying data on a corupath map in PowerBI in the ever evolving landscape of data visualization map visuals have emerged as powerful tools for presenting geographical data in an engaging and informative manner powerbi Microsoft’s robust business intelligence platform offers a range of features to create compelling map visualizations that can reveal insightful patterns and trends in this video you will explore essential tips and tricks to optimize your map visualizations in PowerBI ensuring that you leverage the full potential of your geographical data map visualizations hold the potential to unlock a wealth of insights from your data especially when dealing with geographical information however it’s essential to optimize these visuals to effectively communicate your insights to your audience adventure Works operates in multiple stores across different cities and states the North American sales manager asks you to present a report of sales for various states and cities as a PowerBI analyst your task is to create a comprehensive analysis of sales across various regions using map visuals a single layer of analysis in map visual might only provide a summary level of information about sales to dig deeper into states and cities you need to create geo hierarchy and map visual of PowerBI let’s go through adventurework sales data and create a geo hierarchy using filled map visuals in PowerBI launch PowerBI and open the project adventurework sales.pbix report the report contains two data tables a fact internet sales table and a geography table in map visualizations defining a precise location is especially important this is because some designations are ambiguous due to the presence of one location name in multiple regions for example there is a Southampton in England Pennsylvania and New York adding longitude and latitude coordinates solves this issue but if the data set does not have this information you will need to make sure to format the geographical columns as the appropriate data category select the country column from the geography table and navigate to column tools then properties in the data category dropdown select country format the data category for a state province name and city columns as state or province and city respectively a global icon appears before the field name this tells PowerBI that this is a geographical data type you will collapse the geography table and expand the fact internet sales table you then select the sales amount column from the fact internet sales table and format the data type as currency within two decimal places select the field map icon from the visualization pane to place a map placeholder in the report canvas you can then enlarge the placeholder to create the geo hierarchy drag the country state province name and city columns from the geography table to the location field of the map visual make sure the order of the fields is country then state province name and finally city next drag the sales amount field from the sales table to the tool tip field of the map visual to differentiate the states based on the sales you should color code the map open the conditional formatting dialogue box by selecting the FX icon from the fill colors in the conditional formatting dialogue box select yellow for minimum red for center and purple for maximum the data set contains sales data of various countries but you only want to present sales data for the United States expand the filter pane and under the country option select United States adding depth to map visualizations leverages geo hierarchies you can drill down from country to state state to city and so on at the top right corner of the map visual in the report canvas are arrow icons these arrows represent the drill down functions used to access the hierarchy of the data first select the downward arrow to turn on the drill down function when the drill down mode is on the arrow is highlighted with a black background now select the downwards double parallel arrow to go to the next level of the hierarchy in the current example selecting the double arrows takes us to the US country level alternatively you can also select the country on the map to go to the next level of the hierarchy you can then hover the cursor over California the tool tip displays the sales value for the entire state in the tool tip is a drill up and a drill down text with icons you can select these icons to either go one step up or one step down in the hierarchy select drill down to access the city level it is important to note that the color of the drill down will be the same color as the higher level view so it may need to be modified for accessibility purposes at the city level the tool tip displays all data from country to city with relevant sales amounts there’s no drill down option because city is the last level of the hierarchy in this report however you can create a more granular hierarchy by adding postal code and stores to the location save the project to your local computer making sure to apply all changes before exiting PowerBI you should now understand how to use data to create geo hierarchies powerbi map visualizations are a powerful and dynamic tool for data analysts seeking to explore understand and communicate geographic data in this video you’ll learn to explore the map visuals interface and display and configure a map adventure Works has created a filled map visual with geo hierarchy let’s help the company format this map by exploring the control options PowerBI offers you launch PowerBI and open the file adventurework sales.pbix go to visualizations and select format visual then visual then expand the map settings dropdown in the style dropdown you can select from the five map styles supported by PowerBI road style is selected by default let’s select aerial from the drop- down list expand the control section to reveal the three zoom options auto zoom zoom buttons and the lasso button auto zoom is automatically turned on you must also turn the zoom and lasso buttons to the on position this provides more control over the map to highlight a specific region the last option in map settings is geocoding culture by default PowerBI sets it to auto leave it as it is to further format the colors of the map visual open the conditional formatting dialogue box where you can modify the colors as needed with the current selection these colors represent the sales data across various states and cities yellow represents the states with the lowest sales values purple represents the states with the highest sales values next you can rename the labels and titles to make the visual clutter-free and help users identify specific places on the map double click on the state province name field in the location well of the map visual and rename it as state in the tool tip field rename sum of sales amount to sales go to visualizations format visual and then general change the title of the map visual to a more descriptive title like sales distribution by location you can configure and format the information that appears when you hover over a specific region on the map expand the tool tips option scroll down to the background and change the color to light green you can use the other options to further format the style and size of the data displayed on the tool tip you have now created a filled map with geo hierarchy and explored the various control and formatting options in PowerBI remember presenting information alone is not sufficient you must also use formatting and design to create engaging dashboards and reports in PowerBI in this video you learned how to explore the PowerBI map interface and display and configure a map powerbi offers various visualization options to display geographical data effectively two popular choices for mapping data are shape maps and filled maps known as corroplets both of these visualizations enable users to present geographic data in a visually engaging and informative manner in this video you will delve into the key differences between these two map types exploring their unique features use cases and the data they utilize as a business analyst working at Adventure Works you need to present regional sales data across different countries in PowerBI you have two options to choose from: filled maps or shape maps a filled map allows you to display color-coded regions based on a metric like sales for various geographical areas while shape maps provide more flexibility for customization the final selection should be based on the visualization requirements shape maps provide a platform for users to create their own custom visualizations by importing geographic data in the form of vector files the vector files used in shape maps are typically in the top too JSON format which is a file format used for storing geographic data topojson files allow for compact and efficient data representation as it reduces the data size and loading times in web applications and visualizations with shape maps users can visualize regions countries states or even custom territories by utilizing their own data sets there are three key features of shape maps to consider: customization precision and data complexity through customization users have the flexibility to use their data and design custom regions based on unique geographical boundaries or territories with precision shape maps can accurately represent non-standard geographic regions that are not predefined in standard geographical data sets by handling data complexity since users provide their geographic data shape maps are ideal for visualizing intricate boundaries and smaller regions filled maps or corropathlets are a type of map visualization that leverages predefined geographical boundaries provided by PowerBI’s
built-in mapping capabilities users can assign data values to regions represented by the map’s predefined shapes filled maps use color shading to represent data values allowing users to visualize data distribution across various regions the key features of Cororoplath maps are simplicity filled maps offer a straightforward approach to map visualization as they utilize predefined shapes without requiring additional custom data sets quick insights with field maps users can quickly gain insights into data distribution and patterns across various regions bing maps integration filled maps benefit from Bing Maps extensive geographic database providing accurate and up-to-date boundary information there are four main differences between shape and filled maps let’s consider these differences and how this would impact on your decisions when working with geographical data the primary distinction between shape maps and filled maps lies in their data sources and customization options while shape maps allow users to import their custom geographic data filled maps utilize predefined geographical boundaries from Bing maps this difference impacts the level of customization and the ability to visualize specific non-standard regions imagine Adventure Works wants to visualize its complex sales territories each with unique boundaries defined by the company’s specific business needs in this scenario shape maps will be a better choice with Shape Maps Adventure Works can import its custom geographic data creating precise and granular visualizations that accurately represent their sales territories the ability to use custom-defined administrative boundaries ensures that Adventure Works can tailor the map to its unique requirements making shape maps the perfect choice for this task shape maps represent data by associating values with custom regions created by users offering precise and granular visualizations filled maps use color gradients to represent data values within predefined regions providing a more generalized view of data distribution across larger geographic areas adventure Works wants to show its sales densities across different regions they want to get a quick high-level overview of how sales are distributed with field maps Adventure Works can quickly assess sales densities by country or region using color gradients providing insights without the need for customdefined boundaries shape maps are best suited for scenarios that require complex geographic representation such as visualizing sales territories customer distribution or customdefined administrative boundaries filled maps with their simplicity and quick insights are ideal for showcasing highle data patterns such as population densities sales performance by country or regional sales growth field maps benefit from Bing Map’s geographical database which ensures accurate and up-to-date boundary information this integration simplifies the process of creating visualizations especially for users who do not have access to specialized geographic data sets adventure Works faces a challenge they want to showcase sales performance by country highlighting regional sales growth but they also want to maintain a level of precision here’s where the choice between shape maps and filled maps becomes crucial shape maps with their custom regions could offer the precision needed to visualize specific sales trends however if a more generalized view is acceptable filled maps can quickly provide insights across larger geographic areas striking a balance between detail and simplicity in conclusion shape maps and field maps are two valuable map visualization options in PowerBI each catering to different use cases and data requirements in the realm of data visualization geospatial information can be a gamecher the ability to visualize data on maps not only adds context but also unlocks new layers of insights powerbi offers a range of map visualizations and one standout feature is its integration with Azure maps azure maps are part of the broader Azure location-based services family also called Azure LBS they provide a comprehensive platform for building geospatial solutions including mapping searching routting and traffic services azure maps visual provides a rich set of data visualizations for spatial data on top of a map it connects to a cloud service hosted in Azure to retrieve location data such as map images and coordinates that are used to create the map visualization it has several advantages compared to other map visualizations including seamless integration with Azure services advanced geospatial features scalability performance enterprisegrade security and developer friendliness details about the area are sent to Azure to retrieve images needed to render the map canvas also known as map tiles data in the location latitude and longitude buckets may be sent to Azure to retrieve map coordinates a process called geocoding in this video you will delve into what Azure maps are how to add them in PowerBI and provide a step-by-step guide to set up and configure an Azure map for Adventure Works competitor analysis by state now you will learn Azure maps and its usage in PowerBI reports you are working as a data analyst in Adventure Works company and you have public sales report data from a competitor you will configure an Azure map for Adventure Works competitor analysis by state you can enable the Azure Map PowerBI visual by selecting the Azure maps icon from the visualizations pane a disclaimer text appears on the screen regarding Azure Maps use of data access model view to view the data model tables the data model contains three data tables a reseller sales fact table a geography table and a reseller dimension table all these tables are related by one to many relationships you return to report view drag the country field from the geography table to the location well of the Azure map visual then drag the reseller measure from the reseller dimension table to the size well of Azure map visual the bubble size proportionally represents the number of resellers in each region to further analyze the reseller for each product line of Adventure Works drag the product line field from the reseller dimension table to the legend well of the visual this adds color coding to the bubble and displays the number of resellers for each product line in each country you can create a geo hierarchy by bringing other fields from the geography table to analyze the granular data further however in this video let’s just focus on the country level next let’s explore some formatting and control settings go to visualizations format visual visual and then map setting you can select the style of the map from the style dropdown select road from the available options in the bubble layer section you can configure the size shape and color of the bubbles the bubbles minimum size is very small so let’s change the size to 15 pixels in the size option of the bubble layer change the color of each bubble slice based on the product line you will also add category labels to the map for accessibility let’s increase the font size to 12 and reduce transparency to 25% lastly you can format the Azure Map title color text style and so on by following the steps outlined in this lesson you can seamlessly add configure and utilize Azure Maps to perform advanced analysis as you continue to explore the possibilities of Azure Maps and PowerBI you’ll be empowered to create compelling visual narratives that go beyond numbers helping you make informed decisions driven by location intelligence cycling is a peaceful and calming leisure activity that anyone can enjoy many people use their bicycles to get outdoors and enjoy the countryside or to go on camping trips with friends but in the business of bicycle manufacturing it’s a constant battle to grow sales and find new markets one way Adventure Works seeks new opportunities is by using data analysis it recently conducted some competitor analysis and that data tells an interesting story its main competitor is performing really well in specific European regions that’s an intriguing insight but the big question is what is the reason for that success what is it about the market that makes it different from elsewhere and is it something that Adventure Works can learn from does it have a product to satisfy the demand in this region the Adventure Works team does some more research to figure out what their competitor is doing right they check on sales volumes the products that do well and the areas of Europe that are supplied by competitors an analysis of competitor marketing tactics reveals that they’re selling to a specific young female demographic in particular regions they’re using a lot of focused social media marketing to get their message to the target audiences the findings point to the frustrations that young female cyclists have with their choice of bike types for city and suburban commuting to bring more depth to the data insights Adventure Works decides to analyze city demographic data where its competitors are most successful focusing efforts on these areas leads to the discovery that there are market demographics that are a perfect match for some Adventure Works products so what can Adventure Works do to compete in the identified regions and markets to find out more the team dive further into the demographic and marketing data the data analysis team then uses the data discoveries to create geographical visualizations the visualizations identify patterns and trends that can lead them toward the development of a new marketing strategy finally it’s time to present the new market plan to the company’s management team examining the new report of the targeted regions it compares the data to its own target audience for bike ranges adventure Works uses the collected data to design their own strategy to target a similar demographic the marketing staff brainstorm ideas for social media adverts influencers and other marketing tactics in areas that the target audience is spending most of their time jaime the CEO believes it has the potential to be very successful and is confident that this plan will help compete with her rivals in these regions data analysis is a powerful tool to help discover new business markets creative use of chart visuals and map visualization can help identify new opportunities and grow business through sales data analysis and competitor data analysis Adventure Works identified a market that they had not yet entered but competitors were already performing well in by the visual analysis of data it found market segments that matched its product line this was valuable insight and led it to new customers and new regions that have a high potential for continued growth powerbi offers several core visuals readily available on the visualization pane but what if the type of visualization you require doesn’t exist in PowerBI you can create it with custom visualizations in this video you’ll explore what custom visualizations are why they matter and how to create them adventure Works needs a visualization to explore its sales data however none of the existing visualizations in PowerBI are appropriate so Adventure Works needs a custom one find out more about custom visualizations then help Adventure Works build its own so what are custom visualizations custom visualizations are userdefined visual elements that extend the capabilities of PowerBI beyond the built-in visual options they enable you to create unique tailormade visuals that cater to specific business and visualization requirements enhancing data’s clarity and impact but why do visualizations matter because of their ability to help address unique needs every organization has its unique analytical requirements with custom visualizations you can create visuals that directly resonate with your organization’s specialized needs custom visuals also offer insights that standard visuals might not be able to convey as effectively this can help you uncover the trends and patterns hidden within your data for example through its custom sales data visuals Adventure Works might discover that it sells more bicycle repair equipment in the winter months custom visualizations can be installed in PowerBI from different sources you can import custom visuals created by developers from the PowerBI marketplace certified PowerBI visuals are available in AppSource microsoft or its partners develop these visuals which can be downloaded from PowerBI desktop you can create custom visualization in PowerBI using Python or R programming languages these visualizations are imported from a file on your local computer you can also develop PowerBI visuals to meet your analytical or aesthetic needs if developing in R or Python then it’s recommended that you use an integrated development environment or IDE such as Visual Studio Code also known as VS Code python is a powerful open-source programming language often used for data analytics it’s very versatile and offers a rich ecosystem it’s beginnerfriendly and backed by community support making it a great language for data professionals it also offers pre-written code bundles or libraries for creating visualizations like Seabor and Mattplot lib using R or Python to develop your own PowerBI visuals or to customize existing ones is an optional expertise you may wish to pursue it if you have a coding background a familiarity with Python or want to extend your skill set into this area before creating a visualization you need to load some data for it luckily Python has built-in data set examples that can be imported and can be used to create new data sets for this demonstration Python has already been installed in PowerBI and the relevant libraries and data sets have been imported so the first step I need to take in PowerBI desktop is to enable Python scripting i navigate to file and select options and settings then select options this opens options where I can select Python scripting always ensure PowerBI has detected the Python installation path under detected Python home directories if you need to you can copy and paste the path from your Python installation i select okay now I am ready to use Python and PowerBI python and PowerBI is used in two ways the first purpose is to import data the second is to create custom visualizations let’s explore the first method and import some data python libraries contain sample data sets that you can import to PowerBI i navigate to the get data dropdown and select more this opens the get data dialogue in the search bar I write Python the Python script appears on the right side of the window i select Python script and then select connect a Python script dialogue box appears on screen from here you can write a Python script to import sample data from Python libraries for instance I can write a Python script to import your data set into PowerBI desktop the code creates a data frame by importing the pandas package of Python with the required columns and associated values once I execute the code PowerBI opens the navigator window with a data set named sample data set the data set appears under the data pane on the right side of the PowerBI interface when I select load to load the data set it can now be used to create visualizations in PowerBI powerbi offers a wide range of core visualizations custom visualizations provide several unique advantages that contribute to more effective data communication improved insights and tailored solutions python with its rich set of libraries and ability to handle data manipulation visualization and machine learning tasks make it an essential tool for data professionals as a data analyst it’s important to be able to extract the insights you need from your data and engagingly present them integrating Python with PowerBI allows you to explore your data more deeply to reveal further insights and present the data through sophisticated visualizations in this video you’ll learn how to add a Python-based visualization to PowerBI Desktop adventure Works is analyzing its data sets and realizes that the core PowerBI visuals don’t provide a comprehensive view of its data you can help the company generate a more sophisticated analysis by leveraging a Python-based visualization in PowerBI let’s learn more about adding a Python-based visualization then help Adventure Works python is a powerful scripting language that relies on libraries these libraries like mattplot lib and seabor can be integrated with powerbi to create dynamic and sophisticated custom visualizations although python provides useful features and libraries it still has a few limitations and it’s important to be aware of these limitations before designing visuals python’s data set size is limited to 150,000 rows and has an input limit of 250 megabytes all data fields from different tables must have defined relationships between them or you’ll encounter an error python visuals refresh after each update filter or highlight external Python scripts might raise security concerns using R or Python to develop your own PowerBI visuals or to customize existing ones is an optional expertise you may wish to pursue it if you have a coding background a familiarity with Python or want to extend your skill set into this area to get you more familiar with custom visualizations let’s demonstrate a Python custom visualization in PowerBI desktop for this demonstration Python has already been installed in PowerBI and the relevant libraries and data sets have been imported so the first step is to create a visualization using the imported sample data set i navigate to visualization pane and select the Python visual icon this opens a dialogue called enable script visuals select enable a placeholder for a Python visual image appears in the report canvas and a Python script editor appears at the bottom of the report page a Python script can only use fields added to the value section by creating a data frame you can add or remove fields while you work on your Python script powerbi desktop automatically detects field changes as I select or remove fields from the value section supporting code in the Python script editor is automatically generated or removed i drag all the fields from the sample data set table to the value section of Python visual based on the selection the Python script editor generates the code the editor creates a data set called dataf frame with the fields I added to the value section duplicate rows are removed from the data and the fields are grouped the first visual will be a scatter plot graph that generates insights between the age and weight fields of the sample data set in the Python script editor I write the code to draw a scatter plot graph that measures age on the x-axis and weight on the y-axis i execute the code to import the mattplot lib Python library which creates the plot finally I select run from the top right corner of the Python script editor title bar to generate the Python visual on the report canvas next to generate another Python visual using Adventure Works data I open the Adventure Works Sales PowerBI project the data model contains four related data tables: sales products salesperson region i make sure the data tables relate to each other using appropriate relationships without these relationships you cannot use the fields from the different tables to create Python visuals the visual required for Adventure Works is a bar chart of total sales by each country to create this visual drag the total sales field from the sales table and the country field from the region table to the value section of the Python visual the editor creates a data set called dataf frame with the fields I added to the values section duplicate rows are removed from the data and the fields are grouped to create a column chart I write the Python script under the paste or type your script code here then I run the script the script draws a plot with total sales on the y-axis and country on the x-axis the script imports the metplot lib visualization library which generates the bar chart you can customize the visuals for color size data values and other attributes by modifying the Python code or importing other libraries that’s an example of creating Python-based visuals in PowerBI both by importing and with Adventure Work sales data set integrating Python with PowerBI helps to move a sophisticated data analysis to a compelling presentation however even though Python-based visualizations expand the capabilities of PowerBI they also have some limitations to consider such as Python’s limited data set size and they do require specialist expertise to implement in PowerBI welcome to this highle recap of the concepts and techniques covered this week this summary will help you revise the lessons on the design of powerful report pages during the course simulations of adventure work scenarios were used in videos and exercises these scenarios are designed to facilitate understanding and provide relatability the items we will review are clarity and visual impact accessibility considerations for Microsoft PowerBI creating and formatting KPI and dotplot charts how to visualize highdensity multi-dimensional data map visuals such as corroporath and shape maps and custom visualizations including adding a Python-based visualization in the first lesson on visual clarity in reports you learned to transform raw data into a story using charts and graphs that expressed the essential narrative of your data charts data and visuals are all crucial components of the clarity and visual appeal of data visualization selecting the correct chart type simplifies complex information making it easier for stakeholders to understand your presentation design with your audience in mind consider how familiar they are with data visualizations and then select visuals and chart types that are appropriate for their background and experience you must use your design ability to create visual impact and clarity one technique to use to do this is to eliminate clutter when building reports and visualizations don’t neglect accessibility produce reports that can be easily used and understood by all individuals including those with disabilities production should include alt text for visuals sufficient color contrast keyboard navigation and compatibility with screen readers the key areas of impactful report creation include deciding on the report objective establishing a visual hierarchy using branding and themes carefully composing the report employing storytelling techniques and optimizing the report performance for the best user experience when deciding on an appropriate chart type consider recommended use cases for the chart its strengths and its limitations by having a clear objective maintaining a visual hierarchy implementing consistency and adhering to best practices in all design choices such as chart selection you can create a report that makes the best impression on the audience kpi charts are often used to illustrate performance benchmarks measure progress and identify trends you can use the Microsoft PowerBI built-in KPI visual or use gauge charts and bullet charts to present KPI values dotplot charts are used to visualize the distribution and frequency of categorical data by displaying data points along a single axis for instance you can use a dot plot to represent category information on the x-axis sales on the y-axis and sales quantity as the size of the dot bubble charts depict multi-dimensional data in a single view for instance to analyze the performance of various products in different markets the X and Y axis represent market share and revenue while the size of the bubble is related to the total number of units sold with bubble charts you visualize data point density and use sampling techniques to manage data representation on the chart when creating reports PowerBI has many built-in capabilities that support ease of use and help your productivity they include app navigation ribbon navigation and navigation and key panes such as the visualization pane and the selection pane as a designer should you have any other disabling factors you have accessibility options that allow you to operate and design in Microsoft PowerBI you explored advanced display techniques in Microsoft PowerBI such as techniques to present highdensity data and the use of maps drills and 3D visualizations for instance you could use a heat map to illustrate sales figures using a color spectrum a tree map to display hierarchical data and compare data point proportions for sales data plotted on a time scale users can use drill down to look at the sales data on a data hierarchy that goes from a year to each quarter to month and all the way down to a daily level powerbi gives you the ability to use chart drill through and page drill through is a technique for creating summary pages with highle insights 3d visualization such as 3D mapping adds a sense of depth and realism to data making it easier to identify trends and analyze data as a report creator you must optimize report layouts for mobile devices to ensure reports display properly on mobile screens one of the key techniques to optimize a report for mobile devices is the use of responsive design powerbi’s shape map visualization reveals insights from geographical data cororoplathth maps visualize variations in data across different locations by color-coding geographical regions based on data values a popular use case for cororopath maps is to display environmental data such as air quality temperature variations or pollution levels for any PowerBI map visual it is vital to properly prepare the data this includes cleaning formatting handling missing values and optimizing for performance one key feature of PowerBI map visualizations is its integration with Azure maps azure maps are part of the broader Azure location-based services family also called Azure LBS custom visualizations are userdefined visual elements that can create unique tailormade visuals for specific visualization requirements custom visuals created by developers can be imported from the PowerBI marketplace certified PowerBI visuals are available in app source and they can be downloaded from PowerBI desktop you can also create custom visualization in PowerBI using Python or R programming languages to help you design powerful report pages you explored various features this week such as clarity and visual impact for charts and reports accessibility considerations for Microsoft PowerBI creating and formatting KPI and dotplot charts how to visualize highdensity multi-dimensional data map visuals such as cororroplath and shape maps and custom visualizations including adding a python-based visualization by applying these techniques you will be better able to create powerful report pages in Microsoft PowerBI data is a treasure and with Microsoft PowerBI analytical powers you can explore it in a variety of ways but what do you need to explore this treasure a treasure map to see the big picture or a magnifying glass to analyze the details that’s the difference between a dashboard and a report your dashboard will provide a high-level analysis of the data that has been analyzed in one centralized place dashboards are a simplified overview of the big picture designed to highlight key metrics for quick monitoring and decision-making reports are comprehensive and analytical designed to dive deep into data while in your report you are able to analyze the finer details of this data add filters slicers and drill through functions in this video you will learn more about the key differences between PowerBI dashboards and reports discovering their use cases along the way jamie the Adventure Works CEO needs to visualize an overview of the company’s performance including sales marketing customers and so on the sales and marketing directors need to explore more granular data to identify trends outliers and anomalies within the data as a principal PowerBI analyst you need to decide on a dashboard design that will work perfectly to present to the CEO with summary level visualizations but for each of the directors you need to create detailed reports about sales and marketing now let’s delve into the primary differences between dashboards and reports both PowerBI dashboards and reports serve distinct purposes and have unique design considerations before exploring design approaches let’s try to understand the fundamental differences between dashboards and reports let’s start by listing some key characteristics of PowerBI dashboards powerbi dashboards are concise summarized displays on underlying reports in PowerBI they typically contain a single canvas or page offering a high-level view of metrics and key performance indicators also called KPIs dashboards are designed for quick decision-making and monitoring they can also include visuals tiles and widgets from different reports when it comes to creating and designing a dashboard in Microsoft PowerBI you can only do it in Microsoft PowerBI service the Microsoft PowerBI service sometimes referred to as PowerBI online is the software as a service part of PowerBI you generate a dashboard and PowerBI service using visual elements and tiles as well as pin an entire page of a report to your dashboard first you have simplicity and focus dashboards are concise and focus on key metrics they avoid clutter and unnecessary visual elements and prioritize the most critical information for quick decision-making next you have visual hierarchy visuals need to be arranged in a logical sequence the use of size color and placement emphasizes the significance of information that is presented lastly there is mobile responsiveness you must ensure your dashboard is responsive and visually appealing on a variety of devices such as tablets and mobile phones it is important to use responsive design principles to adapt to all screen sizes now let’s turn our attention to PowerBI reports powerbi reports are detailed and structured documents often consisting of multiple pages or tabs they are also designed for in-depth analysis and exploration of data containing tables matrixes and visuals that provide detailed insights powerbi reports support filtering drill through and slicers for interactive exploration to maximize report impact for all types of viewers you must consider three major areas of design layout and structure interactivity and storytelling let’s start with layout and structure you need to use a clear and logical structure to guide report users through the data utilize page numbers titles sections and headers to improve report navigation next you have interactivity in the report design you must consider adding slicers filters and drill down and drill through functionality to access granular data finally storytelling reports are designed to tell a datadriven story you need to use text boxes annotations and narratives to explain valuable insights arrange visual elements in a logical sequence to guide users about the introduction main body and the conclusion of the story before exploring an example of using dashboards and reports let’s touch on charts in PowerBI and how they interact with dashboards and reports appropriate chart selection to match the type of data being presented is essential to designing both reports and dashboards in PowerBI chart selection is critical in data visualization as it directly impacts the effectiveness of data communication the choice of chart will determine how your audience understands and interprets data because a dashboard is based on your underlying reports it is essential to make the correct chart selections for the data in your reports for your task for Adventure Works you need to create multiple dashboards for the CEO as well as the sales and marketing directors let’s start with the CEO Jamie with a tailored dashboard with data presented to meet their specific needs with this dashboard you should focus on designing a dashboard emphasizing highlevel insights key performance indicators and strategic information in a visually appealing layout based on this typical dashboard layout often includes these six categories first is an executive summary this section may include KPIs in the form of card visuals such as revenue profit margin year-over-year growth and market share next up is sales performance this may include charts showing revenue expenses profit trends and time comparisons the third category is market overview which represents market share trends and competitive analysis the fourth category customer metrics can include customer retention and acquisition rate charts the fifth category is operational performance in this category production output customer satisfaction and departmental performance visuals can be included finally you have strategic initiatives completion status for key initiatives in the form of progress bars and charts illustrating project timelines and milestones can be presented in this section for the sales director you need to design reports with drill down and drill through modes for detailed and granular data analysis for the drill down and drill through modes to work you can break down the report into individual pages these pages are sales performance overview geographical analysis product analysis salesperson’s performance and timebased analysis each of these pages needs to be designed with appropriate structure and chart selection based on data you want to present lastly let’s consider what is required for the marketing director’s report the marketing director will need to see data related to Adventure Works marketing channels how campaigns are performing and a categorization of customers for the marketing director the report content should contain an overview marketing channel analysis campaign performance customer segmentation and recommendation and insights this will provide the marketing director with a good starting point to begin assessing their department and that concludes our summary of dashboard versus report design in Microsoft PowerBI designing a dashboard and designing a report are distinct processes with unique objectives reports offer in-depth analysis and exploration of granular data while dashboards provide high-level overview for quick decision-making and monitoring of key metrics consider a PowerBI dashboard that feels like it was designed just for you precisely delivering the insights you need to drive your decisions this dashboard is designed to optimize your experience the end user making your work easier creating user centric dashboards in PowerBI is not about displaying a collection of charts and graphs it is about solving specific problems for your users with important data indicators prioritized high on the page trends and performance comparisons further down the page and general information towards the bottom in this video you will learn about getting a better understanding of your audience creating user centric dashboards as well as exploring some examples of these dashboards so how can you better understand your audience when designing your PowerBI dashboards you will likely have a baseline of knowledge depending on the products or services your company offers but what else can be done to help understand your target audience let’s look at four methods you can use they are identifying the end users defining user needs establishing users data literacy and finally identifying the preferred devices of users let’s begin by identifying the end users end users are the individuals or groups who will be interacting with and generating insights from your dashboards identifying your audience helps tailor the dashboard to their specific needs and preferences next you must define user needs each user group may have distinct data requirements and objectives you need to work closely with each user group to determine the specific data they work with and how you can visualize them you can do this by identifying key metrics relevant to their roles allowing you to select what is presented on their dashboard having established the end users and their needs you must now consider their level of data literacy are they data savvy or do they need a simplified data interface for example a sales team will need the most accessible data they are used to working with as opposed to a finance team that may be used to more complex data sets and charts lastly you must consider the device preferences of your audience consider the devices they are using most frequently are they accessing dashboards on laptops tablets or mobile devices this will help you make selections optimized for device specific dashboards let’s consider an example where this is put into practice the Adventure Works sales director received a sales performance dashboard that she did not like as it was difficult to comprehend the visuals on the dashboard realizing she is unable to use the current dashboard to assist in decision-making she passed the dashboard and underlying reports to you to make necessary improvements when you open the dashboard you look to identify the issues the dashboard might look impressive at first glance but there are many problems remember a dashboard should be understandable and actionable but currently this dashboard is neither there are data shortcomings as well as design shortcomings in this dashboard the data shortcomings include the area chart displaying sales by category is not appropriate here the donut chart shows sales by country without any legend the tree map used to display sales by product subcategory is too busy with too many colors the top five products by sales column chart is not relevant to the sales dashboard with regards to the design there are a similar number of issues the salesbyear column chart has a negative value but is the same color as the positive numbers key metrics of the dashboard such as revenue units sold and profit are not presented appropriately overall there is no color and style uniformity in the entire dashboard based on a brief analysis of the dashboard it can be easily concluded that the dashboard is neither understandable nor actionable your task is to redesign the dashboard focusing on key metrics including the relevant information for salespeople and visually appealing colors and charts let’s redesign this dashboard by following these steps select visuals that effectively convey your intended message when you design user specific dashboards you might want to import custom visuals in PowerBI to meet the specific needs of your audience next place the most critical information at the top of the dashboard based on the requirement gathered use key performance indicator tiles to highlight key metrics maintain consistency in your design including the color schemes fonts and layouts if you choose a color to convey positive figures ensure it is consistent with all graphs and charts ensure you employ responsive design techniques when designing your dashboard many end users access dashboards from their mobile devices therefore you need to make sure the dashboard is visually appealing and functional on smaller screens create a narrative flow within your dashboard text boxes card visuals and annotations can guide users through the data visualization if you implement these best practices to redesign the dashboard you will create a dashboard which is understandable and actionable this dashboard is concise relevant to the sales manager and maintains consistency in terms of theme and color palette all the charts are appropriate for the data type presented let’s finish this example by outlining some user specific dashboards you would design for other departments in Adventure Works for the marketing team your dashboard would monitor marketing campaign effectiveness visualize social media engagement provide demographic and geographic insights about the target audience and display competitor analysis on various product lines if you were tasked to develop a customer support team specific dashboard you would track customer support ticket data display customer satisfaction scores provide a real-time view of open tickets and escalations as well as highlight frequently reported problems these are just guidelines in real life situations you need to tailor your dashboard according to your user requirements once you have crafted and designed a user specific dashboard it is essential to conduct testing and receive user feedback to ensure that the dashboard meets their needs and expectations user feedback can especially add value to improved iterations of your dashboard creating user centric dashboards is about two things is it understandable and is it actionable to do this you need to identify your target audience understand their needs their data literacy and the devices they use to engage with dashboards you should now understand the effective use of visuals how to remain consistent in your color selection and selecting the most appropriate data for your audience imagine you are working for Adventure Works when you receive a request from your manager Addio Quinn who is traveling abroad for a business meeting they need an up-to-date overview of the company’s sales performance in a dashboard format adio may not be able to access the dashboard on a large device such as a computer or laptop while traveling therefore your primary goal is to create and optimize the dashboard so Adio can access the required information on the go using their mobile device in this video you will learn about how you can optimize dashboards for mobile phones and Microsoft PowerBI mobile optimization of PowerBI reports and dashboards is not just a trend it is a necessity in modern business intelligence applications there are three reasons in particular why mobile optimization is so important they are accessibility real-time decision-making and enhanced user experience mobile optimized dashboards ensure that actionable insights are accessible to users who rely on smartphones as their primary device the second reason is real-time decision-making executives directors and managers need up-to-date information at their fingertips to make strategic decisions on the go lastly you have enhanced user experience a welloptimized dashboard improves the user experience making it easier for users to interact with and understand data let’s explore how you can optimize the Adventure Work sales dashboard for cellular devices a dashboard is a single canvas of data visualization displaying the current state of the business based on underlying reports in PowerBI service you want to optimize a sales summary dashboard for mobile devices log to your PowerBI service all reports data sets and dashboards are listed in my workspace select my workspace from the left navigation pane of the PowerBI canvas and select the sales summary dashboard to open it this is an existing dashboard created from a report published from PowerBI desktop in my workspace dashboards are distinguished by clock icons once the dashboard is open select the arrow beside edit from the top menu and then select mobile layout from the drop- down options this opens the phone dashboard edit view the phone layout screen has two panes edit mobile layout and unpinned tiles the unpinned tiles pane contains all tiles that are unpinned from the dashboard you can resize and rearrange any tiles to fit the phone view the desktop version of the dashboard will not change you can also unpin any tile from the phone view if it does not fit or is not needed in the edit mobile layout screen the tiles of the sales summary dashboard are not in the correct order you can resize reposition and rearrange the tiles in the mobile layout once you drag and resize a tile other tiles in the dashboard adjust their position automatically instead select unpin all tiles from the top menu bar this will unpin all tiles and move them to the unpinned tiles pane this will allow you to start the design from scratch you can now pin individual tiles and resize them in a sequence to the mobile layout pane the three card visuals contain a snapshot of information about sales and profit you can then pin these three card visuals to the top of the mobile layout screen select the pin icon on the top right corner of the tile to pin the visual on the mobile screen next pin the yearly profit tile to the mobile screen below the card tile you can pin the sales by year and sales by category tiles side by side below the yearly profit tile on the mobile screen next pin the sales by country tile and sales by salespersons below the existing tiles you can enlarge the sales by salesperson tile to display the entire data set the top five products tile is not related to the sales summary dashboard and is not needed in mobile screen so you can leave that tile on the unpinned tiles pane you can resize and rearrange the tiles according to your analytical and audience requirements if you are still unhappy after you have completed these changes you can either reset tiles or unpin all tiles reset tiles returns the dashboard to its original state while unpin all tiles moves all tiles from phone screen to unpinned tiles pane when you’re satisfied with the phone dashboard layout you can switch to web view by selecting web layout from the top menu bar powerbi automatically saves the mobile layout once a dashboard has been completed you can view it on your cell phone you will need to download and install the PowerBI mobile app and log into your account all dashboards are listed in my workspace the ability to access and act on data insights while on the move is an essential element of today’s fast-paced business landscape by ensuring your mobile dashboards are accessible enable real-time decision-making and enhance the user experience you will set yourself up for success optimizing PowerBI dashboards for mobile devices ensures that the decision makers have access to the data they need when they need it leading to better and instant decisions given the amount of data sources available a single dashboard can never display all of the available data as a data analyst you must manage multiple dashboards and reports in Microsoft PowerBI let’s say you need to design multiple but similar dashboards for example you might need these dashboards for managers in different countries designing each dashboard from the beginning each time is not good practice in this video we will explore features in the Microsoft PowerBI service that can accelerate your workflow when creating and managing multiple dashboards there are two different workflow approaches you can use in PowerBI service making a copy of a dashboard and pinning elements from one dashboard to another there are many occasions when a copy of a dashboard helps your workflow these include using a dashboard as a template testing dashboard versions making regional versions of a dashboard and working databases that have the same data structures and types you can use an existing dashboard as a kind of template to create a new dashboard use this technique when you work on scenarios that closely resemble each other in terms of structure and flow of information the procedure is to build the first dashboard copy it rename it and then edit this copy modifying it to reflect the second data scenario to test dashboard performance create a duplicate of a dashboard modify it and test its performance against the original version for global operations you may need to create slightly different versions of a dashboard to match the culture language or norms of various countries or regions when you get a new database that has the same data structure and types as the existing data set you can duplicate the original dashboard and use it as a template for the new data set the second technique to handle multiple dashboards in PowerBI service is copying a visual element between the dashboards for example imagine you have a custom visual tile in a dashboard that you want to include in another dashboard in your workspace you can simply pin the tile from one dashboard to another without navigating back to the original report the source of the tile does not change meaning that the pinned tile links back to the original source report where it was created if the original content changes all dashboards pinned to it will also be updated to create and copy dashboards you must use the Microsoft PowerBI service you can view dashboards in Microsoft PowerBI service and in Microsoft PowerBI mobile dashboards are not available in PowerBI desktop therefore you need to publish all your reports to PowerBI service before creating and managing dashboards to create a copy of a dashboard you must be the creator of the dashboard if someone in your team shared a dashboard with you you cannot duplicate it you cannot pin tiles from dashboards shared with you only from dashboards created by you let’s open PowerBI service and explore some techniques to manage multiple dashboards to duplicate a dashboard log into your PowerBI service and open the workspace that contains your dashboard select the dashboard to duplicate from my workspace navigate to file and select save a copy from the drop-down a duplicate dashboard dialogue opens here you need to give an appropriate name for the duplicated dashboard select duplicate a duplicated dashboard is saved in the same workspace as the original one now the dashboard can be opened and modified to satisfy the analytical requirements some of the tasks you can perform include move resize and delete tiles add or pin new tiles share your dashboard with colleagues and team members the next task is to pin a tile from one dashboard to another open the product sales dashboard from my workspace and hover the cursor on the tile to pin then select more options and select pin tile from the dropdown in the pin to dashboard dialogue from the drop-down select either an existing dashboard to pin to or create a new dashboard and pin the tile to that when you select pin a success message appears at the top right corner indicating the visualization has been pinned to the selected dashboard open the dashboard to check the pinned visual further operations can now be performed on the pinned visualization like resizing renaming and moving you can duplicate a dashboard and pin a tile from one dashboard to another in Microsoft PowerBI service in real world data analysis working on many dashboards and reports is a frequent practice being able to quickly replicate a dashboard and copy visual elements between dashboards is a valuable addition to your skill set content with a visual always attracts more viewers than non-visual content visually rich media such as photos images videos and animations significantly contribute to the impact of content eye-catching visuals help to onboard and engage viewers informative visuals enable them to focus on and understand your message in this video you’ll discover media elements you can integrate into your dashboard and explore the benefits they bring to your workflow microsoft PowerBI service supports many media types in a dashboard including text boxes images videos web content and live streaming or real-time data there are many benefits to using media elements such as their ability to enhance data context create engagement reinforce branding provide instructions and present a summary visual content such as images and videos provide a context to data for example you can use images to display product photos company logos location maps and use video footage for a manufacturing or promotional video clip to help users understand the data being presented still images and motion graphics make dashboards more engaging and assist effective storytelling videos or animations for instance can be included to narrate the story behind the data making it more relatable and impactful reinforce an organization’s branding by including company logos and product images in your dashboard animations and video clips about a company’s corporate culture manufacturing process or marketing campaigns are some examples that can be included the use of short video clips containing instructions on how to navigate dashboards and interact with data effectively is another helpful application of media in dashboards images and icons can be used to present a visual summary of data making it easier to quickly grasp key insights you can include live streaming as a media element in a dashboard powerbi’s real-time streaming updates your dashboard data automatically and constantly any PowerBI visual or dashboard can be used to display and update real-time data and visuals the streaming data that feeds your updates can come from social media sensors such as a point of sale terminal or sensors detecting changes in light heat or motion service usage such as metering the consumption of power or other utilities or any time-sensitive data there are three types of data sets designed to display on real-time dashboards and tiles push data set streaming data sets and pubnob streaming data sets a push data set is where the data is pushed to PowerBI service from any live streaming data set such as SQL server when the data set is created the PowerBI service automatically creates a new database in the service to store the data with a push data set you can create visuals reports and dashboards as with any other report visual because the data is stored in PowerBI service you can pin any visual to the dashboard from your report and on the dashboard visuals are updated in real time whenever the data is updated powerbi only stores data from a streaming data set in temporary caches which expire quickly with a streaming data set the data is also pushed to PowerBI service from any data set that is constantly updating like SQL server or Amazon web services Oracle and so on a streaming data set is not stored in PowerBI memory as a result it has no underlying data set physically saved in PowerBI that means you cannot use regular report functionality in PowerBI like using filters and slicers in your report for drill down functions and to create interactivity the only way to use a streaming data set is to add a tile to your dashboard and use the streaming data set as a data source called custom streaming data in PowerBI service the tile is then optimized to quickly display real-time data you can choose any visual you want on the tile and the benefit of a streaming data set is that the visual always displays live data we can also use something called the PubNub streaming data set pubnub is a platform for building realtime applications it works with the minimum of delay which is called low latency this is because no data is pushed to PowerBI all realtime data is live streamed from PubNub it is a solution that has high reliability and is scalable meaning that its reliability and performance are retained as your audience grows this is a vital feature since your audience will expect the real-time changes to be instant regardless of how many viewers are online pubnub manages this by being scalable over globally distributed data centers pubnub is compatible with platforms across web mobile and internet of things powerbi is one of these platforms that can read an existing PubNub data stream the PowerBI web client uses the PubNob software developer toolkit or SDK to read an existing PubNub data stream the PowerBI service stores no data because the web client makes this call directly you must list any approved traffic from your network to PubNub as allowed like a streaming data set PowerBI does not store data so you cannot use any report building functionality you can visualize a PubNob streaming data set by adding a tile to your dashboard and configuring a PubNub data stream as the data source tiles based on a PubNub data source are optimized to quickly display real-time data pubnub is a streaming service that means it is a platform that helps build and operate real-time interactivity for mobile web and internet of things it is useful for real-time use cases that require security scalability and reliability the three types of data sets you can use to display real-time data are push data set streaming data sets and pub streaming data sets in PowerBI with the push data set you can create reports visuals like you usually do with an imported data set and then pin the visual to the dashboard streaming data sets and PubNob streaming data sets are not stored in PowerBI memory and therefore do not allow you to create any report visuals to use those you create a dashboard tile and connect a live streaming data set directly to the visual on the tile choosing a streaming method depends on factors such as where the data set is hosted what the analytical requirements are and what infrastructure your organization has available live streaming brings many benefits including live streaming updates enable users to access current data in real time this is especially valuable for monitoring rapidly changing metrics or critical data points dashboards with live updates can include alert mechanisms that trigger notifications when specific conditions are met live data streaming allows organizations to respond quickly to market changes operational disruptions or emerging trends team communication is improved through real-time collaboration and live data updates enable organizations to adjust forecasts and strategies based on the most recent data incorporating media elements like still images motion graphics and live streaming updates helps to transform your PowerBI dashboard using dynamic engaging and real-time visuals these visuals not only enhance the user experience but also empower users to respond quickly and make decisions about changing business conditions a sales summary dashboard that you created has all the required sales data but it fails to engage the audience the addition of media elements can help in this video you’ll learn how to add and format dashboard media elements to help enhance user experience powerbi service allows you to incorporate media elements such as still images and motion graphics into your dashboard log into a PowerBI service account open the sales summary dashboard from my workspace we’ll add three media elements to the dashboard a text box a still image and a video clip you need to add a tile to your dashboard to place an image text box or video select add a tile from the edit drop-down the add a tile dialogue appears where you can select the media type to add a dashboard heading select the text box and select next the add a text box tile window appears on the right side of the screen where the title and description can be added add text to the content section such as this dashboard displays the most up-to-date sales information of Adventure Works next format the text to increase the size color and indentation change the font size to 16 bold the color to black and center it tick the check box to display the title and subtitle of the tile you can also set a custom link and add either an external link or a link to another PowerBI dashboard or report from my workspace hyperlinks can also be added to the content section of the text box next let’s add the Adventure Works logo to the dashboard if you want to place your company logo or any other image to your dashboard you need to publish the image online and create a URL link with http colon or https colon you must also make sure that security credentials are not enabled to access the image you cannot add SVG file types to a PowerBI dashboard from the add tile window select image and then next in the detail section to display the title above the image tick the display the title and subtitle checkbox when placing something like the Adventure Works logo you don’t need to enable the title and subtitle now to enter the image URL the Adventure Works logo is already published to Google Drive and the URL was generated without any security credentials which is added here to the URL section to hyperlink the tile select set custom link and then select external link you need to enter the URL of the external source to make the tile a hyperlink select apply and a logo image is added to the dashboard and you can rescale and reposition the tile within the dashboard the last media element to add is a video only YouTube and Vimeo links are supported from the add tile window select video a video information window appears where you need to add information about the video to display the title and subtitle of the video tick the check box display the title and subtitle we will leave the title and subtitle off for this demonstration add a video URL to a clip hosted on YouTube or Vimeo to add the hyperlinks tick the check box set custom link under functionality select external link and add the video URL you can add the video link to open in a new browser tab or add a link to an entire playlist viewers can watch the video on the dashboard tile and also select a hyperlink to navigate to the entire playlist to watch further videos in the same tab select the no option from the open custom link to open the custom video link in a new tab select apply a video tile is added to the dashboard and you can resize and reposition the tile as needed once you add a media tile to your dashboard you can go back and make any changes to the text box change the video URL and so on to make changes select the title and hover the cursor on more options indicated by three dots on the top right corner of the tile and select edit details then the edit tile window opens where you can make and apply changes to the media tile you should now be familiar with adding media elements to the dashboard and formatting them to help create an engaging and captivating user experience with the help of images and videos you can transform your dashboard into an immersive and informative tool you don’t ever want your end users to have to type in a URL they may not type it at all because it’s too much effort or worse still they may type it incorrectly fail to reach your site and give up a QR code is a better solution that avoids the end user having to type in anything it’s short for quick response code a QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that contains information in a machine readable format qr codes consist of black squares arranged on a white square grid typically in a square shape qr codes can store different types of data including text URLs contact information phone numbers and more qr codes are a valuable addition to PowerBI dashboards and reports they enhance user interactivity and data accessibility qr codes are useful in PowerBI dashboards because codes can be generated for specific reports and dashboard tiles in Microsoft PowerBI service users can scan the QR code using their mobile devices to instantly access the associated content without any manual navigation this feature is especially useful for onthe-go access to critical information external web sources or documents can be linked to QR codes providing users with additional context or supporting information related to dashboard data qr codes can be used to gather user feedback or conduct surveys directly from the dashboard since QR codes are mobile friendly they align with the growing trend of mobile business intelligence users can scan codes using their smartphones making data consumption more convenient and accessible the marketing department can use QR codes for instance linking to promotional materials or campaigns related to the data presented on the dashboard you can create a QR code for a dashboard tile and PowerBI service or for a PowerBI report to better understand the use of QR codes consider this scenario to help manage sales reporting and streamline order placement Reneie the Adventure Works marketing manager wants to have quick and easy access to key sales metrics she also wants to share the measures with the sales team to track the sales progress using PowerBI service you can fulfill her analytical needs by adding the power of a QR code reini can share the QR codes among her team members and any stakeholders to give them quick access to relevant data let’s explore PowerBI service and discover how to generate a QR code for a report or dashboard tile in PowerBI service you can generate QR codes for either the entire report that you published from PowerBI desktop or for an individual tile of a dashboard you can create a QR code in the PowerBI service for tiles in any dashboard even in dashboards that you cannot edit let’s check both processes log into PowerBI service and open the sales summary dashboard in the dashboard there is a tile representing sales by salesperson you can generate a QR code for this visual element of the dashboard select the more options from the upper right corner of the tile represented by three dots and select open and focus mode from the drop-down powerbi opens the visual in a full screen in focus mode select more options from the upper right corner of the menu bar and choose generate QR code from the dropdown a dialogue with the QR code appears from here you can scan the QR code or download it as an image which can be shared by email or print to display it in an office or a public place where colleagues can access the information if you want to print the QR code make sure to print it at 100% or actual size if the data in the tile is updated the sales manager can monitor the sales performance you can select exit focus mode to go back to the dashboard next to generate a QR code for the entire PowerBI report open the Adventure Works PowerBI report from my workspace select file and choose generate QR code from the drop-down a dialogue with the QR code appears and you can use the QR code as mentioned previously you can scan the QR code from the PowerBI app on a phone to directly access the visualization qr codes can be generated using the built-in capabilities of Microsoft PowerBI both for a dashboard tile and an entire PowerBI report strategic integration of QR codes and PowerBI can streamline the workflow leverage the power of mobile technologies and enhance the user experience whether it is for efficient data access or engaging user interaction QR codes are a valuable addition to your PowerBI dashboards and reports have you ever accidentally started watching a film halfway through remember how confused you felt and how many questions you had to ask the other viewers before you finally understood the character and the plot if a Microsoft PowerBI report or dashboard does not tell a cohesive story then the employees and stakeholders who view them can feel a similar confusion transforming raw data into a meaningful narrative is a vital skill for the data analyst effective data storytelling serves as a bridge between the analysis of the data and communication of the results it combines the art of storytelling with the science of analytics to convey insights and findings in a compelling way with a multinational organization like Adventure Works where employees and stakeholders are spread across different regions effective data storytelling is particularly important in this video you will explore the main components of data storytelling and discover the benefits of a good data story data storytelling is the art of using data and visuals to build compelling narratives which helps to convey a message highlight trends and engage a wide audience at its core it involves presenting data in a way that captures attention facilitates understanding and informs decision-making you can achieve effective storytelling by combining three distinct components in a well scripted way which can lead the report users to the insights produced by your analysis let’s explore those components at the core of data storytelling is the data itself this includes raw information facts and statistics that you have collected when the data has been processed and analyzed you can then identify the primary message you want to convey the use of a business analytic tool such as PowerBI can help to provide the context throughout your data story in addition the data provides the context that the audience needs to interpret the analysis presented to them next you design the journey the audience will take towards your primary message identifying the start and end points and any key data points along the way a narrative provides structure context and meaning to your data a well-crafted narrative explains the significance of data outlines the key findings and guides the audience through the story’s progression it might include explanations interpretations and implications based on data insights data visualization is the representation of data using charts graphs maps and other visual elements by choosing appropriate and effective data visualizations you allow viewers to quickly grasp information viewers can identify the trends patterns and insights that might be challenging to discern from raw data alone in the context of data storytelling visual elements educate your audience on your proposed theory by creating a connection between the visual elements and your narrative you can engage the audience and present both detailed and summarized data points these three components work together to create a datadriven story that communicates information and insights effectively and can even create an emotional response the data provides evidence substance and context visualizations aid in comprehension and the narrative ties everything together into a cohesive and compelling data story effective data storytelling can have a positive impact on the stakeholders directly involved and your organization as a whole some benefits of successful data storytelling include engagement engaging stories capture and hold the audience’s attention this engagement is vital for conveying critical messages next is enhanced understanding good data storytelling simplifies complex information and highlights key points making it accessible to a broader audience the visualizations and narratives help them to understand datadriven insights without requiring them to have advanced technical knowledge to capitalize on this you need strong communication data storytelling ensures that analysis is not limited to data analysts or data scientists it facilitates communication between different departments and disciplines within an organization fostering collaboration at the heart of datadriven stories is the purpose of solving problems datadriven stories help identify problems and opportunities by revealing patterns and trends it also encourages proactive problem solving through business analytic tools lastly there is effective reporting whether you are working in research business or academia data storytelling enhances the effectiveness of reports and presentations it transforms dry data into engaging narratives that captivate audience attention and involvement data storytelling is a transformative approach to data analysis and communication you can leverage the power of narrative data and visualization to convey insights effectively by mastering data storytelling you can add value to your data and insights and offer value to your audience and industry when you think about data and the story it can tell you need to think of it as a traditional story that you’ve read in books or watched in movies it contains the same elements of traditional stories like a setting characters a situation of conflict overcoming this conflict and a resolution to the story as an analyst you need to build your data story around these traditional storytelling methods by the end of this video you will have explored how elements of traditional storytelling can be translated to your data story in Microsoft PowerBI data contextualization establishes the environment and background against which the datadriven story unfolds your setting includes the details about the data sources the time frame and the broader context in which the analysis takes place for instance if you are analyzing sales data for a specific year in Adventure Works the setting would include details about the industry the market conditions and the company’s current financial status next up are the characters of your data story these are the individuals involved in the analytical process this includes data analysts data scientists and other stakeholders such as business leaders collaborators and external partners in a data story each character plays a unique role data analysts are the main characters who explore and interpret the data the main audience of your analysis such as CEOs or directors are supporting characters to the data story stakeholders are impacted by the insights driven from the data like many great stories conflict is central to your data story in this context the conflict is the business problem or data challenge it is the central issue that the data analyst aims to resolve for example your problem could be a decline in sales a drop in customer satisfaction or any other business issue determined through data analysis the conflict sets the stage for your analysis and drives the story towards the resolution finally there’s the resolution to the data story the resolution in the data story is the result of the analysis where insights are presented and actionable recommendations are made the resolution should provide a clear path of action based on datadriven insights and findings for example if the conflict is declining sales the resolution might involve strategies to boost sales like targeting specific customer segments launching a season specific marketing campaign and so on let’s explore how as a Microsoft PowerBI data analyst you would implement story elements to address a real world challenge at Adventure Works the story unfolds at Adventure Works headquarters where the company’s CEO Jaime is meeting with leadership to discuss the declining sales of Adventure Works products threatening the company’s future as a PowerBI data analyst and report designer you are the main character of this data story you are determined to uncover insights and anomalies from the data that will lead the company out of its sales slump a secondary character is the Adventure Works CEO Jaime jaime is considered a visionary CEO known for her adventurous spirit and belief in the company’s potential she is eager to make strategic decisions based on your analysis to move the company towards new heights the challenge facing Adventure Works is a steady decline in sales over the past two years the decline is causing concern among various stakeholders of the company including Jaime the executive leadership recognizes the company needs a datadriven solution to identify the reason for the decline and devise strategies to reverse the trend as the principal analyst you explore the company’s sales data from this 2-year period you investigate customer demographics seasonal trends and product performance through effective data visualization you uncover three significant insights first the sales of mountain bikes have outperformed other products in the same subcategory during the spring and summer months secondly by delving into customer feedback you discovered a compelling pattern of customers consistently praising the durability and quality of Adventure Works mountain bikes lastly you revealed a correlation between decreased marketing efforts and the months of declining sales based on your results it became clear that the company’s reputation for producing rugged and durable products is a hidden gem that can be capitalized on and that a consistent and effective marketing campaign is the missing piece of the puzzle to increase sales now you reached the resolution of this data story after working on data visualization and exploration you presented your report to the executive meeting and the CEO the committee decides to immediately address the identified issues based on your findings the marketing team drafts a roadmap to focus their efforts on promoting the durability and quality of their mountain bikes based on these findings the CEO Jamie provides a directive to the marketing director to increase the campaigns by targeting the competitive advantage Adventure Works has over their competition reliability with a datadriven strategy in place Adventure Works can now embark on a new journey as the company emphasizes the durability of its bikes and expands into new markets Adventure Works reignites their essence of exploration and sales begin to rise once more you have crafted a datadriven story of transformation for Adventure Works through data analysis and storytelling the company identifies outliers correlations and patterns to their problem this insight helps the company to rediscover its core strength and plan its future efforts accordingly a collection of numbers and charts on a report canvas in Microsoft PowerBI does not always tell a captivating story however with the science and art of data storytelling you can turn data context into your story setting turn stakeholders into characters and frame a business problem into a conflict and resolution the data storytelling process is an integral part of presenting data analysis it involves transforming datadriven insights into a narrative that is engaging and informative and leads to action and resolving the conflict in this video you will delve into the full process of data storytelling and how you can relate it to the data analysis process let’s start by outlining the eight steps you will cover they are goal data collection and preparation data analysis and exploration data visualization audience consideration communication feedback and iterations and actions and decision-making the data analysis process typically begins with defining a clear goal and a hypothesis of what you expect to uncover in your analysis analysts theorize about the relationship between the variables in the analysis and what they expect to discover from the data connecting this to data storytelling it is crucial to understand what message or insight you want to convey through the data this end goal guides the entire storytelling process data is collected from a source cleaned transformed and prepared for analysis as you learned in previous lessons this process might include merging data sets removing errors and duplicates handling missing values and so on in data storytelling your work begins with prepared data therefore it is essential to have a well ststructured data set that aligns with the goal of your story this ensures that the story is based on accurate and relevant information the data analysis and exploration stage involves statistical analysis hypothesis testing and data exploration techniques to uncover patterns trends and relationships in the data these findings are the heart of data storytelling you need to select the most critical insights that align with your goal such as key trends correlations anomalies or any other significant findings visualization is the key component of data analysis allowing you to explore and communicate data patterns effectively it plays a significant role in determining how receptive your audience is to receiving complex information to create effective visuals to support the goal of your story you need to choose the appropriate chart type relevant to your data effective visualization can help to reveal patterns trends and findings from your data provide context interpret results and articulate insights streamline data so your audience can process information and improve audience engagement you need to create a dashboard using data visualization tools in PowerBI to present these findings a data dashboard is used to manage information and for business intelligence a dashboard provides a single canvas to organize and present valuable information in a logical sequence the dashboard is the single location where the audience can understand the connections between the data story and the hypothesis you made initially data storytelling places a strong emphasis on the audience you need to tailor your story to your audience’s background their knowledge of the topic and business requirements the narrative is designed to resonate with the audience data storytelling involves dynamic and engaging communication this includes presentations interactive reports and dashboards you need to collect feedback from team members and other stakeholders which helps you refine your narrative visuals and overall storytelling approach to better meet your audience’s needs data storytelling is not just about providing information it aims to inspire actions having established your goal at the start of the storytelling process it should link back to the actions and decisions the compelling visuals and narrative aim to motivate stakeholders to make informed decisions backed up by accurate data and insights presented data storytelling is changing the way we consume information storytelling with data imparts a human dimension to often complex and cryptic data sets filled with numbers and statistics crafting a narrative plays a role in this process but the ability to comprehend and convey information is crucial for constructing a compelling narrative and leading to effective decisions congratulations on completing dashboard design and storytelling in Microsoft PowerBI you learned about using design principles to improve the visual impact of a dashboard and tailoring the design to the users interacting with the dashboard you also explored data storytelling and how it is a compelling way of transforming raw data into a data narrative that informs engages and inspires action let’s recap what you learned and the key takeaways from each topic you began by learning about improving dashboard and report design in Microsoft PowerBI dashboards are created in PowerBI service and are based on underlying reports dashboards are typically a single canvas of information presenting the current state of the business reports are designed from a variety of data sources in PowerBI desktop and typically contain multiple pages reports support the use of slicers and filters to enhance interactivity for users having established your knowledge of dashboards and reports you then learned about how to identify and focus on the end users in an adventure works scenario reports generated with data from various sources may contain information about the company’s inventory or sales the growth of the company in different regions about salesperson performance or best performing product categories the purpose of your analysis is a dashboard that contains only the relevant information needed by your target audience for example if you want to design a dashboard for the finance department you first need to identify the relevant data from the available data set you must visualize and present the information necessary for the finance team with all irrelevant data emitted when creating a user centric dashboard your ability to prioritize and visualize relevant data is a major step in engaging your audience you then learned about optimizing dashboards for mobile phones in the lesson you learned how to optimize dashboards for cellular devices how to allow for accessibility considerations and how to create dashboards for real-time decision-making and an enhanced user experience keep in mind though you need to be the owner of the dashboard to make any changes having completed the lesson on improving dashboard design you then learned about other dashboard elements you learned about working with multiple dashboards specifically how to duplicate a dashboard duplicating dashboards is especially important when you need to test the performance of a new dashboard with slight variations or to distribute a slightly different dashboard for other departments or regions another tool that you learned about is pinning a specific tile from one dashboard to another you can pin the tile from one dashboard to another without navigating back to the original report the source of the tile does not change meaning that the pinned tile links back to the original source report where it was created you then learned about incorporating media elements such as images videos and animations and text boxes to your visualization you learned about types of media which can positively impact the dashboard and its engagement with the audience you learned in this lesson how to add and edit various media files to the dashboard from PowerBI service you also learned what factors you must consider ensuring they work correctly for example an image file can only be displayed when it is published online with a URL without security credentials lastly in this lesson you gained hands-on experience in creating QR codes for various dashboard tiles and entire reports in PowerBI service a QR code is a feature that enables you and business users to access the most critical information on the go this can also be used to collect feedback conduct surveys and add external web links to your dashboard the last lesson in this module covered the principles of data storytelling data visualization and narrative are the three fundamental components of data storytelling effective data storytelling can have a positive impact on the overall analytical process benefits of data storytelling include engagement enhanced understanding communication problem solving and effective reporting next you went through an example of data storytelling for adventure works you learned about the principles of setting a stage identifying the conflict assigning the roles to various characters of the story and conflict resolution throughout the storytelling process then you learned about the storytelling process via eight steps they are goal data collection and preparation data analysis and exploration data visualization audience consideration communication feedback and iterations and actions and decision-m in the context of data analysis these steps cover the entire process from data collection and cleaning to databacked decision-m in real world scenarios you will come across examples of poor storytelling which need to be improved before they are presented to your audience choosing the wrong chart type designing a random dashboard canvas and inconsistent use of colors are all common mistakes you need to avoid while crafting a dashboard for your data story you should now have a better understanding of how to optimize your dashboard visuals and how to incorporate data storytelling best practices to create effective dashboards and reports the skills you’ve learned over these weeks will enable you to create data stories that capture user attention enable them to recognize the goals of your data analysis and generate effective solutions for your business congratulations on completing this course on creative design in Microsoft PowerBI microsoft PowerBI is not just an analytical tool it provides opportunities to implement creativity into your reports and designs to better engage dashboard and report users let’s recap what you have learned over the last few weeks reflecting on the key takeaways you started your learning journey by exploring color theory and the key role of color in building reports color theory is the collection of designs rules and guidelines used to communicate with users through color schemes you applied color theory and the role of color principles to improve a report for Adventure Works following on from this you explored appropriate positioning and scale of information while designing your PowerBI reports strategic placement of visual elements such as charts and graphs in a logical sequence within reports increases their user impact in addition consistent scaling within various chart types in accordance with the data type and structure also ensures the effectiveness of design next you learned how to avoid chaos in your PowerBI reports maintaining cohesion and consistency to your report building you also implemented the principles of chaos and cohesion practically to generate a cohesive design in PowerBI throughout this course you learned that the key to successful visualization is knowing your audience you must tailor your PowerBI presentations to meet the needs and preferences of your audience you must tailor your PowerBI presentations to meet the needs and preferences of those interacting with and using them during this lesson you learned how several factors such as job role user objectives information needs and cultural considerations influence your audience’s requirements you then switched to another crucial factor that plays a pivotal role in report design and that is age differences in your audiences colors are significant when designing PowerBI visualizations for various age groups appropriate formatting of a report that reflects the analytical message concisely while maintaining the design principles is key in report design and finally an important aspect of working with data is data security you learned about keeping data secure through data anonymization and how it can be achieved now let’s turn our attention to visual clarity in reports visual clarity at both chart level and report level affects the impact of your reports in this lesson you explored how to choose the correct chart type for the type of data you are visualizing you learned the data type the message and the audience all play a role when selecting a chart type branding visual hierarchy and the business objective are some of the factors that impact your visual clarity at report level next you covered both theoretical and practical aspects of accessible report design in Microsoft PowerBI many built-in tools can be employed to consider people with visual impairments while retaining an engaging and compelling report design following this you gained a thorough understanding of important chart types in PowerBI you gained hands-on experience in designing a key performance indicators or KPI chart a dotplot chart and a bubble chart a KPI chart is significant as you can visualize the current values against a predefined target value with trend axis in place a scatter plot chart along with its variations dot plots and bubble charts are of special significance because of their ability to display multi-dimensional and highdensity data in a single visual with these charts you can visualize categorical information on the charts x-axis having delved into the topic of charts you also explored advanced tools within PowerBI desktop to display complex data structure like tree maps heat maps and drill through and drill down functionalities of PowerBI to conclude this section on visual clarity in reports you learned how to optimize your PowerBI reports for mobile devices joining the wave of dynamic mobile business intelligence geographical data is the part of every business that requires special visual needs powerbi has various map visuals to visualize the location-based information you explored various map visuals through examples and with a hands-on experience shape maps and corropath maps also called filled maps are the two most common map visuals azure maps is a new map visual within PowerBI that offers more control and formatting options through map layers to accomplish the growing need to combine visualizations with complex data structures sometimes PowerBI core visuals are unable to fulfill your analytical requirements this is where you can leverage custom visualizations the PowerBI app source provides a range of custom visuals that are developed by partners and tested by Microsoft for quality and accuracy you learned how to download install and format a custom visual in your core PowerBI visualization pane you have gained a thorough understanding from installing Python to using it for your custom visualization python along with its rich and versatile visualization libraries such as mattplot lib and seabour provides an entire new avenue of dynamic and interactive visualization within powerbi having learned about designing powerful report pages you turned your attention towards dashboard design and storytelling the dashboard is a distinct component of the Microsoft PowerBI ecosystem you began by exploring the differences between a PowerBI dashboard and report as both offer several benefits and serve distinct purposes a PowerBI dashboard represents a snapshot of information displaying the current state of business and is a single canvas of visualization with key insights and KPIs a report is designed for granular data analysis that might consist of multiple pages with drill through and drill down functionalities you learned how to publish your report to PowerBI service create a dashboard and optimize your dashboard for mobile phones remember you can only create and optimize dashboards in PowerBI service the reports you generated using data from various sources might contain information about inventory sales regions growth of the company salesperson performance and best and worst performing product categories the product of your analysis is a dashboard that must contain only the relevant information needed by your target audience in the real world you need to work on multiple reports and dashboards simultaneously in this context you explored ways to streamline your workflow by duplicating a dashboard and pinning a visual element from one dashboard to another media elements are an integral component of a dashboard in the digital era adding images text boxes and videos to your dashboard can have a significant impact on audience engagement you gained practical experience in integrating media elements such as images and videos to your dashboard the fast-paced business landscape requires continual access to up-to-date data powerbi’s live streaming capabilities allow you to integrate real-time data to your dashboard for faster and on-time decision-making you learned that there are three types of live streaming data sets that PowerBI service supports push data set streaming data set and pub streaming data set only push data set is physically stored in PowerBI memory allowing you to build reports on top of the data set effective data storytelling serves as a bridge between the analysis of the data and communication of the results it combines the art of storytelling with the science of analytics to convey insights and findings in a compelling way you gained a thorough understanding of the components of data storytelling the narrative the data used and visualization and how these elements weave a data story next you learned the elements and the process of data storytelling with Adventure Works scenario with the eight-step process you crafted an engaging data story for Adventure Works the eight steps of data storytelling are goal data collection and preparation data analysis and exploration data visualization audience consideration communication feedback and iterations and actions and decision-making lastly you learned that effective data storytelling can have a positive impact on the overall analytical process benefits of data storytelling include engagement enhanced understanding communication problem solving and effective reporting as you have now finished your recap of this course you should take a moment to reflect on your learnings before embarking on the final project assessment and course quiz be sure to recap your learnings additional resources and previous quizzes and best of luck as you complete your journey congratulations on completing the creative design in PowerBI course your hard work and dedication have paid off you’ve made significant progress on your data analysis learning journey and you should now have a thorough understanding of the theory and practice of visualization and design including the design principles of data display and visualization this course provided you with a strong creative design foundation in Microsoft PowerBI this should allow you to modify your report designs to build cohesive reports and to produce audience focused reports aimed at target audiences you learned that to enhance the comprehension of data and improve the enduser experience you can apply visual clarity use multi-dimensional visualizations insert map visualizations and implement a custom visualization exploring the concepts of dashboard design and storytelling you compared the design of a dashboard with the design of a report examined the common steps involved with data storytelling and discovered advanced dashboard features such as embedding media and QR codes your PowerBI knowledge of visualization and design will help you to create better reports and dashboards well done for completing another step in your data analysis education by passing all the courses in the program you’ll earn a Microsoft PowerBI analyst professional certificate from Corsera this program is a great way to expand your understanding of data analysis and gain a qualification that will allow you to apply for entry-level jobs in the field and will help you prepare for the PL300 exam by passing the exam you’ll become a Microsoft certified PowerBI data analyst it will also help you to start or expand a career in this role this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to prepare data for analysis model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX you can visit the Microsoft certifications page at http://www.learn.microsoft.com/certifications to learn more about the certification and exam this course has enhanced your knowledge and skills in the fundamentals of creative designing in Microsoft PowerBI but what comes next there’s more to learn so it’s a good idea to register for the next course whether you’re just starting out as a novice or you’re a technical professional completing this program demonstrates your knowledge of data modeling in PowerBI you’ve done a great job so far and you should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained will showcase your willingness to learn your motivation and your capability to potential employers it’s been a pleasure to embark on this journey of discovery with you wishing you all the best as you continue to pursue your studies and develop your career working with PowerBI involves working with many different assets like reports and dashboards managing all of these can be a difficult challenge so we’ve designed this course to equip you with the skills you need to deploy and maintain PowerBI assets during this course you’ll explore the role of PowerBI in business deploying assets in a PowerBI workspace and the role that security and monitoring play in safeguarding reports and dashboards in PowerBI let’s take a few minutes to preview what you’ll learn you’ll begin with an introduction to the role of PowerBI in business with a focus on data flow data flow in business refers to the movement of information within an organization this movement or flow occurs in the following stages collection processing analysis and decision making once gathered the data is cleaned or standardized it’s then transformed data analysts use the refined data to generate insights the data is analyzed using PowerBI service this software offers many advantages for analysts it’s accessible scalable and offers collaboration tools and data backup and recovery features the data analyst is the central figure in this process they possess important skills and expertise in extracting valuable insights from data an important skill that all data analysts must possess is understanding structured query language or SQL data analysts use SQL to interact with the SQL databases that store the data analysts can connect to a SQL database using import or direct query modes import mode loads data directly into PowerBI direct query mode connects PowerBI directly to the source database an analysis is presented in the form of a report a report can be static or dynamic a dynamic report explores multiple areas of interest its results are presented in the form of visuals these reports also facilitate using whatif parameters that permit interactive adjustments to modify visualizations and generate insights into potential scenarios next you’ll explore how to deploy assets in a workspace a workspace is a specialized area in PowerBI that holds important assets there are two types of workspaces in PowerBI the first is a personal workspace which you can use to store your content the second is a shared workspace where a team can collaborate on reports and dashboards workspace roles determine how individuals can interact with workspaces workspace roles include viewer contributor member and admin you can manage these roles using PowerBI’s manage access feature next you’ll learn how to monitor workspaces by monitoring a workspace you can measure its impact and make changes to increase its usefulness you’ll also explore the topic of data sets and gateways in PowerBI a data set must contain the latest available information you can use a scheduled or incremental refresh to ensure accurate data and you can promote and certify data sets to inform your team where to access the most current and reliable data you’ll also explore establishing a secure reliable connection between your on- premises data and PowerBI service using data gateways there are three types of gateways in PowerBI the on premises data gateway the on- premises data gateway personal mode and the Azure virtual network or V-Net data gateway which type of gateway you choose depends on the setup of your organization and its specific data management and security requirements you’ll also learn how PowerBI deployment pipelines move content through the following life cycle stages development testing and staging or production another useful feature for maintaining your workspace is the lineage view this view shows the data journey from source to destination with all the connections in between impact analysis shows how changes to your data can impact or affect different assets in your workspace next you’ll explore the role that security and monitoring play in safeguarding reports and dashboards in PowerBI you’ll first explore how to share information safely and identify sensitive data sensitive data is essential information that if leaked could damage the company’s reputation finances or privacy you can safeguard data using PowerBI’s authentication tools you can also use sharing links to control who you share information with and use sharing permissions to determine what they can do with the data sensitivity labels are also another useful method of safeguarding data access to data sets is governed by data permissions these ensure that only authorized individuals can access data you can configure permissions in PowerBI to safeguard your data you’ll also review rowle security for safeguarding data rowle security or RLS controls which individuals can view data based on predefined roles and rules there are two types of role security static RLS restricts users to specific data dynamic RLS uses data analysis expressions or DAX to adjust realtime data access based on user roles finally you’ll explore subscriptions and alerts in PowerBI you can subscribe to reports and dashboards a PowerBI subscription is an automated delivery system that provides daily data snapshots as emails or notifications you can use the subscriptions pane in PowerBI to manage your subscriptions as well as subscriptions PowerBI also offers data alerts these automatic customizable notifications inform users when specific conditions or thresholds have been met or exceeded you’ll also complete exercises in which you’ll put your new skills into practice by helping adventure works with PowerBI knowledge checks which will test your understanding of these topics and additional resources in which you’ll consult Microsoft learn articles to help you explore these topics in more detail in the final week of this course you’ll undertake a project and graded assessment in the project you’ll prepare configure design and develop a data model for a fictitious online company called Tailwind Traders finally you’ll have a chance to recap what you’ve learned and focus on areas you can improve upon throughout the course you’ll engage with videos designed to help you build a solid understanding of data modeling in PowerBI watch pause rewind and rewatch the videos until you are confident in your skills then consolidate your knowledge by consulting the course readings and measure your understanding of key topics by completing the different knowledge checks and quizzes this will set you on your way toward a career in data analytics and form part of your preparation to take the PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst exam by the end of the course you’ll be equipped with the necessary skills to work effectively with data models in PowerBI good luck as you start this exciting learning journey data is integral to business success but how that data arrives at the business is also important in this video you’ll learn about the flow of data in business and how it can be managed to help generate insights lucas is helping Adventure Works to develop its latest business plan this requires collecting all available data about the business to ensure that Adventure Works plan is as informed as possible this involves exploring what kind of data adventure works can analyze how it makes its way to the business and the techniques the company can use to prepare it for analysis but first let’s begin with the question what is data flow data flow in business refers to the movement of information within an organization this movement occurs in stages the first stage is collection where data is gathered from various sources such as Excel spreadsheets and SQL databases the second stage is processing where data is cleansed and transformed to prepare it for meaningful analysis during the next stage analysis advanced analytics and algorithms are applied to the processed data to uncover trends patterns and insights that inform business strategies the last stage is decision-making during this stage informed decisions are made based on the analyzed data guiding actions and adjustments within the business to optimize processes and achieve objectives and there are processes within business that govern aspects of data like how it is acquired stored manipulated and shared to support business operations and objectives let’s begin with the first stage data collection at Adventure Works data is collected from a variety of valuable sources firstly the Adventure Works e-commerce platform acts as a primary source capturing customer transactions web store browsing behavior and purchase history this platform integrates seamlessly with the customer relationship management or CRM system which compiles customer insights and interactions the point of sales systems in Adventure Works physical stores provide realtime data on instore purchases and customer foot traffic the company collaborates with suppliers who share inventory and sales data ensuring a streamlined supply chain social media platforms serve as another essential source offering insights into customer sentiment engagement and trends once the data is collected it then needs to be processed this vast amount of data is managed through SQL databases that securely store these records in tables you’ll learn more about SQL later in this course for now you just need to know that the SQL database is the center of Adventure Works data operations it links all aspects of the business and it provides an overview of business operations and customer interactions this empowers Adventure Works to make informed decisions for continued success with such a vast amount of information flowing through the system ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data is paramount the two main steps in this stage of the process are data cleansing and transformation let’s explore these steps more closely data cleansing is the process of examining correcting and standardizing incoming data this removes inconsistencies from the data ensuring that it’s reliable and accurate for instance Adventure Works can standardize customer addresses at the data source by ensuring all addresses are collected and stored in the same format using consistent data types this provides a consistent foundation for shipping and billing this process not only refineses the quality of the data but also establishes a solid foundation for subsequent analysis once cleansed the data then flows through pipelines where transformation steps come into play the process of data transformation involves working with aggregations applying calculations and enhancing data for example Adventure Works can aggregate sales figures from different locations for an overview of regional performances these pipelines act as a bridge for the data to undergo a series of carefully designed transformations before it’s ready for analysis and reporting this stage of the process ensures that the insights derived from Adventure Works data are precise and actionable this helps to drive informed decisions for the company’s continued success after cleansing and transformation the refined data is now ready for analysis the results of this analysis form the foundation for insightful reporting for example Adventure Works can generate sales insights from its regional sales data these insights then form the basis of a report that offers a clear business snapshot now that Lucas has generated the required insights he passes the report on to management once Adventure Works management obtain a copy of this report they can use its insights to make decisions about the business the report indicates low sales of its new mountain bike model based on this insight Adventure Works might try a new marketing campaign for this model to help improve its sales beyond Adventure Works various industries harness data in unique ways to drive their operations for example the public transportation sector uses data from its routes travel times and ticket sales to optimize schedules allocate resources efficiently and enhance the overall commuting experience for passengers other sectors that make use of data include food companies those dealing with perishable goods are impacted by weather and temperature so they must collect and analyze meteorological data cold storage facilities rely on real-time temperature monitoring to preserve the quality and safety of products and they might also increase production in anticipation of a heat wave these examples illustrate how different sectors leverage data to make informed decisions this enhances their efficiency and competitiveness in the market you should now be familiar with the flow of data within a business and how this data is used to generate insights and make decisions an effective data flow is essential for generating insights for informed decision-making in today’s datadriven world the ongoing management of data is crucial for businesses to make informed decisions enhance efficiency and gain a competitive edge in this video you’ll learn how a company like Adventure Works can leverage its data assets using PowerBI service to become a datadriven enterprise and the importance of the continued maintenance of these assets adventure Works has set a goal of becoming a datadriven enterprise by the end of the year to achieve this goal the company must make the most of its data assets so its data analysts have configured custom reports and dashboards in PowerBI to monitor inventory levels track customer preferences analyze market trends and assess product performance let’s explore how the company can leverage and manage these assets to drive strategic decision-making in a datadriven enterprise like Adventure Works data isn’t just information it guides strategic choices resource allocation and maps the pathway for future growth during this transition to a datadriven mindset PowerBI service is used to deploy and maintain data assets as you’ve previously learned PowerBI service is a cloud-based platform used for data analysis it’s a centralized hub where teams can collectively work on reports and dashboards ensuring that everyone has access to the most up-to-date information this ensures that insights remain current and relevant and it empowers Adventure Works to make informed decisions swiftly and accurately unlike its desktop counterpart the service offers the following advantages it’s accessible for remote teams offering flexibility and collaboration across geographic distances adventure Works can use the service to scale up or down to accommodate changing business needs teams can also easily add or reduce resources without extensive hardware and infrastructure investments powerbi service also offers real-time collaboration features for documents and projects improving productivity and teamwork and it provides data backup and recovery reducing the risk of data loss due to hardware failures or other unforeseen events now that you’re more familiar with its advantages let’s explore how the Adventure Works data analysis team makes use of PowerBI service as you discovered earlier Adventure Works can deploy PowerBI service assets like reports and dashboards to monitor inventory levels track customer preferences analyze market trends and assess product performance all in real time let’s find out more about the insights PowerBI service can generate in these areas powerbi service can help to monitor inventory data data analysts can track inventory turnover rate order fulfillment accuracy shipping and delivery times and return rates adventure Works can track existing and emerging customer preferences this information can be used to differentiate its product offerings and stay ahead of competitors adventure Works can also use data to analyze market trends the company can identify opportunities for new product development or enhancements to existing products ensuring Adventure Works remains relevant and it can study trends in pricing to adjust costs to stay competitive and maximize profits other areas of the business that Adventure Works can monitor include product performance powerbi service can deliver information on the performance of individual product lines this information can include the best and lowest selling products and data from online product engagement and product recommendation effectiveness can guide decisions for the purchasing and marketing teams this ensures Adventure Works maintains a competitive advantage in a dynamic market it’s not just retailers like Adventure Works who use PowerBI service in today’s datadriven landscape businesses and organizations across various industries rely on the continuous maintenance of data assets to help guide decision-making for instance in the health care sector accurate and up-to-date patient records are critical for providing quality care a hospital’s ability to access a patients medical history in real time can be a matter of life and death in the finance industry investment firms require accurate data on stock prices and market trends to make timely investment decisions and as the Adventure Works examples demonstrated understanding customer behavior and preferences is vital for online retailers to tailor their offerings and marketing strategies effectively as these examples show data assets help to inform every sector of enterprise you should now be familiar with how a company like Adventure Works can leverage its data assets using PowerBI service to become a datadriven enterprise and the importance of the continued maintenance of these assets whether it’s optimizing supply chains fine-tuning logistics or tailoring marketing strategies the need for continuously maintained data assets is universal deploying and maintaining assets is not just an advantage but a prerequisite for success in today’s business world data analysis is essential and data analysts are central players in this data analysis process extracting invaluable insights from raw information in this video you’ll explore the pivotal role of a data analyst and the profound impact they have on organizational success adventure Works relies heavily on data analysts to help make sense of its data and generate insights to drive business success and there are certain skills and traits a company like Adventure Works looks for in its analysts let’s find out more about the skill sets Adventure Works values and the contribution that its analysts make to the company a data analyst is expected to possess specialized skills in statistics math and programming they use advanced tools to analyze big data and find hidden trends and anomalies that others might miss a data analyst creates reports and visualizations that combines complex information into simplified insights these reports and summaries help decision makers to navigate the business landscape they spot opportunities for improvement automation and cost reduction helping to make processes more efficient and boost the organization’s competitiveness data analysts enforce data protection rules they detect and fix weaknesses safeguarding organizations from harmful breaches and data leaks now that you’re familiar with the skills a data analyst must possess let’s examine some examples of where a data analyst can offer invaluable insights and solutions a data analyst at Adventure Works can employ advanced analytics to segment customers based on behavior demographics and preferences for instance a data analyst might identify a segment of Adventure Works customers who prefer outdoor gear by tailoring marketing messages and promotions to this group the company can increase sales for outdoor related products this enables targeted marketing for higher sales conversion and enhanced customer loyalty data analysts can also use past sales data trends and seasonality to forecast product demand and optimize stock accordingly a data analyst may discover that certain products have a seasonal demand spike by adjusting inventory levels and promotions accordingly Adventure Works can prevent overstocking and reduce carrying costs this leads to higher profitability because Adventure Works can avoid the risk of excess stock data analysts can also generate insights into sales by studying the purchasing patterns of customers to discover which products sell together most effectively through market basket analysis a data analyst might find that customers who purchase hiking boots often also buy outdoor gear adventure Works can use this insight to create bundled promotions that encourage customers to purchase these items together these insights help Adventure Works to meet the needs of its customers and increase its sales in an online industry stopping fraud is vital data analysts use realtime checks to spot suspicious transactions keeping Adventure Works safe financially and protecting its reputation a data analyst may set up alerts for transactions that deviate significantly from a customer’s typical behavior for instance if a customer suddenly makes a high-V value purchase after a history of smaller transactions it could trigger a fraud alert you should now be familiar with the pivotal role of a data analyst and the profound impact they have on organizational success data analysts are essential for helping businesses drive insights and progress as the examples you’ve just explored demonstrate data analysts help to make informed decisions improve operations drive innovation and reduce risks sql or structured query language is a powerful language with many advantages for data analysts working with large enterprise databases in this video you’ll learn about the importance of SQL how it helps with data storage and queries and how it integrates with Microsoft PowerBI adventure Works has just hired some new traininee data analysts it needs these analysts to generate insights from its SQL databases but several of them are unfamiliar with this tool let’s explore the answers to some of their questions about SQL to discover how it helps enterprises like Adventure Works the first question these new trainees have is what’s a SQL database at its core a SQL database is a system for organizing and storing data in a structured format when we refer to a structured format we mean that data is structured or organized so it can be located quickly when required for analysis a SQL database excels in handling structured data its framework is built of tables rows and columns this means that all data is stored in specific categories and analysts can find the data they need with minimal effort for example Adventure Works needs to retrieve bicycle data for a report it can create a SQL query that accesses the product category column in the products table where a list of all bicycle types in stock can be found as this example shows a strong business case can be made for SQL databases through their structured and reliable framework however another advantage of SQL databases is that they facilitate complex queries for quickly extracting specific subsets of data this is important for generating reports and insights data sets are also constantly expanding which requires scalability and a larger data set requires more complex methods of data retrieval you can retrieve data from large databases using techniques like partitioning and indexing finally SQL databases can be accessed by multiple users or applications at the same time an entire team of Adventure Works data analysts can access the SQL database simultaneously without causing a conflict or slowdown this is an important advantage for a business as we’ve discovered the main advantage of a SQL database is its storage capabilities the next question that the new data analysts have is how does this storage work sql databases store data using a method called normalization you might be familiar with this method from previous courses normalization divides data into multiple related tables each with a specific purpose it’s like tidying a room by putting similar things in separate boxes as you discovered earlier SQL databases also use indexing indexing is the technique of assigning a unique number to each row in a table this acts like a table of contents in a book making it easier to locate information as a data analyst it’s also important for you to understand that the real power of SQL isn’t just its storage capabilities the ultimate benefit of a SQL database is its ability to return information through SQL queries sql queries are statements written in SQL they instruct the database to perform a specific operation like returning all records in a table or just a specific subset so you must study the syntax and structure of SQL statements carefully to extract the necessary insights as efficiently as possible for example Adventure Works data analysis team has created a SQL query that returns all bike data from the products table however they can also create a more complex SQL query that returns data only on bikes that cost $1,000 or more the new data analysts are now more familiar with the basics of SQL so their final question is how does a SQL database relate to PowerBI just like PowerBI SQL databases are used by businesses of every size to manage and organize data by integrating SQL databases with PowerBI data analysts can use these tools to create compelling visualizations and reports that turn raw data into actionable insights having explored the basics of SQL alongside Adventure Works new data analysts you should now be familiar with the importance of SQL how it helps with data storage and queries and how it integrates with PowerBI sql is an essential tool for data analysts to help generate the insights businesses need develop a good understanding of SQL and you’ll be an asset to any enterprise powerbi is a powerful tool for extracting
data and it can also be integrated with a SQL or structured query language database to generate even greater insights into your data in this video you’ll explore the structure of a SQL database the steps to connect it to PowerBI and some examples of connection modes adventure Works has recently migrated its data sets to a SQL database the company has tasked Lucas with connecting this database to PowerBI so that it can begin to analyze its data let’s explore the basics of integrating PowerBI and SQL databases then follow along with Lucas as he establishes the connection to begin here’s a quick overview of a SQL Server a SQL Server is a relational database management system or RDBMS developed by Microsoft it provides a secure and scalable platform for storing managing and retrieving data sql servers organize data into structures called databases where they’re stored in tables with rows and columns this makes it easy to retrieve and work with specific data sets users can interact with SQL databases by creating SQL queries that send instructions to the database so your next question might be how do I connect to a SQL database establishing a connection between PowerBI and a SQL database requires three pieces of information the name of the server the database name and your credentials here’s how these pieces of information work together to provide access the server name identifies the location of the database server the gateway to your data the database name is the database within the server you intend to access and the credentials are typically the username and password that grant access permission to the server these details provide a secure and efficient foundation for linking your analytical tools there are two primary modes available for connecting your data in PowerBI import mode and direct query in import mode data is loaded directly into PowerBI for fast and responsive visualizations however the data is static so it might need to be refreshed to reflect realtime updates on the other hand direct query mode connects PowerBI directly to the source database this enables real-time analysis but potentially leads to slower performance due to continuous queries to the database which one you choose depends on your business needs when making your decision balance factors like data size update frequency and performance requirements to communicate with this infrastructure you need to construct queries written with SQL for example Lucas can use a basic select SQL query to retrieve sales data from the database the select command initiates the retrieval of data from the database in other words you’re instructing the database to select specific data in this query the asterisk signifies that we want to retrieve all columns from the specified table the from clause specifies the table from which we want to retrieve the data or the source of the information we’re interested in in this instance we need the rows and columns from the Adventure Works sales table finally the wear clause adds a condition that filters the resulting table rows based on specified criteria in this query product category road bikes indicates that we’re interested in records in the product category column that match the road bikes value now that you’re up to speed with the basics let’s work with Lucas to establish a connection between PowerBI and the Adventure Works SQL database select get data from the home ribbon tab to import data from any PowerBI source a pop-up window with all available data source connectors appears type SQL in the search bar to locate the SQL Server database connector identify the required connector and select connect this opens the SQL Server database window where you must input the database details the SQL server is the server’s IP address containing the database or its identifying name in this instance the Adventure Works server name is FG7N373 and the database name is MSDB next ensure that import is selected as the data connectivity mode to load the table in the PowerBI file memory these settings should suffice for your connection to all database tables the next step is to create a SQL query to retrieve the required data set expand the advanced options then input a SQL select query to retrieve all road bike data from the product category column in the Adventure Works sales table finally press okay next you must provide credentials to connect to the required database and extract the sales data select the database tab and input your database credentials make sure the correct database level is selected then select connect to establish a connection between PowerBI and the database table a warning appears stating that an encrypted connection to the database is missing we can ignore the warning for this example scenario and select okay however it’s good practice to use an encrypted connection in a realworld PowerBI environment a preview of the data set appears on screen you can select transform data to interact with the data set in power query editor or select load to connect to it directly in this instance we’ll select load to connect to it directly once the required rows are loaded navigate to data view if your loaded data is present as a table then this confirms that the connection has been established successfully you’ve now explored the structure of a SQL database the steps to connect it to PowerBI and some examples of connection modes by integrating PowerBI and SQL you can greatly enhance the power of your data analysis powerbi generates static reports that offer a snapshot of data at a fixed point in time however it can also generate dynamic reports which adapt and respond to your business needs in this video you’ll explore the basics of dynamic reports an overview of PowerBI parameters and how to generate dynamic reports using parameters over at Adventure Works Lucas is preparing sales reports however instead of generating a new static report for each aspect of the business he wants to create one report that can serve several different purposes dynamic reports are the perfect solution up to this point you should have experience working with static reports these offer fixed snapshots of data like total sales revenue over January however dynamic reports can be adapted and transformed based on user specifications dynamic reports can be modified using parameters to change how they display information as the data analyst you can decide which parameters inform the report this means that its content is always aligned with your business needs you can also adapt your parameters for different scenarios or you can switch between data sources in real time with this alignment an organization gains more value from one single report this saves time optimizes resources and leads to more efficient and effective reporting practices as you’ve just learned dynamic reports are created using parameters in the context of PowerBI parameters are dynamic variables that influence the data displayed in the report parameters are like dials and switches on a control panel if you update your parameters your report updates accordingly there are many different examples of parameters including numerical values text inputs and boolean or true false settings parameters also accept default values or free form text there are many options for customizing your parameters for example Lucas is developing a sales report that must analyze monthly sales data in North America he can set up a parameter to analyze sales on a continual month-by-month basis or input a custom date range he can also set parameters to filter data by region so that the report focuses only on North America or he could set up a custom region name to focus on a specific area of interest like monthly sales data for states on the West Coast powerbi parameters are the cornerstone of dynamic reporting empowering users like Lucas to customize their data views let’s explore a few more examples of how parameters can be used with dynamic reports you can use parameters to explore high levels of data granularity with dynamic data selection and filtering for example as you’ve just discovered Lucas can analyze specific areas of interest in his data using custom ranges this helps to deliver greater insights for adventure works parameters also enable dynamic data source connections with parameters you can switch between data sources like databases files or application programming interfaces also known as APIs this is great for dealing with evolving data environments or multiple data repositories parameters can be used to analyze existing business situations or create new what-if scenarios for example Lucas can create financial forecasts by inputting growth rates expense projections and revenue assumptions as his parameters this generates a range of potential revenue outcomes for Adventure Works leveraging PowerBI parameters through scenarios helps Adventure Works to explore multiple outcomes helping to create datadriven business decisions you should now be familiar with the basics of dynamic reports PowerBI parameters and how to generate dynamic reports using parameters by using dynamic reports you can align your data more closely with the needs of your business and gain maximum value from one single report dynamic reports are an interactive userfriendly way of viewing and analyzing data and offer much more powerful insights than traditional static reports in this video you’ll learn how to create a dynamic report using a SQL database and PowerBI parameters lucas must generate a dynamic report for Adventure Works that analyzes the company’s sales data across multiple regions the report must extract data from a sales table in a SQL database it then needs to use parameters to alter the displayed region according to user selections the first step is to create a connection select get data from the home ribbon tab select SQL Server from the list of options the SQL Server database dialogue box appears on screen input the server name in the server field and the database name in the database field ensure that the import mode option is checked for data connectivity mode import mode should be selected by default next you need to retrieve and load the data for your report expand advanced options input a SQL select query that retrieves all table columns from the Adventure Works sales table containing data or values for sales in Asia select okay to execute the query input your database username and password credentials to access the SQL server select connect then okay on the encryption warning finally select load to load the database table into your report the table shows data from sales in Asia as specified in the where clause of the SQL select query the next step is to format the table and visualize the data the table’s default name is query one rename the table to sales now you need to visualize the sales as a table graph select the table visualization then expand the columns of the sales table select the product category product region and order total columns finally you need to increase the size of the text to make it more visible navigate to the format pane of the visualization increase the table’s values to 15 point font size increase the column headers to 16 point font size resize the table to fit the values and center it on screen next you need to create parameters to make the connection dynamic navigate to the transform tab on the home ribbon to access power query editor once in power query you can view the data set table you’ve connected to you can now create a new parameter to access the dialogue box for creating new parameters access the home tab select manage parameters then new parameter these actions open the manage parameters window you can configure your parameter as follows name it region parameter select text as the data type ignore suggested values as it’s not required for this project finally add Asia with single quotes as the current value select okay to create the parameter now you need to assess your parameter by adjusting your SQL query right click on your sales query in the query editor then select advanced editor your code appears on screen in the advanced editor dialogue box replace Asia in your code with the amperand symbol and region parameter check the bottom left hand corner of the dialogue box to ensure no syntax errors have been detected then select done you need to grant permission for this query to run select edit permission and then run select close and apply to return to report view now you need to test that the report is dynamic select transform data from the home ribbon and select edit parameters change Asia to Europe select okay then select apply changes to refresh the data set select run to enact your changes the data set modifies itself to display sales in Europe adventure Works now has a dynamic report that it can use to explore its sales data across multiple regions and you should now be familiar with the process steps for creating a dynamic report using a SQL database and PowerBI parameters a dynamic report typically offers insight into one area of interest at a time however with a multialue dynamic report you can explore several areas of interest at once in this video you’ll learn how to create a multialue dynamic report in PowerBI adventure Works needs to transform its current dynamic sales report into a multialue dynamic report that offers insight into its sales data across multiple regions simultaneously let’s create this report for the company using PowerBI the first step is to create a spreadsheet containing the required values to be passed to the SQL query it must use single quotes for text values however to include a single quote at the beginning of your text in Excel you need to use double quotes this indicates to Excel that you’re typing a single quoted text access the transform data option to open Power Query Editor select and import the product region selection Excel spreadsheet check the box for sheet one and select okay to add it to the editor once the sheet is loaded in the editor rename column one to region selection now you need to create a function to match the database table rows with the user selection in the spreadsheet select the sales query from the queries menu right click on the query and select create function from the list of options in the create function window type the following function name get sales data from regions select okay power query creates a folder that contains all parts of the function the next step is to invoke your custom function this ensures that the database table records match the spreadsheet column values in other words you import only the relevant data select the other queries folder and select sheet one then access the add column ribbon tab and select invoke custom function this action opens the invoke custom function window name the new column invoked function data select the get sales data from regions function query and select region selection as your region parameter then select okay your data set shows a new invoked function data column containing the required sales regions you can use the double arrow button on the top of the new invoke function data column to expand the data avoid using the original column name as a prefix this would make the column names too long it should only be used if combining multiple columns of the same name in the same function might cause confusion select okay to load the data this loads the database table columns and rows with a product region that matches the spreadsheet selections double click on sheet one in the queries pane and rename it to sales function select close and apply to return to the report view access the visualization pane and select the table icon select the following columns from the data pane product category product region and order total as you select these columns the table visualization is populated with the data from each one next select the format painter on the visualization pane increase the font size of the table’s values to 15 point and the column headers to 16 point for greater visibility then resize the table return to the spreadsheet and change Asia to Europe then save the document return to PowerBI and select the refresh option from the home tab the new multialue region selection from the spreadsheet is shown in the database table results your multivalue dynamic report is now ready to present to Adventure Works this report lets the company select and analyze sales from multiple regions for greater insight you should now be familiar with the process of creating a multialue dynamic report in PowerBI dynamic reports show information on your current data but with whatif parameters you can dynamically alter reports to observe hypothetical outcomes or scenarios in this video you’ll explore the concepts of whatif parameters and scenario-based analysis and you’ll review the process steps for applying these concepts to your reports adventure Works has raised its monthly order amount target lucas its data analyst must determine the target to meet next month’s sales goals lucas can use whatif parameters to forecast scenarios and identify the required sales target before we explore how Lucas can carry out this task let’s review the basics of whatif parameters a whatif parameter is a customdeefined variable that can make interactive adjustments within a PowerBI report you can adjust your parameters to change your visualizations and generate insights into future scenarios the main purpose of whatif parameters is to enable dynamic scenario analysis this means users can explore various hypothetical scenarios without the need for complex calculations or creating multiple versions of the same report instead a single report can be transformed into a versatile tool capable of adapting to various business contexts for example Adventure Works can use whatif parameters to create sales forecasts the company’s data analysts can tweak variables like sales growth rates seasonality factors or marketing budgets they can then instantly observe how these adjustments affect projected revenue sales and revenue targets this level of interaction empowers users to make informed decisions based on realtime insights while what if parameters offer tremendous flexibility it’s important to recognize when and where they can be most effective they’re most effective in scenarios with many variables that can significantly impact outcomes and where it’s important to be able to quickly assess these outcomes what if parameters can be applied across a range of industries organizations and use cases for financial analysts they facilitate stress testing of financial models and evaluation of risk scenarios marketing professionals can use them to optimize advertising budgets and forecast campaign outcomes supply chain managers can simulate various demand scenarios to fine-tune inventory levels once you have the available data the possibilities of whatif parameters are near endless now that you’re more familiar with whatif parameters let’s help Lucas perform a scenario-based analysis for Adventure Works lucas must create a whatif parameter to forecast the sales required in February to reach the new monthly target of 70,000 using the data from the sales report to help him first navigate to the modeling tab select new parameter and numeric range from the drop-own menu the parameters dialogue box appears on screen input the details as follows name the new parameter forecasted increase assign it a decimal data type input one as the minimum amount and two as the maximum then input 0.1 as the increment this creates 10 steps between one and two and set the default to one finally check add slicer to this page and select create a slicer is added to the page expand its settings on the visualization tab select vertical list as the style and turn on single select so a value is always selected resize the visual to fit the left side of the report navigate to the data pane and expand on the forecasted increase table to identify what has been created by the whatif parameter first there is the column that’s currently being used in the slicer which contains a list of numbers based on the parameter settings this was created by the generate series function secondly a measure contains the option selected in the slicer captured by the selected value measure you also need a third measure to handle the desired calculation to create it select new measure from the ribbon and name it forecast amount add the sum of order total column multiplied by the forecasted increase value measure now you need to add this measure to the analysis navigate to the column chart and access the build visual settings add the measure to the yaxis of the visualization since the parameter is set to one the forecasted results of the calculation is the exact same number as the current total you can cycle through the options to view more scenarios the whatif parameter dynamically modifies the visualization one forecast shows that a 1.6 increase in the total amount is enough to reach the monthly target you should now understand the concepts of whatif parameters and scenario-based analysis and the process steps for applying these concepts to your reports what if parameters in PowerBI offer a transformative approach to data analysis by providing the ability to dynamically adjust variables and instantly visualize the impact they empower users to make more informed decisions data scientists and data analysts and big tech companies already use SQL and other languages for advanced data analysis this gives leadership valuable insights into overall productivity and what the weak spots may be leading to evidence-based strategic decisions they can create comprehensive customer profiles to better understand their customers needs leading to targeted marketing initiatives businesses can look at supply chain analytics to figure out where production delays or bottlenecks happen but what impact can data science have on a larger global scale some cities are already using data analytics to inform decisions about urban planning to lead to a better quality of life for their inhabitants ultimately working toward being recognized as a smart city singapore Oslo New York and Paris the list goes on imagine a city planned entirely based on data analysis a city that takes the innovations all those cities already use and incorporates them into one place what would that look like welcome to Data Topia during its inception urban planners and data scientists work together to develop an exact ratio of residents to schools to shops to restaurants to healthcare facilities to green spaces and so on ensuring that all these amenities are accessible to all residents all the time there are no traffic jams in Datatopia real time data analytics and predictive models provide timely and actionable insights to traffic management centers using cameras sensors and GPS data from vehicles this is used to adjust traffic lights dynamically and reduces congestion by improving the efficiency of intersections digital signs display realtime traffic information to drivers suggesting alternate routes when congestion is about to occur real time analytics automatically detect traffic incidents and alert authorities leading to quick response times to minimize disruptions and improve safety data topians don’t have to worry about overflowing waste bins all bins have been fitted with sensors that detect when they are nearing full capacity triggering timely waste collection and preventing overflows landfill usage and recycling rates are carefully monitored using realtime analytics this data is used to inform sustainability initiatives water use cleanliness of public spaces and energy use is also monitored in Datatopia street lights dim when roads are empty to reduce energy consumption green energy systems power the city and smart grids optimize power distribution predictive analytics have shown that 38% of Dattopians will be over 65 in the next 10 years health care measures such as hospital capacity and resource allocation are carefully managed to accommodate the aging population data analytics identifies trends and patterns within the population to target preventive interventions and improve overall health outcomes this includes identifying at risk populations and tailoring interventions to specific groups education is very important in Datatopia educators can analyze attendance records coursework completion rates and other data to identify at risk students early in the academic year early warning systems can trigger interventions to prevent dropouts and improve student success analytics are also used to recognize high achievers who may benefit from advanced coursework statistical algorithms are used to predict student outcomes this drives decisions in allocation of university course offerings in the city data science is used in resilience planning in Datatopia predictive analytics ensure that the city has resilience strategies in place to cope with various challenges such as cyber threats economic downturns or natural disasters this data is used to improve emergency response times and the deployment of emergency services during a crisis datatopia seamlessly integrates information and technology to create a healthy and sustainable urban ecosystem we may not quite live like the people of the imagined data topia just yet whether it seems like a dream or a nightmare to you it’s clear that with the ever evolving landscape of the practical application of data analytics we may be getting one step closer every day congratulations on reaching the end of these lessons on PowerBI in enterprise during these lessons you explore data’s role in large enterprises let’s take a few minutes to recap what you learned in these lessons you first learned how data flows through an enterprise you discovered that data flow refers to data movement within an enterprise this movement occurs in the following stages: collection processing analysis and decision-m in a large enterprise data flows in from a variety of sources its flow is governed by processes influencing how it is acquired stored manipulated and shared once gathered the data must be cleansed and transformed to prepare it for analysis data cleansing is the act of standardizing data so that it is reliable and accurate data transformation is the act of transforming data as it flows through pipelines once cleansed and transformed the refined data is ready to inform strategic decisions as its insights are revealed through PowerBI reports organizations use these reports insights to become datadriven enterprises data isn’t just information it guides strategic choices and helps to map a pathway to growth powerbi service is used by many businesses to generate datadriven insights this is because of the advantages that it offers it’s accessible for remote teams it scales to meet data growth it offers real time collaboration and data backup and recovery and it’s you who helps organizations to take advantage of these benefits the data analyst is the figure that plays a central role in extracting valuable insights from this data a data analyst brings several important skills to an enterprise they provide analytical expertise they create reports and visualizations with data that drive decision-making they generate insights that identify room for innovation and they help to identify and mitigate risks next you learn about SQL and its role in enterprise sql or structured query language is used by data analysts to interact with SQL databases data is stored in a SQL database that stores data in a structured format this means data is organized so that it can be located quickly when required sql databases also store information using normalization and indexing to make it easier to locate data sql databases offer many advantages for enterprises they’re great for storing data they facilitate complex queries they can scale to meet the demands of a growing business and they can be accessed by multiple users at the same time sql databases return information through SQL queries data analysts must be familiar with SQL syntax to create queries that extract the required data to connect to a SQL database you must identify the location of the server and the database on the server that you need you then need to provide credentials to gain access you can connect your data using import mode or direct query mode import mode loads data directly into PowerBI direct query mode connects PowerBI directly to the source database you can communicate with this infrastructure using SQL queries for example Adventure Works can use SQL select queries to extract information on bicycles sql databases and PowerBI servers also facilitate the use of dynamic reports dynamic reports can alter between views based on user selection you can also create multialue dynamic reports that simultaneously explore several areas of interest within your data sets both can be modified using parameters to change how they display information this provides more value than standard reports as a data analyst you can decide which parameters inform the report once they align with your business needs you must connect PowerBI and a SQL server to create a dynamic report you then need to create a SQL query to retrieve and load the data from the SQL database once loaded you need to visualize the data typically in graph format finally you must configure parameters to analyze the data multi-dynamic reports are more difficult to create this is because they require the use of custom functions to be invoked in a data set powerbi reports also make use of a whatif parameter a whatif parameter is a custom-defined variable that can be used to make interactive adjustments within a PowerBI report you can adjust your parameters variables to change your visualizations and generate insights into future scenarios they’re most effective in scenarios with many variables that can significantly impact outcomes that must be assessed quickly throughout these lessons you also completed several knowledge checks that tested your understanding of the concepts and processes you explored you also encountered additional resources which presented you with links to further reading materials that you can use to enhance your understanding of the role of PowerBI in enterprise you’ve now reached the end of this summary it’s time to move on to the module quiz where you can test your knowledge of these topics this is followed by the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you’ve learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson best of luck working with PowerBI service requires managing many different reports dashboards and data sets keeping track of these can be a demanding task fortunately you can use the workspace feature to manage your data assets in this video you’ll explore PowerBI service workspaces their advantages the types of workspaces available and best practices to follow when using them lucas has been tasked with managing several different reports and dashboards for Adventure Works he can use PowerBI service workspaces to keep all these data assets in one place using personal and shared environments let’s explore how workspaces can help Lucas manage Adventure Works assets powerbi service workspaces act like specialized rooms in a house each workspace hosts distinct data sets reports and dashboards this is great for data analysts because it helps with organized and efficient data management several features of workspaces make them useful for data analysts these include organization access control collaboration and streamlined updates let’s explore these features beginning with organization workspaces offer data analysts great organizational potential each workspace is a unique container for related reports dashboards and data sets this helps keep your data tidy and easy to locate workspaces also provide access control safeguard your data from unauthorized users with your workspac’s access control features depending on the workspace you can determine who can see or edit the content for example Lucas can configure his workspace so that only other members of the data analysis team can view it this is especially useful when working on confidential data or collaborating with specific teams workspaces also enable collaboration between teams shared workspaces are like conference rooms they’re spaces where Lucas and the data analysis team can discuss and refine data insights it’s not just about storing reports but building them together workspaces help keep content updated with workspaces you can streamline updates to your projects updating or modifying data is much easier with everything in its right place whether pulling in new data or revising visualizations having a structured workspace ensures consistency and clarity now that you know more about workspaces and their advantages let’s explore the different types available there are two main types of workspaces these are personal and shared workspaces both serve a different purpose let’s review their differences to find out more a personal workspace is like a private room in your house it’s your space where you can arrange things to your liking and work on projects privately here you’re in total control outsiders don’t have a key ensuring your work remains confidential and undisturbed shared workspaces let team members collaborate they can bring together their individual data insights and blend them into a collective narrative it’s a space designed for collaboration allowing multiple users to add edit and refine reports and dashboards simultaneously how you manage and utilize your workspace is crucial for effective data analysis adopting certain best practices can significantly enhance your efficiency and output one important best practice involves regular cleanup periodically review and remove outdated reports or data sets from your workspace this proactive approach ensures optimal performance and prevents potential confusion from irrelevant information you must also establish clear naming conventions for your data assets consistency is key when naming your reports dashboards and data sets this practice aids easy retrieval and benefits all users especially in shared workspaces you must also frequently review your access controls assign access levels based on roles and responsibilities to maintain data security and prevent unintended modifications for example over at Adventure Works Lucas must continually monitor who can access his team’s shared workspace to ensure only data analysts can view its assets in the digital realm safeguarding your work is paramount ensure that you back up your work regularly regular backups protect against unexpected data losses ensuring continuity in your projects on a large team like Lucas’ frequent backups are vital it only takes one mistake from one team member to lose important data and finally you should also encourage open discussion and collaboration with your team members you can do this by fostering a culture of continuous feedback you can refine data visualizations optimize reports and foster a more collaborative environment by actively seeking and implementing suggestions adhering to these best practices ensures efficient data management and creates a conducive environment for team collaboration you should now be familiar with PowerBI service workspaces their advantages the types of workspaces available and best practices to follow when using them as you’ve discovered through Lucas and his team workspaces can greatly benefit your data analysis projects as a PowerBI data analyst you’ll frequently collaborate with others in shared workspaces so it’s important that you understand how to create and manage these workspaces in PowerBI service in this video you’ll explore the process steps for creating a workspace and learn how to keep its content updated over at Adventure Works Lucas needs to create a collaborative workspace for his data analytics team a PowerBI service shared workspace is the perfect solution let’s help Lucas create and manage this workspace log into PowerBI service navigate to the lefthand sidebar to access the platform’s tools select workspaces to display the available workspaces for now Lucas only has access to my workspace his personal space select my workspace to access the space and reveal its contents the workspace contains reports dashboards and data sets however other team members need to collaborate on these assets to create a shared workspace for the team navigate to workspaces and select new workspace the create a workspace dialogue box appears on screen in this dialogue box you can input a workspace name assign a domain for your workspace and upload an image you can also use advanced settings to assign members for now let’s just input adventure work sales as the workspace name then select apply now that we’ve created the workspace we must upload some content select upload then select a PowerBI report the report and its data set and dashboard are uploaded to the workspace and ready to share however if any changes are made to the report in PowerBI desktop it will need to be uploaded again to the shared workspace to ensure these changes are reflected for all other users to demonstrate this let’s open the report in PowerBI desktop and make a quick change in the report select the order total by product color visualization select the ellipsus symbol then select sort access and modify the order by sort ascending all values on the x-axis are now sorted by ascending order total save the report and return to PowerBI service open the report again in the workspace screen this version does not reflect the change we made in PowerBI desktop so we’ll have to upload it again return to the workspace screen and select upload select browse and locate the updated report a warning appears stating that a data set with the same name already exists select replace and upload the new version of the report once the new version of the report is uploaded you can open the report and view your changes the updated chart is now visible in the report indicating a successful upload you should now be familiar with the process steps for creating a workspace and keeping its content updated by knowing how to build and manage shared workspaces in PowerBI service you can work effectively with your teams to generate insights and help drive business success running a shared workspace involves managing a lot of different people everyone must be assigned the correct roles and permissions to ensure the team works together effectively in this video you’ll explore workspace roles and the different types available and learn how to configure them lucas has created a new shared workspace for his Adventure Works colleagues to collaborate on the company’s latest reports he now needs to identify who requires access to the workspace and assign the correct roles to everyone let’s work with Lucas to assign roles to the team just as you wouldn’t let everyone in a company have the keys to every room roles determine who can do what in digital workspaces these roles ensure that each person has only the access required to do their part of the job nobody is granted unnecessary permissions that could lead to accidental disruptions or security risks in PowerBI service workspace roles are the backbone of efficient and secure collaboration workspace roles include viewer contributor member and admin let’s explore these roles in more detail beginning with viewer viewers are the audience they can look but can’t touch in other words they can view content without modifying or managing anything lucas can assign this role to managers stakeholders or anyone else who needs to be in the loop without directly impacting the workspace next is contributors contributors are there to add and modify content but they can’t adjust access permissions or delete items lucas should assign this role to those focused on adding content they can contribute to selecting content but don’t need to make bigger workspace adjustments workspaces also host members members can contribute to the content by adding and editing assets they can also add other members or collaborators with lower permissions however they cannot delete the workspace or manage user roles lucas can assign this role to regular team members who need to work on data or perform analysis and might also need to add others to the project and finally there’s admins admins oversee the workspace they have full control from adding editing and deleting content to managing user access and even deleting the workspace lucas can assign the role of admin to himself or another individual tasked with overseeing the entire project or workspace the chosen admin can keep the project running smoothly while ensuring everyone else performs their roles as required now that you’re more familiar with workspace roles let’s help Lucas to manage the roles in his shared PowerBI workspace lucas has uploaded the project’s report data set and dashboard in the adventure work sales workspace however roles must be assigned before the team can collaborate on this workspace first select manage access from the workspace environment all team members with access to the workspace are listed here for now it’s only Lucas who has access to add a new team member to the workspace and assign a role select add people or groups a brief information box appears stating that viewers cannot edit content in the workspace to add a team member search for their name or email in the search box for the first example let’s add Adio our fellow data analyst assign Adio the contributor role so he can collaborate on the content and press add adio is now added to the workspace next let’s add Renee the marketing manager as a viewer this role lets her access the workspace to view insights without making any changes lastly the IT department must be assigned the role of admin this role grants full permissions from content management to user access control locate the admin account in the search box select the admin role and add it to the workspace all roles have now been assigned select the back arrow to view the roles that everyone has been assigned select the down arrow on their permission to modify a role and alter it to another role for example Renee needs to be able to add users from her team to the workspace reassign her role to member to grant her these permissions having helped Lucas and his team organize their workspace you should now be familiar with workspace roles and the different types available and how they’re configured always configure workspace roles correctly to ensure your project runs smoothly and set your team up for success workspaces are useful for storing and collaborating on content but it’s important to keep this content organized and easily accessible workspace apps are a great way of organizing your content efficiently to be located quickly and easily in this video you’ll explore the basics of workspace apps their advantages and learn how to create one in Adventure Works each department accesses its reports and dashboards through PowerBI however navigating this content on PowerBI is complex and timeconuming as a solution Adventure Works wants to create departmentspecific apps so that each department can access its reports and dashboards quickly and efficiently let’s find out more about apps in PowerBI service and how adventure works can incorporate them an app in PowerBI is a collection of important assets like dashboards reports and data sets packaged together for ease of access these assets can be bundled together under a workspace they can then be published to the PowerBI service this enables a streamlined sharing and distribution mechanism for PowerBI content there are a few reasons why businesses like Adventure Works prefer to use apps to access content on PowerBI service one reason is ease of access with apps users don’t have to search through numerous reports and data sets everything they need is in one package this makes it quick and easy to locate content apps also facilitate version control when an app is updated users automatically see the latest version this ensures that everyone is on the same page apps also help with security apps maintain the same level of data security as individual reports access can be restricted to authorized users only and data can be secured at row level so users can only view what you want them to view these security measures are great for protecting your data finally apps can also be customized apps can be tailored for specific departments or roles within an organization for example Adventure Works can customize the app to show marketing data for the marketing department sales data for the sales department or financial data for the accounting department this makes Workspace apps incredibly flexible tools for data distribution now that you’re more familiar with PowerBI apps let’s explore the process for creating an app in PowerBI service adventure Works has created a workspace called Adventure Works Sales this workspace holds all content related to the company’s sales like reports and dashboards to create an app for this workspace select the create app option this opens the build your app window the window contains three tabs setup content and audience in the setup tab you must input key information about your app this includes the name description logo and color scheme you can also add contact information for publishers or other important individuals name the app Adventure Work Sales and add sales app as the description once you’ve input the required information select add content to move to the next tab in this tab select the add content option to add reports to the app adventure Works requires the orders report and product sales report select and add the reports once added the reports appear in the left sidebar you can preview the reports or adjust their order select the symbol to the left of the orders report and drag it to the bottom so it appears last in the app you can also select the down arrow on the right of add content to add separate sections to your apps let’s link to the Adventure Works site select add new section to add a new section the new section appears in the list rename it Adventure Works internal site press the down arrow again select add link name the link Adventure Works website and add the link in the opening field box select content area then in the section field box select Adventure Works website select add to add the link to the app then select next add audience to move to the next section the audience tab you can use the audience tab to manage access to your application anyone who can access the workspace can access the app by default you can add more users or groups from the search box or you can share your app with the entire organization for now let’s restrict access to workspace users select publish app to complete the process it might take a few minutes for the app to publish once it’s ready select go to app to view it the app is ready to use with the Adventure Works website as its landing page you can use the sidebar on the left to navigate its contents you should now be familiar with Workspace apps their advantages and how to create them in PowerBI service as you continue to work with PowerBI service use Workspace apps as useful tools to organize your content for quick access and more efficient projects workspaces are a useful tool for developers but how do you determine how widely used or effective your reports are with PowerBI workspace metrics features you can monitor the usage and effectiveness of your workspace content in this video you’ll learn about the importance of monitoring workspace and report usage utilizing the current report metrics and the new preview feature and you’ll explore how usage metrics enhance report and workspace efficiency lucas is responsible for monitoring the performance of his team’s PowerBI workspace and its content a strong understanding and efficient deployment of usage metrics will help Lucas monitor the effectiveness of his workspace and reports let’s explore these topics in more depth and find out how they can help Lucas monitoring workspace usage in PowerBI involves tracking how reports and dashboards are accessed used and shared within a workspace it provides a window into the effectiveness and reach of the deployed data solutions the insights gathered from this data enable data analysts to make informed decisions on optimizations security and resource allocation it’s important to understand how your content is used to measure its impact and effectively guide your efforts usage metrics act as feedback showing how reports and dashboards are accessed within the organization for example you might discover that your team references several reports daily or a certain dashboard isn’t receiving the number of views it should you can use these datadriven insights to improve the performance of these assets monitoring report performance ensures relevance efficiency and responsiveness aligning your work with organizational needs and user preferences monitoring is mainly performed using the PowerBI services usage metrics reports or monitoring reports you can enable these reports for every workspace giving insights into how frequently users access them the initial usage report in PowerBI primarily focuses on individual report metrics providing details such as the number of views shares and user interactions on a per report basis for example Adventure Works evaluates the performance of its global marketing reports by tracking views and user interactions the company also measures how the report has been shared to gauge engagement across its worldwide workforce the usage metrics report is instrumental in understanding the performance and user engagement of your workspace reports powerbi service offers its users the option to switch to a preview version of the new workspace metrics feature this new feature expands monitoring from individual reports to the entire workspace providing additional insights into report performance some of these insights include aggregated metrics which encompass all KPIs analyzed in the old usage reports and add report performance information this feature compiles all of Adventure Work’s previously analyzed KPIs and integrates report performance data to provide a comprehensive set of metrics other insights include the typical opening time of the report with daily and weekly breakdowns lucas uses this data to track the average report loading times to help ensure a smooth user experience and this feature also provides information on all workspace reports instead of a specific one lucas uses this data to understand how his reports are performing so he can improve their content you can also access a detailed FAQ article containing all relevant capabilities and a description of this rich new feature to run and access the usage metrics data you’ll require the following prerequisites you need a PowerBI Pro or premium per user PPU license to run and access the usage metrics data however the usage metrics feature captures usage information from all users regardless of the license they’re assigned to access usage metrics for a report you must have edit access to the report and finally your PowerBI admin must enable usage metrics for content creators your PowerBI admin may have also enabled collecting per user data in usage metrics ensure these prerequisites are established before running or accessing the usage metrics data in this video you’ve learned about the importance of monitoring workspace and report usage utilizing the current report metrics and the new preview feature and you explored how usage metrics enhance report and workspace efficiency monitoring workspace usage with PowerBI’s workspace metrics preview feature improves our understanding of data usage across the organization aligning with informed decision- making and resource efficiency as a data analyst your role includes tracking how users engage with your data with the workspace usage report you can review insights into workspace activity and user engagement you can then use these insights to optimize your data and reports in this video you’ll learn how to enable the workspace usage report feature in PowerBI generate and navigate a usage metrics report for a specific workspace report and interpret key metrics to gauge user engagement and report interaction lucas has uploaded a product sales report to his workspace he needs to check that his data analytics team has reviewed this report lucas can use the usage metric and workspace usage reports to monitor the team’s engagement with his product sales report let’s help Lucas achieve his goal by guiding him through this process the usage metrics report in PowerBI is important for understanding how individuals interact with reports and dashboards it is an insightful report that can be launched and viewed on any workspace report the new workspace usage report feature enhances this by providing even more detailed insights it allows a closer look at how workspaces are used not just individual reports thanks to these reports users can now view an enhanced overview of basic report metrics the report usage tab lets users better understand each report’s performance with more detailed usage metrics that provide data on topics like views and users the report performance tab provides a breakdown of a report’s effectiveness with detailed insights into specific report interactions and their impact users can also use the report list tab to explore how all the reports in the workspace are performing making it easy to compare their performance and success and the FAQ tab provides easily accessible answers and guidance adventure Works can use the new workspace usage report feature to align resources and strategies with actual user interaction and needs enhancing their performance and user experience now that you’re more familiar with usage reports and the new workspace usage report feature let’s create one for Lucas from the PowerBI home screen navigate to workspaces and select the adventure work sales workspace here you can view the content uploaded to this workspace to enable the usage metrics report on the product sales report hover over the report item and select the ellipsus symbol to access the reports options locate and select the view usage metrics report option to launch the monitoring report if this is your first time accessing the usage report PowerBI will need a few moments to create it in the usage metrics report you can find information on report views and unique views by day total report views and a list of all users who access the report there are also slicers available for your data that can filter the usage report based on distribution method this feature highlights users that the report was shared to or workspace users who access the report you can also slice based on the platform the users use to access the report either from a browser or mobile lastly you can even filter by viewing the usage of separate report pages to enable the new monitoring feature toggle the new usage report to on this transforms the usage report to the new workspace usage report this new feature contains four separate pages with monitoring tools on the first page report usage you can identify metrics like the old report with updated visualizations and separate graphs instead of slicers for example you can see that 100% of report access has been conducted through PowerBI.com instead of mobile also selecting pages on the bottom right visualization shows that the order report page takes up 57% of the views on the second page report performance you can see the loading time of the report based on date user country of browsing and the internet browser used this is a significant page when troubleshooting long loading times on reports on the third page report list the new usage report feature allows users to monitor the usage of every workspace report from this single view you can see the familiar tools from the old usage monitoring report now enabled through all workspace reports the fourth and last page FAQ contains a detailed guide on all metrics and terminology used in this new monitoring feature it explains the usage of every tool in detail all this information can easily be exported to Excel and analyzed making monitoring and reporting on the workspace usage easier than ever in this video you’ve learned how to enable the workspace usage report feature in PowerBI generate and navigate a usage metrics report for a specific report within a workspace and interpret key metrics to gauge user engagement and report interaction with these reports you can optimize your workspace and its reports so that they meet the needs of your team by now you’re familiar with generating insights into data insights are generated from data sets and these data sets in turn rely on timely accurate data flow from different sources over the next few minutes you’ll learn about the basics of data sets in PowerBI service explore the relationship of data sets to data flows and reports and compare scheduled and incremental refreshes in data sets adventure Works data sets are dynamic they’re continually updating as they receive new data from different sources the company must ensure that its reports capture this latest data so they’ve tasked Lucas with integrating its data sets and data flows let’s take a closer look at how data flows into data sets a data set in PowerBI is a collection of data you import or connect to this data can come from a single source or multiple sources once captured it forms the basis for your reports and dashboards every data set’s unique structure and metadata influences the analysis you can perform let’s break down this relationship further as the previous example shows data sets act as a bridge between data flows and reports in PowerBI data flows collect and transform data from various sources like SQL databases and Excel files these data sources are then loaded into data sets these data sets a collection of processed data feed into the reports this enables analysts to derive insights effortlessly the symbiotic relationship ensures a streamlined data flow from extraction to visualization let’s look at an example of how the Adventure Works sales department can use data flows to consolidate and prepare data for analysis an adventure works data flow may collect sales data from different regions using a complex network of data sources it then cleans this data by removing duplicates and transforming the remaining data into a unified format once this process is complete the cleansed and transformed data is loaded into a data set data analysts can use this data set to create a report to analyze sales trends compare regional performance and identify growth opportunities it’s important to remember that all data sets must be frequently refreshed to include updated data this is to ensure that your insights are as current as possible you can manually refresh your data set any time but with PowerBI you can also plan a refresh to occur automatically there are two main ways to automatically refresh your data in PowerBI service a scheduled refresh and an incremental refresh both refresh mechanisms are vital for maintaining the accuracy and relevance of data in the PowerBI service let’s take a closer look at these methods a scheduled refresh is a set routine where the entire data set is refreshed at specific intervals for example Lucas has scheduled a daily refresh for 2 a.m each morning in the Adventure Work sales workspace to ensure data remains current however be careful when using scheduled refresh it could be resource inensive for large data sets an alternative more resource efficient method is to use incremental refresh unlike a scheduled refresh an incremental refresh only updates the parts of the data set that have changed as you saw in the previous example Lucas sets a scheduled refresh at 2 a.m daily for the primary sales data set to capture the previous day’s data however he can also set an incremental refresh every hour for the continuously updated online sales data set this incremental refresh captures new sales data without reprocessing the entire data set this way Lucas efficiently keeps data sets current ensuring reliable analysis and reporting at Adventure Works both refresh methods help Lucas keep his reports timely and actionable you should now be familiar with the basics of data sets their relationship with data flows and reports and understand the difference between a scheduled and incremental refresh data sets are central to PowerBI and they’re a valuable part of your analytical toolkit leverage data sets effectively for greater insights and informed decision-making powerbi is a fantastic service for data analysis however to get the most out of it you must ensure it has a secure and stable connection to your data with PowerBI gateways you can create a strong safeguarded bridge between PowerBI services and your on premises data over the next few minutes you’ll discover how to connect data with PowerBI gateways explore the different types and uses of gateways and learn how to set up and manage gateways adventure Works stores large amounts of data on premises lucas and his data analytics team must connect to this data securely and reliably using PowerBI the team can leverage PowerBI gateways to establish a secure and reliable connection between on premises data and PowerBI service so why is PowerBI gateways a solution for Adventure Works powerbi gateways establish a secure and reliable connection or bridge between your on- premises data and the PowerBI service on Microsoft’s cloud this connection allows PowerBI service to access and retrieve data from on premises data sources this enables organizations to keep their data secure while benefiting from the PowerBI services cloud-based analytics and sharing capabilities powerbi gateways interact with on premises data in two ways the first is a data refresh gateways facilitate the scheduled refresh of data sets pulling the latest data from the source to PowerBI for example Lucas can use the gateway to schedule a daily refresh of adventure works on premises sales data this ensures that the sales team has the latest figures ready for analysis in PowerBI every morning the second type of interaction is query execution gateways help execute queries against the data source to retrieve updated data lucas opens the latest iteration of Adventure Works sales data report and executes a query to identify yesterday’s total sales the gateway helps Lucas to execute the query against the sales report there are three main types of gateways in PowerBI each suited to different scenarios the on- premises data gateway the on- premises data gateway personal mode and the Azure virtual network or V-Net data gateway which type of gateway you choose depends on the setup of your organization and its specific data management and security requirements let’s find out more about each type beginning with the on- premises data gateway the on premises data gateway suits multiple users sharing and refreshing data across many Microsoft services including PowerBI it’s very versatile which makes it useful for diverse organizational setups the gateway supports all types of connections from PowerBI like import data scheduled refresh direct query and live connection quick access to and support for these connections is important in real time data interaction for example each Adventure Works department requires access to different data sets stored on premises these data sets can be managed centrally with an on premises data gateway this setup lets multiple users refresh and access the data they need across different Microsoft services next let’s review the on premises data gateway personal mode the personal mode is tailored for single user scenarios it supports connections to local data sources such as SQL Server and Excel which is useful for individual users or analysts it’s also designed to be easy to set up and once setup is complete the gateway requires no additional configurations for data sources this offers a much less complex solution for business analysts who want to publish and refresh PowerBI reports with minimal hassle however this gateway supports only one type of connection import data or scheduled refresh and it’s designed only for PowerBI so it doesn’t support other applications lucas can use the personal mode of the on- premises data gateway to manage data sets he doesn’t want to share with the rest of the team with this straightforward setup he can refresh the data without going through the central gateway and finally there’s the Azure virtual or V-Net data gateway the Azure virtual network or V-Net data gateway best suits complex organizational setups by offering enhanced security and data management features within a virtual network it helps cut the costs or overheads of installing updating and monitoring on premises data gateways by virtually bridging PowerBI to supported Azure data sources this gateway securely communicates with the data source executes queries and transmits results to the PowerBI service as Adventure Works grows it requires better security and data management a V-Net is a great solution it enables secure data transfer and the ability to manage the data environment it provides a secure pathway for data that adheres to the company’s organizational security policies and it keeps data refreshed and readily available for analysis in PowerBI you should now understand how to connect data with PowerBI gateways the different types and uses of gateways and how to set up and manage gateways with a strong understanding of gateways you can establish an efficient and secure connection between your on premises data and PowerBI impactful insights depend on access to the latest data an analysis based on outdated data isn’t of much use to anyone configuring a regular PowerBI data refresh ensures your reports and dashboards are consistently synced with the latest data by the end of this video you’ll understand the importance of configuring a data set refresh and know how to configure a scheduled ondemand and incremental refresh adventure Works needs daily updates on its marketing campaigns and sales so Lucas must ensure that the reports and dashboards his team relies on for analysis contain the latest available data let’s help Lucas configure a data set refresh so his team is working with up-to-date information first access the adventure works sales workspace the workspace contains a new report on marketing campaigns access the report settings to plan a scheduled refresh select schedule refresh from the settings to navigate to the data set refresh settings the last refresh failed because the credentials weren’t entered when the data set was uploaded to the cloud navigate to the data source credentials category and select edit credentials this report is connected to the Adventure Works SQL database so input your Adventure Works SQL database username and password then select sign in next navigate further down the menu and expand the refresh settings toggle the setting on to activate the scheduled refresh check that the refresh is configured daily between 6:00 a.m and 100 p.m coordinated universal time or UTC the scheduled refresh is now ready navigate back to the workspace once the credentials are set you can manually refresh the data set whenever needed to demonstrate let’s refresh the orders report hover over the report and select the circular arrow this is the refresh icon selecting this icon performs an ondemand manual refresh of the data set next let’s configure an incremental refresh on the sales transaction report navigate to Power Query Editor on the PowerBI desktop to issue an incremental refresh you must now create two parameters one that determines when the refresh begins and another that states when it should end select manage parameters then new parameter in the manage parameters dialogue box name the first parameter range start assign it a date time parameter type and provide January 1st 2000 as the current value right click the parameter and select duplicate to create a copy this copy is now your second parameter rename it range end next select the sales table and identify the order date column select the columns down arrow access date time filters then custom filter in this window keep the rows where order date is after or equal to select parameter and input range start for the and option select before parameter and range end on the second row your configuration is now ready select okay then close and apply to return to PowerBI desktop right click on the sales table and select incremental refresh toggle the incremental refresh on configure the settings to archive data older than two years and incrementally refresh data from the last seven days each data set refresh will now remove transactions that occurred over two years ago and they’ll refresh only transactions that occurred in the last seven days note that as the info box states the report must be uploaded to the PowerBI service for the refresh policies to occur apply your changes and save your report lucas and his team are now working with the latest data and you should now understand the importance of configuring a data set refresh and how to configure a scheduled on demand and incremental refresh great work analyzing data involves working with many different data sets so it’s important to distinguish reliable data sets from unreliable or misleading ones to ensure your insights are accurate with PowerBI you can endorse promote and certify reliable data sets to clarify which ones you and your team should work from in this video you’ll understand the importance of data set endorsement differentiate between promoting and certifying data sets and learn how to promote a data set in the PowerBI workspace over at Adventure Works the sales workspace is cluttered with many data sets it’s difficult for Lucas and his team to determine which ones to work with lucas decides to identify and endorse reliable data sets to help his team maintain data integrity in their workspace let’s discover more about endorsing data sets then use our new knowledge to help Lucas and his team endorsing data sets involves identifying and marking reliable data sources in your workspace to ensure your team works with quality content you can endorse data sets in PowerBI from the endorsement and discovery menu data set endorsement in PowerBI comprises two levels promoting and certifying promoting a data set indicates that you trust its content and view it as ready for organizational use when you promote a data set a promoted icon appears next to it in the workspace when a data set is flagged as trusted it becomes easily discoverable and the team knows it’s reliable you can also certify a data set this is a higher level of endorsement it symbolizes that the data set meets the company’s stringent quality and compliance standards however content certification is a big responsibility only authorized users can certify content so this option is typically only available to workspace owners over at Adventure Works Lucas is the workspace owner that means he is the only team member who can certify data sets next let’s review the process for endorsing content in PowerBI by helping Lucas promote reliable data sets access the Adventure Works sales workspace to view all available data sets select filter then data set the team has been using the marketing campaigns report a lot recently it’s filled with high quality data that has delivered many great insights lucas has decided it can be endorsed as trustworthy content to begin the endorsement process hover over the data set to reveal the ellipsus symbol select the ellipsus then settings in settings locate and expand the endorsement and discovery section check the promoted option then check make discoverable so other users can identify the endorsed data set select apply to finish configuring the settings select adventure work sales from the navigation pane to return to the workspace navigate to the right of the workspace the marketing campaigns report data set is now marked as promoted the promoted flag draws the attention of the workspace users to the report and lets them know it’s suitable for analysis great work you’ve helped Lucas identify and endorse a reliable report that his team can use for analysis and you should now understand the importance of data set endorsement be able to differentiate between promoting and certifying data sets and know how to promote a data set by endorsing data sets you ensure your team works with and draws insights from reliable and consistent data anna oversees quality at the Spiro Car Company today she has a big meeting with senior leadership spiro has been manufacturing electric vehicles for the last 8 years and business is booming or at least it was lately there have been concerns about manufacturing time and quality business has slowed sales have dropped and morale is low and Anna unsurprisingly is worried luckily one thing Anna never worries about are statistics they never lie each machine in the assembly line reports statistics to a central database in the manufacturing facility unfortunately dumping data on her manager’s desks won’t solve the problem this time she has heard her colleagues discuss using PowerBI for analyzing data but Anna prefers the old ways and stores everything locally on a central database but what if she could somehow convert her data stack into a coherent interactive visual if so she would be one step closer to figuring out where quality is slipping and more importantly providing the leadership team with the answers they need she meets with Dennis and outlines her predicament he explains the on premises gateway to her this gateway will bridge the gap between Anna’s on premises data and PowerBI and best of all the data transfer is completely secure this means that she can access all the features of PowerBI using the data stored locally on her laptop a great solution after a quick guide through the basics from Dennis and a chat with it about requirements Anna is ready first she installs the gateway on the database server and signs in with her work account to register the gateway anna can now connect all the data she stores locally to reports and dashboards in PowerBI she can even configure a refresh schedule or perform an ondemand refresh she starts running reports building rich data visualizations and identifying interesting business insights she discovers that the main issue in the Spiro manufacturing supply chain process is a delay in delivering the car’s high-capacity battery packs the supplier also fails to deliver enough batteries which leads to further delays the quality slips as the assembly team tries to make up for these delays anna can’t believe how straightforward it was to convert her on premises data using the gateway and the best thing about it she doesn’t have to say goodbye to her older methods of storing her data locally anna arrives at the leadership meeting with an interactive dashboard to outline her findings and a plan to resolve the issue senior leadership decide to use Anna’s data analysis to develop a remediation strategy spiro switches to a more reliable supplier for their battery packs and they put better measures in place to review quality analytics so they can act before another issue occurs thanks to Anna Spiro’s business once again is booming when deploying content in PowerBI it’s important to ensure the data is safe and that the change is handled efficiently that’s why analysts make use of structured deployment over the next few minutes we’ll explore PowerBI’s deployment pipelines for streamlined project management in this video you’ll learn about PowerBI’s deployment pipelines recognize the importance of separate environments and explore how to enhance data security through structured development over at Adventure Works Lucas has been tasked with using PowerBI service to improve the company’s development process he must ensure that the data of all new content deployed to the workspaces remains accurate and secure during the report development stages let’s help Lucas achieve this deployment pipelines in PowerBI help content move smoothly through development testing and production stages this allows for controlled testing and validation of content before it reaches end users let’s explore these three stages of deployment in more detail first we’ll examine the development environment here developers can add new content without changing current reports this is the first step in the deployment process this is where developers can create and modify PowerBI reports any errors or issues at this stage have no impact on the existing production data for example Lucas improved a sales report by adding a new visual in the development stage ensuring it matched branding guidelines next let’s explore the test environment this is where a small group of testers review and test new reports for issues before they’re used in production providing feedback and checking for bugs and data problems here reports are validated for accuracy performance and any potential bugs before moving to the production environment for example Lucas can move his new visual from development to the testing phase this will allow for the testing team to check the accuracy and performance of the new visual lastly we’ll investigate the production environment once new reports and features are tested they’re ready to be used by the end users in the production environment this is the last step in the process for example once Lucas’ new visual has been validated through testing it is moved to the production environment once in the production environment users and stakeholders will be able to use the new feature however not all three development environments must be included in a deployment pipeline for example the testing phase could be excluded if it’s not considered necessary there are several benefits of a structured development life cycle by having distinct environments you can ensure that unvetted changes do not corrupt the production data a structured life cycle allows for comprehensive testing ensuring that the data remains accurate and reliable and deployment pipelines provide a streamlined process for managing changes enabling better control over the development process let’s find out how a structured development process helped Adventure Works in a realworld example lucas improved a sales report by adding a new visual in the development stage ensuring it matched branding guidelines after moving it to the test environment and thorough validation the report went to production this example showcases how PowerBI’s deployment pipelines ensure a smooth and accurate transition of content benefiting data accuracy and decision-making at Adventure Works using PowerBI’s deployment pipelines for a structured development process ensures safe data handling in this video you’ve learned about PowerBI’s deployment pipelines the importance of separate environments and enhanced data security through structured development with PowerBI’s deployment pipelines you can effectively manage changes with separate environments allowing for accurate and secure sales data while reducing risks and improving control and efficiency it’s important to catch potential errors in your pipelines to ensure your data is accurate for end users with PowerBI deployment pipelines you can catch these errors and ensure a smooth transition from development to production in this video you’ll learn how to access and configure a PowerBI service deployment pipeline how to allocate existing workspaces to their respective environments and how to oversee and monitor deployment history and settings a minor error in PowerBI report development could mislead end users lucas needs to use deployment pipelines to ensure changes are tested to enhance reliability and efficiency let’s guide Lucas through this process access the deployment pipeline icon on the left navigation pane on the PowerBI service homepage on smaller screens you might need to select the more ellipsus button in the navigation pane to locate and select the deployment pipelines an introductory screen with the pipeline capabilities appears select create a pipeline to begin streamlining the data processes the create a deployment pipeline window appears on the screen enter sales pipeline as the pipeline name and sales reports deployment pipeline as the description then select next three default environments appear on the screen you can add more environments by selecting the add button and naming them you can also remove environments by selecting the bin icon for this example let’s keep only the development and production environments of PowerBI we’re now on the deployment pipeline page note that the workspaces assigned to the environments must be created beforehand in this case the main workspace we’ve been using has been renamed to Adventure Works Sales Development highlight it in the development environment and select assign workspace next select the newly created Adventure Works Sales Workspace in the production environment and assign it after assigning both a warning pop-up appears indicating differences in content between the two environments select deploy in the test environment to confirm that the changes made by users in development have been approved they can now be deployed in the production environment where end users have access select deploy to begin the process a green tick appears at the end indicating that the two environments are now synced and no new changes are to be deployed for now several important features of the pipelines appear in the top ribbon you can adjust the pipeline settings from the ribbon manage access to the environment and view the deployment history the history contains necessary information such as the deployment user the number of items deployed and the final process status lucas has improved Adventure Works sales reports you can do the same by setting up a deployment pipeline to ensure smooth transitions from development to production minimizing errors and enhancing data integrity in this video you learned how to access and configure a PowerBI service deployment pipeline allocate existing workspaces to their respective environments and oversee and monitor deployment history and settings maintaining a workspace often requires updating its components however an update to one component could affect multiple others with lineage view and impact analysis you can understand how your components are related and how changes impact the workspace in this video you’ll learn about the core concepts of data lineage and impact analysis the functionality and benefits of the lineage view and you’ll also explore the impact analysis feature and its role in data management over at Adventure Works Lucas needs to update the SQL server his workspace depends on however several other workspaces also depend on this same server lucas must determine what components rely on this server and how they’ll be impacted by the changes he makes to it you can help Lucas by working with him to incorporate lineage view and impact analysis into his workflow let’s begin by understanding what these terms mean lineage view simplifies data tracking by showing its journey from source to destination it visually connects data elements by revealing the relationships between data sets data flows reports and dashboards these data elements are presented using a parent child relationship the parent child relationship shows how data elements are connected in a sequence parents are the starting points and children follow as subsequent steps in the data journey this helps to provide a clear picture of the connections between the data in your workspace lucas can use lineage view to manage his workspace by identifying and updating outdated data sets this ensures that his team works from the most recent and accurate reports another valuable tool in PowerBI is impact analysis impact analysis complements lineage view it helps you to understand how changes in your workspace affect different components it provides an overview of how data is used this feature helps you to make informed decisions when modifying data your data sets are intertwined with your reports workspaces and dashboards a change to one asset can affect multiple others once you understand how changes impact your workspace you can inform the rest of the team and ensure everyone can use the updated data effectively now that you’re more familiar with lineage view and impact analysis let’s explore how Lucas can incorporate them into his workflow when you log into a workspace you are presented with the default list view this view displays workspace items such as reports and dashboards to switch to the lineage view select the lineage view icon this view is only available to the admin contributor and member roles in lineage view you can explore the relationships between all your workspaces content for example in the adventure work sales workspace a SQL server database serves as the data source for both data sets in the workspace reports have also been created for both data sets additionally both reports have visualizations pinned to a single dashboard the sales dashboard selecting any component brings up a window with its details on the right hand side of the screen select the SQL server as this is the component to be modified selecting this component brings up information such as the server and database name the privacy and authentication methods and the status of the gateway which indicates that the connection is currently active select the X icon to close the window data sets also display their last refresh date and time you can refresh a data set on demand by selecting the refresh button this is the basic lineage flow in a workspace workspaces with larger data pools are more complex various reports could stem from a single data set this generates numerous end dashboards the show lineage button on every component is helpful in these situations you can select the arrow to highlight the entire lineage flow the most important feature of the lineage view is impact analysis select the screen icon on any lineage component to open the impact analysis window in this instance select the Adventure Works SQL Server data source the impact analysis window displays all components a SQL Server data source change affects the affected components are referred to as child items the asset you modify is the parent item in this instance modifying the Adventure Works server the parent item would impact six child items spread across three different workspaces you can also view the list of child items by type or workspace by selecting the buttons on the right before you modify the server you need to notify all team members impacted by your actions you can use the notify contacts feature to message all affected individuals you can also add a note to describe the impact in this video you learned about the core concepts of data lineage and impact analysis the functionality and benefits of the lineage view and the impact analysis feature and its role in data management lineage view and impact analysis in PowerBI boost data management you can easily track data history keep data updated and understand changes and effects these features make decision making smarter and data management smoother you interact with many different assets in your workspace and it’s important that they can be accessed quickly however some assets like reports can take longer to load the more you use them luckily PowerBI offers a caching feature you can use to optimize your workspac’s performance in this video you’ll learn about the fundamentals of query caching in PowerBI how caching interacts with import mode and the application of caching adventure Works data analysis team has been using the marketing campaign report heavily as a result of all these changes the report takes longer to load each time it’s accessed the team needs to make use of caching to improve the report’s performance let’s find out how caching is the process of temporarily storing query results this enhances performance by minimizing the time and resources required to fetch data accessed regularly for example the analytics team queries the marketing campaign report hundreds of times daily each query involves retrieving and processing significant data from the database this can strain the system and slow down the reporting process caching helps by saving frequently requested data like the marketing campaign report so it doesn’t need to be fetched from the database every time this speeds up the analytics process and reduces strain on the system there are many benefits to query caching first it offers faster performance with caching you can return reports and queries faster especially for frequently used static data sets it also preserves bookmarks and filters so that they don’t need to be reapplied or reset each time a query is run caching also offers personalized data access each user receives their own cached query results for a personalized experience query caching also follows all security rules which means that caching maintains data security without compromising compliance and lastly caching reduces the computing load on your workspace saving resources however query caching has certain limitations it is exclusive to import mode and not applicable for direct query and live connection modes not all users have access to query caching it is only available with a PowerBI premium or embedded subscription there are also other potential limitations clearing the cache when switching from on to off can cause a brief delay for ondemand queries and finally during data set refreshes the query cache updates and may impact performance with high query volumes now that you’re more familiar with query caching let’s help the Adventure Works data analytics team make use of this feature to improve their reports performance first open the Adventure Works sales data set where the report is located this report is used often which affects its loading speed so it’s a good candidate for query caching to use query caching hover over the marketing campaigns report data set select the ellipsus symbol and choose settings from the options in the settings menu navigate to and expand the query caching options query caching is turned off by default to enable query caching select on and then select apply this caches all bookmarks and filters on the initial report page the report will now open faster if you try to disable query caching a pop-up appears this pop-up warns that turning off query caching will result in saved queries being deleted the next time someone opens the report they may experience a slight delay during their first use this applies to both options with query caching disabled in this video you’ve learned about the fundamentals of query caching in PowerBI how caching interacts with import mode and the application of caching using query caching in PowerBI improves report speed and resource efficiency streamlining your data analytics journey it’s a smart way to optimize performance maintaining uninterrupted service connectivity in PowerBI is important for timely and accurate data analysis by understanding the most common connectivity challenges and how to troubleshoot them you can perform analysis without issue in this video you’ll learn about the most common connectivity issues in PowerBI how to rectify refresh failures caused by credential modifications and the process of configuring notification settings for multiple users over at Adventure Works Lucas has been alerted to a supply chain optimization project report that failed to update because of a credential change to troubleshoot this issue he must fix the schedule he also needs to add another team member to the notifications in case the updates fail again when he’s unavailable let’s help Lucas fix the report and ensure that Adio is notified the next time there’s a problem but before we do let’s learn more about troubleshooting service connectivity issues powerbi service connection problems can lead to data set refresh failures with various causes to fix this a clear troubleshooting plan is needed this involves checking the gateway configurations resolving data refresh issues and ensuring data source settings are correct by following this process users can improve service connectivity leading to smoother data analysis in PowerBI it’s also important to correctly set up notification settings to alert the right people about refresh failures this ensures quick action can be taken to resolve any issues let’s start by exploring some of the most common connectivity issues as you’ve just learned most connectivity issues in PowerBI fall under the umbrella of three main categories the first of these we’ll explore is gateway configuration the first step is to check the gateway connectivity status by verifying that a gateway connection is active and running on your data sources the next step is to ensure you’ve selected the correct gateway choosing the correct gateway facilitates a reliable connection to your data sources this ensures that your reports and dashboards have the most accurate and up-to-date information and you must also check that you’re using the latest gateway version an updated gateway ensures a solid connection between PowerBI and your data sources another category is data refresh issues this can include issues like unsupported data sources that do not support refresh operations understanding the nuances of these data sources and rectifying such issues is essential for ensuring that your reports reflect the most current data it’s also important to perform a scheduled refresh check testing the accurate configuration of the scheduled refresh is vital in preventing data latency a well-configured scheduled refresh guarantees that your data is updated regularly and that the insights derived from your reports are based on the latest available data finally there are also data source settings an example of this is data source misconfigurations addressing any misconfigurations in your data source settings promptly ensures uninterrupted data retrieval a malfunctioning data source may prevent the connection with PowerBI blocking the refresh processes and there’s also credential verification verifying the credentials for your data sources helps prevent unauthorized access and resolve connectivity issues ensuring the credentials are accurate and upto-date is fundamental for maintaining a secure and reliable connection to your data sources let’s discover how these issues can be solved by taking a few moments to help Lucas troubleshoot his PowerBI connection navigate to the supply chain optimization project workspace to address the data set that failed to refresh a red exclamation mark next to the refreshed column indicates that the refresh has failed to complete select the warning icon to view details of the error in the report settings menu immediately when opening the settings Lucas identified that the last scheduled refresh failed this resulted in the refresh being disabled by PowerBI so the error resulted from this failed refresh let’s troubleshoot this error scroll down and check the gateway and cloud connection options verify that the personal gateway is running on the database and does not pose an issue with the connection between the data source and PowerBI the next set of options data source credentials states that the data source failed due to incorrect credentials this is the cause of the connection issue select edit credentials to fix this and enter the new login credentials leave the rest of the settings as they are and select sign in the connection has now been reactivated scroll down to the refresh settings expand the options and select on to enable a daily refresh in the next section check the these contacts box to add AIO to the contacts list adio will now be notified if a refresh failure occurs again in the future in this video you learned about the most common connectivity issues in PowerBI how to rectify refresh failures caused by credential modifications and the process of configuring notification settings for multiple users by rectifying credential errors reconfiguring scheduled refreshes and ensuring the right individuals are notified about refresh failures you’ll ensure the accuracy and timeliness of your data congratulations on reaching the end of these lessons in deploying assets during these lessons you explored creating monitoring connecting to and maintaining workspaces and data sets in PowerBI let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned so far you began the first lesson by exploring the concept of a workspace you learned that a workspace is a specialized area in PowerBI that holds important assets like data sets reports and dashboards its advantages are that it helps to organize assets for easy management provides security through access control as only permitted users can access workspaces a workspace also enables collaboration teams can use them to build reports and workspaces let analysts update or modify data quickly there are two types of workspaces in PowerBI the first is a personal workspace which you can use to store your own personal content the second is a shared workspace where a team can collaborate on reports and dashboards always follow best practices in your workspace like performing regular cleanups establishing clear naming conventions safeguarding your data regularly backing up your work and seeking feedback from your team on improvements that could be made to the workspace the process of creating a workspace is very straightforward a workspace can be created by selecting the new workspace option from the workspaces tab in PowerBI when creating a new workspace you must consider workspace roles workspace roles determine who can perform each task workspace roles include the following viewers can view content but can’t modify it contributors can add and modify content members can alter content and add new members and admins have full control over the workspace assets and its members you can manage these roles using PowerBI’s manage access feature during this lesson you also created a shared workspace for Adventure Works where Lucas’ team could collaborate on reports in the next lesson you learned how to monitor workspaces this involves tracking how reports and dashboards are accessed used and shared within a workspace by monitoring a workspace you can measure its impact and make changes to increase its usefulness monitoring is performed through usage metrics and monitoring reports these reports provide details like how a report was used or an overview of a report’s performance you can create a usage metrics report in a workspace from a reports options list there are also slicers for your data that can filter report data powerbi automatically creates a usage metric report data set when you create a usage metric report the credentials for accessing this report must be carefully managed so that it can be refreshed and accessed as required in the third lesson you explored the topic of data sets and gateways in PowerBI a data set is a collection of data you import or connect to it can come from one or multiple sources the captured data forms the basis of your reports the captured data must be the latest available information this ensures that your reports are accurate you can use a data refresh to ensure accurate data a scheduled refresh is a routine that refreshes an entire data set at specified intervals you can configure a refresh by selecting the scheduled refresh feature from your reports options ensure you enter the correct details and credentials so PowerBI can access the report an incremental refresh updates only the parts of the data set that have changed this is a more resource efficient alternative you can configure an incremental refresh from Power Query Editor this involves creating two parameters determining when the refresh begins and when it ends promoting and certifying data sets lets you inform your team where to access the most current and reliable data promoting a data set indicates you trust its content and it’s ready for use certifying a data set states that it meets the company’s highest standards you can promote and certify data sets from PowerBI’s endorsement and discovery menu you also explored establishing a secure reliable connection between your on premises data and PowerBI service using data gateways these gateways enable you to perform a data refresh or query execution securely there are three types of gateways in PowerBI the on premises data gateway the on- premises data gateway personal mode and the Azure virtual network or V-Net data gateway which gateway you choose depends on your organization’s setup and its data management and security requirements you also practiced your new skills with an exercise in which you configured a data set for Adventure Works you also worked through a knowledge check which tested your knowledge of these topics and an additional resources item in which you explored Microsoft learn articles on data sets and gateways in the fourth and final lesson you learned how to maintain workspaces and data sets you began the lesson with an overview of development life cycles powerbi contains deployment pipelines that help move content through the following life cycle stages development in which new content is added testing in which content is reviewed for issues before it’s used in production and production when reports and features are deployed to end users the benefits of a structured development life cycle include data safety data integrity and efficiency and control you can access the deployment pipeline in PowerBI from the navigation pane this feature can create customize and manage pipelines or environments another useful feature for maintaining your workspace is the lineage view this simplifies data tracking by showing the data journey from source to destination with all the connections in between impact analysis helps you understand how changes to your data can impact or affect different assets in your workspace you can alternate between these views in PowerBI you’ve now reached the end of this summary it’s time to move on to the module quiz where you’ll test your knowledge of the topics you’ve covered best of luck data analysts often find themselves working with sensitive data as such they often need to think about the responsibility of handling such information safely in this video you’ll learn how to identify sensitive data and review measures that can be taken to protect data at Adventure Works a data breach could lead to legal trouble loss of trust and a competitive disadvantage safeguarding sensitive data is important for protecting its reputation and success data analysts must handle sensitive data with care so how do we tell the difference between regular data and sensitive data sensitive data contains important information about a business or its stakeholders that if mishandled could cause harm or misuse here’s a simple rule if it’s information that could damage the company’s reputation finances or stakeholder privacy it’s sensitive data for example general sales figures for a particular region might be considered regular data but a detailed list that breaks down customer details financial records employee information or even proprietary business knowledge is sensitive data any information that offers intimate knowledge that isn’t meant for circulation can be classified as sensitive the consequences of mishandling sensitive data can have multiple serious consequences both at business and employee level for example an email containing sensitive product designs for Adventure Works next big launch is inadvertently sent to an external vendor a mishap could give competitors an advantage or lead to legal problems if designs were patented also think about the impact of an employese’s personal data leak this could breach privacy laws resulting in fines and harm trust between employees and management one mistake can bring financial losses legal troubles and brand damage as you navigate the world of data it’s important to be equipped with a security toolkit let’s explore the various measures that can be implemented to ensure data remains in safe hands before a user can access a report they need to prove that they are who they say they are adventure Works operates globally so everyone accessing the PowerBI platform must be verified an authentication system requires users to input a unique identifier that ensures only authorized personnel can access data once a user is authenticated the system determines what data they are permitted to access this protects Adventure Works from internal leaks and unauthorized external breaches in PowerBI you can define roles for users as each role has specific permissions tied to it since employees within Adventure Works have varied job functions PowerBI allows roles to be customized ensuring data is distributed on a need to know basis for instance a product management analyst role might be permitted to see inventory levels reports while the human resources analyst can access employee reports regularly reviewing and updating these roles is essential to ensure they align with organizational needs and changes another measure used to protect sensitive data is rowle security rowle security or RLS is like a detailed filter where users can view only the data rows they are supposed to based on their role or identity for example a regional manager for North America at Adventure Works might only need to view sales data for North America and not Europe rls ensures specific rows of data in PowerBI are shown only to authorized users safeguarding regional strategies and preventing potential conflicts of interest another measure used to safeguard data is encryption adventure Works intellectual properties such as proprietary bicycle designs and vendor contracts are invaluable the company can use encryption to ensure that only authorized individuals can read this data as data moves between systems or across the internet it is susceptible to interception encrypting this data ensures that even if someone gains unauthorized access they can’t decipher the information this helps protect business interests as a global company Adventure Works data is often accessed from around the world encrypting data while it’s being transmitted ensures it can’t be accessed and misused finally there’s also data masking data masking allows you to work with obscured versions of sensitive data enabling you to verify transactions without risking financial security it strikes a balance between transparency and security for Adventure Works sometimes you might need to work with data without knowing the exact details in these instances you’ll need to use the technique of data masking for instance you might need to verify the last four digits of a customer’s credit card without seeing the whole number data is powerful but carries great responsibility in PowerBI every data point represents Adventure Work’s commitment to its global community you should now know how to describe sensitive data and understand the measures that can be taken to protect data protecting data preserves trust in the company’s vision your choices today shape tomorrow’s outcomes as a data analyst you’ll often need to send very large files to other people fortunately you can use PowerBI’s link sharing feature to grant access to reports without transferring large files or losing their interactivity in this video you’ll explore sharing a URL in PowerBI service different types of links and how to generate a URL or link to share a report at Adventure Works data analysts are constantly building useful and dynamic reports powerbi’s link sharing feature allows them to quickly distribute these reports to multiple teams with a simple link let’s find out more about how this works in PowerBI when you share a link you’re essentially giving someone a URL to access your report or dashboard directly in a web browser a link is fast efficient and doesn’t require downloading large files however it does pose security risks which means that access must be carefully managed powerbi offers different sharing options for links let’s explore some of these the first category is people in your organization for example you’ve built a report on Adventure Works yearly sales trends and want to share it with the whole sales team when you select people in your organization anyone with an Adventure Works email can open the report using the link this means only those within the organization can view those insights the next category is people with existing access you’ve shared a report with the product management team perhaps containing confidential info about a new touring bike prototype when you use the people with existing access option only those you’ve already permitted can view the report others at Adventure Works won’t be able to view it even if they find the link the final category is specific people in certain situations a specific person may need access to a report tailored to their project by using the specific people option you can ensure that only the individuals you explicitly mention can view the report other individuals can’t access it unless you permit them however configuring who can access the link is just as important as configuring what the individual can do with the data provided by the link configuring data protection is vital failure to do so could result in unauthorized access to sensitive customer and employee data leading to legal issues privacy breaches and a tarnished reputation sharing permissions is a vital tool for protecting data permissions safeguard your data by determining who can access it in large companies like Adventure Works these protections are crucial let’s explore two common sharing permissions in PowerBI re-share and build permissions data and insights must move between departments in big companies like Adventure Works re-share permissions let people share with others which can be great for sharing important information quickly but it can also cause problems each time it’s shared again the original context can get lost leading to misunderstandings or the wrong people accessing the data build permissions lets others use the data you’ve shared recipients with build permissions can merge data as needed for richer analyses but they can’t change the core data however using this power wisely is essential to avoid cluttered less useful reports now let’s demonstrate an example of how you can generate a link to share using PowerBI first start by navigating to PowerBI service on the left sidebar select workspaces and select the specific workspace where your desired report is located browse through the list of reports and select the title of the report you wish to share this opens the report and provides a live interactive view of its contents it’s always good practice to review the report before sharing to ensure it’s the correct one towards the top left corner of the screen locate and select the share icon which resembles an arrow the share button provides different mechanisms for report distribution in the window that opens just above the email address field select the people in your organization with the link can view and share option choose the people in your organization permission level from the available options ensure you uncheck the option allow recipients to share your report by toggling this option off you ensure that the content is only viewed by its intended audience once you have selected the desired permission level select the apply button near the bottom of the send link window is the copy link button depicted by a paperclip icon when you opt to share via a link PowerBI generates a unique URL that directs users to your report by copying this link you’re grabbing the address of the live version of your report once copied you can paste and share this link just like any other web link when a user clicks on it provided they have the required permissions they’ll be directed to the report on PowerBI service where they can interact with it live remember always to consider the sensitivity of the data when selecting an option next let’s configure build permissions for the reports data set access your data set from the workspace hover over the record select the ellipses or three dots to the right of the data set’s name and select manage permissions in the manage permissions pane select add user and then input the names or email addresses of the users or groups you want to grant build permissions to in the permissions dropdown select allow recipients to build content with the data associated with this data set this allows users to create new reports or visuals based on this data set coupling it with reshare ensures they can distribute their creations to others to restrict re-sharing simply uncheck the reshare option after configuring the permissions as desired select the grant access button having explored sharing via links you should now be familiar with sharing a URL in PowerBI service the different link types and generating a URL or link to share a report links and their related permissions are instrumental for sharing your reports safely in the business world data is power but it must be handled responsibly data analysts often work with sensitive client and employee data which must be safeguarded carefully fortunately they can use PowerBI’s data sensitivity labels to protect this information in this video you’ll learn how to identify data sensitivity labels and how to work with data sensitivity labels at Adventure Works customer and employee information needs to remain confidential lucas has just completed a new sales report this data is confidential so it’s important that he correctly labels the report as so let’s learn more about data sensitive labels and how Lucas can use them to categorize data powerbi’s data sensitivity labels allow you to categorize data and safeguard the company’s reputation and trust they act like digital tags showing the level of confidentiality data requires they guide users on how to handle data responsibly these labels are part of a security system across Microsoft’s products when you apply them in PowerBI you set the data sensitivity level properly using these labels ensures data protection especially when sharing or exporting there are six different categorizations of data sensitivity labels used in PowerBI personal public and general and there’s also confidential highly confidential and restricted let’s learn more about these labels by exploring how Adventure Works makes use of them in PowerBI from the left sidebar of PowerBI select Workspaces then select the workspace that contains the report or dashboard you wish to configure in this instance you need to configure Lucas’ sales report inside the workspace choose the sales report with the report open select the title at the top of the screen in the drop-own menu access the sensitivity label dropdown if you haven’t applied a label before you might find that the label reads none or no label in a faded gray color signaling its dormant state select the sensitivity label drop-down to show the range of available options select confidential for the current report let’s take a moment to review these labels the personal sensitivity label denotes data linked to specific individuals but not intended for the wider organization for example a junior data analyst might share information with a senior data analyst this information is valuable but doesn’t need to go to the entire company adventure Works often creates content for a wide audience including customers stakeholders and the public this content is labeled as public for example a brochure showcasing Adventure Works new bike range for an exhibition is intended for wide distribution without any restrictions the general sensitivity label is for information meant for the broader internal audience without specific sensitivities like Adventure Works monthly newsletters which cover company events and other general news this information is for all employees not external stakeholders and the general label keeps it freely accessible within the company the confidential label deals with sensitive information across departments this label is for data that needs careful handling it’s for valuable data that’s not intended for everyone like PowerBI reports shared between data analysts the highly confidential label safeguards Adventure Works critical innovations it’s for essential sensitive data like research into new products or markets this label ensures limited access protecting valuable information for project insiders at the highest level of data sensitivity is the restricted label for adventure works it means maximum secrecy and caution it’s for data that requires extensive protection like top executives discussing mergers acquisitions or critical contracts the restricted label keeps this monumental data as secret accessible only on a need to know basis now that you know the different labels let’s label the sales report select confidential for the current report the selected label appears near the report’s name at the top of the screen this signifies that you’ve successfully labeled your report in this video you learned how to identify sensitivity labels and how to work with sensitivity labels not all data is the same certain data must be treated more carefully than others use tools like data sensitivity labels to protect the integrity and confidentiality of your data many people think sensitive data leaks only happen because of a targeted attack from cyber criminals but sometimes unintentional internal leaks can be just as damaging meet Daniel daniel has been part of the Adventure Works team for the last 3 years as an IT specialist daniel’s life is busy and with his first kid on the way increasingly expensive while he’s happy at Adventure Works he sometimes wonders if he could earn more working elsewhere one day Daniel answers an IT help desk call from Maya on the payroll team daniel has never met Maya but he’s happy to help when she reports a problem opening Microsoft Excel attachments after a few minutes of troubleshooting Daniel has no success daniel asks Mia to send him an example of one of the attachments so he can check if it works from his side maya is anxious to get the issue resolved and without thinking she sends him the top email from her inbox which happens to be from HR when Daniel opens the attachment he discovers that it’s a complete list of salaries for all Adventure Works employees he’s a bit surprised to see this but he closes it down and helps Mia to adjust some of her trust center settings she verifies that this resolved the issue and they end their call daniel continues his work but before he logs off for the day curiosity gets the better of him he knows he shouldn’t but he reopens the attachment he received earlier from Maya he accesses the tab labeled IT department he sees his name and salary no surprises there he spots some names from the management team and he’s shocked by what some of them earn maybe he should consider management then he notices some other names these are names of colleagues on the same team as him friends he can’t resist looking at their salaries some are on a pretty similar pay scale to him but other team members earn significantly more per month he’s got no idea why this might be but he’s not happy he closes the spreadsheet logs off and heads home later that night Daniel can’t stop thinking about the salaries he saw it seems so unfair that people doing the same work as him earn more and some just joined Adventure Works in the past year daniel has been there over three years however the spreadsheets information is limited and doesn’t tell the full story the people on the list with higher salaries hold advanced qualifications that justify their higher pay and Daniel is in line for a promotion and a sizable salary increase next month in recognition of his hard work he has a bad night’s sleep and is not in a good mood when he arrives at the office the next day while he’s grabbing a muchneeded cup of coffee he bumps into Katie he confides in her about the salary information he saw the day before katie is annoyed too later that day she tells Caleb who then tells Sam and so it continues word is spreading and employee engagement has taken a hit daniel and Sam decide they’ve had enough of feeling undervalued and they accept slightly better paid positions with another company katie Caleb and the others have stayed where they are but they are not feeling very motivated with reduced headcount and disengaged staff the rest of the company has noticed that the quality of service from the IT help desk is slipping such a simple mistake could have been avoided if HR had used sensitivity labels with encryption settings on their sensitive files even if Mia had still inadvertently shared the Excel file with Daniel he would have been denied access to the file due to insufficient permissions life at Adventure Works would have carried on normally and Daniel would have received his muchdeserved promotion data helps businesses generate insights make decisions and succeed however not everyone in the business needs access to all its data sensitive data must be safeguarded with data permissions in this video you’ll learn about the risks of sensitive data and how to evaluate and safeguard these risks adventure Works relies heavily on data from sales reports to make decisions around its product lines however some of the Adventure Works sales reports also contain sensitive information on profit margins this information should be visible to senior leadership only let’s look at how PowerBI data set permissions can be used to restrict data access to only those who need it to perform their roles first let’s define what we mean by PowerBI data set permissions at the core of every datadriven organization lies its data sets data set permissions are the gatekeepers to these data sets as they’re like a series of digital locks and keys they’re permissions that ensure that the right individuals have the necessary keys to access specific data they strike a balance between accessibility and security all employees of Adventure Works have their own designated roles data permissions act as boundaries ensuring that everyone has access only to the data they need for their role the available permission types are read build reshare write and owner the first permission type we’ll explore is the read permission the read permission in PowerBI grants users the ability to view and understand data sets without altering the original content for example the marketing team at Adventure Works may need to look at the product sales report to analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and promotions but they don’t need to alter this report in this case the read permission is sufficient it permits access while minimizing the risk of unintentional data modifications preserving data
integrity next we’ll explore the build permission the build permission enables users to construct visuals PowerBI reports and dashboards based on the available data without modifying the source data itself at Adventure Works the finance team responsible for creating and maintaining the sales data sets often find that sales representatives and product managers who have legitimate reasons to access the data are unintentionally changing key financial figures while exploring the reports this not only leads to incorrect financial analysis but also disrupts the financial team’s workflow by utilizing the PowerBI build permission the sales and product team can format the data for analysis without the risk of inadvertently altering it sharing information is central to collaborative environments like Adventure Works the reshare permission enables users to distribute specific data sets or reports to other users or teams permitted to access this information before a product launch at Adventure Works the finance team can use the re-share permission to share a tailored readonly data set with the marketing team this means the marketing team can optimize their advertising campaigns based on realtime sales data while the finance team is able to safeguard the integrity of their financial reports now we’ll examine the right permission the right permission in PowerBI allows users to alter data users with this permission have the authority to make modifications to the actual data sets adventure Works product development and marketing teams need access to the company’s sales and customer data granting the right permission allows the teams to not only view the data but also make specific updates and additions to the data set for example they can record customer feedback update product specifications and add marketing campaign results this permission when used cautiously ensures that Adventure Works data remains current and relevant however it comes with the caveat that any modification should be made with caution to prevent misinformation finally we’ll explore the owner permission much like the CEO overseeing every aspect of Adventure Works having an owner of the business data ensures centralized data governance the owner permission grants comprehensive control over data sets encompassing the capabilities of all other permissions owners can modify share build and even restrict access to data owners ensure that the correct data is available to the correct people safeguarding sensitive information while also fostering a culture of openness where needed with overarching control they are the custodians of data’s trajectory ensuring it aligns with the broader vision of the organization in this video you’ve learned about the risks of sensitive data and how to evaluate these risks and safeguard data these permissions promote data governance and integrity by ensuring that users only access the data relevant to their roles leading to more accurate analyses and informed decision-making as a data analyst you must ensure that your data sets are accessed only by relevant individuals and at the required permission levels so it’s important that you can configure data set permissions effectively in this video you’ll learn how to add and manage permissions for a data set in PowerBI adventure Works must share its sales report with the wider data analytics team however some team members must be assigned different data set permissions than others let’s help Adventure Works assign permissions as required upon successful login navigate to the icons on the lefth hand navigation pane select the workspaces icon select the Adventure Works workspace the Workspaces pane is where all your current and future workspaces reside browse through the data sets to find the Adventure Works product sales data set remember each data set can represent different departments or analytical perspectives once selected a new view appears on screen this screen provides useful details about the data set such as the current storage location the last date refreshed as well as existing reports and dashboards that currently use the data set find and select the file drop-down in the top left corner when this option is selected additional options appear such as download this file and manage permissions from the drop-down select manage permissions this option lets you oversee who can view or edit this data set a link section appears on screen these are sharable URLs that have been generated for this data set they act as direct gateways for users to access the data set without navigating the entire PowerBI interface each link outlines its creator who has access and the type of permissions assigned it allows you to maintain a clear shared data record ensuring that old links can be retired or renewed as needed next to the links tab select direct access the direct access tab enables you to grant direct access to a specific individual or group within Adventure Works here you will find the names of people and groups with access their email addresses and the type of permissions assigned select the add user button to add a new user you can input email addresses or names and PowerBI will suggest matches from your organization in this case you need to provide ADIO another data analyst access to the report once you’ve selected Adio you must assign in permission levels check the box that corresponds to the desired permission level for now you just need Adio to be able to read the data set assign read permissions you can add a personalized message explaining the reason for granting this access once you have selected grant access an email notification is sent to the user a new record appears in people and groups with access indicating that the user has been successfully granted access next you must remove access for the employee Kai as he’s no longer part of the project to remove access for a user or a group first locate their name in the people in groups with access section each name is followed by details such as the permission level and the date the access was granted next to each name is an ellipsus or three vertical dots which reveal additional options when selected within this menu locate the remove access button a confirmation pop-up appears select remove access it’s crucial always to be sure when revoking access to a data set as it can result in delays in accessing critical reports and dashboards upon removal the user’s name disappears from the people and groups with access list this immediate feedback confirms that the revocation action was successful finally you need to grant right access to Lucas identify his name in the list and select the ellipsus to bring up the menu select add right to assign right permission it’s important only to assign right access to people with the necessary understanding and responsibility you should now understand the process of granting and removing access to specified users with PowerBI these permissions help keep data in check and accurate by letting users access only the data they need for their roles improving analysis and decision-making data analysts often share sensitive data with people outside of the organization this means the correct permissions must be assigned when sharing links to this information to keep it secure in this video you’ll discover how to maintain data security and integrity when sharing information outside of your organization adventure Works needs you to share a PowerBI sales report with a new partner to prepare you for this task let’s explore the importance of maintaining the security and integrity of the data when sending it to outside stakeholders when sharing PowerBI reports externally it’s essential to protect sensitive data and respect privacy boundaries to prevent potential harm to the company and its stakeholders this involves carefully controlling what information is shared and maintaining strict security measures you can control this information using techniques like user licensing sharing permissions and rowle security or RLS there’s also data masking and anonymization report embedding and external sharing settings let’s explore these techniques in more detail when sharing PowerBI reports with external partners or vendors it’s important to ensure they have the right PowerBI Pro licenses for smooth access an Adventure Works admin can assign and oversee these licenses through the Microsoft 365 admin center requiring ongoing monitoring to maintain compliance and prevent violations next is the use of rowle security or RLS using rowle security is crucial especially when sharing sales data with external vendors adventure Works can ensure vendors see only relevant table data this technique keeps other sensitive information in the same table safe and inaccessible we’ll explore this more in a later lesson next let’s examine data masking and anonymization to protect sensitive data Adventure Works uses data masking and anonymization techniques this involves replacing real data with fake or pseudonmous data in Power Query allowing external partners to analyze trends without accessing Adventure Works sensitive information another technique is report embedding when Adventure Works shares PowerBI reports externally they choose secure embedding methods like publish to web or embed code they use these options carefully considering the data sensitivity before deciding which one to use this is important to keeping data confidential and limiting report access to the right people these embedding methods allow you to add reports to external platforms while keeping control over who can see and access the data next is external sharing settings to enable external sharing Adventure Works adjusts their PowerBI service settings controlled by the PowerBI admin these adjustments include various configurations to maintain the company’s security standards such as authorizing users or groups for external sharing and setting content restrictions they can also control the links expiration time and mandate authentication for external users to access shared content lastly let’s examine the use of sharing links adventure Works boosts report security by creating safe links with clear permissions making them a safer sharing choice these links can have expiration dates and be limited to specific users reducing the chance of unauthorized access you can use these features to share a sales report with the new partner so that it can only view required data in this video you discovered how to maintain data security and integrity when sharing information outside your organization as you explore and share data always be sure that you retain its integrity and confidentiality data analysts are often required to share sensitive data with multiple teams and departments this can pose a problem if the wrong individual accesses specific data fortunately you can use rowle security or RLS to ensure that your data remains accessible and protected in this video you’ll learn about the importance of maintaining data integrity how to evaluate and safeguard these risks and how RLS regulates data access adventure Works needs your help to manage data access for its global team of employees and customers effectively you can use role level security in PowerBI to tailor data access by region and role ensuring data integrity and confidentiality companywide let’s explore the basics of rowle security and how you can use it to help adventure works we’ll begin with an explanation of what we mean by rowle security rowle security or RLS ensures that only authorized individuals can access the right data this helps to preserve the security and integrity of your overall data sets in other words rowle security controls who sees what data based on predefined roles and rules it’s especially important when many different actors are interacting with the same data essentially it ensures that each person can view only the data they need and sensitive information is safeguarded let’s explore some of the advantages of implementing rowle security rowlevel security gives you precise control over who views what this helps prevent accidental data leaks by safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized users as an organization expands its data scales and increases in its complexity rls makes it easier to handle these more complex data access needs you can use RLS to establish new rules for accessing data without starting from scratch compliance and auditing play a vital role in any organization rls helps companies comply with data privacy regulations it simplifies auditing by keeping track of who can access what for companies like Adventure Works data breaches pose a significant threat rls reduces the risk of data breaches with RLS even if someone unauthorized gets into a PowerBI report they can’t see data they aren’t assigned to this adds a layer of security against data breaches while there are many benefits to rowle security there are also several potential issues you could encounter if it’s not managed correctly using security layers especially dynamic RLS can slow down data retrieval because it filters data in real time monitor performance especially with big data sets to keep things running smoothly rowle security often requires maintenance that’s why regular checks and updates as roles and access needs change are important periodically review the RLS settings to make sure they still work well for your organization to ensure that the correct access is given to the correct individual when you set up RLS test it thoroughly to ensure the rules work and give the right access regular testing helps prevent data leaks and keeps everything working as expected next let’s explore the different kinds of rowle security static and dynamic static rowle security in PowerBI creates predefined rules to control data access based on user roles it restricts users to specific data ensuring that they only see information relevant to their roles for example a new hireer on your team has been tasked with analyzing sales of mountain bikes in North America this means they should not have access to sales data for other products or regions with static rowle security you can establish clear rules that ensure they can only access data related to sales of mountain bike products in North America dynamic rowle security in PowerBI adjusts real time data access based on user roles this permits users to view only the data that’s relevant to them at any given moment dynamic rowle security uses DAX or data analysis expressions formulas and user roles in PowerBI to filter data based on specific conditions these conditions could include user attributes or affiliations stored in a database for example your new hire has successfully analyzed sales of mountain bikes in North America so they’ve been tasked with analyzing sales of mountain bikes in other regions this means that PowerBI can now grant them access to data for other regions with dynamic row security the system can adjust its access so the new hire can view sales data for specific regions as required in this video you’ve learned about the importance of maintaining data integrity how to evaluate and safeguard these risks and how it regulates data access you should now be familiar with the basics of rowle security and how it ensures that data remains accessible and protected by using rowle security you can ensure that each entity gets the correct data in the right situation as a data analyst it’s important to control access to your data so that others can only view information relevant to their roles a useful method of safeguarding data is configuring security at the table row level in this video you’ll learn how to configure static rowle security on a data set in PowerBI your team member Addio Quinn needs access to the latest sales reports to analyze sales data from North America let’s configure static rowle security so Adio can only view the data required to complete his task to begin select the modeling tab then choose the manage roles option in the manage RO section you need to create a new role with the relevant permissions for audio select the create button to add a new role right click on the new role and choose rename rename the role as marketing North America to maintain a structured and organized role management next select the table you want to filter in this case it’s the sales table then right click on the table name and select add filter to specify which data rows this role can view choose the region field from the drop-own list and add it to the table filter DAX expression area the table filter DAX expression is where you define the limits for each RO’s data view it’s crucial to be precise about the data accessible to users in this role select the region field and input a relevant DAX expression stating that the region’s value should equal North America this DAX expression ensures that AIO can only view North American data to verify if the expression works as intended select the check mark icon in the top right corner of the manage roles window after creating your DAX expression select save to confirm your changes and establish clear visibility boundaries now you need to ensure that everything works correctly select view as and test the configuration choose the marketing North America role and select okay to view the data from a user’s perspective and verify its accuracy once you’ve completed your check select stop viewing to exit the view as ROS feature be sure to save your settings after saving your RO definition go to the home tab and select publish in the publish to PowerBI dialogue box choose Adventure Works the current PowerBI workspace you’re working in click the select button powerbi publishes the report to your chosen destination the time required for this process may vary based on the report size and your internet connection a new dialogue box confirms your report’s successful publication access the Adventure Works workspace and locate the newly published report and data set identify the data set with the same name as your report it’s now available in the PowerBI service and can be adjusted for user access select the ellipses next to your data set name to open a list of options choose security from the list to display the role level security settings from here you can assign user roles in the role level security settings locate the role you created in PowerBI desktop marketing North America then access the members area and enter Adio’s email address this action assigns Adio to the role of member and grants him access to North American marketing data next select add then select save to enforce the role assignments locking in the user access levels if Adio attempts to access data outside of North America he will see blank visuals as he only has access to marketing data related to the North American region you should now be familiar with the process steps for configuring static row security on a data set in PowerBI as a data analyst it’s your job to keep data safe and accurate so make sure that you always configure static role level security as required during a project the roles and needs of your users may often change which requires constant updating of data access permissions that’s a lot of work if you’re using static rowle security however with dynamic rowle security you can adjust data access automatically as roles change in this video you’ll learn how to configure dynamic rowle security or RLS on a data set in Microsoft PowerBI and how to assign validate and publish a report secured with dynamic RLS access PowerBI and open the Adventure Works product sales report locate and select the modeling tab in the ribbon area at the top of the screen on the modeling tab locate the security group in this group select the manage roles choice a dedicated manage roles window opens this is the area where you can define and manage roles create a new role using the manage roles dialogue box name the new role dynamic sales access now you need to apply filters select the role you just created then locate and select the table you wish to apply a filter to in this case it is the sales table next right click on the table name and select add filter select the email field from the drop- down list to add it to the table filter DAX expression area this area establishes visibility boundaries for each role determining what data each user can view you must now formulate a DAX expression that equates data from the table’s email column to the user principal name function the user principal name function fetches the user’s email address it then filters data dynamically by limiting the user to rows or data that match their email address for instance Lucas who works in sales and marketing can only access data relevant to his marketing campaigns this ensures he can’t access confidential data from other business areas to verify the syntax of your DAX expression select the check mark icon on the top right side of the manage rolls window if the expression is correct select save in the bottom right to confirm the change to the role once the role has been created and configured it must be tested to ensure it works as required select the view as choice on the modeling tab this opens a view as roles dialogue box then select the other user choice and enter Lucas’s email address then select okay you can now view the data as if you were Lucas if you are content with the validation exit the view as ROS mode by locating and selecting stop viewing at the top of the window save your changes to ensure your created role is not lost this ensures that all your configurations are stored securely after saving the role definition select the home tab and select publish in the publish to PowerBI dialogue box choose your current workspace and then the select button depending on the size of the report and your internet connection the publication process could take a few moments a new dialogue box confirms that your report has been published successfully next locate the newly published report and data set the data set can now be configured for user access select the ellipses security choice next to the data set name select security from the list this displays the rowle security settings of the report the role you created in PowerBI desktop is displayed in the left pane once the role is selected on the left email addresses can be added in the members pane on the right type in Lucas’s email to assign him to that role and give him access to specific data areas next select add and save to enforce the role assignments locking in the user access levels you can repeat this process for other users as required adventure works can now distribute the report with the knowledge that its data is safeguarded and you should now understand how to configure dynamic rowle security and assign validate and publish an RLS configured report searching for daily reports in PowerBI can be a time-consuming task wouldn’t it be great if they arrived automatically in your inbox at a set time each day thankfully you can configure this setup with report and dashboard subscriptions over the next few minutes you’ll learn how to set up subscriptions to your reports and dashboards and review the advantages of this setup every morning Lucas reviews his PowerBI workspace for new reports and dashboards this is a time-consuming process by configuring subscriptions he could have these assets delivered directly to his email subscribing to reports and dashboards in PowerBI offers a wide array of advantages let’s take a closer look at those benefits a PowerBI subscription is an automated delivery system that sends daily scheduled snapshots of your reports and dashboards as an email or as a notification this turns a tedious manual process into a seamless and automatic one one of the main benefits of subscribing to reports and dashboards is quick access to data once there’s a new update you and all other subscribers receive an instant update or alert this ensures that decision makers always operate with the most current data with a subscription Lucas can ensure that his sales and marketing insights are always drawn from the most recent reports and dashboards subscriptions also boost efficiency and productivity manually pulling up the same report day after day is a tedious task but you can automate this process with subscriptions your teams can prioritize more important tasks and dedicate more resources to analysis and insight instead of wasting time fetching reports with a subscription to the weekly sales dashboard Lucas could receive the latest sales and marketing data every Monday at 6:00 a.m sharp receiving regular reports fosters a sense of routine and consistency in data consumption with set delivery intervals users can create structured time slots dedicated to datadriven assessments a shared understanding is key to effective collaboration when multiple team members or teams subscribe to the same reports it establishes a uniformity in the information they base their decisions on everyone is working from the same version of each report now that you’re more familiar with the benefits and uses of subscriptions in PowerBI let’s configure a subscription for Lucas so he has quick access to the most up-to-date data all your reports dashboards and data sets are listed in your workspace select the report you’re interested in to open it once the report loads navigate to the top toolbar select the ellipses next to the edit button to open more options in a drop-own menu from these options select subscribe to report the subscriptions pane appears on screen you can use this pane to configure your subscription as follows first give your subscription a memorable name especially if you plan to set up multiple subscriptions decide how often you want to receive this report for example should it be daily weekly or even monthly depending on your chosen frequency set the specific time you’d like the report sent if you want other colleagues to receive this subscription add their email addresses here remember you also need access to the report to view it you can also add a custom message in the email received when the report is sent once you’ve set up your subscription select save and close or save to activate it you’ll then receive confirmation that the subscription is now active depending on your settings you’ll begin receiving the report via email based on your selected frequency select an existing subscription to view its details you can modify pause or cancel your subscription from this menu lucas now has daily automated access to sales and marketing reports and dashboards this gives him more time to analyze data and generate insights and you should now know how to set up subscriptions to your reports and dashboards and the advantages of this setup with PowerBI subscriptions you’ll work more efficiently consistently and faster this leaves you more time and opportunities to generate insights to help your organization achieve its goals much of your daily work as a data analyst involves analyzing data to generate insights but what if PowerBI could generate and deliver these insights to you with PowerBI data alerts you can receive automated insights that save time and effort in this video you’ll explore the benefits of data alerts and learn how to set up an alert in PowerBI at Adventure Works Lucas monitors and analyzes data for events like a spike in sales or a slowdown in production or shipping times however manually uncovering these insights takes time it would be much more efficient to configure data alerts that flag these events automatically let’s find out more about data alerts and how Lucas can use them for more efficient monitoring data alerts are essentially automatic notifications set up within PowerBI they inform users when specific conditions or thresholds in a dashboard are met or exceeded and these alerts can be customized to cater to a range of business needs there are many different benefits to data alerts a major benefit is real time decision-making data alerts notify data analysts immediately when specific metrics reach a predefined threshold this instantaneous awareness means decisions can be made quickly organizations can adapt to real-time changes in the business environment at Adventure Works Lucas can use data alerts to monitor sales spikes in Europe for marketing campaigns this realtime insight allows the European sales team to adjust strategies for maximum impact quickly data alerts also help with efficiency and timesaving manually analyzing data takes time by configuring data alerts that monitor important conditions data analysts can direct their attention elsewhere confident they’ll be notified if something requires their attention for example Lucas previously spent hours checking website traffic following the launch of new marketing campaigns now thanks to data alerts he’s instantly informed of significant traffic changes which frees his time for other tasks instead of discovering issues after they’ve occurred and seeking solutions data alerts can notify stakeholders of potential problems before they escalate for instance an alert can be triggered if a manufacturing process at Adventure Works starts to slow the company can intervene immediately before the slowdown impacts the wider production line this proactive approach can mitigate risks and prevent minor issues from becoming major problems data alerts also ensure that all relevant parties are notified about important datadriven insights for example if Adventure Works launches a new marketing campaign in Germany data alerts can notify the marketing and IT teams of surging website traffic this synchronization ensures greater collaboration the marketing team can assess the campaign success while the IT team can scale server resources and finally data alerts are highly customizable this lets different teams or individuals set alerts based on what’s most important to their role or department a sales manager might set alerts related to sales metrics while a supply chain manager might focus on inventory levels this personalized approach ensures that each stakeholder receives the most relevant data instead of unnecessary information now that you’re more familiar with data alerts let’s help Lucas set up alerts in PowerBI in your workspace is a list of reports dashboards and data sets select the report you’re interested in to open it once the report loads navigate to the KPI visual you wish to create an alert for it’s important to note that PowerBI differentiates between reports and dashboards dashboards are a collection of tiles each representing a specific visual or information alerts can be set on tiles pinned from report visuals or PowerBI Q&A and only on gauges KPIs and cards hover over the visual to pin it from your report to a dashboard then select the pin icon this action opens the pin to dashboard menu you can select the dashboard to which you want to pin the visualization and even change its theme a confirmation message appears once you’ve pinned the visualization select the messages go to dashboard option to view your pinned visualization move your cursor over the tile of interest an ellipsus appears at the top right corner select it to reveal a drop-own menu with additional options for that tile select manage alerts from the drop-own menu this opens the core settings for alerts related to this tile on the alerts menu select add alert rule you can now define a new condition for alerts a clear descriptive name for an alert like drop in shipping time provides a clear context next choose a condition parameter like above or below and set a numeric value this value becomes your trigger point for instance if shipping times drop below a set number it’ll trigger the alert you can decide the alerts notification frequency depending on how critical the data is if it’s a vital metric like manufacturing uptime you might instead set up every hour alerts for less urgent data every 24 hours might suffice once you’ve configured the alert to your satisfaction select save this activates your alert it’s good practice to review your alerts regularly to access your active alerts just select manage alerts again you can view and manage your existing alerts from the manage alerts menu frequently reviewing your alerts ensures that they’re still relevant to your organization’s goals outdated alerts might cause unnecessary distractions or lead you to miss out on critical insights you should now understand the benefits of PowerBI data alerts and be familiar with the setup process data alerts are a great tool for delivering automated actionable insights that save you time increase your productivity and help you and your organization succeed emily is the CEO IT specialist designer head of HR delivery driver and chief coffee maker at Ecocraft Furniture you name it Emily does it along with a small but close-knit team of other crafts people Ecocraft specializes in producing highquality sustainable furniture founded just two years ago the company is already exporting its products to various countries across North America and Europe the raw materials for Ecocraft’s furniture such as sustainably sourced wood and eco-friendly paints are imported from different countries this means transactions often take place in multiple currencies this has been one of the biggest challenges for Emily and Ecocraft fluctuations on the currency markets can significantly impact production costs and profit margins the company needs a system to issue alerts when rates are favorable for making large purchases or setting prices for overseas markets this would help Emily and Ecocraft manage budgeting and financial forecasting powerbi is the perfect solution for Emily she can use it to track important business metrics sales supply chain status and currency exchange rates emily decides to set up alerts on PowerBI for currency exchange rate changes this will give her the information she needs to make sound financial decisions the first step is to collect data emily enlists the help of her tech-savvy friend Alex who helps her create a robust data pipeline together they source real time and historical exchange rate data for the currencies of the countries from which they import raw materials they also collect data on their purchase orders and expenses related to each supplier next they create a dashboard to monitor various key performance indicators the dashboard will also identify patterns and potential risks associated with currency fluctuations the exchange rate data and other vital metrics like sales and supply chain status are displayed in real time emily configures PowerBI to send custom alerts whenever currencies pair like when the US Canadian dollar or the US dollar to euro cross thresholds that impact the company’s financials she sets these alert levels based on historical data and current business needs for instance if the exchange rate for the euro increases by more than 5% in a week Emily will receive an alert armed with these alerts Emily is better prepared to mitigate currency risk when an alert triggers she can immediately assess the potential impact on her production costs and take necessary actions this could include renegotiating contracts with suppliers and hedging currency exposure or seeking alternative suppliers from more stable regions shortly after setting up the PowerBI dashboard an alert indicates that the US dollar to euro exchange rate has dropped to a favorable level based on this information the team orders raw materials from the European suppliers saving thousands of dollars as Emily continues to use PowerBI and respond to alerts she gains deeper insights into her business she can analyze which suppliers are more cost effective based on currency trends and adjust her sourcing strategy accordingly these datadriven insights help the company to make more informed decisions save money improve the overall efficiency of its supply chain and ultimately increase profitability over time the currency alerts become integral to Emily’s business this provides the stability she needs to pursue her mission of creating beautiful eco-friendly furniture for years to come the company plans to extend the PowerBI platform’s capabilities to other business areas solidifying data as a core component of its growth strategy emily’s journey with PowerBI is a testament to the power of datadriven decision-making congratulations on reaching the end of these lessons on security and monitoring in PowerBI during these lessons you explored the role that security and monitoring play in safeguarding reports and dashboards in PowerBI let’s take a few minutes to recap what you learned in these lessons you first explored how to share information safely and identify sensitive data sensitive data is essential information that if leaked could damage the company’s reputation finances or privacy if the information is employee related the leak could damage an organization’s and its workforce’s relationship fortunately you can safeguard data in PowerBI using the following methods authentication and authorization systems ensure that those accessing the data are who they say they are assigning clear roles and permissions ensures that individuals can only access certain data rowle security or RLS filters data so that individuals can only access relevant elements of data sets data encryption prevents data from being intercepted during transmission data masking lets you work with obscured versions of data so that you can only view the information required to complete your task you also learn that sensitive information can be shared using links these links offer sharing options so you can control who views the data these options include people in your organization who need the data people with existing access to the data or specific people that you include directly and you can decide what recipients can do with the data using the following sharing permissions they can reshare the data with others or make use of the data to perform analysis another method of safeguarding data is the use of sensitive labels these labels let you categorize data making it clear who can access it these categories include personal which denotes data linked to specific individuals public which is data for a wider audience and general meaning information meant for a wider internal audience there’s also categories that govern more sensitive data the confidential label means the information is sensitive and requires careful handling highly confidential relates to sensitive data on critical business innovations and the restricted label is used for data that must be treated with maximum secrecy and caution you then demonstrated your understanding of sharing information in PowerBI by applying sensitive labels to an Adventure Works data set in the next lesson you explored the topic of organizations and permissions you discovered that access to data sets is governed by data permissions these ensure that only authorized individuals can access data powerbi offers the following permission types the owner permission grants a user complete control of a data set the read permission permits users to view but not alter data the reshare permission permits users to reshare data the build permission lets users utilize the data for analysis and the write permission enables users to alter data you then learned how to configure these permissions in PowerBI using the manage permissions option this option lets you create and manage URLs for data access that can be shared with your team you also learned that data can be shared outside of an organization however it’s important to consider which safeguards are most appropriate to ensure the data remains confidential you completed this lesson with a knowledge check in which you tested your understanding of data permissions and you reviewed additional resources to help you learn more about PowerBI and data permissions in the third lesson you reviewed rowle security for safeguarding data rowlevel security or RLS controls which individuals can view data based on predefined roles and rules some of the benefits of RLS include granular control over data the ability to scale as your data grows assistance with compliance and auditing and a reduced risk of data breaches however RLS also gives rise to several potential issues it can impact performance by slowing down data retrieval it requires regular maintenance and it must be tested frequently there are two types of role security the first is static static RLS restricts users to specific data so they can only view information relevant to their roles the other type is dynamic RLS dynamic RLS uses data analysis expressions or DAX to adjust real-time data access based on user roles you completed this lesson by undertaking a knowledge check focused on rowle security and you reviewed some additional resources on this lesson’s main topics in the fourth and final lesson you explored the topic of subscriptions and alerts in PowerBI you can subscribe to reports and dashboards a PowerBI subscription is an automated delivery system that provides daily data snapshots as emails or notifications the advantages of subscriptions include timely access to information a boost in productivity because more tasks are now automated consistency in data consumption and enhanced collaboration teams can now work from the same data sets you can configure subscriptions using the subscriptions pane in PowerBI with this feature you can name your subscription decide how often you receive it and even include other colleagues you can also modify pause or cancel your subscription as you need as well as subscriptions PowerBI also offers data alerts these automatic customizable notifications inform users when specific conditions or thresholds have been met or exceeded some of the benefits of data alerts include realtime decision-making efficiency through automation proactive problem solving enhanced collaboration and customization and personalization you can configure data alerts in PowerBI the manage alerts feature lets you set conditions and thresholds that determine when you receive alerts finally you demonstrated your understanding of these topics by undertaking an exercise in which you configured a data alert for Adventure Works you’ve now reached the end of this summary it’s time to move on to the discussion prompt where you can discuss what you’ve learned with your peers you’ll then be invited to explore additional resources to help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics in this lesson congratulations on everything you’ve achieved so far you’ve now reached the capstone project during this course you explored the role of PowerBI in business deploying assets in a PowerBI workspace and the role that security and monitoring play in safeguarding reports and dashboards in PowerBI let’s take a few minutes to recap what you’ve learned so far you began with an introduction to the role of PowerBI in business with a focus on data flow data flow in business refers to the movement of information within an organization this movement or flow occurs in the following stages: collection processing analysis and decision making once gathered the data is cleaned or standardized it’s then transformed data analysts use the refined data to generate insights the data is analyzed using PowerBI service this software offers many advantages for analysts it’s accessible scalable and offers collaboration tools and data backup and recovery features the data analyst is the central figure in this process they possess important skills and expertise in extracting valuable insights from data an important skill that all data analysts must possess is understanding structured query language or SQL data analysts use SQL to interact with the SQL databases that store the data analysts can connect to a SQL database using import or direct query modes import mode loads data directly into PowerBI direct query mode connects PowerBI directly to the source database an analysis is presented in the form of a report a report can be static or dynamic a dynamic report explores multiple areas of interest its results are presented in the form of visuals these reports also facilitate using whatif parameters that permit interactive adjustments to modify visualizations and generate insights into potential scenarios next you explored how to deploy assets in a workspace a workspace is a specialized area in PowerBI that holds important assets there are two types of workspaces in PowerBI the first is a personal workspace which you can use to store your content the second is a shared workspace where a team can collaborate on reports and dashboards workspace roles determine how individuals can interact with workspaces workspace roles include viewer contributor member and admin you can manage these roles using PowerBI’s manage access feature in the next lesson you learned how to monitor workspaces by monitoring a workspace you can measure its impact and make changes to increase its usefulness you also explored the topic of data sets and gateways in PowerBI a data set must contain the latest available information you can use a scheduled or incremental refresh to ensure accurate data and you can promote and certify data sets to inform your team where to access the most current and reliable data you also explored establishing a secure reliable connection between your on- premises data and PowerBI service using data gateways there are three types of gateways in PowerBI the on- premises data gateway the on- premises data gateway personal mode and the Azure virtual network or V-Net data gateway which type of gateway you choose depends on the setup of your organization and its specific data management and security requirements you also learned how PowerBI deployment pipelines move content through the following life cycle stages: development testing and staging or production another useful feature for maintaining your workspace is the lineage view this view shows the data journey from source to destination with all the connections in between impact analysis shows how changes to your data can impact or affect different assets in your workspace next you explored the role that security and monitoring play in safeguarding reports and dashboards in PowerBI you first explored how to share information safely and identify sensitive data sensitive data is essential information that if leaked could damage the company’s reputation finances or privacy you can safeguard data using PowerBI’s authentication tools you can also use sharing links to control who you share information with and use sharing permissions to determine what they can do with the data sensitivity labels are also another useful method of safeguarding data access to data sets is governed by data permissions these ensure that only authorized individuals can access data you can configure permissions in PowerBI to safeguard your data you also reviewed rowle security for safeguarding data rowle security or RLS controls which individuals can view data based on predefined roles and rules there are two types of rowle security static RLS restricts users to specific data dynamic RLS uses data analysis expressions or DAX to adjust real-time data access based on user roles finally you explored subscriptions and alerts in PowerBI you can subscribe to reports and dashboards a PowerBI subscription is an automated delivery system that provides daily data snapshots as emails or notifications you can use the subscriptions pane in PowerBI to manage your subscriptions as well as subscriptions PowerBI also offers data alerts these automatic customizable notifications inform users when specific conditions or thresholds have been met or exceeded during these lessons you also completed exercises in which you put your new skills into practice by helping adventure works with PowerBI knowledge checks which tested your understanding of these topics and additional resources in which you consulted Microsoft Learn articles to help you explore these topics in more detail you’ve now reached the end of this recap it’s time to move on to the capstone project which will test your understanding of these concepts through a series of exercises best of luck you’ve reached the next stage of the capstone project you’ve worked hard to get to this stage and made good progress let’s recap what you’ve achieved so far in the previous set of scenarios that you’ve just completed you prepared sales data configured data sources and designed and developed a data model you’ll begin this next stage of the capstone by configuring aggregations for Tailwind traders these aggregations will help the company generate insights into its financial performance as part of this scenario you’ll calculate sales and profits data and record the performance of visuals using the performance analyzer these aggregations will help generate insights informing the company’s strategic decisions for the upcoming business year by completing this exercise you’ll demonstrate your ability to create timebased summaries determine median sales volumes and utilize the performance analyzer tool next you’ll transform the insights you generated from configuring aggregations into a sales report tailwind Traders needs a report that helps to inform sales decisions the company needs your help to generate such a report using its sales data to generate this report you’ll complete the following tasks create charts and cards to visualize your data and add a slicer to your report aside from the sales report Tailwind Traders also requires a report that displays key insights into its profits creating this report will be your next task you’ll generate this report by creating charts and cards to visualize the data creating a KPI and adding a slicer through this and the previous scenario you’ll demonstrate your ability to create different kinds of charts to display sales data and display important sales metrics using cards and KPIs in the next capstone scenario you’ll help Tailwind Traders create an executive dashboard tailwind Traders will use the dashboard to generate insights into its global performance the dashboard must focus on sales and profits and be accessible on mobile devices you’ll create this dashboard by pinning sales and profits card visualizations and KPIs to the dashboard and configuring mobile view for the cards KPI visuals and core visualizations by completing this scenario you’ll show that you can create an executive dashboard in PowerBI display sales summaries highlight profit metrics use card visualizations for quick insights and configure a dashboard that’s mobile friendly in the final scenario you’ll need to help Tailwind traders to generate quick and actionable insights into its data you can carry out this task using PowerBI subscriptions and alerts features you’ll complete this task by creating daily alerts for key metrics and creating subscriptions for the sales and profits overview tabs by successfully helping Tailwind traders to generate quick and actionable insights you’ll prove that you can configure subscriptions and set up proactive alerts if you encounter any difficulty with these scenarios remember that you can refer to previous learning materials like videos and readings for guidance you’ve already completed similar tasks in the other exercise items in this course so you’re more than capable of working through these scenarios best of luck congratulations on completing the Capstone project it’s been a lot of work but you finally reached the end your completed Capstone PowerBI environment should contain sales and profits reports visualizations of the key metrics in your reports pinned to an executive dashboard and you should also have configured alerts and subscriptions let’s take a few moments to recap the exercises you’ve completed by reviewing examples of what the completed dashboard should look like don’t worry if these examples don’t quite match your dashboard you can review these best practice examples in more detail when you access the exemplars in the first exercise you configured aggregations using DAX you created measures to calculate the following: yearly profit margin quarterly profit and median sales you then assessed the performance of these reports in the second exercise you created a sales report you then visualized the data in this report using charts you created a bar chart for loyalty points by country a column chart for quantity sold by product a pie chart for median sales distribution by country and a line chart for median sales over time you also created cards for stock quantity purchased and median sales in the third exercise you created a profit report you then visualized the data in this report using charts you created a bar chart for net revenue by product a donut chart for yearly profit margin by country and an area chart for yearly profit margin over time you then created cards for year-to-ate profit and net revenue USD you then set up a KPI for gross revenue USD and added a slider for your profit report finally you saved and published the report once your profits and sales reports were completed your next task was to create an executive dashboard to create this data you created a dashboard called Tailwind Traders Executive Dashboard you then pinned the following sets of visualizations to the dashboard sales overview core visualizations sales overview card visualizations profit overview core visualizations and profit overview card and KPI visualizations once you finished pinning your visualizations you configured the mobile view for the cards KPI visuals and core visualizations in the final exercise your main task was configuring the dashboards alerts and subscriptions you first created a daily alert for gross revenue USD that informs Tailwind Traders when gross revenue drops below $400 US next you created and activated a weekly subscription for the sales overview tab ensuring it could be viewed and shared in PowerBI you then created and activated a weekly subscription for the profit overview tab ensuring it could be viewed and shared in PowerBI you’re now ready to begin working through the exemplers where you can compare your PowerBI environment against the best practice examples in more detail congratulations you’ve reached the end of this capstone project course you’ve worked hard to get here and developed many new skills you made great progress on your PowerBI journey this course and all you have achieved is a culmination of all the previous courses you’ve completed in this specialization having completed this course you now understand the basics of PowerBI’s relationship with business you’re familiar with the process steps for creating monitoring and maintaining workspaces you can connect data sets and gateways you can securely share information with your team and the wider organization and you can manage subscriptions and alerts in your workspaces with this course you were able to reinforce and demonstrate the learning and practical development skill set you have gained throughout this program this was achieved through hands-on guided practice configuring a PowerBI workspace for Tailwind Traders the graded assessment further tested your knowledge of PowerBI after completing the final project it’s a great time to pause and reflect on your journey you can reflect on the completed course from several vantage points you could consider the links between this course and the previous ones you’ve completed or you could reflect on the process of completing the project for example what were the hardest parts of the project what was the easiest what experience did you gain from the project and would you benefit from revisiting previous courses whether you’re just starting as a technical professional a student or a business user this course end project proves your knowledge of the value and capabilities of database systems the project consolidates your abilities with a practical application of your skills but the project also has another important benefit it means you have a fully operational PowerBI workspace to reference within your portfolio this serves to demonstrate your skills to potential employers and not only does it show employers that you are self-driven and innovative but it also speaks volumes about you as an individual and your newly obtained knowledge you’ve completed all the courses in this specialization and earned your certificate in PowerBI the certificate can also be used as a progression to other role-based certificates you may go deep with advanced role-based certificates or take other fundamental courses depending on your goals certifications provide globally recognized and industry endorsed evidence of mastering technical skills you’ve done a great job and should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained shows potential employers that you are motivated capable and not afraid to learn new things thank you it’s been a pleasure to embark on this journey of discovery with you best of luck in the future welcome to the Microsoft PL300 exam preparation and practice course a significant milestone on your journey toward becoming a certified Microsoft PowerBI data analyst if you’re motivated to set yourself up for a career in the world of data analytics you’re on the right track your learning journey in data analytics with Microsoft PowerBI has culminated in this course carefully designed to equip you with the knowledge skills and competencies you need to excel in the Microsoft PL 300 exam as you delve into this course you’ll navigate key PowerBI features and concepts that are integral to the PL 300 exam these concepts encompass a broad spectrum including data preparation modeling visualization and asset deployment plus by the end of the course you won’t just be well prepared for the PL300 exam you’ll also be equipped with valuable insights into your future career prospects in data analytics with PowerBI your course journey begins with a comprehensive review of fundamental concepts associated with data preparation and loading in PowerBI you’ll cover a range of essential topics such as the journey from exam preparation to Microsoft certification mastering the art of acquiring data from diverse sources and data profiling and cleaning as well as the intricacies of data transformation and loading the next part of your course journey involves a detailed recap of core data modeling concepts in PowerBI representing another crucial step in your preparation for the PL300 exam this will entail a thorough recap of designing effective data models and the creation of model calculations using DAX or data analysis expressions additionally you’ll delve into implementing well ststructured data models and optimizing data performance for efficient and seamless analysis following your refresher in data modeling you’ll take a turn toward revisiting essential concepts linked to data visualization and analysis more essential components to your PL300 exam readiness this part of the course encompasses creating impactful reports and enhancing and elevating those reports to boost usability and storytelling plus you’ll also focus on developing your skills in recognizing patterns and trends within data which is invaluable in data analytics after covering these critical content areas you’ll shift your focus to the deployment and maintenance of assets within PowerBI here you’ll refresh your understanding of pivotal topics like establishing and managing workspaces and assets you’ll also work on your proficiency in the efficient handling of data sets a skill that’s fundamental to the work of a data analyst to complete this course successfully you’ll have the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge you have gained to a practice exam specially designed to simulate the conditions of the PL300 exam this practical hands-on assessment will allow you to assess your readiness and identify areas that may require further attention or improvement furthermore you’ll receive additional study resources and materials to further enhance your preparation you’ll also have the opportunity to explore different roles and career prospects that will be accessible to you once you’ve successfully completed the exam and obtained your Microsoft certification in sum the objective of this course is to prepare you for the PL300 exam and support you in realizing the next steps towards a career as a PowerBI data analyst the course is structured to prepare you thoroughly for assessment and guide you in recapping and consolidating the concepts you’ve acquired throughout the program it aims to increase your confidence in your competence and ensure you are truly exam ready as with the other courses in this program the videos readings activities and quizzes will contribute to you consolidating your knowledge and serve as a way for you to measure your progress beyond preparing for the PL300 exam this course holds a much larger promise it’s about more than just gaining knowledge and skills in data analysis in PowerBI it’s about taking an important step in setting yourself up for a career in data analysis a field filled with opportunities and potential by completing all the courses in the program you’ll earn a Corsera certificate which you can use to proudly showcase your job readiness to your professional network furthermore the program with an emphasis on this exam preparation and practice course will prepare you for the Microsoft Exam PL300 which leads to a Microsoft PowerBI data analyst certification globally recognized evidence of your realworld skills so are you ready to achieve exam readiness and take a leap toward a career in data analytics with PowerBI congratulations on reaching the home stretch of this program and all the best as you embark on the exciting and promising learning journey that lies ahead this is the final course in the Microsoft PowerBI data analyst professional certificate which will guide you through taking the PL300 exam and earning the associated Microsoft certification by obtaining the Microsoft PL300 certification you can unlock various career opportunities enhance your knowledge and skills and cultivate a competitive edge in the job market exams are nothing new it’s likely that you’ve encountered similar challenges earlier in your career just like before it takes preparation to make the most of it and the more effective your preparation the more benefits you will reap from all your effort this video provides a quick overview of what you can expect from the PL300 exam the logistics around taking the exam and the steps you need to take to prepare for success you can take the PL300 exam online at your home or office through Pearson View online you can also take your exam with Pearson View at one of their worldwide test centers pearson View is a global leader in computer-based testing and assessment services their Onview platform employs several security measures to ensure a fair and secure testing experience you can schedule your exam for a specific date and time on the Pearson View website there are a few important things to do before the day of the exam these include a system check making sure your ID document meets the specified requirements and choosing the appropriate space to take the exam the PL300 exam is a proctored exam which means that you are monitored by a live proctor or exam supervisor through your webcam during the exam the proctor ensures that you follow the exam guidelines and don’t engage in any prohibited activities the proctor will also give you certain instructions during the check-in process on the day of your exam there are very strict rules about what items and actions are allowed while taking the exam which you’ll learn in greater depth later it’s critical to understand these policies because failing to adhere to them will result in the termination of the exam session let’s move on to the topics covered in the exam to succeed in the PL300 exam you should be proficient at using Power Query and writing expressions using DAX or data analysis expressions you should know how to assess data quality as well as understand data security including rowle security and data sensitivity the PL300 exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: data preparation data modeling data analysis and visualization and asset deployment and maintenance there are certain percentages of exam questions relating to each of these categories knowing these percentages can help you focus your study schedule on the categories that carry the most weight and help you prepare in the most effective way you can look forward to exploring the specific ways in which the skills related to each of these categories might be assessed later you can also consult the detailed exam skills outlined provided by Microsoft effective exam preparation not only requires a lot of dedication but you also need to consider effective strategies for during the exam for instance you should consider the type of questions you might get and how to approach them some helpful strategies include reading every option before choosing a final answer and following a process of elimination when you are unsure you will learn more about these and other strategies later one of the best forms of preparation is to take a practice test before the exam this way you can monitor your progress and identify the areas that might require a little more attention later in this course you will take two mock exams each one will focus on the topics and key concepts covered in the previous courses and the skills measured in the PL300 exam this video gave you a bird’s eyee view of how the PL300 exam works what it tests and some core elements of an effective exam preparation strategy you’ve already put in a lot of hard work by engaging in course material exercises and assessments during this program you are in a good position for the final preparation before taking the exam the information and materials in this lesson will help you focus your preparation in this final stage toward earning the Microsoft PowerBI data analyst certification datadriven enterprises rely on data analysts to provide them with accurate and insightful analysis as you’ve learned finding the correct data sources is essential for data analysts to help businesses achieve their goals in this video you’ll recap the importance of identifying the right data sources and connecting to data sources with Microsoft PowerBI as you begin the data analysis process identifying what data is required and which sources can provide the data is the first step toward a successful analysis outcome for example when looking to increase sales your social media accounts and popular search engines become your key data sources to analyze marketing data similarly if you’re looking to improve customer satisfaction tracking the volume of support requests and resolution time from your customer support system is the key data source fortunately PowerBI comes with over 100 connectors to allow you to tap into the different data sources available to you these include spreadsheet sources such as Microsoft Excel user directory services such as Microsoft Active Directory SQL databases such as Microsoft Azure SQL databases and text files in various formats such as XML JSON and CSV plus Microsoft continues to add new connectors and update existing connectors each year now let’s explore how to connect to a data source in PowerBI in PowerBI desktop select get data followed by Excel workbook when the file browser opens navigate to the folder that your Excel file is in select the Excel file then open the navigator window will open displaying all the available sheets within the workbook select the check boxes beside the sheets that you want to import at the bottom of the navigator window are three buttons: load transform data and cancel selecting load will load the data directly without cleaning or transforming it for this example let’s select transform data to open the Power Query Editor and inspect the data powerbi will begin loading the data note that this may take a few minutes depending on your computer and the size of the worksheet once the data is loaded the Power Query editor will open power Query allows you to apply transformation operations to the data before loading it into PowerBI on the left side of the editor is the queries pane where each table is listed selecting a table will allow you to clean and transform its data each row of data in the table is listed in the main working view on the right side of the editor is the applied steps list this lists each of the transform operations being applied to the data and the order in which they are being applied note that if you need to change the source of the data query you can select the cog icon beside the source step this opens a window where you can change the file from which the data is loaded if you’re satisfied with the existing data source you can close the window by selecting okay in this example let’s use the data as is without cleaning and transforming it select the close and apply button in the top left corner of the editor to finish transforming the data and load it into PowerBI powerbi will begin loading the data with transformations applied to it again this may take a few minutes depending on your computer and the size of the worksheet once the data is loaded you can begin working with it to build reports and dashboards if you want to inspect the data after loading select the table icon on the left side of the interface to open the table view also known as the data view in this view you can inspect each table and each row of data working with data sources is an important aspect of the role of a data analyst this video revisited the importance of identifying the right data sources and how to connect to an Excel data source load its data using Power Query Editor and configure the data source settings by selecting the cog wheel next to the source step in the applied steps pane as you solve business challenges unlock new opportunities and optimize existing processes consider which data sources can provide the data you need to achieve your objectives powerbi with its more than 100 connectors makes it possible for you to harness these sources to their fullest potential with hundreds of connectors in Microsoft PowerBI it should be no surprise that a wide range of options are available when using these connectors previously when you used an Excel worksheet as the data source the data imported into PowerBI but for larger volumes of data importing may become a resource inensive operation this is where choosing a different storage mode like direct query comes in in this video you’ll revise the different storage modes available in PowerBI powerbi Desktop supports three different storage modes also known as connectivity modes or data set modes in PowerBI service import mode direct query mode and dual mode when you use import mode data is copied from the data source to PowerBI this allows quick access to the data locally however if the data source is updated after importing you must refresh the data source fortunately you can configure PowerBI to schedule refreshes at specific intervals such as daily or weekly when you use import mode consider how up-to-date the data must be for stakeholders to make datadriven decisions effectively another consideration when using import mode is the required storage space if you are working with an extensive data set storing all the data on your local device may not be possible in today’s datadriven world it is not uncommon to see data sets consuming several gigabytes of storage so what about data sources with significantly large volumes of data a scenario where import mode may be unsuitable by changing to direct query mode PowerBI will query the data source directly for data rather than importing it this means that when a report is displayed in PowerBI each visualization will send a query to the data source to request the required data to determine what connectivity mode is supported you can refer to Microsoft’s documentation for your chosen connector one disadvantage of using direct query is that it requires transferring query results from the data source every time a query is made depending on the volume of data this may take some time slowing down visualizations and reports to improve the user experience PowerBI also provides a dual mode this mode is a combination of the direct query and import modes depending on the query and data source PowerBI will store a local copy of query results and refresh the copy as needed this helps improve the responsiveness of visualizations and reports without importing all data into PowerBI as you build data models in PowerBI connecting to multiple data sources is common when your data model connects to multiple sources it is known as a composite model with composite models you can configure the storage mode for each table in the model for example let’s say you have two tables in your data model products and sales in a niche business the product data set might be a small Excel spreadsheet and the sales data a large data set stored in a SQL database in this scenario it would make sense to use import mode for the products table and direct query or dual mode for the sales table this would help ensure no slowdown in your reports and that the viewers have a good user experience but what about connecting to a data set on PowerBI service powerbi features a type of connector called live connection which allows you to use direct query with data sets published to PowerBI service powerbi service becomes an important data source for building reports and dashboards as an organization grows hosting data in PowerBI service allows the organization to have one source of truth to maintain consistency and accuracy in reporting the benefit of using live connection is that security rules can be applied to the data ensuring that company data remains protected from unauthorized viewers in this video you recaped import direct query and dual storage modes to help you choose between them choosing the right storage mode is important to ensuring a good user experience for different stakeholders if data retrieval is slow reports and dashboards will also be slow which may result in stakeholders not utilizing the insights unlocked by your data analysis as you proceed through the data analysis process carefully consider which storage modes are suitable for different data sources and how they should be configured query parameters are a useful feature in Microsoft PowerBI for simplifying a dynamic element of your data for example changing between a test data source and a production data source or filtering data from your data source in this video you’ll revise how to configure query parameters and the values that they use in the Power Query Editor there’s an Excel data source loaded containing stock orders for different business regions because the data set is quite large let’s use query parameters to filter the data needed to do this select the manage parameters button in the home tab of the ribbon menu this opens the manage parameters window to filter the data by country you need to add a country parameter in the manage parameters window select new in the name field enter country in the description field let’s add a note that this parameter filters the stock order data by country ensure that the required option is enabled so that report users must specify a value for this parameter for the type field let’s change the type to text as the country values are text values also since there’s a fixed list of countries in the data let’s change the suggested values to list of values in the list of values add the three countries present in the data the United States France and Germany for the default value select United States this will be the default value for users of this data set for the current value select United States then select okay this adds the parameter to the queries pane to ensure that the data source query utilizes the parameter select the stock orders query in the queries pane then select the filter button in the country column followed by text filters and equals which opens the filter rows windows in the filter rows window change the filter value button to parameter this will then change the equals filter to utilize the previously defined country parameter you can then select okay note how the data set is now filtered by the country parameter in the home tab of the ribbon menu select close and apply to load the data set to confirm that the parameter has been applied select the table view button also known as the data view in this view it is clear that the data set contains only stock orders for United States this matches the current value specified for the country parameter earlier to visualize how this parameter is used let’s create a simple report containing a card visualization navigate to the report view in the visualizations pane select the card visualization the visualization is then added to the report now select the visualization in the report in the data pane also known as the fields pane let’s select the unit price field this applies the unit price field to the visualization in the visualizations pane in the data field rightclick the sum of unit price and then select average the visualization now displays the average value of the unit price field in the data set to change the parameter you can select the drop-down of the transform data button in the home tab of the ribbon menu then select edit parameters in the edit parameters window let’s change the country parameter to France then select okay powerbi now displays a notification that there are pending query changes if you select apply changes the parameter change will be applied note that the average value in the visualization has changed this is because the data set has now been filtered for only stock orders in the France business region to confirm this let’s select the table view button in this view it is clear that the data set contains only stock orders for France in this video you recaped how to change the values in a parameter query parameters are a great way to filter your data queries dynamically as you begin building reports and working with more extensive and multiple data sets consider how you can use query parameters to reduce the scope of data being retrieved by PowerBI optimizing your reports and providing a better user experience as a business continues to grow so does the challenge of managing large volumes of data and ensuring that the data is wellformed and ready for analysis microsoft PowerBI’s data flows help to solve this issue by creating reusable data transformation logic in this video you’ll explore what a data flow is how it works and how to connect to one in PowerBI desktop maintaining a single source of truth is important in a datadriven enterprise it ensures consistent analytical conclusions are obtained from the underlying data one method of ensuring a single source of truth is by creating data flows in PowerBI service a data flow is a collection of tables that exist within PowerBI service you can add and edit tables in your data flow apply transformations and manage data refresh schedules directly from the workspace in which your data flow was created each table consists of columns and rows each cell in a table is known as an entity data flows promote the reusability of underlying data elements preventing the need to create separate connections with your cloud or on premises data sources if you want to work with large data volumes and perform the extract transform and load or ETL process at scale data flows with PowerBI premium scales more efficiently data flows act as data sources for your data sets in both PowerBI service and PowerBI desktop data flows can also act as data sources for other data flows however when using a data flow there are important considerations and limitations to keep in mind if a data flow links to another data flow the maximum number of linked data flows in the chain is 32 this is known as the maximum depth you need a PowerBI premium subscription in order to refresh more than 10 data flows across the workspace data flows are managed individually this means that there is limited visibility into dependencies between data flows in PowerBI data flows you can use parameters but you can’t edit them unless you edit the entire data flow when creating a data set in PowerBI desktop and then publishing it to the PowerBI service ensure the credentials used in PowerBI desktop for the data flows data source are the same credentials used when the data set is published to the service previously in this course you walked through how to create a data flow let’s take a moment to explore how to connect this data flow to PowerBI desktop launch PowerBI desktop and select more from the get data drop-down list of options in the get data dialogue box that appears select Power Platform from the left column and select data flows from the right column of the dialogue box then select next if you are connecting to the dataf flow for the first time a dialogue box opens where you need to sign into your PowerBI service account after you enter your login credentials select connect a navigator window appears displaying the workspace and the data flow you created previously expand the workspace and data flow to display the available tables the two tables that you imported during the creation of the data flow are available here select both tables fact internet sales and dim date followed by load the tables are loaded into the PowerBI model a process you may be familiar with you can establish relationships between the data tables and create reports and visualizations as you typically do with any data set once the data is updated in the source data set you need to go back to PowerBI service and refresh the data flow or configure the scheduled refresh of it you will revise scheduled refresh later data flows are a powerful feature that enable you to centralize your data as a single source of truth as an organization grows data flows help to encourage consistency and reuse of data leading to effective decision-making within the organization businesses operate with many data sources from SQL databases to Excel spreadsheets but with multiple data sources comes varying degrees of quality some sources may be perfect and ready for analysis but others require quality checks cleaning and transformation in this video you’ll revise the importance of inspecting data before loading it for analysis before loading a data source into PowerBI it is essential to evaluate whether the data source will provide the data that you require and if the format is compatible with PowerBI utilizing the wrong data for analysis can lead to incorrect conclusions being drawn or even worse wrong business decisions being made once you’re satisfied that the data is suitable the next step is to load it into PowerBI when you first load a data source PowerBI inspects the first 1,000 rows of data of each table to determine the data types of each column powerbi supports multiple data types such as numeric types date and time types text and true or false in most scenarios PowerBI will automatically determine the correct type however while this automatic feature is useful it is important to inspect the results of it in the data view also known as the table view of Power Query Editor incorrect data types can cause significant issues later when writing DAX queries building reports and analyzing the data if you need to change the data type use the Power Query editor to perform the transformation once the correct column types are established it is important to evaluate the statistical distribution of the columns in PowerBI this is done using three data profiling tools column quality column distribution and column profile let’s revisit each of these profiling tools starting with column quality column quality displays the percentage of data that is valid in error and empty in an ideal situation you want 100% of the data to be valid column distribution displays the distribution of the data within the column and the counts of distinct and unique values distinct values are all the different values in a column including duplicates and null values distinct tells you the total count of how many values are present on the other hand unique values do not include duplicates or nulls unique tells you how many of those values only appear once lastly column profile provides a more in-depth look into the statistics within the columns for the first 10,00 rows of data this column provides several different values including the count of rows which is important when verifying whether you imported your data successfully for example if your original database had 100 rows you could use this row count to verify that 100 rows were in fact imported correctly additionally this row count will show how many rows PowerBI has deemed as being outliers empty rows and strings and the min and max which will tell you the smallest and largest value in a column respectively this distinction is particularly important in the case of numeric data because it will immediately notify you if you have an anomaly in your data such as a maximum value that is beyond what your business identifies as a maximum now let’s recap how to access these profiling tools in the Power Query Editor a sales data set has just been loaded in the Power Query Editor the data set contains the transaction ID product ID quantity sales amount and other related data to inspect each column’s data type navigate to the transform tab in the ribbon menu to display the data type in the ribbon menu select the column and inspect its data type the data type is currently set to text for each column as the data in the first four columns are numeric update the first four columns to the whole number data type by selecting each column and changing the type in the ribbon menu note that when the data type is changed a new step is added to the applied steps list remember you can edit remove and reorder the steps in this list next let’s update the sales amount column to the decimal number data type and finally update the transaction date column to the date data type next you have to evaluate the column quality distribution and profile to do this navigate to the view tab in the ribbon menu enable the column quality column distribution and column profile options in the menu the view now updates with the corresponding statistics each column is 100% valid meaning there are no errors or empty values in the quantity column there are four distinct values and zero unique this means that among this data there are four values that occur in the quantity column but none of them are unique in the column statistic panel the count is 52 since there are 52 rows of data this is the correct number the minimum and maximum values for the quantity column are within the expected range for the business if there were any issues with this data further transformation would be required to clean the data you will learn more about transformation later in this course the data is ready for import navigate to the home tab in the ribbon menu and select close and apply profiling your data is important for ensuring accurate results later in the data analysis process without accurate data businesses can’t unlock the insights that they’re seeking remember accurate and consistent data is a requirement for a successful datadriven enterprise as you know by now datadriven organizations rely on data to make informed decisions and drive innovation however the effectiveness of such decisions is greatly dependent on the quality and consistency of the data poor quality data and inconsistencies can lead to expensive mistakes missed opportunities and damaged reputations in this video you’ll explore resolving inconsistencies and issues in your data let’s start by exploring the question what is data quality data quality refers to the accuracy completeness and reliability of the data as a future data analyst a key responsibility of your role is ensuring that data is of high quality before it is used stakeholders and decision makers rely on accurate data to assess performance and build strategies inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to inaccurate reports and misguided decisions such decisions could have significant effects on the business if the business is operating in a regulated industry such as pharmaceuticals the wrong decision could lead the business to fall out of compliance with regulation and be subject to fines or legal proceedings for example duplicate entries in your marketing data could lead management to overstock certain products increasing costs and negatively impacting the finances of the business the common types of inconsistencies and quality issues that can occur are duplicate rows empty or missing values and errors or invalid values fortunately PowerBI comes with tools to help analyze the quality of your data and resolve inconsistencies and errors previously you learned how to use data profiling tools to analyze a column’s quality distribution and profile which helps identify irregularities in your data you also learned how to ensure that the column has the correct data type now let’s revisit how to use the Power Query editor to resolve other data quality issues and inconsistencies here in Power Query is a data set that contains several data quality issues the first issue is that every row is duplicated to resolve this navigate to the home tab on the ribbon menu then select the remove rows button and select remove duplicates power Query has now removed the duplicates and added a step to the applied steps list for removing duplicates next there are some values in the transaction date column that are null the sales team has informed you that there was an error on their system and the date was the 1st of January 2023 to fix this select the replace values button under the home tab the replace values dialogue box appears here specify null as the value to find and 1st of January 2023 as the value to replace with select okay and the changes are applied again note that a new step is added to the applied steps list in the sales amount column one of the values is spelled as the words 500 instead of the number to fix this use the replace values dialogue again this time specifying the words 500 as the value defined and the number 500 as the value to replace select okay to apply the changes now that the quality issues are resolved return to the home tab in the ribbon menu and select close and apply to apply the changes maintaining data quality is a key aspect of being a data analyst by regularly evaluating and auditing your data you can help maintain the accuracy of your analysis and help organizations make effective decisions that will lead them to success data comes in different forms a telephone number is not the same as a block of text therefore ensuring these different forms are correctly represented and stored in table columns is important for accurate and consistent data collection and analysis in this video you’ll revise how to identify and transform column data types and how to create a new calculated column based on existing data in PowerBI a table consists of one or more columns of data as you add data to the table a new row is created in the table with a value in each column each column has a specified data type which determines how the data in the column is represented which calculations are available and how the data can be used in visualizations you’re already familiar with the different types of data in PowerBI including numeric types date and time types text and true or false once your data is loaded into a table you may identify missing data for example suppose you are working with a table of products consisting of two columns cost and sale price for the report you’re building you also need to display the profit per product sold since the data is not provided by the data source you can use a calculated column to derive the value required calculated columns use a data analysis expressions or DAX formula to create new values for each row in the table like in the previous example these calculated columns will often use values from existing columns to derive their values based on the example the formula to create a profit column would be profit equal sale price minus cost this is a simple example but DAX is a powerful expression language that you can use to create complex formulas to derive insights from your data now let’s take a moment to review how to identify a column’s data type transform the column and create a new calculated column in PowerBI load and open the sales data set in the Power Query Editor as you’ve previously learned PowerBI automatically determines the data type based on the first 1,000 rows of the data set however it is best practice to inspect the data type of each column before importing to do this select the first column in the main working view in the home tab of the ribbon menu the data type is specified as whole number inspect each column noting that all columns except the last one are set to the whole number data type the last column transaction date is set to date data type all types are correct except the sales amount column since a currency amount can have numbers after the decimal place you need to change this column’s data type to fixed decimal number to do this select the column then select the data type in the ribbon menu and select fixed decimal number in the drop-down note that this can also be done in the transform tab of the ribbon menu a prompt appears asking if you want to replace the existing change type step in the applied steps list or add a new step for this example select add new step a new change type step is added to the applied steps list now that the data types for each column are correct you need to add a new calculated column the data set is missing the sale price per unit which is calculated as the sales amount divided by the quantity to do this select the add column tab in the ribbon menu and then select custom column the custom column prompt appears for the new column name enter sales amount per unit next you need to complete the custom column formula powerbi provides a list of available columns on the right side of the prompt first select sales amount and select insert this adds the sales amount column to the DAX formula in the custom column formula type space then forward slash and then space forward slash is the division operator in DAX then select the quantity column in the available columns list and select insert on the bottom left of the prompt note that PowerBI has detected no DAX syntax errors then select okay power Query has now added the calculated column to the table select the column to inspect its data type the column has been created as an any type change the column to a fixed decimal type and the data set is now ready in the home tab on the ribbon menu select close and apply to begin importing the data into PowerBI as you work with large data sets consider how correct data types and calculated columns can help optimize the visualization of your data saving calculation time during visualization will improve the user experience and drive engagement with the reports you are building as you begin working with multiple data sources keeping track of the different queries can grow in complexity very quickly this is where PowerBI’s query pane and reference queries become crucial to a data analyst in this video you’ll learn about the query pane and how to effectively manage queries using it in PowerBI when you connect to a data source it creates a query in the query pane as you begin applying transformations these exist within the context of the query however if you are working with large data you may need to apply multiple transformations inserting data into tables at different stages doing this with a single query can become difficult to maintain very quickly this is where duplicate and reference queries come in in the query pane you can duplicate a query to create a copy and perform different transformations on it from the original query this allows you to transform data into different formats and insert it into different tables for example let’s say you have a sales data set that contains the following columns sales date item quantity shipment address and shipment country you need to build a table for sales and a table for countries the sales table can be imported from the data set but unfortunately you don’t have a separate countries data set so you need to build a table from the sales data set in this scenario you can duplicate the query rename it to countries and apply the necessary transformations to remove all columns except shipment country remove duplicates and import the data into a country’s table you now have a table containing all countries that sales have shipped to in this scenario duplicate queries make sense as you have two completely different sets of transformations and resulting tables if there are common transformations this creates an issue for maintainability let’s work through an example where duplicate queries could create problems again let’s say you have a sales data set that contains the following columns: sales date item quantity shipment address and shipment country you need to build a table for sales and a table for countries however in both tables you need to rename the shipment address column to address and shipment country column to country if you duplicate the query you will need to apply this transformation in both queries and if you need to update this transformation later you will need to do it in both queries well this is a simple example if you had a series of more complex transformations maintaining these in two different queries could easily result in mistakes and human error this is where reference queries are important to use reference queries allow you to use another query as the base of a query using the previous example you can apply the column rename transformations in one query and then create two new queries which reference the first query to perform the subsequent operations to create the sales and country tables now if you update anything in the first query the dependent queries will be automatically updated this reduces the complexity and effort of maintaining queries minimizing the risk of human error it also increases the efficiency of PowerBI as PowerBI can pipeline results from the first query as input to the dependent queries instead of repeating transformations multiple times on multiple queries when importing very large data sets efficient queries can be the difference between a few minutes and a few hours of importing data duplicate and reference queries require much consideration when working in PowerBI identifying when efficiency and maintainability are needed is an important skill to develop as you progress in your career as a data analyst and can help you perform effectively in your role as you work with multiple data sources you’ll discover that the data is often disjointed and needs to be combined and transformed into a data model that is suitable for analysis in this video you’ll explore how merge and append queries in PowerBI can combine multiple data sources into single tables suitable for visualization and analysis in later stages of the data analysis process it is common to encounter data that is broken down into multiple files or data sources for example sales data might be stored in one Excel file per month or perhaps sales data was originally stored in Excel files but later moved to a SQL database however to effectively analyze this data you require it to be contained in a single table in PowerBI fortunately the Power Query Editor contains the append queries feature which allows you to append multiple sources into a single table using the earlier example let’s say you have one Excel file containing sales for January the file contains the columns sales date product name and sales amount you then have a SQL database containing a table with sales for February with the same columns as the Excel file using an append query you can combine the data from these two data sources into a single table containing sales for both January and February but what happens if the columns are different suppose that the SQL table contains an additional column named discount when the append query executes it will insert null values in discount column for rows that originate from the Excel file append queries works well when the columns in the data source are well aligned and the desired resulting table should match the format of the data sources however you may encounter more complex scenarios requiring the merging of data from different sources this is where merge queries comes in let’s say you have a table of customers named customers from a customer relationship management or CRM system you then have a table of sales orders from a SQL database named sales you want to prepare a single table containing the most common cities where orders are delivered to to do this you’ll need to merge the tables from the two data sources using a merge query to merge two tables you need to tell the merge query which type of join you would like to use the join type informs PowerBI how to merge the two tables a join requires that there is a common column between the two tables in our previous example the sales table contains a unique customer ID which is present in the customers table this is known as the join key once the join key is determined the join type must be chosen powerbi supports the following join types left outer right outer full outer inner join left anti-join and right anti- join let’s explore each join type and the way it combines data from multiple tables based on matching criteria to understand the join types picture two tables one of the left side named sales and one of the right side named customers the sales table contains the columns sales ID customer ID and sales amount the customers column contains the customer ID country and name columns the customer ID column in both tables will act as the join key with a left outer join the resulting table will contain all rows and columns from the left table merged with all matching rows and columns from the right table this results in a table with the column sales ID customer ID sales amount country and name if the sales table has a customer ID that does not exist in the customers table the name and country columns for that row will contain null values in a right outer join the resulting table will contain all rows and columns from the right table merged with all matching rows and columns from the left table this results in a table with the columns sales ID customer ID sales amount country and name if the sales table contains customer ids that are not present in the customer’s table these rows are excluded from the results a full outer join simply merges all rows and columns from both tables into the resulting table if the sales table contains rows that do not match the customer’s table null values will be inserted for the country and name country columns if the customer table contains rows that do not match the sales table null values are inserted for the sales ID and sales amount columns in an inner join the resulting table only contains the matching rows from both left and right tables a left anti-join will keep rows from the left table that do not have matching rows in the right table note that this will still include columns from the right table but since there is no match in the right table every row will have a null value in these columns a right anti-join will keep rows from the right table which do not have matching rows in the left table again note that this will still include columns from the left table but will have null values for these columns in each row merge and append queries are valuable tools in your data analysis toolkit they allow you to combine tables from multiple data sources into a format that aids rather than hinders the data analysis process as you continue through the data analysis process designing a schema to represent your data is a key step before diving into the analysis itself this video will explore table relationships and how to identify appropriate keys for establishing relationships a table relationship is how two tables are connected to each other let’s say you have two tables sales and products the sales table contains the following columns sales ID sales amount and product ID the products table contains the columns product ID product name and product category in the products table the product ID column is what’s known as a primary key each value in the product ID column is unique that is if one row has the ID of 11 no other rows in that table will have that ID therefore a primary key uniquely identifies a row in the table in the sales table the product ID column is what’s known as a foreign key it’s not the primary key of the table but instead it establishes a relationship to the products table this means that each row in the sales table is associated with a specific row in the products table if a row in the sales table has a value of 11 in the product ID column it is therefore associated with the row in the product table which has a primary key of 11 for primary and foreign keys the whole number data type is most commonly used however there are scenarios where a non-numeric identifier may be used for example if you are analyzing countrybased data you could use the two-letter standard identifier for each country such as US for United States DE for Germany and so on now that you know how to establish a relationship between two tables the next important aspect is the cardality of the relationship in PowerBI there are three types of cardality one many to one or one to many and many to many to explain these cardalities let’s say that you have two tables table A and table B a onetoone relationship would mean that each row in table A is directly related to only one row in table B and vice versa for example if table A contained countries and table B contained capital cities the relationship would be one to one as each country has only one capital and each capital belongs to only one country a many to one relationship would mean that multiple rows in table A can be related to a single row in table B the relationship from table B to table A is a one to many relationship that is each row in table B is related to multiple rows in table A our earlier sales and products example was an example of a many to one relationship multiple rows in the sales table are associated with one product in the products table a many to many relationship would mean that each row in table A is related to many rows in table B and each row in table B is related to many rows in table A for example if you had a table of books and a table of authors a book can be written by multiple authors and an author can write multiple books establishing relationships is an important aspect of building a schema for your data model you will learn more about schemas and data modeling later table relationships are an important consideration when modeling your data in PowerBI using incorrect relationships or cardality can lead to wrong insights and results in the data analysis process as a data analyst it is your responsibility to ensure correctness in the data model so that a successful analysis outcome can be achieved congratulations on completing the first part of the Microsoft PL300 exam preparation and practice course designed to help you achieve your PL300 certification you’ve discovered much about the PL300 exam and honed your data preparation skills and knowledge within Microsoft PowerBI to ensure your success let’s recap some key takeaways and insights you’ve covered so far you began with an overview of the course and how it will prepare you for your certification journey you explored the syllabus course structure and helpful tips for success you delved into all things Microsoft certification as part of your exam preparation you identified key knowledge and skills measured in this course’s mock exam and the PL300 exam learning how to plan your study time effectively the steps to register and schedule the procedur exam were outlined offering a clear road map to taking the exam you also discovered more about the administration of the PL300 exam so you know what to expect you explored testing strategies and the advantages of practice assessments and mock exams you also had the opportunity to discuss exam preparation with your fellow learners armed with more knowledge about the PL300 exam you moved on to reviewing exam content focusing on data preparation in Microsoft PowerBI you began by revisiting the practicalities of getting data from various sources you learned the importance of choosing the right data sources and were reminded of PowerBI’s extensive range of connectors you were guided through connecting to an Excel data source and loading data via the Power Query Editor and you explored configuring data source settings you also explored the difference between local and shared data sets the pros and cons of import direct query and dual modes and choosing different storage modes you gained handson experience setting up and configuring a data set reviewing the advanced query capabilities of Power Query and using query parameters in Power Query expanded your toolkit you covered connecting to a data flow recapping data flows and creating them in a workspace you also explored the difference between data flows and Microsoft data versse enriching your expertise then you focused on the critical task of profiling and cleaning data you covered evaluating data data statistics and column properties reviewing why data evaluation is crucial Power Query’s profiling capabilities and different evaluation methods through an interactive activity you practiced analyzing a data set for anomalies and statistical irregularities preparing you for real world scenarios as a PowerBI data analyst you also explore data inconsistencies unexpected or null values and data quality issues you may encounter as a PowerBI data analyst as well as resolving data import errors next you explored the transforming and loading data you reviewed creating and transforming columns understanding the importance of selecting appropriate column data types and how to transform columns and create calculated columns in Power Query you brushed up on shaping and transforming tables and applying query steps to shape the data exploring reference queries you recaped when to use reference or duplicate queries you also unpacked the differences between merge and append queries and explored the different types of joins finally you reviewed how table relationships work identifying appropriate keys for relationships and configuring data loading for queries in a PowerBI project you now have detailed insight into what taking the PL300 exam entails and have boosted your skills and knowledge in data preparation with PowerBI and that’s not just good for the exam it’ll also contribute to your success in the world of data analytics previously you covered how to establish table relationships building on this you will explore how to design a schema that contains facts and dimensions when deciding on the data schema you plan to use for your analysis the most common schema types are star and snowflake schemas you may recall that in these schemas data is broken down into fact and dimension tables fact tables represent a business processes measurements metrics or facts they can contain several repeated values for example one product can appear multiple times in multiple rows sold to different customers on different dates these values are used to create aggregations during visualizations dimension tables store contextual data or descriptive attributes about the facts these tables are connected to the fact table via key columns you can use dimension tables to group or filter data in the fact table during visualization in Microsoft PowerBI in the context of an Adventure Works data set with sales and product tables the sales table is the fact table as it contains transactional information about the sales process the product table is the dimension table as it contains the contextual information the product sold for each sale in the star schema the most common data model a single fact table is typically related to one or more dimension tables the snowflake schema further normalizes the dimension tables for example the product table is broken down into product category and product subcategory tables based on category ID and subcategory ID now let’s revisit how to create and configure a star schema in PowerBI launch PowerBI desktop and load the data from the Excel workbook containing Adventure Work sales data the data set contains four data tables one fact table the sales table and three dimension tables these are product region salesperson navigate to the model view where you can create and configure the data model and build a star schema once you load the data PowerBI auto detects the relationships between the data tables based on the key columns you can disable this function from options and settings to create and control the nature of relationships between your data models you can establish the relationship between the fact and the dimension table in two ways to build a star schema remember in a star schema the fact table is at the center of the star the first method is simply dragging the key column from the fact table to the dimension table in the current data set drag the product key column from the product table and drop it on the product key column in the sales table if there are no duplicate values in the product key column of the product table PowerBI automatically establishes a one to many relationship with a single cross filter direction repeat the same process for region and salesperson tables to relate these dimension tables to the sales fact table let’s delete the relationships to explore the second way to build the star schema right click on the connector line and select delete the relationship select manage relationships from the home ribbon a manage relationship dialogue box appears on screen here you can either select autodetect or new with the autodetect selection PowerBI identifies the key columns and establishes relationships in your data similar to when you load data into the PowerBI data model for the current exercise let’s select new a create relationship dialogue box opens select tables cardality and cross filter direction for all data model tables one at a time your star schema is ready to use for your analysis and visualizations practically in a star schema dimension tables are typically positioned above the fact table to give it a waterfall-like structure these dimension tables are used for filtering the fact table meaning the typical direction of the filter is like the flow of water from the waterfall in this video you explored how to build and configure the star schema from the adventure works data set data modeling is a key skill set that you need to master in your journey to become a successful PowerBI analyst and succeed in the Microsoft PL300 exam role-playing dimensions enable data to function dynamically and facilitate better informed decision-making this involves assuming the perspective of your data to play multiple roles and uncover insights that might remain hidden to the untrained eye in this video you’ll recap roleplaying dimensions and the use relationship function in Microsoft PowerBI in business intelligence a role- playinging dimension is a single dimension that can be used for different purposes in the same data model using an adventure works example you might have a date dimension table that connects to various fact tables like sales purchases and inventory this date dimension could play distinct roles like acting as order date when examining sales data purchase date when working with purchases or inventory check date for inventory related analyses previously you encountered a practical scenario involving role-playing dimensions a single sales table that contained multiple date related fields like order date shipping date and delivery date in this case the date dimension table in your model can be related to the sales fact table via multiple relationships to accommodate the different date roles such as new sales shipping dates and receipt dates however remember that only one relationship can be active at a time and the remaining relationships must be inactive you can switch the active relationship manually from the manage relationship in the PowerBI model view continuing with the previous example you would need to import Adventure Works sales data into PowerBI desktop to implement the roleplaying dimension and start building the relationships between the date dimension and the sales fact table the date dimension table is the roleplaying dimension in this scenario and is used for the entire analysis and visualization in PowerBI in a realworld environment you often need to analyze data and present information from a distinct perspective for example Adventure Works might need information about its sales values based on shipping or delivery dates currently the data model contains only one date dimension which is role-playing one way to achieve this is to duplicate the date dimension and rename it shipping date although this is not a practical approach fortunately PowerBI’s formula language DAX provides the solution with its use relationship function creating a measure using the DAX use relationship function temporarily switches the inactive relationship to active let’s break down the DAX formula to create a measure that calculates sales values based on shipping date the code is defining a new measure or calculation called total sales orders shipped in this formula the calculate function alters the filter context of the entire measure within the calculate function it uses the sum function to sum up the sales amount column of the sales table as the default relationship between the sales table and the date table is based on the order date column each DAX calculation is based on the relationship between the tables the use relationship function in DAX overrides this relationship and establishes a temporary relationship between the date column of the date table and the shipping date column of the sales table this inactive relationship becomes active only during the current calculation when using the use relationship function there are some essential points to consider you can only use use relationship within DAX functions that take filter as an argument for example calculate calculate table and total YTD when rowle security is defined for a data table you cannot use the use relationship function otherwise PowerBI will return an error you must first define relationships in your data model because the use relationship function uses existing relationships the column used as the argument in the formula must be part of the relationship if not an error message will display on screen you can nest up to 10 use relationship functions in a single expression lastly in a onetoone relationship use relationship can only activate a relationship in one direction meaning filter propagation will be in one direction only to activate birectional filter propagation you need to use two use relationship functions within the same expression mastering creating custom measures within your data model using a use relationship function and implementing role-playing dimensions are two methods you can use to handle the inactive relationship between data models these skills will not only help you to succeed in your Microsoft PL300 exam but will be valuable in practice as a PowerBI data analyst by now you have an idea of evaluation context and how it works in DAX calculations all DAX calculations compute measures under row and filter context calculate along with its companion calculate table is the only DAX function that can alter the filter context during a DAX calculation in this video you’ll revise how to use calculate to manipulate filters at Adventure Works the management team wants to analyze granular levels of sales data for example suppose the sales manager needs information about the sales of mountain bikes in Europe only a product specialist is interested in the performance of a specific color product that the company recently launched and the United States Countrywide manager wants to filter out the sales amount for the newly hired salesperson all this granular information is easy to compute using DAX measures in PowerBI you can filter the entire sales measure for a specific color product a particular region a salesperson and so on using calculate this will change the filter context of the measure from all to the filtered arguments let’s examine the syntax of calculate and how it impacts the filter context of the calculations in a DAX formula that calculates the total sales of red products the DAX code uses the calculate function and specifies a filter condition where the product table’s color column is equal to red when you use this measure in a matrix or table visual the filter over product color is added to the already existing filter placed by the matrix itself on the month column in the first column the month is the filter context filtering sales for each month the total sales measure computes the sales amount for each month for all products this time adding product color equals red as an additional filter context in this syntax a condition is used to apply the filter over product color however in the DAX engine filter arguments of calculate are tables so the same calculations can be achieved by a formula where the DAX engine converts the previous shorter syntax of calculate to a longer syntax let’s explore this behavior from another perspective if you visualize the total sales by color in a matrix the filter context is filtering the product color the presence of the all function in the longer expression means the outer filter over product color is ignored and replaced by the new filter introduced by calculate in the matrix the sales values for the red products are repeated in all the rows for each row the filter introduced by the matrix is the corresponding color and the red product sales imposes a new filter forcing red to be visible this means the new filter introduced by calculate overrides the existing filter so the sales values are computed within the filter context that filters only red products let’s say the European sales manager of Adventure Works needs the sales amount of red products in Europe only you need to introduce another filter argument within the calculate expression this expression applies two filter functions to the overall filter context of the calculation namely the product color filter to include only red products as in the previous example and takes the region groups as an additional filter to specify Europe as the region the measure presents the sales of red color products in Europe for various months likewise you can perform further granular analysis to compute the sales amount for individual categories product salespersons resellers of the company and so on from the examples you have learned the calculate only modifies the outer filter context by applying new filters this is done by either overriding the existing filter or by combining new filters with the existing ones the evaluation context and calculate function are the foundation of the DAX language making these fundamental skills any PowerBI analyst should master to pass the PL300 exam and to handle realworld analytical challenges previously you learned that multiple data tables constitute a data model for instance a star or snowflake schema a relationship exists between the data tables why does this relationship exist a model relationship propagates filters applied to one column of the table to another model
table a filter can only propagate if there is a relationship path to follow which may involve multiple model tables this video will cover the cardality types and cross- filter directions that exist between the data tables in Microsoft PowerBI in a model relationship two columns are involved from two different tables one from the from side and one from the two side of the relationship both these columns must be of the same data type at its core cardality defines the nature of the connection between two data tables it tells you how many values in one table correspond to how many values in another each relationship must have at least two data tables a from side and to side of the relationship the column on the from side of the relationship must contain unique values while the two side column can have duplicate values powerbi supports four types of cardality these are one one to many many to one and many to many when you establish relationships between tables by dragging the key column from one table to another PowerBI automatically detects and sets the cardality type by sending queries to investigate which columns contain unique values however sometimes PowerBI’s autodetected cardality is not correct therefore it is recommended to check the cardality type before starting analysis and visualization now let’s start by reviewing the onetoone relationship one type of cardality supported in PowerBI a onetoone cardality means both related columns contain unique values this is not a common type of relationship in data modeling consider an example where Adventure Works has two dimension tables product and product category each table has a skew or stock keeping unit column all fields in these columns contain unique values a onetoone relationship exists between these two tables based on the skew column because it’s common to both this means that when skew filters the product category table the product table will be filtered for products associated with the skew next are the one to many and many to one cardality types these two types are essentially the same where each value in one table column is related to multiple values in another it is also the most common type of cardality in PowerBI data models it ensures slicing and dicing data allowing for drill down analyses to uncover granular insights for example in an adventure works data set the sales table also the fact table is related to the region table or the dimension table both tables have a sales territory key column which establishes a one to many relationship between the tables in the region table the sales territory key field contains a unique value in each row as each region only exists once in the table each region can have multiple sales so their sales territory key may be repeated in multiple rows of the sales table a many to many relationship means both related columns can contain duplicate values this type of relationship is used when designing a complex data model typically it’s also used to relate two dimension tables or two fact tables for example consider the relationship between a financial corporation’s customers and the various financial products they hold a customer can hold many financial products and each financial product can be held by many customers a many to many relationship supports the duplicate customer ID data in both tables now that you’ve covered the cardality types in PowerBI let’s delve into how these cardonality types influence the cross filter direction you may recall that cross filter direction refers to the direction of filter propagation between two related model tables it dictates how data from one table influences the data in another table enabling relational analysis without resorting to complex queries or manual data consolidation single cross filter direction means the filter propagates unidirectionally from one table to the other within the relationship and both means the filter can propagate in both directions a relationship that filters in both directions is commonly described as birectional the cross- filter direction is dependent on cardality type onetoone relationships support only both cross filter direction one to many and many to one relationships support both types of cross filter directions many to many relationships can have a single cross filter direction where table A filters table B or table B filters table A or both of these single cross filter directions simultaneously although you can set and configure cross filter direction in PowerBI desktop’s model view in real world scenarios it’s often necessary to answer business questions that require changing the direction of filter propagation manually adjusting the cross filter direction to meet these analytical requirements is not practically feasible dax provides the solution with its cross filter function with the cross filter function you can change the cross filter direction for a specific measure while maintaining the original settings the syntax of the cross filter function takes three arguments let’s examine this syntax briefly in the first argument table one name refers to the name of the first table and column name one refers to an existing column within that table usually representing the many side of the relationship to be used similarly in the second argument table two name refers to the name of the second table and column name two refers to an existing column within that table this time usually representing the one side of the relationship to be used finally filter direction represents the cross- filter direction to be used you can define this as none single or both cross filter directions in the expression both cardality and cross- filter direction are the key analytical concepts in data modeling and analysis as the businesses continue to rely on datadriven decision-making mastering key skills in data modeling and DAX will set you on a path to becoming a functional and influential analyst you have just imported a data set for analysis and upon careful investigation you’ve realized that some information required to address business questions is missing in the data set creating calculated columns to add the missing information into your data tables is a concept you’ve learned before and will be covered briefly in this video calculated columns are custom data columns that are created within a Microsoft PowerBI data model using data analysis expressions or DAX language unlike standard columns that store data directly from imported data sets calculated columns contain formulas that drive values from existing data once you add a calculated column to your data model by defining a DAX expression you can use this column to generate any report and visualization just like the standard columns calculated columns are stored in the data model level and therefore consume memory so you have to be careful not to use too many calculated columns the standard columns of a data model are populated with the imported data model whereas you need to define a DAX expression to populate a calculated column from the existing data the data can be taken from multiple columns and tables of the data model that you must define in the DAX script remember calculated columns can be created from the report view data view or model view of PowerBI desktop and are based on the data you have already loaded into your data model for instance if you have a customer data table with two distinct columns containing information about the first and last names of the customer and you want to combine these two columns into a single column containing the full name of the customer you can use a DAX expression to concatenate the two columns into a single calculated column one of the most common examples of populating a data table with calculated columns is creating a date dimension table previously you populated a date table with various calculated columns like year month name month number and so on now let’s briefly recap the DAX syntax for defining calculated columns the syntax starts with the name of your calculated column followed by an equal operator then write the names of the tables to be referenced in single quotation marks and their respective column names in square brackets include a relevant arithmetic operator or any other expression for example at Adventure Works you are creating a sales report based on geographical information in the geography table both city and state information are available in separate columns displaying only the city name in a visualization might create ambiguity because of the same city name in multiple regions of the globe you can solve this by creating a calculated column using the following DAX code to create a new column in your geography table city and state and an equal operator region in single quotation marks followed by region then city in square brackets the concatenation operator followed by state in square brackets you also learned that if you want to include data from two different tables of the model you first need to make sure the tables have appropriate relationships and secondly you need to use the related DAX function in your formula let’s now recap the benefits of using calculated columns the first benefit is that it enhances data transformation calculated columns help you transform raw data into meaningful information for instance you can convert currency values calculate percentages and so on the next benefit is dynamic and interactive reports you can use calculated columns to introduce slicers and filters to make your report interactive and dynamic another benefit is consistency by embedding calculated columns within the data model you can ensure consistency in your reports changes in source data reflect instantly in calculated columns thereby reducing the risk of errors the last benefit of calculated columns is complex analysis whether it’s timebased calculations statistical analysis or forecasting calculated columns with the power of DAX allow you to tackle intricate data challenges calculated columns are indispensable tools in PowerBI offering a means to shape and analyze data effectively they enhance your data model by introducing new information based on an already loaded data set that allows you to reveal the hidden insights of your data the key lies in mastering the art of crafting the calculated columns using DAX to extract valuable information as a data analyst you receive data from different sources you clean and transform the data and build an effective data model for accurate and effective analysis to ensure an accurate and effective analysis you need to put on DAX magnifiers to see the hidden information in your data data analysis expressions DAX can be used to build calculated tables calculated columns and measures measures are of special significance as they do not take space from your PowerBI memory and are not stored in the model the measures are executed dynamically and can thereby integrate any filter context you apply while writing the script measures in PowerBI are the calculations that summarize aggregate or perform complex calculations on data the calculations can range from simple sums to intricate analyses with the use of these measures you can go beyond basic data visualization as they allow you to drive insights make data back decisions and unearth patterns and trends within your data set that at first glance are not noticeable you can create measures in PowerBI in two ways quick measures and custom measures using DAX in a previous lesson you covered how to create quick measures in PowerBI for Adventure Works timebased analysis to recap briefly PowerBI supports the following types of calculations in quick measures this average per category calculation lets you create the average variance min and max for each category you can apply some fundamental filters in this category of calculations powerbi allows you to create some basic time intelligence calculations like year-toate or YTD monthtoate or MTD and yearover-year or Y with this calculation category you can calculate the running total or total for each category basic mathematical operations are used like addition and subtraction to create quick measures simple concatenation can be done for your measures although you can create a handful of quick measures in PowerBI to get some quick insights the real analytical power of measures lies within the DAX logic dax allows you to write complex logic in the form of formulas and expressions custom measures refers to userdefined calculations or metrics created using DAX to generate insights about the data through aggregations calculations time intelligence functions and so on for example suppose Adventure Works needs to analyze its sales and profit data for each product category in sales region you can compute DAX measures to calculate total sales total profit and profit margin percentage separately these measures can be visualized in your report and you can integrate any filter the company needs to evaluate the total profit and profit margin for each product category and region as mentioned earlier measures compute the values on the go for example when you apply the filter for the bikes category the profit measure will use the product category bikes as the filter during the calculation and only display the profit margin values for the bikes category this way you can help Adventure Works generate the insights needed let’s explore the DAX syntax to create simple measures for sales profit and profit margins that you can use to address Adventure Works needs for sales create a measure called sales then add the sum x function after the equals operator in your first parameter reference the quantity column from the sales table and multiply it with the unit price column from the sales table to calculate profit create a measure called profit and after the equal operator subtract the total cost measure from the total sales measure you can use a measure inside other measures as in the profit measure both total sales and total cost are pre-calculated measures used to compute the next total profit measure next for profit margin you’ll start by creating a measure called profit margin and after the equal operator divide the profit measure previously created with the total sales measure make sure to format the measure as a percentage so the measure will display the percentage profit in your visualization remember to format the measure appropriately for example profit and sales measures can be formatted as currency with two decimal places while profit margin measures need to be formatted as a percentage with two decimal places measures created with DAX provide a way to summarize calculate and compare data across various dimensions based on specific criteria and business requirements measures serve as a microscope to see and discover the hidden message of your data mastering DAX is the key skill for any data analyst and you will receive a considerable number of questions about DAX in your Microsoft PL300 exam time is the dimension that virtually underpins all data analysis and for this reason time intelligence functions hold a position of paramount importance time intelligence functions are specialized functions designed to work with date and time data enabling users to perform advanced temporal analysis and gain deeper insight into historical data previously you cover the theoretical foundations of time intelligence functions and gain significant hands-on experience in creating them to summarize and compare data over time in this video you’ll recap the important benefits of time intelligence functions and how you can implement them in the aggregation and comparison of data values let’s start with the benefits of time intelligence functions the temporal comparison function makes it easy to compare data across different time periods you can create measures using DAX to compute yearoveryear or quarter overquarter trends which allow you to track growth seasonality and performance the next benefit of time intelligence functions is that they allow you to compute moving averages moving averages are a valuable tool for smoothing out fluctuations in data and identifying trends and patterns over time this is particularly important in scenarios where noisy or erratic data can be a challenge with time intelligence DAX functions you can compute moving averages to enhance your data model and analysis time intelligence functions facilitate the creation of cumulative totals which help in understanding the progression of values over time these measures are crucial for tracking key metrics such as cumulative revenue profit or customer acquisition time intelligence functions also facilitate the creation of periodtoate calculations to simplify the process of calculating values from the beginning of a time period to a specific date this is a valuable set of DAX measures to compute metrics like year-toate and month-to-ate values parallel period functions make it straightforward to compare data with previous or future periods which is vital for identifying trends and seasonality and making datadriven decisions with the benefits of time intelligence functions refreshed it’s time to recap a few important time intelligence DAX functions the first important time intelligence DAX function is total year-to- date let’s say for example that Adventure Works wants to compute the real-time sales performance of its various product categories you can calculate year-to-ate from the sales table’s total sales column or measure the DAX expression to compute YTD is a measure called sales year-to-ate followed by the total year-to-ate function after the equal operator in your first parameter reference the total sales column from the sales table and aggregate the values using sum in the second parameter reference the order date column from the sales table the date in square brackets represents the date column of the date hierarchy powerbi IntelliSense provides the option to select other fields of the date hierarchy such as year or month but to create time intelligence measures you need to select the date one of the main product categories of Adventure Works is bikes the company wants to evaluate the sales trends of bikes over the summer months you can use the dates between DAX time intelligence function to compute the measure summer sales after the measure is executed you can add the bikes category as an additional filter to the measure to answer management’s question the DAX code for the measure should be a measure called summer sales followed by the calculate and sum functions to compute the values of the total sales column of the sales table then insert the dates between function which takes the order date column from the sales table as a date reference finally include the starting date and another date referencing the end date now let’s say the marketing executive of Adventure Works wants to evaluate the impact of her recent marketing campaign the original time for the campaign was 3 months and after a month its impact should be evaluated you can create a DAX time intelligence measure using the dates in period function to compute a measure for last month’s sales create a measure called last month sale followed by the equal operator and the calculate and sum functions to compute the values of the total sales column of the sales table next add the dates in period function which takes the order date column from the sales table as a date reference this is followed by the today function that takes today’s data as the starting time 30 represents the number of intervals finally day represents the unit of time adventure works CEO wants a sidebyside comparison of the company’s sales for the current and the previous year this will provide her with insights into the necessary improvements to sales and marketing strategies you can create a measure using the same period last year dax’s time intelligence function as follows a measure called revenue previous year then define var as the variable for the previous year’s revenue followed by the equal operator and calculate which computes the previous year’s revenue by filtering the revenue measure based on same period last year finally the return function displays the value of the entire expression a sales forecast is a vital component of an analysis and adventure works sales executive wants a report based on historical sales values that predicts the future growth of the company in terms of revenue and profitability you can use the date ad function in DAX to either compare the current period sales with the previous period or to predict the future period period here refers to year quarter or month for instance to compare the current month sales with the previous one the DAX script should be a measure called sales comparison followed by an equal sign then calculate computes the measure by filtering the revenue measure followed by date add which takes the order date column from the sales table as a date reference one represents the number of intervals the negative sign indicates that the intervals are back in time this is followed by month representing the unit of time you can modify the code to predict the sales for a future period by changing month to any other time period like year or quarter time intelligence DAX functions in PowerBI are indispensable for analyzing historical trends forecasting future outcomes and understanding the impact of time on your data these measures uncover the insights hidden in your raw data you need to master this skill to excel as a PowerBI modeler pass your Microsoft PL300 exam and become a certified PowerBI analyst as datadriven businesses are evolving so are the business analytical tools microsoft PowerBI stands out as a formidable business intelligence ecosystem offering profound insights through its rich array of features central to the effectiveness of PowerBI are measures which serve as building blocks for data calculations and visualizations previously you covered measures in detail in this video you’ll recap the three main types of measures with scenarios measures are essential for performing quantitative analysis and deriving meaningful insights from the data they provide a way to summarize calculate and compare data across various dimensions based on specific criteria and business requirements measures can be categorized into three types: additive semi-additive and non-additive let’s recap each of these types of measures additive measures are the workh horses of data analysis and provide the easiest summation additive measures behave as you expect they can be summed up or aggregated across various dimensions without losing their meaning adventure Works has a sales analysis report that displays the sales amount and quantity sold for individual transactions each transaction is then tracked with a specific customer region product category and date as a data analyst you can create simple additive measures to sum up the attributes across all given dimensions this will help the adventure works team visualize total sales and total quantity by product category region salespersons and time of course the next type is semi-additive measures these measures introduce a layer of complexity they can be summed across some dimensions but not all and the crux of the matter is time think of inventory on hand as a simple example while it is meaningful to sum the inventory by product or warehouse it makes no sense to sum by time semi-additive measures are often seen in scenarios where time plays a crucial role you can handle these using DAX in PowerBI by specifying which dimensions are suitable for summation and which are not this dynamic flexibility makes it possible to create insightful reports while leveraging the power of DAX in PowerBI let’s explore an inventory balance example if a warehouse has 35 mountain bikes in stock at the end of September and 62 mountain bikes at the end of October it is not accurate to say the warehouse had 97 mountain bikes for the two months together you will handle these measures using DAX functions like last date last non-blank and others you’ll review later finally let’s cover non-additive measures these measures lead you to advanced analytics non-addeditive measures defy straightforward summation across any dimension consider for example the profit margin measure while it is tempting to sum profit margin across products or time periods the results do not make sense you cannot add percentages in this manner you need to perform complex calculations to handle non-additive measures like percentages or ratios to produce meaningful summation dax functions like average X sum X and divide provide you with the toolkit to work with non-additive data thereby allowing you to craft sophisticated calculations that provide valuable insights let’s delve a bit deeper into the profit margin example profit margin is a percentage that represents the profitability of a business and is calculated by dividing the profit by revenue for example let’s say Adventure Works has four product categories and the profit margin of the individual product categories are 9% for bikes 5.5% for accessories 10% for components and 2% for clothes if you sum up the profit margin of these product categories you’ll get a total profit margin of 26.5% however this result is incorrect because it does not reflect the true overall profit margin of Adventure Works you need to employ other DAX functions to compute these types of complex calculations the skill to distinguish and handle additive semi-additive and non-additive measures is the key to generating accurate and actionable insights out of your data the use of appropriate DAX functions from its rich library empowers you to compute each type of measure with precision and to reveal the story hidden within your raw data as a data analyst you import data from disperate sources to your data model the imported data however may not contain the information you need to visualize the key to any analytical work is to reveal hidden insights trends and opportunities you may need to add tables to your data model to accomplish this in this video you’ll explore the types of calculated tables and scenarios where creating these tables is necessary at Adventure Works the executive management team needs answers to specific business questions based on a specific data set after careful investigation you realize the information required can be visualized based on the provided data set but it may require more time and resources a quick way to accomplish the task is to create additional tables in the data model using DAX calculations say for example the sales table contains several columns but you only need to present the summary or the date table is missing from the data model and you need to perform timebased calculations or you also want to perform some analysis but keep the original table intact for other analytical needs all these are scenarios where you must create calculated tables previously you’ve learned that cloned tables are the exact copy of any existing table or data model clone tables are important when you need to manipulate data without affecting the original table for example Adventure Works wants to analyze sales data without altering the original sales table as they want to keep it as a reference you can simply create a clone version of the sales table by writing the following DAX expression as clone table name equals all original table name or more specifically as sales cloned equals all sales you can also create calculated tables using DAX expressions by taking data from multiple sources some examples of calculated tables include combining specific data fields from the sales and product tables to compare various product categories and associated sales values normalizing the dimension table for instance the product table contains categories and subcategories with information you need to separate from the product table this you typically do by creating a snowflake dimension creating a common date dimension table for a data model using DAX to perform advanced time intelligence calculations the last example of a calculated table is combining two tables with the same structure while keeping the original tables unaltered for example suppose you received two different tables with the same structure for Adventure Works customers one for Eastern States customers and one for Western States customers and you need to combine them into a single customers table you can also use measure to create calculated tables in PowerBI for example consider the scenario where you’ve created a measure sales for Adventure Works this measure displays all sales across countries you can use this measure to create a calculated table displaying the individual sales by each country using the following DAX expression country sales is the name of the new calculated table sales in single quotes is the name of the original sales table sales in square brackets is the DAX measure used to create a calculated table total sales in double quotes is the name of a new column added to the calculated table creating calculated tables from pre-calculated measures is especially useful when you want to create a summary table from large data sets or when you want to create a table with data that does not exist in the original tables this can enhance data analysis and visualization capabilities in PowerBI now let’s explore the syntax of a few common DAX table functions you can use the add columns function to add calculated columns to a given table or table expression here is the syntax for using the add column function type add columns and within the parenthesis specify the table name from which you want to retrieve data follow this with the name of the new column enclosed in double quotes and then provide the DAX expression for the calculation you can add more column names and expressions as needed but these additional pairs are optional the summarize function returns a summary table for the requested totals over a set of groups the DAX syntax for summarize is as follows type summarize and inside the parenthesis first input the name of the table you wish to summarize next include the names of the columns to group by each enclosed in double quotes you can also add new column names in double quotes followed by their respective DAX expressions for calculated values adding these additional columns and expressions is not mandatory but can be done based on your data analysis requirements filters returns the values that are directly applied as filters to column name with filters inside the parenthesis simply specify the name of the table or column for which you want to retrieve the current filters applied in the context top n returns the top n rows of the specified table for top n within the parentheses start by specifying the number of top items to return follow this with the name of the table from which to retrieve these top items conclude by indicating the column to sort by and optionally the order of sorting ascending or descending and lastly union creates a union or join table from a pair of tables when using union inside the parenthesis list the tables you wish to combine ensure each table name is separated by a comma the tables should have the same number of columns and corresponding columns should have compatible data types by using DAX to generate calculated columns you can combine data from various multiple tables into a single table that opens a whole new door of analysis in practice you will encounter situations where creating calculated tables is the only solution to certain data challenges the skills you’ve gained will help you tackle these real world analytical tasks efficiently data is often like a complex puzzle with pieces scattered across various dimensions microsoft PowerBI offers a way to unravel this mystery by creating a data hierarchy hierarchies provide a structured way to organize and visualize data allowing users to uncover hidden insights and tell a compelling story adventure Works a multinational company sells its products across the globe the product department heads need not only an overview of the sales but also require a deeper level of understanding of the location of customers and the category and subcategory of products sold you can provide this information by creating a hierarchical visualization of the data powerbi provides a way to display information where managers can drill down to view the granular details about customers and products in PowerBI a data hierarchy comprises interconnected fields from the data set organized in a way to present data elements in ranked order it represents a structured relationship between data attributes typically organized from an overview level to the most granular the hierarchical structure simplifies data exploration and analysis by allowing users to focus on specific aspects of the data at different levels for instance in a sales data set you might have a hierarchy that starts with year drills down to quarter then month and finally day in certain cases you can also drill down to hourly details product geography and organizational hierarchies are some other examples of data hierarchies in PowerBI in a hierarchical structure the first level sometimes called the parent level is ranked over the other sometimes referred to as the child level this way report users can drill down from the parent level presenting the highest level of information to the lower levels in an order powerbi allows a maximum of five levels to be added to a hierarchy using a hierarchical structure to create your visualization enhances the user experience in understanding the data and provides a more comprehensive analysis common visualizations that can be used to visualize hierarchies include bar or column charts line charts heat maps and map visuals powerbi provides several options to use a hierarchy in visualizations for example you can enable inline hierarchy labels to sort data by hierarchy levels you can use the path DAX function to add a column for the entire path length this is important when you are working with an organizational hierarchy you can also create DAX measures to determine the path length of the hierarchy which helps you in determining the shortest and the longest path now let’s explore how you can create a data hierarchy in PowerBI to help Adventure Works analyze granular data launch PowerBI desktop and load the data from the Excel workbook containing Adventure Works sales data the data set contains two data tables a fact internet sales and a geography dimension table the geography dimension table of the model contains geographical information therefore it is advisable to generate a geographical hierarchy the first step is to format the location-based data for an appropriate data category to do this select the country field and then select country from the data category drop-own list now format state province name city and postcode as state or province city and postal code a globe icon appears before the field name which tells PowerBI that this is geographical information let’s visualize the sales data by geography in the report view of PowerBI desktop to do this select the column chart from the visualizations pane and bring the sales amount field from the sales table to the yaxis well of the visual in the x-axis a geographical hierarchy is needed to display the sales data at various levels of locations bring the country state or province and city fields to the x-axis in the same order a set of arrows appears in the top right corner of the visual indicating the drill down functionality to turn on the drill down select the second down arrow if you hover the cursor over any data point for example the United States a drill down icon displays on the tool tip to go to the next level of the hierarchy select the drill down icon in our example the next hierarchy level is states from here you can either drill up or down to the next level alternatively you can create a hierarchy in the data pane select the country field from the data pane and select more options which is represented by three dots a drop-own list appears where you have to select create hierarchy a new country hierarchy field appears in the geography table with country as the highest level of the hierarchy you can now add related fields to the newly created hierarchy one at a time to do this select state or province and from the drop-own option select add to hierarchy next you need to select the hierarchy where you want to add the field in the current project there is only one hierarchy available country hierarchy select the country hierarchy and the field is added as the second level repeat the process for city and postal code you can test the country hierarchy by creating a new visual remember to format your reports using the appropriate font style and colors data hierarchies are indispensable tools for effective and granular data analysis and reporting in PowerBI they provide structure and context to your data making it easier to navigate and drive trends and let your audience gain a deeper understanding of the information at hand in fast-paced analytics where every business is turning into a datadriven organization performance is everything businesses rely on business analytics tools such as Microsoft PowerBI to turn vast amounts of data into actionable insights but what happens when too many users interact with your reports and you need to optimize the speed and efficiency of your reports and dashboards the performance analyzer helps you evaluate the performance of various elements of your PowerBI reports and dashboards adventure Works uses PowerBI as a business intelligence tool to create stunning reports and visualizations however as the data sets grow with the growth of the company and reports become more complex there is a need to make sure the reports perform optimally you can implement PowerBI’s performance analyzer to evaluate the performance of individual report elements such as visuals and DAX measures you may recall that the performance analyzer is a built-in tool of PowerBI that allows users to diagnose and optimize the performance of their reports and dashboards it provides insights into query execution time data model performance and visual rendering enabling analysts to pinpoint bottlenecks and fine-tune the creative work slow responding reports and dashboards hinder productivity and may lead to customer dissatisfaction with the performance analyzer you can identify and rectify slow performing report components not only is speed critical but efficiency also matters by identifying and optimizing inefficient elements of your reports you can reduce resource consumption and enhance user experience a healthy data model is the foundation of your analytical work the performance analyzer offers insights into your data model performance helping you to maintain and enhance it the tool does not stop at query diagnostics it also helps to analyze visual renderings this means you can identify the problematic and slow rendering visuals and optimize them for faster loading now let’s review how to use the performance analyzer you need to launch your PowerBI report and access the performance analyzer from the view ribbon of the report view upon selection the performance analyzer displays on the right side of the report canvas the performance analyzer records the processing time required to update or refresh each report element for instance when a user interacts with a slicer to modify the visual a query is sent to the underlying data model and visuals are updated according to the interaction you need to select start recording to start recording with the performance analyzer the performance analyzer inspects and collects performance measures in real time each time you interact with a report element the performance analyzer displays performance results in its pane once you finish recording select stop and the performance analyzer will display information about queries data models and visuals in a userfriendly interface the information log contains the time spent completing the following tasks dax query if your report has DAX calculations the duration between the query sent to the data and the results retrieved is displayed in the pane visual display the time needed by a visual to display on the report canvas which also includes the time to retrieve web data other this is the time the visual requires for preparing queries waiting for other visuals to complete or performing other background processing evaluated parameters if your report visual contains field parameters the time spent on these will be displayed in this category this is in preview mode the performance analyzer records duration in milliseconds and the values indicate the difference between the start and end of any operation once you stop the recording you can save the results onto your local computer now you can identify areas that need optimization and make necessary adjustments to your DAX logic visual elements and data model to improve overall performance having reviewed how to use the performance analyzer let’s briefly explore some of its real life applications when working with large data sets the performance analyzer helps you optimize the reports to ensure they remain responsive in the case of complex data models this tool assists you in maintaining efficient performance in addition you can use the performance analyzer to fine-tune reports visuals elements and queries for faster performance where you have many report users the performance analyzer in PowerBI is your handy tool for faster and more efficient yet visually appealing reports and dashboards to succeed both in Microsoft PL300 and as an efficient data analyst you need to master the skill of diagnosing issues through the performance analyzer and optimizing your reports accordingly in the dynamic landscape of data the sheer volume of data itself is not a threat to meaningful analysis the key lies in how you handle the data transform it and create visually appealing and analytically insightful reports but often the amount of effort you put into creating a masterpiece doesn’t perform according to expectations due to the slow responsiveness of the visuals and queries this highlights the significance of performance optimization which is equally important as creating reports and dashboards in this video you’ll review how to improve report performance via cardality and summarization in Microsoft PowerBI imagine Adventure Works Microsoft PowerBI reports meticulously designed to dissect sales trends monitor inventory levels and analyze customer behavior are encountering a challenge with a colossal volume of transactional data streaming daily the reports are performing sluggishly you may recall that you can improve performance by reducing data although the PowerBI engine effectively handles extensive data minimizing the volume of data loaded into your data model is still crucial this is especially important when working with larger data volumes or anticipating substantial data growth over time there are many reasons to minimize the data volume loaded into the PowerBI model including your current PowerBI capacity may not support the larger volumes of data for instance PowerBI shared capacity can host a model maximum of 1 GBTE in size smaller data models can reduce resource contention by using fewer resources like memory and processing power increasing efficiency loading more models for a longer period helps reduce the eviction rate meaning the data is removed from memory less frequently this can result in faster queries as the data sets do not need to be reloaded into memory smaller data models also tend to refresh more efficiently resulting in decreased time to generate and deliver reports with up-to-date data or lower report latency finally fewer rows in a data table can lead to faster calculation and improve query performance powerbi supports many techniques to reduce the data loaded to the PowerBI data model in this video you will review two methods reducing cardality and aggregation or summarization let’s begin with reducing cardality previously you learned about the type of cardality between data tables throughout the development of the data model you either establish or modify the relationship between the tables you need to ensure the data types of the fields participating in the relationship establishment are the same you cannot create a functional relationship where the data types of the columns are different for example the column has a key column that might be set to a text data type if the column contains only the numeric values you must change the data type to integer and whole numbers to decimal numbers which performs better than the text data type in the PowerBI model changing the decimal number data type to a fixed decimal number also improves the performance as you learned in the previous DAX lessons when you create a DAX calculation in your data model the default data type is decimal number or general this means the results of the calculation display unlimited places after the decimal which hinders optimal performance you need to define the distinct data type with specified decimal places for best performance changing to fixed decimal places reduces storage requirements enhancing model performance the next technique is reducing data via aggregations aggregation refers to summarizing large volumes of data into more manageable summary tables to improve query performance by condensing detailed information into simpler higher level values consider an example where you have a large data set containing a record of each transaction for reporting you’re analyzing only the yearly or monthly sales or sales by region you can create aggregated tables that are imported to the data model in the current example you can generate aggregated tables from the sales table grouped by region or month according to your requirements this pre-calculated aggregation can be imported to the memory of PowerBI and will be more efficient in querying daily analysis powerbi also supports three storage modes to handle large data sets where you can define the storage modes of data tables for example a large fact table with millions of rows can be set to direct query while smaller tables can be imported to the model for improved performance aggregations offer several benefits that can help you improve model performance if you are handling a vast data set aggregations provide a faster and optimized query performance they assist you in analyzing the data and revealing insights without importing the entire data set into the model if users are experiencing a slower refresh time of the reports in PowerBI you can create aggregations to help speed up the refresh process the smaller size of aggregated tables imported to memory reduces the refresh time enabling a better user experience lastly suppose your company is anticipating a growth in sales volume by expanding its operations to new regions or adding new products to its inventory you can leverage PowerBI to create and manage aggregations as a proactive measure to futureproof the solution enabling a smooth scaleup optimization of your data model in PowerBI is not just a technical endeavor it is a strategic imperative for organizations and an analytical challenge for you as an analyst powerbi’s performance optimization unlocks a new door of analysis ensuring that every decision is not just datadriven but empowered by the speed and efficiency necessary to thrive congratulations on completing the data modeling section of this course a prerequisite to analyzing data and creating reports and dashboards in Microsoft PowerBI let’s recap the key takeaways you began with a journey into designing data models starting with a recap of schema design principles you reviewed the star and snowflake design the two major types of schemas used in PowerBI and worked through a hands-on activity building a star schema for adventure works by understanding the fact and the dimension tables you explored how to handle the inactive relationships between two data tables by implementing a role-playing dimension and using the DAX user relationship function as DAX and the evaluation context are fundamental to data analysis in PowerBI you recaped using the calculate function to alter the filter context of your calculations you also explored cardality the nature of the relationship between data tables types of cardalities and different cross filter directions in PowerBI you can either select single or both cross- filter directions determining the filter propagation in one or both directions of the related tables next you moved on to creating model calculations using DAX you recaped calculated columns the custom data columns you create in your data model using DAX you gained a detailed overview of conceptual foundations and practical skills related to creating and managing measures using a library of DAX functions measures hold the hidden information in your raw data empowering users to gain meaningful insights you reviewed sum sum x and calculate functions to compute aggregation measures which are the most common calculation used for analysis in any datadriven business you also explored implementing time intelligence measures as the time dimension is the foundation of any business analysis requiring historical analysis and future predictions dax offers a rich library of time intelligence functions to aggregate and compare data over time such as dates YTD and total YTD by using time intelligence functions you can compute things like moving averages temporal analysis and cumulative totals to gain insight into the overall performance and growth of the organization you also recap types of measures including additive measures like total sales or total cost non-additive measures for example profit and margin and semi-additive measures such as inventory level and current account balance you gained hands-on insight into replacing an implicit measure with an explicit one and creating a semi-additive measure after that your focus shifted to implementing a data model you started by identifying the need for calculated tables such as when a data model lacks a common date dimension table and how to create them in PowerBI you gained a solid understanding of DAX functions that you can use to create and manipulate tables in PowerBI you then explored creating hierarchies including date product and geographical hierarchies creating a hierarchy is a significant feature of PowerBI allowing you to create a hierarchical structure to analyze the overview and granular details of data within the same visual by using drill down functionality further you explored how you can add a hierarchy to slicers in addition to the standard PowerBI visuals you reviewed PowerBI’s Q&A feature which uses natural language processing to answer business specific and userdefined questions in visual form this feature is significant in the real world datadriven environment by making it possible for individuals regardless of technical expertise or department to use and gain insights into the data from your reports and dashboards you learned that PowerBI allows you to teach Q&A to customize the review questions synonyms and relationships to help PowerBI better understand your business needs finally you focused on optimizing model performance this began with a review of PowerBI’s performance analyzer a robust diagnostic tool within the PowerBI ecosystem that allows you to monitor and evaluate the performance of your report visuals data model health and DAX queries you can use the information the performance analyzer provides to optimize slow responding report components and enhance the user experience you explored improving report performance by choosing optimal data types and summarizing data you learned that PowerBI offers several techniques to reduce data size and volume which is important for avoiding slower reports reducing cardality and creating aggregated tables are the two most important techniques you can employ as data reduction strategies to enhance model performance in PowerBI building and managing a healthy and functional data model is the key to performing any analytical work in PowerBI and gaining meaningful insights from your data understanding the schema DAX logic and performance optimization can help you become a certified PowerBI analyst via the Microsoft PL300 exam as well as handle complex realworld data challenges visualizations act as a bridge between raw data and actionable insights microsoft PowerBI offers a wide array of visualization options for reports empowering analysts to create compelling data narratives in this video you’ll explore the analytical background of visuals in PowerBI to help you identify and implement the appropriate visual to address the business need the management of Adventure Works requested a comprehensive sales report for the past year the challenge is to select the right visuals that align with the data and the analysis objectives ensuring clear and insightful presentation of the sales performance powerbi features a broad spectrum of visualizations each tailored for specific data representation needs the visualizations in PowerBI can be broadly categorized into general purpose visuals and specific purpose visuals general purpose visuals include visuals like tables and KPI cards that are versatile and can be employed across various analysis scenarios specific purpose visuals include a range of visualizations each designed to cater to specific analytical needs like time series and geospatial analysis among others the general purpose visuals in PowerBI are tables and matrices which effectively display data in a structured tabular format allowing for easy comparison and analysis across multiple dimensions card KPIs or key performance indicators which are instrumental in highlighting critical metrics immediately enabling decision makers to quickly grasp the performance indicators that are crucial for their business objectives and lastly slicers which act as interactive filters allowing users to filter the data being displayed dynamically thus enabling a focused analysis powerbi offers numerous visuals each tailored for specific types of analysis used daily in modern enterprises the key to effective data visualization lies in aligning the visual with the analysis goal thus enabling a clear insightful and engaging data narrative let’s explore the various categories of analysis specific visualizations and the PowerBI visuals most suited for each time series analysis is a method to analyze timeordered data to discern the structure or functionalities underlying them it is an essential analysis in forecasting monitoring and anomaly detection the optimal charts for time series analysis are line charts and area charts line charts are the ideal and most common way of visualizing a time series analysis while area charts are suitable for tracking quantity over time while emphasizing the magnitude the next analysis type categorical analysis deals with data that can be segregated into multiple categories but have no inherent order or priority categorical analysis helps you to understand the distribution and relation of data across different categories the optimal charts for categorical analysis are bar and column charts and pie and donut charts bar and column charts are effective for comparing the magnitude of categories and easily identifying the differences among them pie and donut charts are best for representing the proportions of categories especially when dealing with a small number of categories to prevent visual clutter correlation analysis aims to find a relationship between two or more variables understanding correlations is foundational for prediction causation analysis and trend discernment the optimal charts for correlation analysis are scatter charts and bubble charts scatter charts are suitable for spotting relationships between two variables and understanding the strength and direction of the relationship bubble charts extend scatter charts by adding a dimension through bubble size allowing for an additional layer of analysis the next type of analysis is distribution analysis this type of analysis observes how values of a variable are spread or clustered over a range it’s crucial for statistical analysis allowing comprehension of data variability and central tendencies distribution analysis is suitable for spotting relationships between two variables and understanding the strength and direction of the relationship next there’s part to whole analysis this type of analysis examines how individual parts contribute to the aggregate it’s a widely used analysis in understanding composition analyzing contribution and comparing individuals to the total waterfall charts are the most widely used for partto-ole analysis as it’s highly effective in showing the cumulative effect of sequential positive and negative values the last type of analysis is geospatial analysis geospatial analysis examines data in terms of geographical or spatial relationships it’s instrumental in finding patterns understanding spatial distributions and making geographically informed decisions powerbi offers a variety of different map visuals including shape maps cororoplath or filled maps and arcgis maps shape and corropath or filled maps support external geographical files to draw a map arcgis maps are rich in map visualization features the array of visualizations in PowerBI provides a powerful tool set for analyst to convey data narratives effectively the right choice of visualization based on the analysis need is crucial mastering the art of selecting the right visual in PowerBI is a valuable skill that significantly augments the data storytelling proess of analysts to ensure Microsoft PowerBI visuals are of a professional standard it is important to explore both general and visual formatting settings in this video you’ll explore the available formatting options in PowerBI and how to implement formatting options lucas is tasked with enhancing an Adventure Works sales report with two visualizations let’s help Lucas explore all general visual and conditional formatting techniques in PowerBI launch the sales categorical analysis PowerBI file in this report two commonly used categorical analysis visualizations have been used column and pie charts lucas is tasked to investigate all available formatting and configuration options that could enhance this report select the column chart and navigate to the visualizations pane select the format visual tab this is where the formatting options for every visual reside the formatting options are split into two categories visual and general visual contains chart specific settings and general contains settings shared by all visualizations even the text box and shape visualizations share these settings let’s select the column chart and general options again to view them in detail the properties section is used to adjust the size position or padding of the visual it’s helpful when slight adjustments are necessary like moving the visual to the right the title section focuses on formatting the title of the visualization and provides numerous setting options like font size color background color alignment subtitles and even a divider lastly the effects section includes settings to format the visualization background visual borders and shadows when you navigate to the visual formatting settings the column chart specific settings appear here you can view settings for both axes modifying their range of values font or axis title you can even change the y-axis to logarithmic to display the results on a different scale when using disabled settings like legend and small multiples make sure that fields are using the respective visual slots the next settings allow you to add grid lines on your visual a zoom slider to magnify specific axis ranges modify the color of your columns and add data labels when you select the table visual note that the visual settings are adjusted to fit this visualization here you have style presets to easily modify the table some grid options as well as options to change the appearance of cell values column headers and the total finally to add conditional formatting to your chart you can enable it on your table visual columns by selecting any field and then selecting conditional formatting in PowerBI you can format the background and font colors you can also add data bars icons or even links to web URLs selecting a font color for example the conditional formatting window appears here you can format the font color of the table visualization this formatting can be conditional based on a custom rule that you can apply the specific value of any field in the data set or even a gradient based on a value powerbi keeps adding conditional formatting on various visualization aspects for example select the column chart navigate to the columns field and expand it a button with a function symbol appears on the right of the color field this indicates that conditional formatting can be applied to the columns dynamically altering the color based on specific criteria when you select this button the conditional formatting window appears indicating that these visualization columns can be formatted based on specific rules field values or with a gradient color just like for the table in this video you learned how to explore all the available formatting options in PowerBI and implement formatting options navigating through large data sets to find important insights is a common task in data analysis microsoft PowerBI helps ease this task with its robust slicing and filtering features in this video you’ll explore the available slicing and filtering options available in PowerBI these features are essential for data analysis projects making it easier for users to focus on specific data subsets and uncover meaningful insights in their reports the management team at Adventure Works requested interactivity to be added to the sales categorical analysis report enabling them to dynamically apply filtering in the report the ability to shift through extensive data sets focusing on specific data points is important when building business intelligence reports slicing and filtering for this reason is an essential tool for a PowerBI analyst facilitating interactivity in reports that offer a dynamic and engaging data analysis experience let’s explore slicing and filtering in PowerBI in more detail to identify the three main methods of filter applications slicers the filter pane and visual filters the first way of slicing and filtering a report is by using slicers slices are visualizations that act as filters enabling a user to make selections that filter data within reports to add a slicer to the sales categorical analysis report select the slicer icon on the visualizations pane and adjust it by dragging its edges drag date into the field box the slicer visualization automatically identifies the field as a date field and selects the slicer setting style between the second way of slicing and filtering a report is through the filters pane the filters pane is a central location where users can apply and manage filters to their reports at three different levels visual page or report level visual level filters apply to a single visual page level filters apply to all visuals on a page and all pages or report level filters apply to all visuals within a report add country region to the filters on the page section and select Canada this will immediately filter the report to display only the data for the table rows with Canada in the country region field an important aspect of the filters pane is the hide and lock features it provides to the right of the filter you just added a lock filter button is visible this feature prevents report users from changing this filter the hide filter button hides the filter and prevents users from knowing that a filter is applied finally the third method of filtering is through visualization filters visual filters are a direct method of filtering allowing users to interact with the visuals on a report to filter the data for instance selecting the blue color on the tree map will filter the rest of the report based on the selected segment this feature is what makes PowerBI stand out as a highly interactive business intelligence tool as all page visualizations are constantly interacting with each other with a click of a button understanding slicing and filtering is key to unlocking the full capabilities of PowerBI they not only simplify the process of creating interactive reports and focusing on specific data segments but also empower data analysts to quickly identify valuable insights imagine effortlessly navigating through vast oceans of data in Microsoft PowerBI just like a seasoned captain navigating a ship through turbulent waters with page navigation tools you can unlock your report’s full potential for you and report users in this lesson you will cover the core features related to navigation and sorting you will learn about how page navigation effectively streamlines the flow and readability of multi-page reports effectively utilizing bookmarks capturing and sharing specific reports and states exploring the sorting functionalities in PowerBI to visually organize data enhancing clarity impact and insights lucas is a data analyst with Adventure Works and has been tasked with enhancing the interactivity and user experience of the company’s sales categorical analysis report in PowerBI as this report is crucial for monthly sales meetings the report requires navigation improvements to help the sales team navigate data more efficiently and gain quicker insights lucas’ objectives are to streamline the report’s navigation across multiple pages create bookmarks for key data points to enhance presentations and apply sorting techniques for clearer data visualization page navigation in PowerBI is a feature used to create multi-page reports that are userfriendly and easy to navigate it allows users to move between different pages of a report and is essential for organizing information logically across multiple pages the implementation of page navigation in PowerBI involves setting up interactive elements like buttons or links that users can select to move to different report pages it provides a guided experience beyond clicking on tabs as it directs users through the report in a structured userfriendly way especially in complex reports page navigation is integral for assisting users through a report’s narrative especially in complex data sets or presentations there are several benefits to using page navigation in PowerBI reports they include an enhanced user experience these features collectively improve the navigation and understanding of reports making them more userfriendly and accessible for instance in a financial report the first page might provide an overall summary and subsequent pages delve into specific areas like revenue by region or departmental expenses all interconnected through intuitive page navigation the second benefit is dynamic data presentation bookmarks and page navigation enable dynamic storytelling with data allowing for interactive and engaging presentations for example in a market analysis report bookmarks can allow users to switch between different market segments time periods or product categories making the presentation interactive another benefit of page navigation is improved data organization sorting mechanisms help in structuring data effectively leading to better comprehension and quicker insights for example sorting mechanism can be applied to a sales table to organize data by revenue allowing users to quickly identify top performing products when utilizing page navigation it often leads to increased efficiency this is due to streamlining the process of exploring and analyzing large data sets saving time and effort for both report creators and viewers for instance bookmarks can be combined with sorting mechanisms creating different sorted views of a data set like sorting customers by purchase frequency or sales by region this allows for quick comparisons and analysis saving time for both report creators and viewers the final advantage to using page navigation tools is the flexibility in analysis navigation offers flexibility in how data is viewed and analyzed accommodating a variety of analytical approaches and styles bookmarks can be used to switch between different data filters or visualizations even on the same page accommodating various analytical approaches bookmarks in PowerBI are a powerful feature that can enhance report interactivity and storytelling bookmarks allow users to save specific views and states of a report enabling quick navigation to these points during presentations or analysis they are particularly useful in highlighting changes or comparisons in data over time creating bookmarks involves selecting and saving the current state of a report including filters slicers and the visibility of visuals where visualizations can be hidden or left in view in cases where specific report configurations and filters are used in a report they can be saved as bookmarks to easily navigate back to them without having to reconfigure the report these bookmarks can then be linked to buttons or other interactive elements allowing for a seamless transition between different views within the report sorting data in PowerBI reports is a fundamental feature that organizes data within visualizations making it easier to interpret and analyze it brings clarity to reports by arranging data in a logical order whether ascending descending or based on specific criteria sorting helps present data in a structured manner aiding in the quick identification of trends outliers or specific data points it’s essential for making reports more intuitive and insightful powerbi allows sorting of data in various visualizations like tables charts and graphs users can sort data based on different attributes such as alphabetical order numerical values or custom criteria to suit the specific needs of their analysis in this video you explored essential features in PowerBI that elevate the functionality and user experience of reports you learned how page navigation streamlines the flow of multi-page reports how bookmarks offer dynamic presentation capabilities and sorting mechanisms bring order and clarity to data visualizations these tools are invaluable for analysts like Lucas at Adventure Works as they make reports not only more interactive and engaging but also more insightful and easier to navigate by effectively utilizing these features PowerBI users can transform their reports into powerful tools for storytelling and data analysis driving more informed decision-making in Microsoft PowerBI the interactions between visuals in a report is a fundamental aspect that enhances data exploration and analysis this is due to the fact all visualizations can filter one another over the next few minutes you will discover how visuals utilize and share data and how they can be configured to interact with one another you will explore the key interaction types filter highlight and none and their impact on overall report dynamics understanding these interactions and how to choose between them depending on the specific business need in hand is crucial for creating cohesive and informative reports that allow users to delve into data with greater clarity and context there are three key topics you will learn about in this video specifically you will learn how to grasp the basics of visual interactions specifically how visualizations interact with a PowerBI report explore interaction types specifically filter and highlight and how they can be applied and lastly you will gain insights into the non-interaction setting and when it is appropriate to use it in a report lucas the data analyst at Adventure Works encounters a challenge with a report called sales categorical analysis the sales team has reported an issue where selecting a data point in a column chart unexpectedly wipes out the data in the tree map visualization realizing this is a visual interactions problem Lucas is tasked with troubleshooting and resolving it he discovers that the current setting is likely a filter interaction causing the column chart selections to overly restrict the data displayed in the tree map the way visualizations interact within a report is crucial for a comprehensive data analysis experience these interactions determine how selecting or hovering over data in one visual affects the data displayed in another there are three primary types of interactions filter highlight and none let’s start with filter interaction when you select a data point in one visual it acts as a filter for the other visuals in the report for example selecting a specific category in a bar chart will filter the data in all other visuals to show only data related to that category filter interactions are essential for drilling into specific subsets of data and analyzing them in the context of the whole report filter interactions provide a focused view allowing users to isolate and analyze specific data points across different visuals next is the highlight interaction instead of filtering out non- selected data the highlight interaction dims it maintaining the overall context selecting a data point in one visual will highlight related data in other visuals while dimming the rest a highlight is used when the context of the entire data set is required even while focusing on a specific section the highlight interaction helps to understand the relationship of one part to the whole providing a broader perspective of the data this option disables interaction between visuals where selecting a data point in one visual has no effect on others this interaction is useful when visuals are meant to function independently without influencing each other’s displayed data it is crucial for reports with visuals that represent different data dimensions or when independent data exploration is required understanding these interactions is necessary for effective report design in PowerBI by applying these interaction types you can create reports that not only present data in an organized manner but also offer intuitive and insightful data exploration experiences in the upcoming video let’s assist Lucas in configuring the interactions between the sales categorical analysis report let’s start by launching the sales categorical analysis report to identify the interactions between visualizations we know that the bike category contributes almost entirely to the total of sales amount which might prove to be an issue for interaction between visualizations selecting the bikes column of the column chart the tree map boxes are almost unchanged then selecting accessories and clothing categories you notice that those categories are such a small percentage that they are barely visible when filtered the reason this occurs is that there is a highlight interaction type from the column chart to tree map chart highlighting just the percentile of each category this makes it difficult for users to comprehend the filtering of the report so you need to modify the interaction to access the interactions between visualizations select any visualization for example the column chart the format tab will now appear on the ribbon select format and enable edit interactions this is an onoff button which is now enabled it shows the interactions of a selected visualization towards all other objects in the report having selected the column chart notice the icons above the tree map these are the three interaction options: filter highlight and none select filter to change the interaction type and press on the columns of the column chart to notice the modification the users can now clearly see the color of products with the most amount in sales for each category remember that it’s a good practice to always disable the edit interaction button when completing your modifications on interactions as it takes up a lot of memory and might reduce the performance of PowerBI desktop the strategic use of visual interactions in PowerBI filter highlight and none plays a pivotal role in crafting engaging and insightful data stories by understanding and applying these interaction types report designers can guide users through a more nuanced and comprehensive data exploration journey imagine you are a data analyst for Adventure Works creating multi-page reports and you have implemented slicers on some pages when you change a slicer on one page it doesn’t change on the others currently you are recreating the same filter over and over which can be tiring for you and with so many changes to implement any mistake will lead to poor user experience how can your workload be improved and lead to a better chance of a strong user experience in this video you will learn about the fundamentals of synced slicers in Microsoft PowerBI learning how to implement this feature and gain insights into the enhanced storytelling capabilities and improved user experience provided by synced slicers adventure Works wants to analyze their bicycle sales performance across multiple regions they’ve created a comprehensive PowerBI report with pages dedicated to sales data customer demographics and seasonal trends however a challenge arises in maintaining consistent analysis across these pages when users want to focus on specific regions or time frames this is where implementing synced slicers comes into play enabling a seamless unified view of data through the entire report project slicers serve as an effective method for narrowing down information enabling you to concentrate on a particular segment of the semantic model slicers provide the flexibility to choose precisely which values are shown in your PowerBI visuals there may be instances where you require a slicer to be active on a single page of your report while at other times applying the slicer across multiple pages might be more appropriate utilizing the sync slicers feature allows any selection made via slicer on one page to influence the visualizations across all the pages you’ve synchronized synced slicers are not just a cosmetic addition they are a functional necessity for creating cohesive and user-friendly reports here’s why they are essential first is navigation consistency synced slicers ensure that when a user selects one page it reflects across all other pages this consistency eliminates confusion and enhances the user’s ability to analyze data coherently the second necessity of sync slicers is time efficiency by avoiding the need to repeatedly set the same filters on each page synced slicers save time and streamline the data exploration process lastly is improved data storytelling in reports where data storytelling is crucial synced slicers help maintain the narrative flow they allow the story to unfold effortlessly across different pages without jarring interruptions or resets in filters now let’s explore how you can sync slicers across pages in PowerBI reports let’s get the slicers in sync for the current report the report is split into two pages the first page shows sales by product category and color and the second page details sales data for all products from the last two months at the top left corner of both pages there’s a slicer if you pick a country on the product category and color page it only changes the data on this page the details page hasn’t changed however if you activate slicer sync the same filter will apply to both pages here’s how to do it in the view tab of the ribbon select sync slicers this brings up the sync slicers pane on the right now select the slicer on the first page and in the sync slicers pane select the sync checkbox for both product category and color and details now whenever you select a country on the slicer in the product category and color page it’ll also update the details page with the same filter to check if it’s working properly I’ll select a country on the first page when I open the second page I notice that the selected country in the slicer remains as selected this is how you can quickly synchronize slicers on various pages in a PowerBI report the sync slicers feature in PowerBI is a critical tool for enhancing the coherence and usability of reports by allowing slicers to synchronize across multiple pages it ensures that filter selections are consistent thus providing a smoother and more intuitive experience for the user you are part of a team working on sales reports for the stakeholders at Adventure Works you’ve noticed that the way the designers arrange the visuals is causing confusion making it hard to spot related items as well as this there’s no consistency in how visuals have been named everyone’s been labeling them however they please which makes it even harder to locate the essential elements using the selection pane you can organize and group these visuals making everything much easier to manage and understand in this video you are going to learn how to name visuals group the related visuals and properly organize by layering them on top of one another grouping and layering visuals in Microsoft PowerBI simplifies report creation and management by organizing data in a user-friendly way enhancing the user experience through clear logical presentation the first step towards enhancing user experience in PowerBI is to clearly name your visuals this involves assigning each visual a name that is meaningful and relevant ensuring quick identification following this organizing the visuals in your report by grouping related visuals to create a report that is both well ststructured and userfriendly the next crucial aspect is layering these groups effectively this technique is about strategically arranging your data to guide the viewer’s attention ensuring that the most important information stands out first lastly the culmination of these skills is evident in the way you manage the visibility of various report elements the control over what and when information is displayed allows you to direct your audience’s focus to essential data significantly enhancing the overall experience in your PowerBI reports now let’s explore how this works in Microsoft PowerBI naming grouping and layering in PowerBI is done from the selection pane to open the selection pane go to view on the ribbon and select selection the selection pane will appear on the right side of the PowerBI desktop editor displaying all items on the current page you can select any name in this pane to identify which visual it refers to it’s important that you name these visuals properly to organize them in an appropriate way this is especially useful when you have many visuals on a page for example if I select text box it will highlight the report heading i can rename it as heading by doubleclicking the item and entering the updated name this can be done on any of these titles when I double click on any item it enables me to edit the name in this selection pane you can also change the layering of the items meaning you can rearrange the order in which visuals appear to better understand this select the insert tab on the ribbon select buttons and then blank from the listed options this will place a new button on the report page notice the new button item that now appeared in the selection pane i drag the new button next to the date slicer i select this button in the selection pane and using the up and down arrows I can change its order for example if I send it below the slicer it disappears from the report because it is under the slicer visual using this method you can bring any item to the front or send them back using the selection pane you can also group items from this pane let’s group the heading and the underline below this heading named shape select the shape item from the selection pane i then press the control key on the keyboard and select heading notice how these two items are now highlighted now I right click on either item select group and then group again this will create a new group of these two items to ungroup right click on this newly created group then select group and choose ungroup this way you can use the selection pane to change the item names group them and layer them on top of or below each other by grouping and layering visuals effectively you’re not just tidying things up you’re making the whole experience smoother and more intuitive for anyone seeing your reports use these techniques in your next PowerBI project to create reports that are not just visually appealing but also userfriendly and coherent in today’s fast-paced business environment the ability to access and analyze data on the go is increasingly important with a significant shift towards mobile device usage optimizing Microsoft PowerBI reports for mobile viewing becomes an asset for any organization this video highlights the importance of adjusting reports for mobile view and explores the capabilities of Microsoft PowerBI’s mobile layout view offering a strategic advantage in data accessibility by the end of this video you’ll be able to understand the significance of mobile optimized PowerBI reports explore the features and benefits of PowerBI’s mobile layout view and identify best practices for designing mobile friendly reports lucas a data analyst with Adventure Works is tasked with creating PowerBI reports that are easily accessible and readable on mobile devices his challenge is to ensure that these reports provide a seamless user experience maintaining readability and functionality across various mobile platforms lucas aims to make these reports not just accessible but also as informative as possible for his team who often rely on quick data insights while on the move the way users interact with data has fundamentally changed mobile devices with smaller screens and touch-based navigation require a different approach to data visualization compared to traditional desktop displays recognizing this shift PowerBI introduced a dedicated feature for the unique demands of mobile platforms the mobile layout view the PowerBI mobile layout view is a feature within PowerBI desktop that allows creators to design and customize reports specifically for mobile devices this view addresses the unique challenges posed by smaller screens and touch interfaces key aspects include mobile optimized layout this layout differs from the standard view focusing on simplicity and readability on mobile devices it allows users to rearrange visuals to fit a vertical layout which is more suitable for mobile devices interactivity and functionality despite the change in layout the mobile view retains the interactivity and functionality of the desktop reports users can still filter slice and interact with the data in meaningful ways customization and flexibility powerbi provides flexibility in designing these reports users can choose which visuals to include how to arrange them and even create different views for different devices consistency in data representation while the layout changes the data and its representation remain consistent with the desktop version this ensures that users get the same insights regardless of the device they use preview and testing powerbi allows creators to preview how their reports will look on various devices helping them make necessary adjustments before publishing let’s look at an example of adjusting the sales categorical analysis report for mobile navigation using PowerBI mobile layout view to access the PowerBI mobile layout view you select the phone screen button on the bottom left of the page using this button enables you to switch between the desktop and mobile layout views the mobile layout view appears on screen it features the mobile layout canvas a grid layout where you adjust the visualizations to fit any mobile screen the page visuals pane where all the reports visualizations are listed and visualizations where the format settings of any selected visual will appear to adjust the report for mobile platforms drag and drop any visualization from page visuals to the canvas such as the date slicer and the tree map fitting both to the screen you can use the visualizations pane to format the visualizations such as enabling data labels for the tree map chart these changes won’t reflect on the desktop layout view the sales categorical report will now appear with these configurations when launched through PowerBI mobile ensuring the seamless navigation of the report using any kind of mobile device when designing reports for mobile devices using PowerBI’s mobile layout view it’s important to be aware of certain considerations and limitations that can impact the user experience these include tool tips availability while the tool tips are not active in the mobile layout canvas during the design phase they become accessible to users when viewing the report through the PowerBI mobile app metric visuals interaction on the mobile layout canvas metric visuals are set to be non-interactive this means users cannot interact with these visuals in the same way they might in a desktop report slicer selections consistency slicer selections made in the mobile layout do not transfer when switching to the web layout conversely if you switch from the web layout back to the mobile layout the slicer selections will reflect those changes additionally when a report is published any slicer selections displayed will be those set in the web layout regardless of whether the report is viewed in a desktop or mobile optimized view optimizing PowerBI reports for mobile devices is a strategic step towards enhanced data accessibility and decision making in today’s mobile ccentric world this feature is instrumental in ensuring that valuable data insights are always at the fingertips of decision makers regardless of their location or the device they use have you ever noticed numbers in your data that seem unusual and just don’t seem to fit the data analysts in Adventure Works have in their recent sales report some unusual figures stand out and need investigation these odd numbers might be a coincidence or they might be indicators of hidden issues in the Adventure Works data or in the business as a whole they might also be clues that can lead the Adventure Works team to deeper business insights these odd numbers are referred to as anomalies and outliers in this video you will learn what anomalies and outliers in data are you will also discover how these odd figures can reveal deeper insights and information about your data and how you can use them to inform smarter business decisions the Microsoft PowerBI sales report prepared by the Adventure Works Analytics team shows a profit downturn for a month in the middle of the cycling season typically this is a time associated with peak sales profits rose in another month without a corresponding increase in sales volume the team needs to understand why these numbers are appearing to determine if any action needs to be taken let’s explore the terms anomalies and outliers and discover some examples of each anomalies are data points that occur outside the expected range of values and which cannot be explained by the base distribution base distribution is the normal pattern that data follows anomalies are often caused by invalid data outliers are data points significantly different from the rest of the data there are often values that deviate from the other values in a data set however outliers can be explained by the base distribution the main difference between an anomaly and an outlier is that an anomaly is often an error or a rare unexpected event whereas an outlier is an extreme but expected value that still belongs to the pattern of the data so how would you recognize an anomaly let’s step through some examples a sudden spike in website traffic that cannot be explained by any known marketing campaigns or events a sudden drop in sales for a product that has been consistently selling well a sudden increase in the number of errors in a system that has been running smoothly could also be an anomaly a customer who is aged 200 years old now let’s step through some examples of outliers a top student who scores 100% on a test while the class average score is 70% a house that is significantly larger and more expensive than the other houses in a neighborhood a stock that experiences a sudden price change that is not in line with the rest of the market a customer who is aged 99 let’s explore how to use a scatter chart visualization in PowerBI to identify anomalies and outliers in a data set this data set contains advertising spending and profits based on the same campaign in different media over several months it looks problem free but we can’t be sure until we process this data with some visuals like scatter charts to visually spot outliers and anomalies we’ve plotted this data set using a scatter chart on this report page placing campaign ID in the values advertising spend on the x-axis sales revenue on the y-axis and platform on the legend there are some data points which stand out in the scatter chart some of these data points demonstrate a slight variation while others diverge significantly these unusual data points might be anomalies or outliers the orange data points represent the social media campaigns the majority of them did well and the chart shows that when the advertising spend increased sales also increased the CO4 campaign is an exception to this however this will not be considered an anomaly because you know that the Adventure Works website was down on that day despite the ads continuing to run on social media because you can define a reason why C00004 performed badly you can define it as an outlier another campaign C006 didn’t perform well despite its high advertising spend this was a print media campaign and on further investigation you found that that type of media was not popular and this is why the C006 campaign failed the campaign is also considered an outlier because you can explain the reason why it varies so much from the other campaigns the online campaign C023 also stands out as different from the other data points in its category in this case the reason why this campaign has performed so differently has not yet been identified until you have the exact reason why this campaign performed exceptionally well you would consider this an anomaly and not an outlier anomalies and outliers in data are critical indicators of deviation from the norm while outliers can be explained within the context of existing data anomalies hint at underlying issues or exceptional occurrences that demand deeper analysis identifying these can lead to improved strategies and more informed decision-making processes in business operations orders at Adventure Works have increased recently as more of their customers are enjoying outdoor pursuits the data analysis team are kept busy analyzing data related to the large volume of orders being processed and shipped and creating reports to present the results their reports contain many of Microsoft PowerBI’s bright and colorful visuals it’s a large amount of data and the team wants to ensure that viewers of the report can quickly spot patterns and insights two PowerBI features grouping and bin will help them to create visuals that are concise organized and easier to draw conclusions from in this video we will explore what groups and bins are in PowerBI and how they can help you to organize your visuals to deliver information and insights more effectively as a data analyst at Adventure Works you’re part of the team creating a sales report which will provide a summary of the current order fulfillment situation your first task is to compare the number of items that have been shipped with those that have a status of processing or cancelled the management team particularly wants to be able to easily access information on shipped orders data grouping will allow you to group orders according to their status that will make the order fulfillment status more visible and make the data as a whole more coherent the management team also want to know the overall number of shipped orders in different value ranges the data bidding process will be invaluable for this it will enable you to organize the results based on the order value ranges and this in turn will allow the management team assess the pattern of which orders were more valuable let’s explore how the grouping and bin techniques work grouping refers to the process of combining data rows based on specific column values in PowerBI this technique allows you to create a new column that represents aggregated data the purpose of grouping is to simplify and streamline your data visualization by categorizing similar data points together you can group data related to product categories regions or customer segments making it easier to analyze and present summary information for instance you can group states into regions like East Coast West Coast and Central or you could group products by categories such as electronics clothing and home appliances to understand combined sales numbers bidding involves dividing a numeric column into ranges or bins bidding is useful when you want to analyze data in discrete intervals by categorizing numeric values into bins you can gain insights into the distribution of data and identify patterns for instance you could bin ages into ranges such as 1 to 18 19 to 30 31 to 45 and so on if you’re monitoring website performance you could bin website load times into categories like fast less than 1 second average 1 to 3 seconds slow 3 to 5 seconds and very slow 5 plus seconds to identify user experience issues let’s explore how you can use grouping and bin to help Adventure Works display the order status and the value range of the orders let’s begin by applying data grouping to a visual this clustered bar chart shows orders across multiple product regions it includes all shipped orders as well as orders that were cancelled or are still showing as processing let’s group those orders which have a status of canceled or processing to do that right click on the order status field in the legend well and select new group when the group pop-up appears press the control key on the keyboard and select cancelled and processing then select the group button and finally select okay the clustered bar chart updates with this new group data instantly now the orders with a status of canceled or processing are displayed in the same group and you can see the total value for these orders summed up together the management team asked you to display the orders in different value segments you can use the bin feature to achieve this create a new report page and add a clustered bar chart select the product region and order status fields from the data pane ensure that the product region is placed on the y-axis and order status on the x-axis ensure that the clustered bar chart visual on the report page is still selected open the filter pane drag the order status field from the data pane into the filter pane in the filter pane select the order status filter box and then select shipped from the drop-own checklist the visual updates to show only the shipped orders as requested by the management team they also wanted to have the orders displayed in order value ranges so let’s create bins to achieve this in the data pane right click on the order total field on the data pane and select new group from the shortcut menu in the new popup enter 5,000 as the bin size and select okay a new entry appears in the data pane called order total open parenthesis bins close parenthesis drag this new entry to the legend well now the data is properly binned you can hover on any bar to see how many orders are in each of these bins in this video you explored what the grouping and binning features are and how to apply them in your data set by using these two features to organize the results displayed in the PowerBI visual you made the visual clearer and more concise the use of grouping and binning in the chart visuals has enabled additional analysis to be implemented artificial intelligence commonly referred to as AI has revolutionized the world of data analysis and visualization making it easier for businesses to uncover insights and make informed decisions microsoft PowerBI Microsoft’s popular business analytics tool has embraced AI with a range of AI visuals that empower users to delve deeper into their data in this video you will explore three key AI visuals available in PowerBI key influencers decomposition trees and forecasts you will learn how these AI visuals are applied in PowerBI and how they are utilized by data analysts to improve the key factors behind business results gain a detailed overview of data breakdown and predict future trends the Adventure Works management team has noticed a concerning trend a significant drop in bicycle sales despite a surge in interest in outdoor activities they want to identify the reasons behind it the management team need to discover why the results for this product range are not as good as expected they also want to identify the product ranges that are performing well and predict if the current trends in sales will continue the data analysis team in Adventure Works can use AI visuals to provide this information they begin with the key influencers visual the key influencers visual helps users identify the factors that influence a particular outcome or metric in their data the visual uses machine learning to analyze and identify the factors that have the most impact on a selected outcome as the name suggests the key influencers visual examines potential influencers ranks them based on their impact and presents these insights in an interactive easy to understand format it helps business users to understand what drives specific results or why events occur by using the key influencers visual the data analysis team can identify the adventure works products and product categories that are not performing well they can also obtain key insights on how to reverse the current downward trend in bicycle sales key influencer visuals in Microsoft PowerBI offer many benefits first they help to identify causal factors key influencers help you pinpoint the variables or factors that have the most significant impact on your chosen outcome allowing you to make datadriven decisions second key influencer visuals offer intuitive visualization the visual representation of insights is easy to interpret making it accessible to both technical and non-technical users key influencers visuals also incorporate drill down capability you can drill down into specific features to gain deeper insights and an understanding of how different values within those features affect the outcome lastly there is a statistical significance with key influencer visuals the tool calculates statistical significance ensuring that the relationships it uncovers are robust and reliable the data analysis team uses another AI visual called a decomposition tree to help the management team optimize their product lines the decomposition tree visual is an AI powered visual in PowerBI that allows users to break down a measure into its underlying components a measure in PowerBI is an aggregated combined or calculated value the decomposition tree visual is particularly useful when you want to understand the factors contributing to a particular metric it offers a structured approach to dissecting data hierarchies and providing clarity in identifying the most influential components this type of information and insights can be crucial for optimizing strategies and resource allocation the management team at Adventure Works wants to gain a clear understanding of sales trends and the data analysis team uses the decomposition tree visual to provide information on how revenue breaks down by product decomposition trees in PowerBI offer many benefits they are ideal for breaking down complex measures into their underlying components making data more digestible and actionable a decomposition tree is a hierarchical visualization it allows users to explore the contribution of different factors at various levels of detail this visual also allows for interactive exploration users can drill down into each component for deeper insights and perform ad hoc analysis the tool calculates statistical significance ensuring that the relationships it uncovers are robust and reliable now that the management team at Adventure Works has a clearer idea of the factors influencing low sales in one product range and of the patterns and breakdown of their revenue they want to move on to forward planning their goal is to proactively adjust production plans with the appropriate models to stay ahead of the competition by capturing emerging markets and effectively meeting future customer demands the data analysis team can facilitate this by using AI features in PowerBI to forecast future bicycle demand trends the forecasting feature in PowerBI leverages AI to predict future values based on historical data this is vital for businesses that want to make datadriven predictions and anticipate future trends forecasting provides three important benefits forecasting enables you to predict future trends the forecasting tool helps organizations anticipate future values based on historical data aiding in proactive decision-making and planning another key benefit of using forecasting is scenario analysis users can explore different forecasting scenarios adjusting parameters to discover how changes impact future predictions lastly forecasting allows users to use datadriven planning businesses can use forecast to optimize inventory management resource allocation and budgeting microsoft PowerBI’s AI tools including key influencers decomposition trees and forecasting make complex data easy to understand they do this by analyzing patterns and trends in the data which assists businesses in planning and decision-m these tools turn complicated data into useful information helping companies respond to today’s needs prepare for the future and stay ahead in their fields some viewers of your report still have difficulty quickly absorbing the core data insights you’ve learned a lot about working with data in Microsoft PowerBI and you’ve created your reports according to best practices your reports use appropriate visualizations and they look great is there anything else you can do to help the viewers of your report focus on the key points yes you can use reference lines and error bars to insert further analytical visuals this video will explore the concept of reference lines in PowerBI and the application of different types of reference lines in data visualization you’ll also learn about error bars and use different types of error bars to represent data variability and uncertainty by the end of the video you should be able to recognize appropriate scenarios and visuals where you can effectively use reference lines and error bars renee Gonzalez is the marketing director at Adventure Works she asks you to enhance a Microsoft PowerBI sales report she wants to add an average reference line to display a clear sales performance benchmark she also wants to incorporate percentage error bars into a sales by product chart to give the sales managers a better understanding of sales fluctuations reference lines are used to highlight significant data points or trends these lines serve as benchmarks or guides to make data easier to interpret a reference line allows viewers to quickly identify key points like averages medians or specific thresholds they play a crucial role in highlighting deviations understanding distributions and setting performance targets there are several types of reference line in PowerBI choose the one that best interprets your data an average line marks the average value across a data set this is useful to compare individual data points against the overall average a median line indicates the median or middle value a feature that is especially helpful in skewed distributions percentile lines display a specific percentile giving a better understanding of the data spread a constant line or x-axis y-axis line represents a fixed value it is often used for benchmarks or targets min and max lines are used in charts to highlight the lowest and highest values in a data set providing a clear visual reference for understanding the range and distribution of the data and a trend line helps identify patterns or trends in data aiding in understanding data movements over time error bars are used to represent variability or uncertainty in data visualizations an error bar extends from a central point in a chart such as a specific line of a line chart or a bar of a bar chart the error bar visually demonstrates the potential range of values around a data point with the specific lower and higher bound highlighted in the tool tip this feature is particularly important in conveying precision reliability and potential errors in data in addition to displaying a range of values error bars also provide context and depth to the data points allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the data for instance in a financial report error bars can illustrate the potential fluctuation in revenue forecasts helping investment managers grasp the level of risk or uncertainty involved there are different error bar types choose the type you need depending on how they should be calculated and applied over the visualization the by field type of error bar allows you to specify a particular field in your data set to determine the range of the error bars it is useful when you have specific error values for each data point with by percentage the error bars use a percentage to calculate the error range this is particularly helpful when you want to display a consistent percentage error across all data points uh by percentile type will provide insight into the distribution of data points by displaying the range within a specific percentile for example a 25th to 75th percentile error bar indicates the interquartile range covering the middle 50% of data points these error bars help in understanding the central trend and spread of the data and the standard deviation type calculates the error range based on the standard deviation of your data it’s commonly used to indicate the variability of the data around the mean let’s discover how you can use the power of reference lines and error bars to add data insights in PowerBI the sales report contains two column charts the one on the left distributes the dollar sales amount over the customer country field and the other one distributes it over the product color field let’s explore how reference lines and error bars can help us interpret this data let’s start with the sales amount by customer country column chart select it and navigate to the visualizations pane then to the analytics pane component which is located below the icon of a chart in a magnifying glass the analytics pane has all the analytics metrics that PowerBI can apply to your visualization to add a horizontal line giving the average of the sales amount value select average line choose add line and turn on the data label section also expanding its options adjust the horizontal position to right so that the average value will be visible on the visualization and modify the style to be both so the users are clear about what’s being depicted with the reference line moving to the other sum of sales amount by product color visualization let’s add error bars to showcase the potential fluctuation of sales based on color select the visualization and navigate to its settings in the analytics pane once again error bars are at the bottom of the analytics expand this section and choose on for the options field box then directly below expand the type option to select an error bar type to be applied on the column chart select by percentage and modify the upper and lower bounds to be 5% the error bars are applied to your visualization you can hover over any column to display how the figures of any color will be modified based on a 5% increase or decrease in the sales amount this video highlighted the importance of reference lines and error bars in PowerBI both are key tools for enhancing data visualization reference lines aid in identifying and comparing key data points while error bars provide crucial insights into data variability and precision in summary reference lines serve as benchmarks or indicators helping to highlight key data points error bars offer a visual representation of the variability or uncertainty within the data adventure Works has streamlined its data analysis thanks to Microsoft PowerBI to keep making datadriven business decisions Adventure Works needs to be able to visualize performance tracking this is a crucial business metric for instance how is its customer satisfaction rating how close is it to the required goal and how can Adventure Works compare satisfaction ratings across different regions metrics and scorecards are the answer they are PowerBI tools that Adventure Works can use to track measure and report on key business goals and outcomes in this video you will explore the fundamentals of metrics and scorecards you’ll also learn how to create and customize metrics and discover how to build effective scorecards adventure Works needs a scorecard in PowerBI service to track the company’s ambitious sales target jamie the CEO wants a real time updating metric that accurately reflects the progress towards the sales goal this metric is the focal point of the scorecard which will also encompass other key performance indicators metrics in PowerBI are quantifiable measures that serve as key indicators of business performance essentially they are datadriven benchmarks used to track and assess the efficiency and success of an organization’s processes initiatives or strategies metrics in PowerBI are not just static numbers they are dynamic and interactive elements that update in real time reflecting the latest data the real-time tracking capability of metrics means that businesses can respond promptly to changes metrics can be customized to suit specific business needs such as tracking sales targets monitoring customer satisfaction levels or measuring operational efficiency scorecards in PowerBI are a step further in data visualization and analysis scorecards display a collection of related metrics on a single comprehensive dashboard providing a broad view of business performance this consolidated view is vital for managers and decision makers it encapsulates critical data points and trends in an easily digestible format that can reveal how business areas interconnect and impact each other scorecards and PowerBI are highly customizable organizations can tailor the information to align with their strategic objectives and key performance indicators or KPIs this includes the ability to set and track goals visualize progress and identify areas needing attention or improvement let’s create a scorecard with metrics for Adventure Works to track its sales amount target sign into PowerBI service with your credentials navigate to the left sidebar of the platform and locate the metrics icon select metrics to take you to the metrics page on the top right select plus new scorecard a new scorecard opens which you can start populating with metrics on the right of untitled scorecard select the edit pencil to rename the scorecard to adventure work sales goals all scorecards are saved in my workspace by default but you can move it to another workspace by selecting file and then move scorecard select the adventure work sales workspace to move the scorecard to and select continue the scorecard is now ready for the first metrics to create one select new metric name it sales amount goal and assign the admin account as the owner together with yourself on the current value field select set up to provide an actual figure from your data set instead of a manual number choose connect to data select the all reports tab and search for sales report select sales report then select next to move to the next step the report is previewed in the metrics window on the report there is a card visualization showcasing the total amount of sales select it to confirm the measure being used the current value as well as the filters and slicers affecting this value select connect to drive this measure onto your metric on the next field box final target input 30 million as the goal for the total sales amount a small box appears as you type the number aiding you in formatting the figure add a status on the metric which could be on track since the sales team is close to hitting the required goal let the start date be the default date given and assign a due date for the team to hit the target for instance this could be the end of the year all metric settings are now configured so you can select save to add the new metric to the scorecard the scorecard is now ready for users to access to share the scorecard and its metric goals with other Adventure Works members on the top menu of the scorecard select share and for instance select Renee the marketing manager to share the scorecard with her this video explored metrics and scorecards in Microsoft PowerBI illustrating their critical role in tracking and achieving business goals metrics in PowerBI provide quantifiable indicators that reflect the success of or progress to specific objectives scorecards give a comprehensive view combining multiple metrics into a holistic view of performance using these tools can empower organizations to align their strategies with datadriven insights ensuring that decisions are informed and goal oriented congratulations on completing visualizing and analyzing data in Microsoft PowerBI during these lessons you’ve gained insights into key data analysis concepts and tools in PowerBI and worked through practical activities for a deeper knowledge of these topics let’s recap what you learned and the key takeaways from each topic you began by learning more about the wide choice of visualizations available in PowerBI general purpose visualizations such as tables and matrices card KPIs and slicers are versatile as they can be used in a variety of analysis scenarios powerbi also offers many visuals that are tailored for specific types of analysis and this lesson explored which visualization is appropriate for specific analysis types for example categorical analysis is best displayed in bar and column charts or pie and donut charts scatter and bubble charts are more appropriate for correlation analysis histograms waterfall charts and maps were also discussed this lesson also examined the specific and general formatting settings that enhance the appeal and readability of visualizations in your reports modifying the size or position of visual elements or applying format changes such as font size and color to titles and data labels can add clarity and impact to visualizations you also learned about conditional formatting which can be used to dynamically highlight critical data points and add visual variety the slicing and filtering features in PowerBI allow you to dynamically adjust visuals and focus on specific data points slicers allow for intuitive selections and enable you to refine the data represented in all the visuals on a report page the filtering feature can be applied in the filter pane which manages filters at different levels visual level filters apply to a single visual page level filters apply to all visuals on a page and report level filters apply to all visuals within a report you also had an opportunity to learn about the tools in PowerBI that business users can use to export data for further analysis or presentation for example the analyze in Excel feature allows them to work with PowerBI data sets directly in Excel this offers a familiar environment for in-depth analysis and custom report creation another feature pageionated reports is ideal for creating print friendly formats these reports are designed for easy reading on paper or PDF and they can accommodate detailed data and complex layouts you then learned how to enhance reports for usability and storytelling this lesson began by exploring how smooth page navigation can improve readability and flow in multi-page reports the use of buttons or interactive links creates a seamless transition between different pages and guides users through the report’s narrative bookmarks captures specific report views and states enabling quick access during presentations and highlighting data changes over time sorting organizes data within visualizations making it easier to identify trends and insights the way that multiple visualizations within a PowerBI report interact with each other enhances data exploration and analysis filter interactions cause a change in one visual to filter data on another this refineses the display data based on the selection and allows users to isolate and analyze specific data points across different visuals another option highlight interactions does not filter out non- selected data instead it emphasizes selected data in connected visuals while the unselected data is dimmed and not filtered out this provides a clear view of how parts relate to the whole lastly there is an option none which completely disables the interaction between visuals doing this keeps the visuals independent without any interaction which can be useful for standalone data presentations you learned that syncing slicers in PowerBI reports improves the user experience with synchronized slicers a selection made on one page applies to all other pages this streamlined approach reduces confusion saves time and maintains the narrative flow you are also introduced to the selection pane where you can manage the report elements here you can clearly name individual visuals to ensure quick and easy identification you can use the selection pane to group visuals and provide structure to the report the selection pane also allows you to layer these groups this helps you to guide the report viewer through the data by controlling the order in which the visuals appear finally this lesson focused on how to adapt a report for mobile use the PowerBI mobile layout view it demonstrated how to modify the visual elements and layout for better readability and interaction on a smaller screen size in the final lesson you learned about the features in PowerBI which help you identify and analyze patterns and trends in your data it demonstrated how to recognize anomalies and outliers you were provided with examples of both and shown how to use scatter charts to identify them in PowerBI recognizing these types of discrepancies is essential for uncovering underlying issues or exceptional events and leads to smarter business decisions and strategy improvements the lesson continued with an explanation of grouping and binning in PowerBI grouping consolidates similar data points into categories which facilitates efficient summary visualizations bidding in contrast segments numeric data into ranges aiding in distribution analysis finally you learned about PowerBI’s AI tools which provide insights that can inform planning and decision-m key influencers to identify critical factors affecting outcomes decomposition trees to break down complex metrics and forecasting to predict future trends from historical data you should now have a powerful tool set in PowerBI for creating reports the first item in this tool set is the wide array of charts offered by PowerBI which you can use to convey insights features such as bookmarks grouping and layering visuals offer a way to create a smooth narrative for the viewer filtering and slicers help them to drill down to deeper insights techniques such as detecting outliers and anomalies data grouping and binning and using AI visuals provide a solid foundation for accurate data analysis in the world of data and reports having a centralized location where teams can work together is beneficial for all involved that’s where Microsoft PowerBI workspaces come in workspaces are more than simple folders they are special team rooms where analysts can add and share their charts reports and data in this video you will learn about what Microsoft PowerBI workspaces are and how they can benefit your work you will explore the different roles people can have in these workspaces and learn how these roles can make teamwork in PowerBI smooth and efficient at Adventure Works you are responsible for
creating and managing reports for a variety of teams the sales team requires regular updates on their performance metrics the marketing team tracks campaign results and the customer service department looks for feedback on user behavior each team creates its own set of data visualizations often leading to a collection of reports scattered across different platforms however using the PowerBI workspace feature you can set up workspaces for each of the sales marketing and product teams then each team will have its centralized room to create share and discuss their specific reports first let’s explore what PowerBI workspaces are powerbi workspaces are places to collaborate with colleagues and create collections of dashboards reports data sets and pageionated reports powerbi provides two types of workspaces personal and shared your personal workspace is a private area for individual tasks while shared workspaces are designed for team collaborations where members can jointly develop and fine-tune reports workspaces can contain a maximum of 1,000 data sets or 1,000 reports per data set workspace offers a feature called roles which helps to manage access control on these resources understanding and properly utilizing the roles within PowerBI workspaces is important to ensure effective collaboration and content management assigning the correct role to each user is vital to maintain data integrity security and efficient workflow powerbi offers four types of roles: admin member contributor and viewer let’s start with the admin role the most powerful role the admin has full control over the workspace including content creation member management and workspace settings adjustments they can add or remove members change roles and even delete the workspace next you have the member role members have the privilege to add modify and delete content in the workspace they can collaborate with others and share the workspace content but cannot change workspace level settings after the member role is the contributor this role is slightly more restricted than the member role contributors can add and modify content but cannot delete items from the workspace they also cannot share content with others lastly we have the viewer role the viewer role represents the most limited level of access within a workspace viewers are primarily consumers of content and their permissions are confined to viewing the materials available within the workspace they do not possess the right to modify or delete any content making them ideal for scenarios where readonly access is required having established your understanding of workspace roles let’s consider workspace role capabilities when an individual belongs to a user group they receive the role you have designated if a person is part of multiple user groups they inherit the highest level of permission from the roles they have been assigned in PowerBI service a user group refers to a collection of users who are grouped together based on certain criteria roles or purposes these groups can be leveraged for various functionalities including content sharing and permission management powerbi’s workspace offers a unique and powerful feature the ability to create template apps these are preset customizable structures that serve as a foundation for building specific data visualization applications once created they can be shared not just within the organization but also externally this external sharing capability enhances the utility of template apps rather than confining data visualizations and reports within organizational boundaries businesses can distribute these template apps to customers partners or other stakeholders the usefulness of these template apps lies in their flexibility when customers receive a template app they aren’t just locked into viewing static predefined data instead they can connect these templates to their own data sets now that you’ve learned about Microsoft PowerBI’s workspace tools you can explore ways to help your teams collaborate and use data more efficiently from setting roles that decide who can do what to offering readytouse templates it streamlines many tasks imagine you’re tasked with presenting multiple reports and data sets to teammates across various departments it will be convenient to bundle everything neatly together and offer it as a unified online package this not only simplifies your presentation process but also enhances accessibility for a wider audience this is precisely the type of solution that Microsoft PowerBI workspace apps look to provide streamlining and enhancing your data sharing capabilities in this video you are going to learn about PowerBI workspace apps what they offer and how to create and share them with your audience adventure Works faces a data sharing hurdle different departments need various PowerBI dashboards and reports to operate effectively the finance team requires sales data the marketing team are keen on customer insights and the supply chain team wants to view inventory levels sharing this data separately will be challenging this is where PowerBI workspace apps can assist you in generating these dashboards and reports using this feature the data analysis team can group related content into specific apps for instance all sales related reports and dashboards go into one app while customer insights go toward another these apps are then published to the appropriate teams ensuring everyone has access to the relevant information this improves workflow and efficiency for you and the data analysis team in PowerBI you can create official packaged content and then distribute it as an app these can be distributed to a wide audience such as an entire organization or to specific groups or people apps are created in workspaces you can choose a selection of reports dashboards and data sets from a workspace to distribute as an app you can then publish the finished app to large groups of people in your organization to create or update an app you need a PowerBI Pro or premium per user known as PPU license for app consumers there are two options the workspace for this app is not in a PowerBI premium capacity the workspace for this app is in a PowerBI premium capacity if the app is not in a PowerBI premium capacity all business users need PowerBI Pro or premium per user licenses to view your app if the workspace for the app is in a PowerBI premium capacity business users without PowerBI Pro or premium per user licenses in your organization can view app content however they can’t copy the reports or create reports based on the underlying data sets let’s consider how you create apps you can start the app publishing process when your workspace has content when you enter your workspace you will notice a create app button which will be your starting point you’ll be taken to the application settings area where you can set the name of your application add a description choose a logo and select the theme color for your application after that you can select which content you want to include in your app and you can sort content as you please once you are happy with the content selection you must select the audience for this application having created your app you must create and manage the audiences engaging with the app an app audience is the group of people you choose to share your app with in the audience tab there is a centralized place to decide who has access to your app and to what extent think of it as your control room where you can set up different audience groups for your app you might want to give access to everyone in your company or just want a specific group or certain individuals to have access with PowerBI apps you can create multiple audiences for your app and show or hide different content to each audience you can also set some advanced options like if your audience can share the data set or build new content with the data set in this app once you have the audience and the content they can engage with it is time to publish your app once the app is published it can be accessed by your intended audience you can come back to the app and update the settings and the published app will reflect the changes in a few minutes once the app is published it can be accessed via the URL or by searching for it from the app marketplace app consumers in PowerBI service and in PowerBI mobile apps only see the content based on the access permissions for their respective audience groups by default consumers see the all tab view which is a consolidated view showing all content that they have access to in this video you’ve learned about the process of setting up audiences in PowerBI deciding on the content visibility for each group and the steps to effectively publish and share your app microsoft PowerBI subscription and alert features enable users to remain informed about significant shifts in their data with data alerts users can establish notifications that activate when dashboard data surpasses predefined limits along with data alerts subscriptions ensure users consistently receive updates on their reports and dashboards in this video you will learn about Microsoft PowerBI subscription and alert features to keep you consistently informed about crucial data changes and how to utilize them effectively the newly appointed director of the strategic planning department at Adventure Works is eager to make a measurable impact with the recent launch of ebikes in Adventure Works it’s essential for the director to have a firm grasp on the daily sales figures however being new to the company’s PowerBI setup navigating through the PowerBI dashboards can be timeconuming to streamline this the business intelligence team establishes a PowerBI subscription focused on eBike sales metrics every day the director receives an email snapshot of the prior day sales enabling immediate datadriven strategic discussions powerbi subscription and alert features are tools that redefine the way businesses approach data analytics it is important to note that to activate subscriptions and alerts the content must reside in premium capacity or be tied to a premium per user license to support nearrealtime data flows data sets must be configured for scheduled refreshes or direct query connections with data alerts users can establish notifications that activate when dashboard data surpasses predefined limits along with data alerts subscriptions ensure users consistently receive updates on their reports and dashboards let’s first explore subscriptions with subscriptions timely delivery and tailored report dissemination becomes seamless eliminating a laborious manual process and ensuring that stakeholders are always informed there are many benefits of using subscriptions in Microsoft PowerBI with subscriptions you can schedule automatic delivery of reports on a recurring basis email or chat digests of key report pages to stakeholders set different schedules like daily weekly or monthly delivery customize data views with parameters and rowle security and eliminate the need to manually distribute reports users can set up to 24 subscriptions per report or dashboard with unique recipients times and frequencies for each subscription subscriptions can include a snapshot and link to the report or dashboard or a full attachment of the report or dashboard you can also create dynamic per recipient subscriptions which are designed to simplify distributing a personalized copy of a pageionated report to each recipient of an email subscription now let’s turn our attention to alerts alerts in PowerBI notify users when data meets defined conditions such as surpassing sales targets dropping below inventory thresholds or any other measurable value set within the system alerts shift from passive data monitoring to proactive and timely decision-making allowing businesses to harness real time data intelligence effectively the benefits of using alerts in PowerBI include getting realtime notifications when data meets thresholds responding quickly to insights instead of passive monitoring receiving dynamic metric alerts account for data variability ingestion alerts notifying you on data set refreshes getting push notifications via email mobile and Microsoft Teams chat and shifting from reactive to proactive data analytics with subscriptions and alerts microsoft PowerBI analysts can build out robust notification strategies ensuring stakeholders always have visibility into the data they care about this keeps them informed of critical metrics and enables proactive responses to data trends and anomalies in today’s datadriven world how can data analysts discern between trustworthy Microsoft PowerBI content that holds reliable information and content whose accuracy hasn’t been tested microsoft PowerBI’s features of promoting and certifying content hold the answer promoting and certifying content in PowerBI can elevate data credibility and can elevate the credibility of your data and ensure it is trusted as reliable content in this video you will learn about the differences between promoting and certifying PowerBI content their respective use cases and the implications of each method for content creators and consumers the marketing team at Adventure Works detects a noteworthy increase in sports bike sales in Europe after compiling the data a PowerBI report is generated highlighting the sales trends and key insights after compiling the data a PowerBI report is generated highlighting the sales trend and key insights recognizing its value the report is promoted within the European sales division and given its potential relevance to global strategies the upper management deems it fit for companywide sharing before its wider distribution the central PowerBI team thoroughly reviews the report ensuring it aligns with global standards once certified this report will be accessible across all regions its certification badge becomes an assurance of its precision and significance influencing strategic decisions throughout Adventure Works global operations promoting content in PowerBI is like giving it a stamp of approval when content is marked as promoted it signifies that it aligns with specific organizational benchmarks for accuracy and reliability however it is crucial to note that while it has met these preliminary checks it has not been subjected to an exhaustive vetting process when content like a report or data set is promoted it is made available for a wider audience to discover and consume promoted content appears in content packs and curated content lists in the PowerBI service promoting makes the content visible to more users but does not validate or endorse it any user with edit access to a workspace can promote content from it certifying content is more specific and detailed than promoting content it requires setting up a content certification policy and process with designated reviewers reviewers validate content to ensure it meets standards and best practices before officially certifying it certification offers a greater level of trust and validation when content is certified it means it has passed through a rigorous scrutiny process adhering to the standards set by the organization this is often a testament to its quality accuracy and overall trustworthiness there are four key aspects of certifying content in PowerBI they are review process expert validation of data quality and adherence to best practices governance implementing strict organization standards while certifying contents visibility certified content is marked with a badge for easy recognition trust indicates high level approval and reliability for all users in the organization when certifying content it requires admin setup of content certification policies certified status expires unless reertified within the policy period let’s explore the key differences between promoting and certifying content when it comes to level of trust promoted content signifies the content is trusted by the creator and might have undergone peer review certified content implies organizational approval often by a central team or authority indicating the highest level of trust with visibility promoted content appears in shared and recommended sections for end users certified content stands out with a distinct badge in the service ensuring users can instantly recognize its elevated status with regards to governance promoted content allows for decentralized governance where individuals or departments can decide the criteria certified content typically requires centralized governance with strict criteria that content must meet to achieve certification next we have the audience promoted content is ideal for departmental or team level sharing where the audience knows the creator and trusts their expertise certified content is best for organizationwide sharing where the audience might not be familiar with the creator but trust the centralized certification process lastly is the review process promotive content might involve peer reviews or departmental checks while certified content often involves strict review by experts or a central BI team including checks on data sources calculations and visualizations in this video you’ve learned about content promotion and certification in Microsoft PowerBI and the key distinctions between each process these two methods are vital for distinguishing trustworthy data and ensuring its credibility some of your data is in cloud-based storage but your other data sources are on premises do you have to move the on- premises data to the cloud to be able to combine and analyze all your data no microsoft PowerBI connects to many data sources microsoft PowerBI data gateways are used to connect PowerBI cloud-based data analysis technology and the data source on premises the gateway is responsible for creating the connection and passing data through in this video you will discover what PowerBI gateways are and how they can help organizations manage on premises data that will later be shared with different types of users adventure Works operates across North America Europe and Asia it uses its global data sources to analyze market trends to make smart business decisions effective decision-making depends on up-to-date reports based on the latest data that’s why the team needs a solution to synchronize the on- premises data sources like SQL Server Excel files and Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft PowerBI service with the gateway in place every morning when a regional manager logs in they get a dashboard showing not just their own store sales from their on premises sources but also data from other branches across the world despite originating from a server thousands of miles away the data is upto-date and ready for use managers can compare their sales with other regions identify trends and adjust their local strategies accordingly a PowerBI data gateway is an application that connects PowerBI cloud-based data analysis technology and on premises data sources such as SQL server databases or Excel spreadsheets it is required whenever PowerBI must access data that isn’t accessible directly over the internet gateways are responsible for creating the connection and passing data through and they can be installed on any server in the local domain running Windows Server 2012R2 or later there are three types of gateways available personal mode standard or on premises mode and virtual network data gateway with a personal mode gateway only one user connects to data sources and sources can’t be shared with others this mode can only be used with PowerBI and is ideal when one person creates reports and doesn’t need to share data sources the standard or on premises mode gateway allows multiple users to connect to multiple data sources that are secured by virtual networks this mode is well suited to complex scenarios in which multiple people access multiple data sources the virtual network data gateway facilitates secure connections for multiple users to various data sources protected by virtual networks as a Microsoft managed service it eliminates the need for manual installation the virtual network data gateway is particularly effective in handling intricate situations where numerous individuals need access to diverse data sources simultaneously who is the gateway for what type of user with personal mode individual analysts want to manage their own reports and sync personal data sources with the cloud whereas with the on premises mode admins set up the gateway and configure it the BI team uses the gateway to get up-to-date data for their reports what is the connection type you can use the personal mode to import data or schedule refresh the standard mode is used to grab refresh or run direct query how is the data managed each user handles their own data in personal mode in the standard mode the company manages data centrally for all users what is happening with data supervision can we oversee the data there is no supervision in personal mode users are on their own in the standard mode there’s a central system to watch over all the data the final factor to consider is compatibility personal mode works only with PowerBI the standard mode works with PowerBI various apps flows and more the gateway is responsible for creating the connection with PowerBI online service and syncing the local data let’s examine some of the gateway details the gateway is installed on a server in the local domain during installation credentials are stored in local and PowerBI services credentials entered for the data source in PowerBI are encrypted and then stored in the cloud only the gateway can decrypt the credentials the gateway controls access to the local data when an online tool wants data it asks the gateway the gateway checks asking and if they have permission grants access the gateway doesn’t store data it just connects and transfers when data in PowerBI needs updating the gateway passes the request to the local data once the data responds the gateway sends the updated info back to PowerBI one of the standout features of the gateway is the ability to set up scheduled refresh this means that at specified intervals the gateway will automatically fetch the latest data ensuring that online reports and dashboards are always updated finally let’s check some business use cases for PowerBI data gateways organizations with multiple locations or teams spread across different regions can face challenges in accessing a centralized data source the data gateway ensures all teams have uniform access to the same data source data can change rapidly for instance there can be continual updates in global markets for businesses to make informed decisions they need realtime access to data the gateway ensures that the data in online reports and analyses is always up to date a security consideration to remember is that when you use a data gateway direct connections to the online premises data sources are minimized only the gateway communicates with the data source providing an added layer of security all data transferred is encrypted and the established connection is outbound this reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities in this video you learned about Microsoft PowerBI gateways gateways help organizations keep databases and other data sources on their on- premises networks yet allow secure use of that on- premises data in cloud services organizations have a lot of data but not everyone needs to access all of it all the time and some data is sensitive in nature and access to it should be restricted rowle security or RLS is a powerful and exciting data governance capability in PowerBI that enables you to control access to the organization’s data at a granular level it allows you to restrict data visibility for different users or groups ensuring that each user can only access the data they are authorized to view in this video you will explore different types of role security and roles and how to configure them in PowerBI the BI team in Adventure Works is working on quarterly reports and forecasts as their data grows they often need to protect their reports and control access among teams in a report they want to grant certain teams access to specific visuals while restricting access to those visuals for others this security challenge led Adventure Works to implement rowle security rls allows them to precisely manage who can view data and particular visuals within a report providing a tailored and secure experience for each team rowle security controls the data viewable by users based on predefined roles and rules the role is like a group the user belongs to and the role or rules can be designed based on columns of the data set there are two types of rowle security static RLS and dynamic RLS static RLS is the rowle security method to use when you have a fixed set of users and roles like when you have some predefined roles like manager product lead customer marketing lead and so forth in your team you can create these types of roles and apply filters within PowerBI desktop using its rowle security editor static RLS is suitable when you have a small fixed list of users and a simple RLS logic in the report dynamic RLS is a flexible approach because it operates with the user attributes and conditions stored in the data itself it operates by using a centralized role assignment table containing user attributes like role assignments user ids and filter conditions relationships between this table and the primary data tables are established and DAX expressions are used to dynamically filter data based on the user’s role and attributes dynamic RLS is ideal for scenarios where user access is based on varying criteria such as region specific data access or complex role assignments whatever rowle security you create you must always test your configurations rigorously to guarantee accurate and secure data visibility across users testing might mean you just open your report as a specified user and check the data visibility in the modeling ribbon there is a choice called view as that will allow you to simulate a user login and check if the RLS is working as expected let’s create some static and dynamic RLS in the Adventure Works reports first let’s start with static RLS this is the Adventure Works world sales report on the modeling ribbon select manage roles and create a new role called manager Europe we want people in this role to view data from Europe only select the sales table select more options the three dots next to it and select the region field now in table filter DAX expression add this DAX expression open square bracket product region close square bracket equal to open double quotes Europe close double quotes and select save this DAX expression means that any user who belongs to the manager Europe role will only view sales data related to the Europe region to test if the static rowle settings are working properly return to the report view in your PowerBI editor and check if you can view sales data for every region now on the modeling ribbon select view as and check the manager Europe role and select okay this will immediately apply the RLS restrictions on the report and you get sales data for only the Europe region all other regional sales data is hidden you can exit this restricted view by selecting stop viewing since everything is working as expected publish the report to your workspace and add some users to the manager Europe role go to your workspace and select the data set named world sales report choose more options the three dots next to it from the drop-down select security in the role level security dialogue select the manager Europe role and add users to this role then select save with this static role security setup when users in this role view the world sales report they will be able to view sales data related to Europe but will be unable to view sales data from other regions for a more flexible filtering approach you can create dynamic row security return to your PowerBI editor to start applying dynamic RLS for example inside the PowerBI editor model view of your report you can have a table with all the regional managers email addresses and the product regions they belong to this table is related to the sales table using the product region field if you create a dynamic RLS when the managers view this report they will get only sales data related to their corresponding regions return to the modeling ribbon and select manage roles let’s delete the previously created manager Europe role and create a new one named managers this time select the sales table and add this DAX expression sales open square bracket product region close square bracket equal to lookup value open parenthesis managers open square bracket product region close square bracket comma managers open square bracket email close square bracket comma user principal name open parenthesis close parenthesis comma managers open square bracket product region close square bracket comma sales open square bracket product region close square bracket close parenthesis when finished select save this DAX expression checks the currently logged in user’s email against the manager table then filters the product region based on the product regions this user belongs to to test if the security settings are working properly return to the report view and check if you can view sales data for every region on the modeling ribbon select view as check the newly created manager role you also need to check the other user role and input one of the manager’s email addresses from the manager table notice how the report view changed and you are viewing sales data only for the regions assigned to this manager you can select stop viewing to return the report to the normal unfiltered view return to the home ribbon and publish this report to your workspace then open your workspace in the PowerBI service area and go to the security setting of your data set add as many users as you want to this new manager role the dynamic role security is active for this report so when users view the report based on their email address and assigned regions in the PowerBI data set they will view only relevant sales data this way users will have access to filtered data dynamically based on their email and product regions rowle security or RLS is a powerful feature in PowerBI to filter data based on various conditions and roles by establishing the right relationships and using appropriate DAX expressions PowerBI can filter data based on various conditions ensuring that each user sees only the data relevant to their specific permissions always test your RLS configurations rigorously to ensure users data visibility is accurate and secure team collaboration is crucial for proper data analysis the challenge presented by collaboration is to ensure the correct distribution of data within your organization discover how PowerBI’s robust permission management settings can help you maintain control over critical data sets at Adventure Works ensuring data integrity while enabling effective collaboration in this video we’ll explore aspects of permission management for data sets and workspace apps you work as a Microsoft PowerBI data analyst at Adventure Works and there are occasions when you need to share certain data sets with your colleagues your colleagues can either reshare these data sets or create new reports based on them however some of these data sets hold significant importance for the organization and even though they are shared among users you do not want anyone to modify the data set in addition to standard sharing there are times when you also need to share all items in a specific workspace with other users or teams as workspace apps nevertheless you still require precise control over some of these items like reports or data sets ensuring that various teams can only access relevant items the Microsoft PowerBI service offers various permission management settings for data sets and workspace apps which can be incredibly helpful in this context let’s quickly review some key terms data sets are the core collections of data that you work with in PowerBI often representing various aspects of your organization’s data workspace apps in PowerBI allow you to share entire workspaces including data sets dashboards and reports ia workspace app is a full data package that can be shared with specific users or teams ensuring a comprehensive sharing experience now to briefly review the topic of permissions with data set level permissions PowerBI service enables you to assign specific permissions to data sets while sharing you can ensure that although colleagues can access and utilize the data they cannot make changes to it this ensures the sanctity of vital data sets then there is workspace apps permissions in some cases you need to share all files within a particular workspace with other users or teams using workspace apps with PowerBI’s permission management you can maintain granular control over who sees which reports this means different teams can access only the reports that are relevant to their needs keeping your data organized and secure to check how many workspaces reports or dashboards are affected by a data set you can perform what is known as impact analysis to do this you go to your workspace and hover on a data set then select the more options three dots next to it and select show lineage this opens the lineage view for your workspace items where you can view which items are connected to each other on the right side of the screen it also shows the impacted workspaces reports and dashboards for this data set you can always perform impact analysis by selecting show impact across workspaces under each data set to exit lineage view on the top right corner in your workspace you select source view this will take you back to the previous list view where you can view all the items in this workspace as a list let’s experiment with permissions in PowerBI service to begin open your workspace to set permissions for a data set select more options the three dots next to the data set and select manage permissions from here you can add users to your data sets at the top select add user in this grant people access dialogue you can type the username or email address and then select the appropriate permission level using the check boxes for example if you don’t want this user to make any changes to this data set uncheck the allow recipients to modify this data set checkbox once added all users will be shown in this permission view you can make further changes by selecting more options the three dots next to a user and removing or granting permissions you can also fine-tune permissions for your new or existing workspace apps we have already discussed how to create an app and select an audience in previous lessons let’s discover how to update the audience for an existing workspace app open your workspace and at the top select update app select the audience tab here you can fine-tune all the settings related to the audience for an app on the right side in edit audience you can modify the current audience for example currently this app is shared with all users in the entire organization you can change it to some specific users by selecting specific users or groups and then typing their name and selecting update app alternatively you can select new audience and choose other users with different permissions for example you may want to share it with some other user but this time you want to allow them to share the data set among the users in this audience group you can select advanced settings then check allow people to share the data set in this app audience you can also select allow people to build content with the data set in this app audience just in case you want to allow the creation of new reports based on this data set to complete select update app and select update again on the confirmation popup and finally closing the published popup that is a demonstration of how you can manage permissions for a specific data set or for workspace apps inside your PowerBI service area powerbi’s permission management settings offer a robust framework for maintaining data integrity while facilitating effective collaboration at organizations like Adventure Works whether you’re safeguarding critical data sets or sharing workspaces these tools help you to apply access control to your data congratulations on reaching the end of these lessons in deploying and maintaining assets you explored creating monitoring connecting to and maintaining workspaces data sets and dashboards in Microsoft PowerBI let’s recap what you’ve learned so far you began the first lesson by exploring the concept of a workspace you learned that a workspace is a specialized area in PowerBI that holds important assets like data sets reports and dashboards its advantages are that it helps to organize assets for easy management provides security through access control only permitted users can access workspaces enables collaboration teams can use workspaces to build reports and allows analysts to update or modify data quickly when creating a new workspace you must consider workspace roles workspace roles determine who can perform each task viewers can view content but can’t modify it contributors can add and modify content members can alter content and add new members admins have full control over the Workspace assets and its members during this lesson you learned how to share Workspace assets as an app creating an app requires a PowerBI Pro or premium per user license the technical process of creating apps in PowerBI was outlined beginning with selecting create app in the workspace leading to an application settings area where one can name the app add a description set a logo and choose a theme color content can be selected and sorted for inclusion in the app which is followed by selecting and managing the audience powerbi allows the creation of multiple audience groups for an app enabling tailored access and content visibility you also learned how to manage assets in a workspace you can import assets directly into a workspace by uploading them or publishing them from your PowerBI desktop when the changes are made you can always publish them again which will update the previously published reports and data sets in addition you learned about setting up subscriptions and alerts in PowerBI service which allows users to receive regular updates and notifications based on data changes these tools enhance user engagement by automating the distribution of insights and ensuring timely awareness of critical metrics the lesson continued by exploring the steps required to promote and certify contents in PowerBI promoting and certifying are crucial for establishing trust and standardizing data quality across the organization thereby enabling users to identify and rely on the most accurate and relevant business intelligence assets the lesson ended with a detailed guideline on various global options for files within PowerBI such as data load and report visualization knowing how to configure these settings is important because it allows for more tailored and efficient data processing enhances visual representation and ensures a more seamless and intuitive user experience the next lesson started with the concepts of a data gateway and how it can help PowerBI data analysts and organizations a data gateway serves as a bridge between PowerBI’s cloud services and on premises data sources such as SQL databases or Excel files whether you are a data analyst working on your own or working for an organization you can sync your data with data sets hosted in PowerBI service using these data gateways and always keep these data sets up to date by setting up schedule refresh there are three types of data gateway personal mode is for single user use and this is suitable for individual report creators the standard mode also known as on premises mode supports multiple users and data sources and it’s used for complex access scenarios lastly the virtual network data gateway allows multiple users to connect to various data sources within virtual networks without any installation managed by Microsoft this lesson also discussed details of rowle security or RLS in PowerBI service a feature that allows for more granular control over access to data rls enables creators to define permissions on data rows so that users will only view data relevant to them enhancing both security and user experience this is particularly useful in organizational scenarios where data access needs to be restricted based on user roles or departments ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential while still providing valuable insights to authorized personnel finally this lesson covered the management of permissions for data sets and workspace applications effective permission management enables selective sharing of data sets and workspace apps allowing the designated individuals to access the data sets and create reports from these data sets the workspace audience management tools allow for sharing with the entire organization or customizing access for users additionally impact analysis tools are available to determine the connectivity and potential effects on workspaces reports and dashboards when there are updates to a data set you’ve reached the end of our summary on deploying and maintaining assets keep practicing your practical skills with sample data sets reports and dashboards and remember you can always revisit any item in the course to revise a topic by playing a video viewing a document or engaging with an activity best of luck with your studies the Microsoft PL300 exam is a professional certification in Microsoft PowerBI for aspiring analysts the exam tests your knowledge and skills in the technical and business requirements of data modeling analysis and visualization in PowerBI in this video you’ll discover the recommended strategy to maximize your chances of passing the exam PL300 Microsoft PowerBI data analyst a successful exam with a good grade is achievable if you are well prepared and practice some basic strategies one of the best ways to prepare is to take a practice test before the exam this way you can monitor your progress and identify the areas requiring more study or attention you have taken knowledge checks graded quizzes and completed exercises throughout this course these are designed to help you monitor your progress while preparing for the real exam you’ll be able to complete the PL300 mock exam a little later focusing on topics and key skills measured in the proctored exam the topics include preparing the data modeling the data visualizing and analyzing the data and deploying and maintaining assets during this program you have covered the skills measured in the PL300 exam and gained significant hands-on experience using the realworld data set of Adventure Works now it’s time to practice what you’ve learned the PL300 mock exam is based on a similar style and format to the proctored exam you can revisit any lesson to revise a concept if you need to review anything this practice exam is intended to provide an overview of the style wording and difficulty of the questions that you are likely to experience on this exam these questions may differ from those you could encounter in the exam and the practice exam is not illustrative of the length of the official exam or its complexity for example you may encounter additional question types such as drag and drop build list order and case studies you’ll also encounter exhibit and active screen questions like drop-own menus option boxes and complete a statement these questions are examples to provide insight into what to expect on the exam and help you determine if additional preparation is required review some possible exam formats and question types from the Microsoft documentation to get a feel for an exam in the reading preparing for the exam you can access Microsoft’s exam sandbox environment which was created to demo the interface that hosts exams to protect exam security Microsoft does not specify exam formats or question types before the exam microsoft continually introduces innovative testing technologies and question types and reserves the right to incorporate either into exams at any time without advanced notice in the mock exam you’ll have 150 minutes to complete the final practice exam which consists of 50 questions on completion of the exam you’ll be presented with your overall score and the questions you answered correctly once you’ve completed the PL300 mock exam it’s time to focus on the real exam a good exam strategy for the PL300 exam can be summarized with a checklist of what to do on the test day when test day arrives you should follow these tips to prepare ensure that you are well rested and nourished eat a meal or a snack and try not to drink too much water so you don’t need the bathroom during the exam give yourself enough time to get set up the last thing you want is to feel hurried or be late for the exam remember to bring your current governmentissued ID which must match the name on your Microsoft certification profile use your phone to capture the required headshot and ID if you’re unsure and require more details check the official documentation from Microsoft and Pearson View you’ll find links to these resources in the reading preparing for the exam the PL300 is a closedbook exam meaning you cannot bring any study or exam materials to the examination a score of 700 or greater is required to pass when it comes to answering the exam questions you can use these strategies keep calm and read the entire question before checking the answer options if multiple answer options exist try eliminating those you know are incorrect by using this process of elimination you can cross off all the incorrect answers read every answer option before choosing a final answer don’t rush and pick the first answer if you’re having difficulty with a question move on and return after you’ve answered all the questions you know try not to spend too much time on only one question ensure that you have enough time to attempt all the questions before checking them at the end you may be unable to change some of your answers so ensure you answer questions correctly avoid second-guessing yourself and changing your answer this can often be counterproductive you can complete the PL300 mock exam later focusing on the topics and key concepts this exam does not employ negative marking if you’re unsure of a question try making the best educated guess possible the important thing to always remember is that a successful blend of preparation test strategy and exam technique will help you maximize your chances of obtaining certification best of luck on a brisk Monday morning you step into your office ready to tackle the terrain of data as a seasoned PowerBI specialist your manager stops by your desk her expression a mix of excitement and anticipation she places a challenge before you i need you to explore Microsoft Copilot in Bing a powerful artificial intelligence or AI tool it’s designed to revolutionize problem solving and enhance productivity i believe it’s quite transformative and I want your insights on it as you switch on your computer the weight of opportunity settles in your mind races with possibilities could co-pilot streamline the development process and uncover new insights that haven’t been considered yet instead of reacting to market changes now there’s an opportunity to proactively shape them it’s more than just analyzing data it’s stepping into the future of generative AI microsoft Copilot is a powerful AI tool that enhances how users interact with data and digital content across various platforms with its design deeply integrated into Microsoft’s ecosystem including Bing and Microsoft Edge C-Pilot serves as an everyday AI companion that simplifies tasks boosts productivity and enhances creative processes c-pilot is accessible directly through the Bing website or the Microsoft Edge browser it employs advanced AI to provide a dynamic interaction model where you can ask questions generate content and receive detailed answers directly related to the task they are performing this is useful in scenarios like getting suggestions on generating a color palette from a company logo understanding and troubleshooting data analysis expressions also known as DAX formula or even answering specific contextual questions about improving a report interface in the everchanging digital landscape proficiency with advanced tools like Copilot is crucial for adapting swiftly to new technologies and maintaining a competitive edge now that you know what Microsoft C-Pilot is let’s explore its core capabilities and features c-pilot transforms traditional search capabilities by providing comprehensive contextaware responses to complex queries whether you’re asking for the benefits of using direct query or wanting travel advice on attending a data conference Copilot generates textbased answers images additional links and more delivering a rich detailed response copilot excels in creating text for a variety of needs including drafting emails writing user manuals and generating creative content like marketing posts this feature allows users to input prompts and Copilot crafts the necessary text in seconds tailored to the desired tone and format integrated with Dell E3 technology the designer feature in Copilot enables users to generate images on demand this tool is accessible directly through the Bing interface and creates visual content ranging from social media posts to custom event invitations copilot extends its functionality to the edge browser offering insights within the sidebar additional information links and suggestions enrich the browsing experience helping to discover new content and access relevant data quickly copilot supports various multimodal interactions which means it can handle tasks combining different data input and output types such as text and images this enhances the flexibility and depth of user interactions with the tool having covered Microsoft Copilot’s vast capabilities and features in Bing let’s explore how its varied modes adapt to an individual’s needs these modes creative balanced and precise enhance the experience by shaping the AI’s responses to fluently match the context of queries creative mode is suitable for tasks requiring a high degree of creativity such as composing poetry and images or crafting engaging narratives it enhances responses with stylistic elements like word play providing more elaborate and detailed communication for instance creative mode can be used in the retail industry to develop unique marketing campaigns that captivate customers consider a clothing brand wanting to launch a new line using creative mode they can generate inventive product descriptions engaging storytelling around the brand’s journey and eye-catching promotional materials that differentiate their offerings from competitors and attract more customers balanced mode is the default configuration providing a compromise between creative mode’s detailed expressiveness and precise mode succinct nature it aims to deliver factually correct responses yet includes a slight creative twist to enhance engagement this mode is well suited for regular inquiries that require clear and accurate information but are enriched by a creative element to maintain interest and readability in the manufacturing sector balanced mode can be used to write user manuals that are not only informative and precise but also easy to understand and engaging this helps ensure that technical documentation while accurate is also accessible to users enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing errors in product use precise mode focuses on delivering brief and accurate responses when precision and conciseness are critical this mode ensures that responses are direct and to the point concentrating solely on factual content without additional creative additions it is ideal for straightforward questions where timely and accurate information is needed or when a concise summary is required to quickly grasp the essential facts for example precise mode is essential for developers and data professionals when troubleshooting complex formulas this mode provides straightforward accurate responses that help individuals quickly understand errors in their code or apply the best techniques to optimize their queries without sifting through irrelevant information by harnessing the power of Microsoft Copilot you embark upon infinite digital possibilities with each query you explore and insight you uncover you’re not only keeping up with new age technology you begin driving it as a data analyst your agenda consists of creating a series of PowerBI reports that accurately capture the company’s performance over the past quarter you have gathered the necessary data and spent hours planning the data flow however as you explore the data set you encounter familiar roadblocks some of the formulas in your reports are returning errors disrupting the flow of your analysis moreover ensuring the aesthetics of the reports align with your company’s theme is proving to be more time consuming than anticipated you often find yourself pondering the hours spent each week on similar tasks time that could otherwise be directed towards deeper analysis that could propel the company forward the potential of integrating C-pilot with PowerBI becomes apparent in moments like these as a data analyst your daily work is fraught with challenges that can perplex even the most experienced professionals in the field each step presents obstacles from data collection to report delivery one of the primary issues data analysts face regularly is formula errors these errors can range from simple syntax mistakes to more complex logical problems that can skew the analysis and lead to incorrect conclusions such issues not only delay the reporting process but also jeopardize the accuracy and reliability of the information presented to decision makers maintaining consistency in color usage that reflects the company’s theme across all reports requires meticulous attention to detail and in-depth knowledge of branding guidelines these design challenges often consume a substantial amount of time and can divert one’s focus from core analytical responsibilities copilot paired with PowerBI transforms the way you navigate these challenges you can ask C-Pilot questions about techniques to improve your reports interface or instruct it to troubleshoot data analysis expressions or DAX formulas for instance you might say “Explain this DAX formula and why it results in an error then Copilot immediately interprets your request and generates the relevant explanation and corrected DAX formula without you manually troubleshooting it moreover Copilot’s machine learning or ML aspect continuously learns from the data it processes and its interactions with you this enables Copilot to become more adapted understanding your specific needs over time for example imagine you are working on a series of financial reports and Copilot has resolved DAX errors for these formulas earlier in the chat session copilot then recognizes these patterns in your query history and personalizes future interactions to ensure the chat context remains relevant this saves you time by reducing the need to copy and paste formulas repeatedly and helps ensure accuracy in your analysis by minimizing the potential for errors now that you understand how Copilot leverages cutting edge artificial intelligence technologies let’s explore the advantages this powerful tool offers for data analysts these features not only enhance the efficiency of workflows but also elevate the quality and impact of reports c-pilot excels in troubleshooting and optimizing DAX formulas which are central to data manipulation and analysis in PowerBI if you’re struggling with a formula’s performance or accuracy C-Pilot provides suggestions for optimization it can also explain the logic behind DAX functions in simple terms making it easier for you to understand and effectively use them in your reports from an aesthetic standpoint Copilot can analyze images of your current reports or even suggest improvements to the layout for example if you upload an image of a report you’re currently working on Copilot can analyze the placement of elements and suggest a more streamlined or visually appealing arrangement that enhances readability and viewer engagement when you upload an image representing a company’s branding like a logo or marketing material Copilot can analyze the colors and generate a color palette that matches the branding this feature ensures that all reports maintain a consistent visual style that aligns with a company’s identity enhancing the professional quality of your presentations copilot can also serve as a creative assistant by generating images that inspire the design of your reports for example if you need to create a report on sustainability C-Pilot can generate images that evoke themes of sustainability you can use these images as a reference to design your own report visuals ensuring your reports are not only informative but also aesthetically aligned with the topic it is clear that C-Pilot is not just a tool but an assistant that brings out the best in your analysis efforts remember every report you create every DAX formula you solve and every insight you derive contributes to the decision that drives the company forward as you continue to leverage the power of PowerBI redefine the boundaries of what you can achieve with data and let C-pilot guide you to a new horizon of possibilities it’s early Monday morning and your manager has assigned you a critical task whereby you must develop a report for the upcoming quarterly review your manager expects the report to embody the company’s new logo and color scheme to add to the challenge the task now is not only to present data but to do so in a way that reflects the company’s updated brand identity feeling the weight of this responsibility you take a deep breath sip your coffee and get to work you are confident you can complete this task well with your trusty ally Microsoft Copilot when designing a report matching colors to a company’s logo and branding isn’t just about aesthetics but also about communication and consistency using artificial intelligence or AI assisted tools like Microsoft Copilot enables you to easily integrate a new color pallet aligning your report with the updated company branding this AIdriven approach enhances productivity by automating the once time-consuming task of manual caller matching so let’s unpack how you can achieve this first open Microsoft Edge and select the C-Pilot icon next to the search bar this access point is part of Microsoft’s integrated experience merging the functionalities of Bing and Copilot ensure that you are signed in with your Microsoft account you’ll be prompted to create an account if you don’t have an account once signed in select the more creative button to activate creative mode creative mode is recommended for highly creative tasks like developing unique concepts or exploring artistic elements such as images now focus towards the bottom left of the interface next to ask me anything and select add an image followed by upload from this device next in the file explorer navigate to the location where the logo image is saved select the image file and confirm the selection by selecting the open button to upload it the selected image then begins to upload to Copilot type the instructions in the text box depending on what you need Copilot to do with the image in this instance let’s create a color palette by inputting generate a color palette based on this logo upon selecting the submit button Copilot uses its AI technology to analyze the uploaded logo image it examines the logo’s colors and uses algorithms designed to identify and extract predominant and accent colors based on the analysis Copilot presents the color palette in hex codes which is the standard for color representation if the initial palette isn’t satisfactory or lacks some colors you can modify your prompt to specify your needs further for instance if the company branding includes the color blue which wasn’t present in the logo you can amend your prompt to include shades of blue in the palette with your generated color palette it’s time to integrate these colors into your PowerBI report open the report and select the view tab now select the themes drop-down to expand the theme gallery upon selecting customize current theme input the hex codes provided by Copilot via the drop- down buttons for each color setting such as first level and second level these hex codes represent the colors identified from the logo after inputting the new colors select apply to update the report with a new theme there you have it you can now confidently use Microsoft Copilot to enhance your report design you achieved maximized productivity and reduced the time you spent on the task remember partnering with an AI tool such as Microsoft Copilot makes managing complex tasks and deadlines easier so enjoy the journey as you embrace and explore its powerful capabilities as a senior data analyst you’ve spent weeks crafting a PowerBI dashboard for the company’s quarterly review however as you run through the last data validations a series of errors cascade through critical data analysis expressions or DAX formulas these aren’t simple fixes they involve complex nested if statements within calculate functions that you had previously tested in this critical moment you recall the Microsoft Copilot in Bing is the solution you need in this video you’ll discover the importance of mastering DAX for data manipulation and analysis in PowerBI and learn how Copilot can be a valuable tool for addressing formula issues mastering DAX is essential to turn complex data into compelling business insights however even the most skilled data analysts can encounter errors when navigating through its syntax and functionalities understanding these common issues can help you write more robust and efficient DAX code let’s explore these and how to resolve them using Microsoft Copilot in Bing when applied over large data sets the filter function can be computationally expensive and slows report performance for instance imagine using filter to identify all sales transactions above a certain value across the sales database the row iterative nature of filter would examine each transaction individually causing delays in loading the report here Copilot can help optimize the formulas to enhance performance and assist in correcting any logical errors by refining the filter criteria let’s examine how to achieve this begin by opening your PowerBI desktop report and navigate to the table containing the filter formula you intend to refine next select the formula bar where the filter statement is displayed now copy the contents from the field with your formula copied launch Microsoft Edge and select the Copilot icon in the sidebar to access the integrated C-pilot in Bing upon loading Copilot select the more precise button that activates precise mode locate the ask me anything text box and paste the slow filter formula providing Copilot with context now type the specific query for assistance on a new line in the same prompt window in this instance to optimize performance you can type “How can I optimize this filter function to improve performance when handling large data sets?” Select the submit button to send the query to Copilot once you press submit Copilot processes your input using its artificial intelligence commonly referred to as AI capabilities once you have a revised filter formula and are satisfied copy this directly from the copilot interface by selecting the copy button upon navigating to your PowerBI report select the table where you want to apply the updated formula then select the formula bar and paste the updated formula make sure to replace the old formula completely to avoid conflicts or errors select enter to commit the formula in PowerBI and observe how it executes one of the most powerful yet tricky aspects of calculate is its ability to modify the filter context of a calculation suppose you want to use calculate to sum sales for all countries but as a result it returns total sales for only the United States microsoft Copilot in Bing can help guide you through the correct structuring of calculate formulas suggest how to perform dynamic aggregations and even detect and suggest fixes to syntax errors in the ask me anything text box paste the calculate formula you need to troubleshoot on a new line in the same prompt window type how can I modify this calculate formula to sum sales for all countries once you select the submit button Copilot returns an explanation and a corrected calculate formula with a requested context after reviewing the initial results you can ask some additional questions to deepen your understanding or refine your formula further for instance can you suggest ways to avoid common syntax errors in this calculate formula this followup empowers you to grasp common mistakes and learn best practices in writing DAX formulas once you are satisfied with the response from Copilot select the copy button finally paste the results in Microsoft PowerBI to assess whether the suggestions improve the formula’s functionality deeply nested if statements can become difficult to manage and troubleshoot imagine using nested if statements to categorize sales into different classes based on the column amount the complexity of checking multiple conditions can easily lead to mistakes and logic copilot can simplify this by suggesting straightforward alternatives or helping restructure these nested conditions into manageable components now in the ask me anything text box paste the if formula that requires troubleshooting on a new line in the same prompt window enter can you suggest a simpler alternative to this nested if statement for better manageability upon selecting the submit button Copilot generates suggestions to simplify or improve the efficiency after reviewing the feedback provided by Copilot select the copy button finally navigate to PowerBI desktop paste the revised if statement into the formula bar and select enter to apply the formula as your journey through mastering DAX comes to a close reflect on the transformative power of blending AI with your analytical skills as you move forward equipped with the knowledge of DAX and the support of AI remember that each challenge overcome is not just a step toward progression but a leap toward mastering PowerBI congratulations on completing the Microsoft PL300 exam preparation and practice course your dedication has given you the skills and tools for success when writing the Microsoft PL300 exam you have now achieved all the PowerBI milestones in this program this course gave you opportunities to practice your exam technique and refresh your knowledge of all the key areas assessed in the Microsoft PL300 exam you tested your knowledge in a series of practice exams mapped to all the main topics covered in the Microsoft PL300 exam to help you prepare for certification success you also got tips and tricks testing strategies useful resources and information on how to sign up for the Microsoft PL300 proctored exam now that you have successfully completed this professional certificate you are ready to schedule the Microsoft PL300 exam through Pearson View through a mix of videos readings and exercises you’ve learned about the expectations for the learning content by starting with an introduction to the course following this you were provided with information about the Microsoft certification here you explored an introduction to preparing for the exam how to prepare for the procedurate examination how the exam is administered topics covered in the PL300 exam and testing strategy next you reviewed what you learned about getting data from data sources here you revisited how to identify and connect to a data source using a shared data set or local data set direct query import and dual mode parameter values how to set up a data flow how to connect to a data flow the Microsoft data versse and how to get data from data sources you then investigated how to profile and clean data this included consolidating your knowledge of evaluating data data statistics and column properties how to resolve inconsistencies and data quality issues and an indepth dive into profiling and cleaning data after that you explored the process of transforming and loading data where you covered how to create and transform columns identify when to use reference queries how to merge and append queries table relationships and an in-depth view of transforming and loading data next you explored modeling data where you revised key concepts related to modeling data in PowerBI here you reviewed designing data models where you learned about how to design a schema implement role playing dimensions use calculate to manipulate filters and configure cardality and cross filter direction next you explored how to create model calculations using DAX this is where you explored calculated columns and single aggregation measures as well as how to implement time intelligence measures you also reviewed the differences between additive semi-additive and non-additive measures later you reviewed how to implement a data model this is where you explored calculated tables and data hierarchies you also covered how to optimize model performance this included reviewing important topics like using the performance analyzer and how to improve performance via cardality and summarization you reviewed data visualization and analysis techniques in PowerBI to help you prepare for the PL300 exam in this section you revisited the process of report creation this included reviewing important topics like using appropriate visualizations configuring and formatting visualizations applying slicing and filtering and exporting and printing reports you re-examined how to enhance reports for better usability and storytelling this included reviewing report navigation and sorting interactions between visuals sync slicers group and layer visuals by using the selection pane and how to design reports for mobile devices following that you explored how to identify patterns and trends you revisited how to detect outliers and anomalies grouping and binning data AI visuals reference lines and error bars and scorecards and metrics you then moved on to deploying and maintaining assets this is where you revised creating and managing workspaces and assets you reviewed key concepts such as workspaces and workspace roles workspace apps how to publish import or update assets in a workspace subscriptions and data alerts how to promote or certify PowerBI content and global options for files next you reviewed how to manage data sets this section provided you with a summary of data gateways rowle security and granting access to data sets to round off your learning you took a mock exam that has been set up in a similar style to the industry recognized Microsoft PL300 exam by passing the exam you’ll become a Microsoft certified PowerBI data analyst it will also help you to start or expand a career in this role this globally recognized certification is industry endorsed evidence of your technical skills and knowledge the exam measures your ability to perform the following tasks prepare data for analysis model data visualize and analyze data and deploy and maintain assets to complete the exam you should be familiar with Power Query and the process of writing expressions using data analysis expressions or DAX you’ve done a great job so far and you should be proud of your progress the experience you’ve gained will showcase your willingness to learn your motivation and your capability to potential employers it’s been a pleasure to embark on this journey of discovery with you best of luck in the future the Microsoft PowerBI Analyst program is an excellent resource to start your career whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional looking to improve your skills data is the driving force behind this everchanging modern world shaping and developing industries and society it has transformed the way institutions operate from banks and hospitals to schools and supermarkets and for businesses data is everything it informs decisions and helps create value for customers content streaming services analyze data to decide what content to promote social media services analyze data to determine what products their customers are interested in and your local supermarket gathers and analyzes data to ensure the products you want are available the result of having all this data is that professional analysts are required to process and sort it to gain the insights that drive both the business and social worlds are you intrigued by this career field and wondering how to get started let’s meet two other students who have just begun their careers in entry- levelvel positions discover how and why they’ve chosen to embark upon career paths in this field with Microsoft and Corsera lucas a recent information technology graduate is currently searching for his first IT job he is eager to secure a position in the IT sector that offers good earning potential and a quick career progression he wants to work full-time in data analysis as he feels this career would offer both benefits during his degree he found working with and analyzing cloud-based data to be the most enjoyable element hence his focus on this career path lucas currently works shifts in a warehouse environment so he will need the flexibility of self-paced learning his earnings are low so he wants to achieve the qualification using the same basic laptop he relied upon as a student despite being a beginner Lucas has already mapped out his career and certification path and has enrolled in the Microsoft PowerBI analyst program he plans to apply for an entry- levelvel position as a data analyst once he has successfully completed the program and passed the PL300 exam as a data analyst he will inspect data identify key business insights for new business opportunities and help solve business problems amelia has been working as an administrative assistant in sales and marketing since leaving high school now that a few years have passed she is ready to embark upon a new career path in her current role Amelia has seen PowerBI reports and dashboards created by colleagues and shared with the team she was impressed at how the information was used to shape and focus the sales campaigns this sparked an interest in a career in data analysis amelia’s job requires her to work long hours so the ability to structure her own learning path is vital she also has a long commute so would like to access e-learning through her smartphone or tablet pursuing the PowerBI analyst qualification will showcase her dedication and help her apply for more senior roles in the department in the short term amelia doesn’t have a scientific background but she finds IT concepts logical and easy to understand so she’s embarking on the Microsoft PowerBI analyst program as it doesn’t assume a pre-existing high level of technical knowledge in the long term she hopes to secure an entry-level role as a PowerBI analyst as a PowerBI analyst she will be responsible for building data models creating data assets like reports and dashboards and ensuring data requirements are met you may be in a similar position to Lucas and Amelia and possess an interest in this exciting field of data analysis like them you can begin your career in this field by enrolling in the Microsoft PowerBI analyst program this will be the start of your new adventure good luck with your learning journey
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The provided text introduces an extensive Excel course designed for data analytics beginners. It outlines a curriculum that starts with fundamental spreadsheet skills and progresses to advanced analytical features like pivot tables and Power Query, culminating in two portfolio-worthy projects analyzing real-world data. The course emphasizes hands-on learning through exercises and practice problems, highlighting Excel’s widespread use in the data analysis and business analysis fields. Furthermore, the instructor uses practical examples, such as analyzing job market data and salary information, to illustrate Excel’s capabilities.
Data Analysis with Excel Study Guide
Quiz
Describe two methods for accessing the course workbooks provided with this material.
What are course perks mentioned in the source, and is purchasing them required to complete the data analysis learning?
What role will the learner assume for the data analysis exercises in this course, and what is the primary data source for these exercises?
What is the main dataset used throughout the majority of the course, and what key information does it contain?
According to the source, what is a recommended first step for learners when they encounter difficulties or errors during the course?
What are the minimum Excel version requirements for completing all chapters of this data analysis course on a Windows machine? What limitation exists for Mac users?
Briefly explain the difference between a worksheet and a workbook in Microsoft Excel, as described in the “Spreadsheets Intro” chapter.
What is the ribbon in Microsoft Excel, and where is it located within the application interface?
Explain the core functionality of the COUNT function in Excel and how it differs from the COUNTIF function.
Describe the purpose of logical functions like IF, AND, and OR in Excel data analysis.
Quiz Answer Key
Learners can access the workbooks by either navigating through the numbered chapter folders and downloading individual lesson workbooks (using the three dots and “Download” option) or by downloading the entire repository as a ZIP file by clicking on “Code” and then “Download ZIP.”
The course perks are practice problems and course notes that provide additional opportunities to reinforce learning. Purchasing these perks is not a requirement to complete the data analysis learning, but it helps support the course creator.
The learner will take on the role of a job seeker exploring top-paying data science roles and related skills. The primary data source for this exploration is data collected from the app datnerd.tech, specifically a dataset of job postings from 2023.
The main dataset is located in the “data sets” folder and is named “data job salary.” It includes over 30,000 job postings from 2023 and contains information such as company name, salary, and location.
The source recommends using a chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to get immediate assistance with errors by providing the error message. It advises against solely relying on the comment section for help.
For Windows, any version of Excel from 2010 or later, including Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Office Home and Student, is sufficient. Mac users with Excel installed directly on their operating system will not be able to complete the advanced chapters on Power Query and Power Pivot, as well as the project.
A worksheet (or sheet) is a single tab within Excel where data is entered and manipulated in cells. A workbook is the entire Excel file, which can contain one or multiple worksheets.
The ribbon is located at the top of the Excel interface and contains various tabs (like File, Home, Insert, etc.) that provide access to a wide range of Excel functionalities and features.
The COUNT function counts the number of cells within a selected range that contain numerical values. The COUNTIF function counts cells within a range that meet a specific condition or criteria defined by the user.
Logical functions are used to perform conditional analysis in Excel. IF allows for different outcomes based on whether a condition is true or false. AND requires multiple conditions to be true. OR requires at least one of multiple conditions to be true.
Essay Format Questions
Discuss the importance of exploratory data analysis (EDA) in the context of this course’s job seeker scenario. How can the math and statistical functions covered in the course be applied to gain meaningful insights from the job posting dataset?
Explain the concept of “what-if” analysis in Excel and describe the three tools covered in the source material (Scenario Manager, Goal Seek, and Solver). Illustrate with potential examples how a job seeker could utilize each of these tools in their career planning.
Describe the functionality and benefits of using data tables in Excel for “what-if” analysis. How can one-input and two-input data tables help a job seeker evaluate different potential outcomes related to salary and career growth?
Discuss the advantages of using Power Query for importing and transforming data, particularly when dealing with large datasets or multiple data sources. How could a job seeker leverage Power Query to consolidate and prepare job market information for analysis?
Explain the purpose and basic concepts of DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) within the context of Excel’s data model. How can DAX measures be used to perform more complex calculations and comparisons on the job posting data, such as analyzing median salaries across different countries or skill sets?
Glossary of Key Terms
Workbook: An electronic spreadsheet file created in Microsoft Excel, containing one or more worksheets.
Worksheet (Sheet): A single page within an Excel workbook where data is organized in rows and columns.
Cell: The intersection of a row and a column in a worksheet, where data can be entered.
Ribbon: The main command bar at the top of the Excel window, organized into tabs containing various functions and features.
Function: A predefined formula in Excel that performs calculations on specific values (arguments) in a particular order or structure.
Formula: An expression that calculates the value of a cell. It can contain numbers, operators, cell references, and functions.
Data Set: A collection of related data points, often organized in a table format with rows representing individual records and columns representing attributes.
Repository (Repo): A storage location for code and files, often used in version control systems like Git and platforms like GitHub.
Commit (Git): A snapshot of the changes made to a repository at a specific point in time, with a descriptive message.
Push (Git): The process of uploading local repository content to a remote repository (e.g., on GitHub).
Pull (Git): The process of downloading changes from a remote repository to a local repository.
Markdown: A lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax, commonly used for creating formatted text in readmes and other documents.
Dashboard: A visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator): A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives.
Data Validation: A feature in Excel used to control the type of data or the values that users enter into a cell.
Conditional Formatting: A feature in Excel that allows you to automatically apply formatting to cells based on specific rules or criteria.
Pivot Table: A powerful tool in Excel used to summarize and analyze large amounts of data.
Power Query: A data transformation and data preparation engine available in Excel (also known as Get & Transform Data).
M Language: The formula language used by Power Query to perform data transformations.
Data Model (Excel): An integrated collection of tables, relationships between them, and calculations, used for data analysis with tools like Power Pivot.
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): A formula language used in Power BI, Power Pivot in Excel, and SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular models for performing calculations and data analysis.
Measure (DAX): A calculation formula defined in a data model, used to quantify and summarize data based on the current context of a pivot table or other visualization.
Calculated Column (DAX): A new column added to a table in a data model, with values determined by a DAX expression evaluated row by row.
Filter (DAX): A condition applied to a DAX calculation to restrict the data being evaluated.
Briefing Document: Review of Excel Data Analysis Course Sources
This briefing document summarizes the main themes, important ideas, and key facts presented in the provided excerpts from the “01.pdf” source, which appears to be related to an online course on data analysis using Microsoft Excel.
Main Themes
Structured Learning Resources: The course provides structured learning through chapters and lessons, accompanied by downloadable workbooks, data sheets (for advanced topics), practice problems (for course perk purchasers), and course notes.
Practical Data Analysis Focus: The course centers around a practical data analysis project where learners take on the role of a job seeker exploring top-paying data roles and required skills. This utilizes real-world (or realistic) data from the instructor’s app, datnerd.tech, containing information on job titles, locations, skills, and salaries.
Accessibility and Flexibility: While offering supplementary materials like practice problems and course notes for purchase, the core learning (video lessons and workbooks) appears to be accessible without these. The course also encourages learners to adapt the exercises to their own interests (job titles, countries).
Troubleshooting and Support Strategies: The course proactively addresses the likelihood of learners encountering difficulties and recommends using AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude for immediate assistance rather than relying solely on the course’s comment section.
Version Compatibility and Setup: The course emphasizes the importance of having a compatible version of Microsoft Excel installed, detailing which versions (Windows and Mac, including Microsoft 365) are suitable for different parts of the course, particularly noting limitations for Mac users regarding Power Query and Power Pivot in the advanced chapters.
Introduction to Excel Fundamentals: The initial chapters cover basic spreadsheet concepts like worksheets, workbooks, and the Excel ribbon, designed for beginners with little to no prior experience with the software.
Core Excel Functionality for Data Analysis: The course delves into essential Excel functionalities for data analysis, including formulas, various types of functions (logical, math, statistical, text, lookup), data manipulation, data visualization (charts), “what-if” analysis tools (Scenario Manager, Goal Seek, Solver, Data Tables), and data transformation using Power Query.
Leveraging Data Analysis ToolPak: The course introduces and utilizes the Data Analysis ToolPak for more advanced statistical analysis and charting (e.g., histograms, descriptive statistics, ranking and percentile).
Data Modeling and DAX: The course covers the creation of a data model in Excel and introduces Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) for creating measures and calculated columns to perform more complex analysis, particularly focusing on aggregation, statistics, and filtering within pivot tables.
Power Query for Data Import and Transformation: The course demonstrates how to use Power Query to import data from various sources (including large datasets) and perform transformations, including merging queries, appending data, and unpivoting columns.
Dashboard Creation and Sharing: The course culminates in building an interactive dashboard in Excel, emphasizing formatting, conditional formatting, and the use of slicers for filtering. It also covers methods for sharing projects, specifically recommending GitHub for version control and showcasing work.
Introduction to VBA and Macros: The course briefly touches upon the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate tasks within Excel through macros.
Most Important Ideas and Facts (with Quotes)
Course Structure and Resources: The course is organized into eight chapters with lessons, workbooks, and supplementary materials.
“by chapter along with the lesson in addition to that resources folder you can see numbered here we have each of those eight chapters and if we navigate into something like spreadsheets intro we have a workbook for each one of the lessons”
“inside the workbooks I provide a blank template for you to go through and actually fill in”
“as we move into the advanced chapters they’re going to have something like the data sheet or you’re going to use the data from the data sheets in order to do different operations”
“after going through a lesson I then have practice problems for those that purchase the course perks to go through”
“the other perk that you’ll receive with those practice problems are the course notes these break down the concepts in a similar format of all the different chapters and lesson”
Practical Project: Job Seeker Analysis: The core project involves analyzing job data to identify top-paying roles and skills.
“what are we actually going to be covering in this data analysis that we’re going to be doing inside of excel well you’re going to be taking the role of a job Seeker in exploring what are some of the top paying roles along with skills of data nerds”
“For this we’re going to use the data from my app dat nerd. Tech that is collected to this point up to 3 million jobs it tells based on a job title and also on a location what are the top skills and it not only tells us the salary of these skills for a particular job but also the salaries of the jobs themselves.”
Main Dataset: The primary dataset for the course contains a significant number of job postings.
“Now the main data set we’re going to be using for the majority of this course is this one here inside the data sets folder of data job salary all this data set includes over 30,000 job postings from 2023 and it includes a wealth of information such as company name salary and location”
Flexibility in Analysis: Learners are encouraged to personalize the analysis.
“as I’m going to be doing it from the perspective of a data analyst which is their top job in the data set but as shown here there’s a lot of different other job titles that you can check out and use as well so feel free to deviate additionally I’ll be primarily focusing on the United States but there’s a lot of different countries in there as well so feel free to plug in your home country and analyze this instead”
Recommended Help Strategy: Utilizing AI chatbots for troubleshooting is advised.
“I don’t recommend just jumping into the comment section and waiting for somebody to help you out instead I recommend using a chat bot like chat GPT in it you can provide whatever era you’re seeing and it will help you out and guide you along the way on what to do and there’s other great options as well such as gemini or even Claude so feel free to use whichever one you’re most comfortable with”
Downloading Course Files: Learners need to download the GitHub repository.
“all right if you haven’t done so already it’s your turn now to go in and download that GitHub repo with all the different workbooks needed for this course”
Excel Version Compatibility: Specific Excel versions are required for certain advanced features.
“if you have the Mac version or Mac operating system and Excel is installed directly on that operating system you’re not going to be able to complete the Advanced chapter specifically on power query and on power pivot along with the project and it’s similar as well for Microsoft 365 online as you won’t also be able to complete the Advanced Data analysis section.”
“if you’re running Excel on a Windows machine either through Microsoft 365 Microsoft Office at home and student or even an older version of excel up to about 2010 you’re going to be fine with completing all the different course content”
Basic Spreadsheet Vocabulary: The course introduces fundamental Excel terms.
“for this lesson we’re going to be focusing on worksheets and that is basically as you can see this tab here called sheet one that is how to manipulate these different cells within this worksheet or also known as a sheet in the next lesson we’re going to be going into workbooks so workbooks basically captures either one sheet like this one sheet one if I add another one sheet two so it encapsulates multiple different sheets within this program of Excel and then finally in the third lesson of this chapter we’re going to be moving into the ribbon which is up here at the top and has a bunch of different functionality to extend into those spreadsheets along with using this file tab up here that has a whole bunch of features within it as well”
Purpose of the Spreadsheets Intro Chapter: This section is for beginners.
“now this chapter was designed for those that may not have experience with using Microsoft Excel before so if you don’t fall in that category as in you’ve used excel in your job and you’re pretty familiar with all those different features I just shown you can feel free to skip this chapter and then move into the next one on functions along with all those different practice problems”
File Tab Functionality: The File tab contains various options including saving, printing, and account management.
“Beyond save as we also have things like print which I really don’t find myself doing that too often should be sending an electronic version export if I wanted a pdf version of something and then finally close as well same thing as this x up here just a x out of it and there’s two more areas down here that I want to call out and that’s a count and that allows you to actually see behind the scenes of what going on with your Microsoft account and this is generic to all the different Microsoft products that you have”
Ribbon Tabs: The ribbon contains various tabs with different functionalities.
“we’re going to be getting into the ribbon inside of Excel and better understanding what are all the different tabs and what are the capabilities by doing some simple exercises”
Introduction to Formulas: The course covers the basics of creating formulas in Excel.
“so let’s get into understanding the basics about formulas by calculating these different counts and especially counts around whether any of these jobs meet our goals for this I know I want to use a count function”
Using Functions (e.g., COUNTIF): The course teaches how to use built-in Excel functions.
“specifically I have these different counts right here and I’m going to scroll over this count if right here and it’s going to provide me a description it says Hey counts the number of cells Within range that meet the given condition and that’s what we want to do we want to meet a condition of a certain amount of experience”
Common Formula Errors: The course acknowledges and addresses potential errors in formulas.
“frequently you’re going to run into errors with your formulas let’s say I wanted to divide one by zero not a good thing that we need to do anyway I’m going to get this error right now you can notice it because it has this green check on the upper left hand corner but also it starts with this hashtag and it’s saying hey you have a divide by zero error”
Logical Functions (e.g., IF): The course covers the use of logical functions for conditional analysis.
“now that we have the basics down on formulas and also functions we’re going to be moving into one of the most important typ of functions to know logical ones the most popular of these are an if condition basically looking at something and then providing a response based on it”
“we can use an if statement in order to clarify this so I can specifically call out with an if statement saying if it has The Logical test that we want to actually evaluate so I’m going to put in P3 in this case as it’s going to return true or false and then from there the next value in there is value if true which what do we want to return if it is true well that our goal is met and then if it’s not met we want to have well not met”
Nested IF Statements: The course explains the concept of nested IF functions.
“we’re going to do one approach first and it’s called a nested if statement and it’s not really the approach I’m going to recommend but it’s something that you should be aware of”
AND and OR Functions: The course introduces the use of AND and OR functions for combining logical conditions.
“instead I like using the functions of and and or and…”
IFS Function: The IFS function is presented as an alternative for multiple conditions.
“so S functions are one of the more complex functions to work with so you do need some practice with this like for those that purchased course practice problems you have some now to go into and actually try this out manipulate and better understand how to work with this”
Math and Statistical Functions (e.g., COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNTIFS): These are essential for exploratory data analysis (EDA).
“in this lesson we’re going to be using math functions and also some statistical functions in order to perform Eda or exploratory data analysis on our job posting data set and for this we’re going to be focusing on the five major functions of count sum average and also Min and Max and we’re not only going to focus on the core versions such as just count but also the if an ifs version so they have multiple different versions that we’re going to get to”
Standard Deviation and Quartiles: These statistical measures are covered for understanding data distribution.
“we’ll find that one standard deviation from something like the average has in this case right here 34,000 so if we went above and below the average by one standard deviation around 68% which is a heck a lot of data is within this one standard deviation”
“but what if we wanted to be more precise about finding say something like where does 50% of the data actually fall well we can use quartiles”
Text Functions (e.g., LEFT, RIGHT, MID, FIND, TEXTJOIN, TEXTSPLIT, SUBSTITUTE): These are important for manipulating text data.
“now we’re going to be diving into text functions and these are essential for cleaning and transforming text data”
Date and Time Functions: The course covers functions for working with date and time values.
“now we’re going to be shifting into date and time functions which are essential whenever you’re working with time series data”
Data Visualization (Charts): Creating charts is a key aspect of the course.
“now we’re going to be shifting into the world of data visualization specifically focusing on the different types of charts available in Excel and how to customize them to best represent your data”
“What-If” Analysis (Scenario Manager, Goal Seek, Solver, Data Tables): These tools are introduced for exploring different scenarios and solving problems.
“Now we’re going to be shifting into the world of what if analysis and Excel provides a suite of tools that allow you to explore different scenarios and understand the potential impact of changes to your data and we’re going to be covering four major tools in this section of scenario manager goal seek solver and data tables”
Data Analysis ToolPak (Histogram, Descriptive Statistics, Rank/Percentile): This add-in provides additional analytical capabilities.
“now we’re going to be diving into the data analysis tool pack and this is a free add-in for Excel that provides a range of statistical and analytical tools that can help you perform more advanced analysis without needing to write complex formulas”
Getting External Data (Power Query): Power Query is used for importing and transforming data from various sources.
“Now we’re going to be shifting into the world of getting external data into Excel using a powerful tool called power query”
Data Modeling and Relationships: Creating a data model and defining relationships between tables is covered.
“Now we’re going to be diving into the world of data modeling in Excel and this involves creating relationships between different tables in your data to allow for more powerful and flexible analysis”
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): DAX is introduced for creating custom calculations in the data model.
“welcome to this lesson on Dax or data analytical Expressions we’ve used it a few times before in the previous lesson but now we’re going to go much more in depth and actually understanding the basics of it”
Sharing Projects (GitHub): GitHub is recommended for sharing and version control.
“in this video and the next video which are the last two videos of this entire course they’re going to be focused on how to actually go through and share your projects in my recommended way specifically we’re going to be sharing this on GitHub”
This briefing document provides a comprehensive overview of the content and key aspects of the Excel data analysis course based on the provided source excerpts. It highlights the structured approach, practical focus, and the wide range of Excel features covered to equip learners with data analysis skills.
Excel for Data Analysis: Course FAQs
Excel for Data Analysis FAQ
1. What kind of files are provided in the course, and how do I access them? The course provides workbooks for each lesson within each of the eight chapters. These workbooks often include a blank template for you to fill in and, in the advanced chapters, data sheets to be used for exercises. To access these files, you can download the entire repository as a zip file by clicking on the “Code” button and then “Download ZIP”. Once downloaded, you’ll need to unzip the file, and you’ll find folders corresponding to each chapter, containing the relevant workbooks. Alternatively, individual files can be downloaded by navigating to them, clicking the three dots next to the file, and selecting “Download”.
2. Are there any practice materials or additional resources offered with the course? Yes, for those who purchase the course perks, there are practice problems available for each lesson, broken down by chapter and lesson. These problems allow you to apply what you’ve learned. Additionally, course notes are provided, which offer a written breakdown of the concepts covered in the videos, following the same chapter and lesson structure. It’s important to note that purchasing these perks is not required to complete the course.
3. What real-world scenario and data will be used for the data analysis exercises? Throughout the course, you will take on the role of a job seeker exploring top-paying data-related roles and the skills associated with them. The primary data source for this analysis is data collected from datnerd.tech, which includes information on over 3 million job postings. The main dataset used for the majority of the course, located in the “data sets” folder and named “data job salary,” contains over 30,000 job postings from 2023, including details like company name, salary, and location. While examples will primarily focus on the perspective of a data analyst in the United States, you are encouraged to explore other job titles and countries present in the data.
4. What are the system requirements for using Excel with this course, particularly for the advanced sections? For the majority of the course content, if you are running Excel on a Windows machine with Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office (Home and Student), or even an older version back to 2010, you should be able to follow along without issues. However, if you are using the Mac version of Excel installed directly on macOS or Microsoft 365 online, you will not be able to complete the advanced chapters that specifically cover Power Query and Power Pivot, as well as the final project. These features have limitations or are not available on these platforms.
5. What fundamental concepts of spreadsheets and Excel will be covered in the “Spreadsheets Intro” chapter? The “Spreadsheets Intro” chapter is designed for beginners who may not have prior experience with Microsoft Excel. It covers essential vocabulary and concepts, including: * Worksheets: Understanding and manipulating individual sheets within an Excel file. * Workbooks: Recognizing that workbooks are containers that can hold one or more worksheets. * The Ribbon and File Tab: Navigating and understanding the functionality found in the ribbon at the top of the Excel interface and the features available within the File tab.
6. How can I get help or troubleshoot issues I encounter while working through the course material? Instead of solely relying on the comment section for help, it is highly recommended to use a chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. You can provide the specific error message or describe the problem you are facing to these AI tools, and they can offer guidance and solutions. This method is suggested as a more efficient way to get immediate assistance and understand how to resolve issues as you progress through the course.
7. What are some of the key function categories that will be covered in the data analysis section of the course? The course will cover a range of Excel functions essential for data analysis. These include: * Basic Formulas and Functions: Understanding the fundamentals of creating formulas and using built-in functions. * Logical Functions (e.g., IF, AND, OR): Evaluating conditions and returning different values based on whether those conditions are true or false. * Math and Statistical Functions (e.g., COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, STDEV, QUARTILE): Performing calculations and analyzing data distributions. * Text Functions (e.g., LEFT, RIGHT, MID, FIND, TEXTJOIN, TEXTSPLIT): Manipulating and extracting information from text strings. * Lookup and Reference Functions (e.g., VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP): Searching for and retrieving data from different parts of a spreadsheet. * Date and Time Functions (e.g., DATE, TODAY, MONTH, YEAR): Working with and analyzing date and time data.
8. What tools and techniques will be taught for visualizing data in Excel? The course will cover various methods for creating effective data visualizations in Excel. These include: * Basic Chart Types: Creating column charts, line charts, pie charts, and more to represent data visually. * Customizing Charts: Modifying chart elements such as titles, axis labels, legends, and data labels. * Trendlines: Adding trendlines to charts to identify patterns and directions in the data. * Histograms: Using histograms to understand the distribution of data. * Map Charts: Visualizing geographical data on interactive maps. * Pivot Charts: Creating dynamic charts that are linked to pivot tables for interactive analysis. * Conditional Formatting: Applying visual cues like data bars, color scales, and icon sets to highlight patterns and trends in data.
Mastering Excel for Data Analytics
Based on the provided source, “01.pdf”, Excel is presented as a highly popular spreadsheet tool for data analytics, estimated to have over 1 billion users worldwide. For “data nerds,” it is considered one of the most popular skills for data analysts, second only to SQL, and the same holds true for business analysts.
The course outlined in the source aims to take individuals with no prior analytics or spreadsheet experience and guide them to master Excel for data analytics. The curriculum is structured into basic and advanced chapters, broken down into 10 to 20-minute lessons with exercises and practice problems to facilitate learning by doing.
The basic chapters focus on building a foundational understanding of Excel, including:
Getting familiar with the different versions of Excel and installing it.
Learning how to manipulate spreadsheets.
Practicing data analysis using formulas and functions.
Visualizing data using common charts.
Performing statistical analysis.
Building an interactive dashboard to predict salary based on job and location as a portfolio project.
The advanced chapters delve into more sophisticated analytical features:
Pivot tables are highlighted as a “secret weapon” for quickly analyzing data. The course covers how to make, manipulate, and read pivot tables, including advanced features like grouping and aggregation.
Power Query is described as a powerful tool (like “washing down a couple caffeine pills with a shot of espresso”) for connecting to various data sets and performing ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) operations to ingest and clean data efficiently. The course covers connecting to different data sources, cleaning data using the Power Query Editor, and automating ETL processes.
Power Pivot is likened to “putting your spreadsheets on steroids,” enabling data modeling on datasets larger than Excel’s typical row limit (over a million rows). Combined with DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), it allows for supercharged and advanced calculations. The course covers enabling Power Pivot, data modeling, creating relationships between tables, and utilizing DAX for measures and calculations.
The course also touches upon other relevant Excel features for data analytics:
Charts: The course emphasizes Excel’s capabilities for creating and customizing various types of charts, including line charts, pie charts, bar/column charts, scatter plots, map charts, histograms, and box and whisker charts. Pivot charts, which are linked to pivot tables, are also covered.
Tables: The course covers using tables, slicers, and custom formulas to analyze data.
Conditional formatting is mentioned as a way to highlight cells based on specific rules.
Data validation is taught for standardizing inputs and preventing errors in dashboards.
The course briefly mentions add-ins like Solver and Analysis ToolPak for forecasting and statistical analysis.
While VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is acknowledged, the course opts to focus on Python instead for task automation. Python in Excel is mentioned as a newer feature, though its usefulness is contingent on knowing Python.
Copilot (AI chat bots) within Excel is noted, but the course advises against relying on it as the primary method for learning.
The instructor emphasizes open-sourcing education, making the course and all necessary content freely available on GitHub. The GitHub repository contains Excel workbooks and datasets needed for the course and projects. For those seeking additional support, “supporter resources” are offered for purchase, providing guided practice problems, a community forum, step-by-step instructions, and a certificate of completion.
The source also provides a brief history of spreadsheets, starting from ancient Babylon and tracing the evolution to paper spreadsheets and finally to modern spreadsheet software like VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, and ultimately Microsoft Excel, which has dominated the market since its launch in 1985. The continuous addition of features like pivot tables, VBA, Power Query, and Power Pivot has solidified Excel’s position.
The course culminates in two portfolio projects: predicting one salary based on job and location (after the basics) and analyzing the data science job market (after the advanced chapters), both designed to showcase practical data analysis skills in Excel. The source also touches on sharing these projects via platforms like OneDrive and LinkedIn. While GitHub is mentioned for project storage and collaboration, detailed instructions are reserved for after the second project.
In summary, the source “01.pdf” portrays Excel as a powerful and widely used tool for data analytics, suitable for beginners and capable of handling complex analytical tasks through its array of features like functions, charts, tables, pivot tables, Power Query, Power Pivot, and DAX. The described course provides a comprehensive pathway to mastering these capabilities through a structured, hands-on learning approach with practical projects.
Excel for Data Analytics: A Beginner’s Course
The source “01.pdf” introduces a full course tutorial on Excel for data analytics designed for beginners with no prior analytics or spreadsheet experience. The instructor aims to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to master Excel for data analysis through a hands-on learning approach.
The course is structured into two main parts: basic chapters and advanced chapters, with lessons broken down into 10 to 20-minute segments. Each lesson includes exercises to facilitate learning by doing and practice problems to reinforce newly acquired skills.
The basic chapters focus on building a strong foundation in Excel and data analysis, covering topics such as:
Understanding different versions of Excel and the installation process.
Learning how to manipulate spreadsheets.
Practicing data analysis using formulas and functions, including IF, math, statistical, lookup, text, and date/time functions.
Visualizing data using common charts like line charts, pie charts, bar/column charts, scatter plots, map charts, histograms, and box and whisker charts.
Performing statistical analysis.
Building an interactive dashboard to predict salary based on job and location as the first portfolio project.
The advanced chapters delve into more sophisticated analytical features within Excel:
Pivot tables, described as a “secret weapon” for quick data analysis, covering their creation, manipulation, advanced features like grouping and aggregation, and pivot charts.
Power Query (originally “Get and Transform”), likened to a powerful tool for ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. This section covers connecting to various data sets, cleaning data using the Power Query Editor, and automating ETL workflows.
Power Pivot, referred to as “putting your spreadsheets on steroids,” enabling data modeling on datasets exceeding Excel’s row limit. This is combined with DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) for advanced calculations.
The course also touches on other relevant Excel functionalities for data analytics:
Tables and slicers for data analysis.
Conditional formatting for highlighting data based on rules.
Data validation for standardizing inputs in dashboards.
Add-ins like Solver and Analysis ToolPak for forecasting and statistical analysis.
The instructor explains the decision to focus on Python for task automation instead of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), considering VBA outdated. While Python in Excel and Copilot (AI chatbots) are mentioned, they are not the primary focus for learning Excel analytics in this course. The instructor advises against relying heavily on AI chatbots for learning.
A key aspect of the course is its commitment to open-sourcing education. All course content, including Excel workbooks and datasets needed for lessons and projects, is freely available on a GitHub repository. The instructor provides instructions on how to download these materials. For users seeking additional support, “supporter resources” are available for purchase, offering guided practice problems, a community forum, step-by-step instructions, and a certificate of completion.
The course includes two portfolio projects designed to showcase practical data analysis skills in Excel. The first project, built after the basic chapters, involves predicting one salary based on job and location. The second, more advanced project focuses on analyzing the data science job market. The course also briefly covers sharing these projects via platforms like OneDrive and LinkedIn, with more detailed guidance on using GitHub for project sharing provided towards the end of the course.
In essence, this “Excel for Data Analytics” course aims to be a comprehensive guide for individuals new to data analytics, leveraging the widespread accessibility and powerful features of Microsoft Excel to build essential data analysis skills through a structured, hands-on, and project-based learning experience.
Excel Spreadsheet Basics: An Introduction
Based on the source “01.pdf”, understanding spreadsheet basics is the starting point for mastering Excel for data analytics. The course begins with the basic chapters to build a foundational knowledge of how to use a spreadsheet.
Here are some of the key spreadsheet basics discussed in the source:
Worksheets: A worksheet is a single tab within an Excel file, also referred to as a sheet. It’s where you manipulate individual cells.
Workbooks: A workbook encompasses one or more worksheets. It’s the entire Excel file that can contain multiple sheets.
Cells: Spreadsheets are organized into cells, which are intersections of rows and columns.
Rows: Rows are labeled with numbers (1, 2, 3, and so on) and extend down to over a million.
Columns: Columns are labeled with letters (A, B, C, …, Z, AA, AB, …, XFD).
Cell Referencing: Each cell is referenced by its column letter followed by its row number (e.g., B2, C7). This cell name is also displayed next to the formula bar.
Data Entry: You can enter data directly into a selected cell or via the formula bar. Pressing Enter typically moves to the next cell down.
Data Types: Excel recognizes different data types, such as numerical values, text, and Boolean values (TRUE/FALSE), which it may format accordingly (e.g., TRUE becoming uppercase). Dates are also a specific data type.
Autofill: Excel has an autofill feature that allows you to quickly populate cells with sequential data, repeated values, or patterns by dragging the lower right-hand corner of a selected cell or range. This works for numerical sequences (like 1, 2, 3), text, and even dates, although date autofill increments by one day by default.
Manipulating Cells: Basic manipulation includes selecting cells, entering data, and deleting content. To delete content from multiple selected cells, you might need to use the Delete key (or Function + Delete on some Macs).
The Ribbon: The ribbon is located at the top of the Excel window and contains a variety of tabs (like Home, Insert, Data) with different functionalities for working with spreadsheets. The File tab also contains a menu with options like Save and Open. The ribbon can be temporarily hidden by double-clicking on any of the tabs.
Zoom: You can adjust the zoom level of the worksheet, typically found in the bottom right corner of the Excel window.
The course emphasizes getting familiar with these fundamental aspects of Excel as a crucial first step in learning data analysis. The “Spreadsheets Intro” chapter is specifically designed for individuals with no prior experience in using Microsoft Excel.
Advanced Excel for Data Analysis
Based on the source “01.pdf”, the “Excel for Data Analytics – Full Course for Beginners” delves into several advanced Excel features in its second half, designed to ramp up your learnings after establishing the fundamentals. These features focus on more sophisticated analytical capabilities and handling larger or more complex datasets.
Here’s a discussion of these advanced Excel features:
Pivot Tables: The course highlights pivot tables as a “secret weapon” for quick data analysis. They enable you to efficiently summarize and analyze large amounts of data by pivoting and aggregating it based on different criteria. The course covers creating, manipulating, and using advanced features of pivot tables, such as grouping and aggregation, as well as creating pivot charts. Pivot tables allow for easy pivoting and aggregation of data based on chosen values, and they automatically update when the underlying data changes, without the need to readjust formulas. You can also filter data within pivot tables using dropdowns and by dragging fields into the filters area.
Power Query (Get & Transform): This feature is described as a powerful tool for ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. Power Query allows you to connect to various data sets from different sources, including files, databases, and online sources like web pages. It provides the Power Query Editor, a dedicated interface for cleaning and transforming data through a series of steps. These steps can automate data cleaning workflows, ensuring reproducibility and handling potential errors in copy-pasting data. Power Query is particularly useful for ingesting and cleaning large datasets efficiently, potentially exceeding Excel’s row limit by loading data into the data model.
Power Pivot: Referred to as “putting your spreadsheets on steroids,” Power Pivot enables data modeling on datasets larger than Excel’s traditional row limit (over a million rows). It allows you to create relationships between different tables of data, similar to a database, even if they originate from different sources. Combined with DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), Power Pivot allows for creating advanced calculations, measures, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that go beyond standard Excel formulas. DAX functions, while similar to Excel functions in concept, allow for more complex and powerful analysis within the context of a data model.
Add-ins: The course also touches on the use of add-ins to extend Excel’s analytical capabilities. Specifically mentioned are:
Solver: Used for optimization problems, such as finding the optimal solution given certain constraints (discussed in the context of negotiating job offers).
Analysis ToolPak: Provides a range of tools for statistical and engineering analysis, including descriptive statistics, histograms, ranking, percentiles, moving averages, regression, and sampling.
Other Advanced Features for Data Analysis and Presentation:
Tables and Slicers: Tables enhance data management and analysis, and slicers provide interactive filtering capabilities for tables and pivot tables. Slicers allow for visual and easy filtering of data subsets.
Conditional Formatting: This feature allows you to highlight data based on specific rules, making patterns and outliers more easily identifiable. It can be used to visually represent data trends and insights.
Data Validation: Used to standardize data inputs, particularly important when building interactive dashboards to ensure data integrity. It can restrict the type of data entered into cells, providing dropdown lists or other input constraints.
Workbook Protection: Advanced feature used to protect dashboards and prevent unintended modifications by others. This includes locking cells, hiding sheets, and password-protecting the workbook structure.
The course consciously chooses to focus on Python for task automation instead of VBA, considering VBA outdated. While Python in Excel and Copilot (AI chatbots) are mentioned as recent additions to Excel, they are not the primary focus for learning Excel analytics in this course, with a caution against relying heavily on AI for learning.
Finally, the course covers sharing your data analysis projects, initially through platforms like OneDrive for a quick method. However, it emphasizes using GitHub for a more robust and professional way to share projects, including all associated files and a detailed explanation of the analysis using markdown in a README file. This approach is recommended because online versions of Excel (like OneDrive’s Excel) may not fully support advanced features like Power Query and Power Pivot, limiting the interactivity of shared workbooks.
In summary, the advanced features covered in this course aim to equip learners with the skills to perform more in-depth data analysis, handle larger and more diverse datasets, automate data-related tasks, and effectively present and share their analytical findings using Microsoft Excel.
Excel Data Visualization with Charts
Based on the source “01.pdf”, data visualization is a powerful tool within Excel that allows you to understand and communicate insights from data more effectively. Microsoft refers to all types of visualizations as charts. The source emphasizes that charts can reveal characteristics and patterns in data that might be difficult to discern by looking at the raw data itself.
Why Use Charts?
Charts are powerful because they make it easier to spot trends, identify the highest and lowest values, and understand the magnitude of differences within your data. Visual representations can quickly convey information that would take longer to extract from tables of numbers.
Basic Chart Types:
The source introduces several fundamental chart types:
Line charts are typically used for time series data to show trends over time and how data points are connected.
Pie charts are suitable for showing proportions of different parts of a whole.
Bar and column charts are used for comparing values across different categories. The source notes that bar charts can be preferable when labels are long, as they are displayed horizontally.
Creating Charts:
The process of creating charts in Excel generally involves:
Selecting the data you want to visualize.
Going to the “Insert” tab on the ribbon.
Exploring the “Recommended Charts” option, which often provides good starting points based on your data.
Alternatively, you can go to the “All Charts” tab to have more control over the specific chart type you want to use.
Once a chart is inserted, new tabs (“Chart Design” and “Format”) appear, allowing for further customization.
Customizing Charts:
Excel offers a wide range of options to customize charts:
You can add or remove chart elements such as axes, axis titles, chart titles, data labels, and trend lines using the “+” icon next to the chart or the “Add Chart Element” dropdown in the “Chart Design” tab.
Chart titles should be compelling and ideally provide a snippet of information or ask a question that the reader should take away from the chart.
Axis titles are important for clarity, especially for the y-axis to indicate what the numerical values represent.
Data labels can be added to show the exact values on the chart, although care should be taken to avoid clutter.
You can adjust the look and feel of the chart using the “Chart Design” tab, including quick layouts and chart styles.
The “Format Data Series” options allow you to change colors, add markers, and adjust other visual aspects of the data series.
You can move charts to new sheets for better organization.
Advanced Chart Types:
Beyond the basics, the source discusses more advanced chart types for specific analytical purposes:
Scatter plots and map charts are mentioned as more advanced charts. Map charts are particularly useful for visualizing geographical data.
Histograms and box and whisker charts are crucial for understanding the statistical distributions of data. Histograms show the count of values within different ranges. Box and whisker charts display the median, quartiles, and potential outliers.
Sparklines are small charts that can be inserted directly into individual cells to show quick trends in the data.
Interactive Visualizations:
The source highlights the use of slicers to make dashboards and charts more interactive. Slicers provide buttons that allow users to easily filter the data being displayed in associated tables and charts. Timelines serve a similar purpose for filtering date-related data in pivot charts.
Pivot Charts:
Pivot charts are directly linked to pivot tables and provide a visual way to analyze the summarized data in a pivot table. Changes made to the pivot table will automatically update the pivot chart. You can insert slicers and timelines directly from the “PivotChart Analyze” tab to filter the data displayed in the pivot chart.
Combo Charts:
Excel allows you to create combo charts that combine different chart types (e.g., columns and lines) to visualize different aspects of your data simultaneously. This can be useful for showing relationships between different metrics, such as salary and skill count.
Best Practices:
The source implicitly and explicitly suggests several best practices for data visualization:
Choose the right chart type for your data and the message you want to convey. For instance, using a line chart for chronological data and a bar chart for comparing categories.
Ensure your charts are easy to read and understand, with clear titles and labels.
Avoid sensory overload by not including too much information or unnecessary elements in a single chart.
Format data labels and axes for better readability, such as using abbreviations for large numbers (e.g., using “k” for thousands).
Consider the order of data in bar charts to facilitate comparison (e.g., sorting from high to low).
In conclusion, data visualization is a critical aspect of data analysis in Excel, enabling you to explore, understand, and communicate your findings through a variety of customizable charts and interactive elements. Understanding the different chart types and their appropriate uses, along with mastering customization options, are fundamental skills highlighted in the source.
Excel for Data Analytics – Full Course for Beginners
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These learning materials offer a comprehensive guide to mastering Microsoft Excel, starting with fundamental interface elements like the ribbon and cells. They progress to essential functions such as SUM and IF, alongside data manipulation techniques including sorting, filtering, and removing duplicates. The resources also cover data visualization through various charts and pivot tables, as well as more advanced tools like Power Query and the use of the AI-powered Copilot. Furthermore, they explore the role of Excel in data analysis, covering statistical functions and the creation of interactive dashboards. Finally, the materials touch upon career paths in data analysis, emphasizing required skills and the importance of projects and portfolios. The practical demonstrations and step-by-step instructions aim to equip users with both basic and intermediate Excel proficiencies.
Excel Proficiency Study Guide
Quiz
Explain the primary difference between the COUNT and COUNTA functions in Excel. Provide a brief example illustrating this difference.
The COUNT function only counts cells containing numerical values within a specified range, while COUNTA counts all non-empty cells, including those with numbers, text, dates, and logical values. For example, if range A1:A3 contains “1”, “apple”, and a blank cell, COUNT would return 1, and COUNTA would return 2.
Describe how the COUNTIF function is used in Excel. Give a simple scenario where using COUNTIF would be beneficial.
The COUNTIF function counts the number of cells within a specified range that meet a given criteria. A beneficial scenario would be counting how many students in a class scored above a certain grade on an exam by specifying the score threshold as the criteria within the range of student scores.
What are the steps involved in formatting dates in Excel? Mention at least two different date formats one might apply.
To format dates, select the cells containing the dates, right-click, and choose “Format Cells.” In the “Number” tab, select “Date” from the category list. Then, choose the desired format from the available options or create a custom format. Two different date formats are “MM/DD/YYYY” and “DD-MMM-YY”.
Explain the purpose of the DATEDIF function in Excel. What are the common units used to calculate the difference between two dates with this function?
The DATEDIF function calculates the difference between two dates based on a specified unit. Common units used include “Y” for years, “M” for months, and “D” for days. It’s often used to calculate age or the duration between events.
Describe the ROUND function in Excel and its basic syntax. Provide an example of how it can be used to simplify decimal values.
The ROUND function rounds a number to a specified number of digits. The basic syntax is =ROUND(number, num_digits). For example, =ROUND(80.66, 1) would round the number 80.66 to one decimal place, resulting in 80.7.
Briefly explain the concept of standard deviation and variance in the context of Excel and data analysis. How are these measures helpful?
Standard deviation measures the dispersion or spread of data points around the mean, while variance is the average of the squared differences from the mean. These measures are helpful in understanding the variability within a dataset; a higher standard deviation or variance indicates greater spread.
How does the MATCH function work in Excel? What are the key arguments required for this function?
The MATCH function searches for a specified item in a range of cells and then returns the relative position of that item in the range. The key arguments are lookup_value (the item to search for), lookup_array (the range to search within), and match_type (specifying exact or approximate match).
Outline the purpose and basic steps for using the SUMIFS function in Excel. How does it differ from the SUMIF function?
The SUMIFS function calculates the sum of cells in a range that meet multiple criteria. The basic steps involve selecting the sum range, then specifying pairs of criteria ranges and their corresponding criteria. Unlike SUMIF, which allows only one condition, SUMIFS can handle multiple conditions.
What is a macro in Excel, and how can it be used to count colored cells based on manual formatting?
A macro in Excel is a recorded or programmed sequence of actions that can automate tasks. A macro to count manually colored cells would involve VBA code that iterates through a specified range, checks the interior color of each cell against a given color code, and increments a counter for each match.
Explain the core idea behind time series data and mention its primary components as discussed in the source material.
Time series data is a sequence of data points recorded over specific intervals of time, making it time-dependent. Its primary components are trend (the overall direction of the data), seasonality (periodic fluctuations), cyclicity (longer-term fluctuations), and irregularity (random variations).
Essay Format Questions
Discuss the importance of data validation in Excel. Describe different data validation techniques and explain how they contribute to data accuracy and integrity.
Compare and contrast the use of formulas and functions in Excel. Provide examples of when you might use each and explain the order of operations Excel follows when evaluating formulas.
Explain the functionality and benefits of using the VLOOKUP function in Excel. Describe a scenario where VLOOKUP would be particularly useful and discuss its limitations compared to other lookup functions.
Discuss the capabilities of Excel for data analysis and visualization. Describe how features like pivot tables, charts, and the Data Analysis Toolpak can be used to gain insights from data, referencing specific examples from the source material where applicable.
Explain the concept of time series forecasting and the ARIMA model as introduced in the source material. Discuss the key components of time series data and the parameters of the ARIMA model (p, d, q), and the role of ACF and PACF in model selection.
Glossary of Key Terms
COUNT Function: An Excel function used to count the number of cells within a specified range that contain numerical values.
COUNTA Function: An Excel function used to count the number of non-empty cells within a specified range, regardless of the data type.
COUNTIF Function: An Excel function used to count the number of cells within a specified range that meet a specific criterion.
Date Formatting: The process of changing the way dates are displayed in Excel, including the order of day, month, year, and the use of separators.
DATEDIF Function: An Excel function that calculates the difference between two dates in specified units like years, months, or days.
ROUND Function: An Excel function that rounds a number to a specified number of digits.
Standard Deviation: A measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while a high standard deviation indicates that the values are spread out over a wider range.
Variance: A measure of how far a set of numbers is spread out from their average value. It is calculated as the average of the squared differences from the mean.
MATCH Function: An Excel function that searches for a specified item in a range of cells and returns the relative position of that item in the range.
SUMIFS Function: An Excel function that calculates the sum of cells in a range that meet multiple specified criteria.
Macro: A recorded or programmed sequence of actions in Excel that can automate repetitive tasks.
Time Series Data: A sequence of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time.
Trend (Time Series): The long-term movement in a time series, indicating the general direction (upward or downward) of the data over a sustained period.
Seasonality (Time Series): Regular and predictable fluctuations in a time series that occur within a year, often repeating annually.
Cyclicity (Time Series): Longer-term fluctuations in a time series that occur over periods longer than a year, often related to economic or business cycles.
Irregularity/Random Component (Time Series): Unpredictable and short-term fluctuations in a time series that do not follow a regular pattern.
ARIMA Model: An acronym for AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average, a class of statistical models for analyzing and forecasting time series data.
Autoregressive (AR) Term: In an ARIMA model, the component that uses the dependency between an observation and a number of lagged observations.
Integrated (I) Term: In an ARIMA model, the component that represents the number of times the raw observations are differenced to make the time series stationary.
Moving Average (MA) Term: In an ARIMA model, the component that uses the dependency between an observation and a residual error from a moving average model applied to lagged observations.
Stationary Data: A time series whose statistical properties such as mean, variance, autocorrelation, etc. are all constant over time.
Autocorrelation Function (ACF): A function that shows the correlation of a time series with its own past values.
Partial Autocorrelation Function (PACF): A function that shows the correlation of a time series with its own lagged values, controlling for the correlations at intermediate lags.
Briefing Document: Review of Excel Features and Functions
This document provides a detailed review of the main themes and important ideas or facts presented in the provided excerpts from an Excel course. The sources cover a range of fundamental and advanced Excel functionalities, including data manipulation, analysis, visualization, and automation.
1. Basic Functions for Data Aggregation and Analysis:
COUNT Function: This function is used to count the number of cells within a specified range that contain numbers. It is highlighted as crucial for quickly assessing numerical density in mixed data sets.
Example: =COUNT(J2:J5) applied to cells containing 7, 89, 0, 100 would return 4.
Quote: “the count function in Excel is used to specifically count the number of cells that contain numbers in a Range”
COUNTA Function: Unlike the COUNT function, COUNTA counts the number of non-empty cells in a range. This includes numbers, text, dates, and logical values. It is useful for determining the size of data sets regardless of the data type.
Difference from COUNT: COUNT only counts numerical values and dates (excluding blanks), while COUNTA counts any non-empty cell, including text.
Example: =COUNTA(K2:K5) applied to cells containing 56, a blank cell, 98, and 56 would return 3. It would also return 3 if the cells contained “Apple”, a blank cell, “Banana”, and “Orange”.
Quote: “this count a function in Excel counts the number of cells in a Range that are not empty. […] the count function generally used to count a range of cells containing numbers or dates excluding blank whereas this count a function will count everything including numbers dates text or a range containing a mixture of these items but does not count blank cells”
COUNTIF Function: This function allows counting cells within a range that meet a specified criteria. This is valuable for conditional counting.
(Further details on COUNTIF criteria are expected in subsequent parts of the full course.)
Quote: “this counter function is used to count the number of cells in a Range that meet a specified criteria.”
(Other basic functions mentioned but not detailed in this excerpt include CONCATENATE, TRIM, MAX, MIN, AVERAGE, IF, and SUM.)
2. Data Formatting:
Date Formatting: Excel offers flexibility in how dates are displayed. Users can change the format by selecting cells, right-clicking, choosing “Format Cells,” and navigating to the “Date” category or using “Custom” formatting.
Location-based formatting: Dates can be displayed according to different regional conventions (e.g., US format: YYYY-MM-DD, India format: DD-MM-YYYY).
Custom formatting: Users can specify which parts of the date to display (e.g., only month and year: “MMMM YYYY”).
Inclusion of time: Date formats can also include time, down to seconds or milliseconds.
Examples: Switching from DD-MM-YYYY to MM-DD-YYYY by selecting “English (United States)”. Displaying only month and year by using a custom format like “MMMM YY”. Displaying date and time including seconds using a format like “DD-MM-YYYY HH:MM:SS”.
Quote: “you might want to also change your dates based on the location so right now we are in India and imagine if you wanted to you know change something based on us or if you if you’re having your client in us and he wants the dates in US format it you can also change that […] you might want to also change your dates based on the location”
3. Calculating Age from Date of Birth:
DATEDIF Function (or DATE DIFF): This function is used to calculate the difference between two dates in various units (years, months, days).
Syntax: =DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit)
Units: “Y” for years, “M” for months, “D” for days.
Example: =DATEDIF(“2010/01/05”, “2022/01/01”, “Y”) would return the difference in years.
Quote: “all you have to use is the dated IF function or if you also call it as date diff function based on your choice”
4. Rounding Numbers:
ROUND Function: This function rounds a number to a specified number of digits.
Syntax: =ROUND(number, num_digits)
num_digits: Specifies the number of digits to which the number should be rounded. Positive for decimal places, zero for the nearest integer, negative for rounding to the left of the decimal point.
Example (implicitly using ROUNDUP): =ROUNDUP(M3, 1) applied to 80.66 would round up to 80.7.
Quote: “to actually perform the roundoff uh formula we do have a pre method for that for that you just have to type in equals to round and there you go we have round up and round down so both of them perform the same operation” (Note: The example uses ROUNDUP, but the general concept of rounding is introduced)
5. Understanding and Calculating Standard Deviation and Variance:
Standard Deviation: Defined as the calculated square root of variance. It measures the dispersion or spread of data points around the mean. A higher standard deviation indicates greater variability.
Prerequisites for manual calculation: Mean, variance, deviation (difference between observed value and expected/mean value), and squared deviation.
Steps for manual calculation:Calculate the mean of the data set.
Calculate the deviation of each data point from the mean.
Square each deviation.
Calculate the variance (sum of squared deviations divided by the total number of values minus 1 for sample standard deviation).
Calculate the standard deviation (square root of the variance).
Excel Function: Excel has built-in functions to directly calculate standard deviation (e.g., STDEV.S for sample, STDEV.P for population).
Quote: “standard deviation is a calculated square of variance”
Variance: A measure of variability, calculated as the average of the squared deviations from the mean. It indicates how far data points are spread out from the average, in squared units.
Quote: “variance is a measure of variability it is calculated by taking the average of squared deviation from the mean”
Deviation: The difference between an observed value and the expected value (often the mean). It represents the distance from the center point.
Quote: “the deviation is a measure that is used to find the difference between the observed value and the expected value of a variable in simple terms deviation is the distance from the center point”
6. Using the MATCH Function:
Purpose: The MATCH function is used to find the position (index) of a specified item within a range of cells.
match_type: (Optional) 0 for exact match, 1 for less than, -1 for greater than.
Example: =MATCH(“Marketing”, A2:A11, 0) would return 4 if “Marketing” is the fourth item in the range A2:A11.
Use Case: Helpful for quickly identifying the position of a specific element in a list.
Quote: “our main idea is to find out the index of these particular elements for example if you wanted to find the index of the element marketing then how could you do it so here let’s try to use the match function in Excel”
7. Creating Custom Functions with Macros (VBA):
Purpose: Macros allow users to automate tasks and create custom functions in Excel using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).
Example: COUNT COLORED CELLS: The excerpt describes a macro function called count colored cells designed to count the number of manually colored cells within a specified range that match the interior color of a selected “current cell.”
Logic: The macro iterates through each cell in the given range. It compares the interior color of each cell to the interior color of the “current cell.” If the colors match, a counter variable is incremented.
Limitation: This specific macro works only for manually colored cells and will not recognize colors applied through conditional formatting.
Quote: “this particular macro will work only for manually colored cells so there are situations where we have used conditional formatting to color a single cell […] if we try to use that particular green color to be counted by the color count sales function no it will not happen”
8. Identifying and Removing Duplicate Rows:
Excel Functionality (implied): While not explicitly detailing the steps, the excerpt mentions the possibility of duplicate rows in a student database and implies that Excel has methods to identify and remove them.
(Standard Excel features for this include “Remove Duplicates” under the “Data” tab, which allows users to select specific columns to consider when identifying duplicates.)
Quote: “there might be possibilities about the duplication of class because all the students all the 10 students are in same class so there might be a duplication but we are not looking for such kind of duplications right we are looking for the duplication of the entire row”
9. Using the SUMIFS Function for Conditional Summation:
Purpose: SUMIFS allows summing values in a range based on multiple criteria.
criteria_range(n): The range of cells to evaluate the criteria against.
criteria(n): The condition that must be met.
Prerequisite: Converting the data range into an Excel Table using Ctrl+T is recommended for easier referencing of columns.
Example: =SUMIFS(Table1[Sales], Table1[Region], “West”) would sum the values in the “Sales” column of “Table1” where the corresponding value in the “Region” column is “West”.
Multiple Criteria: SUMIFS can accommodate multiple conditions. For example, to find the sales of “Furniture” in the “West” region: =SUMIFS(Table1[Sales], Table1[Region], “West”, Table1[Category], “Furniture”).
Quote: “it will basically add a condition calculate the sum of sales where the region is equals to West simple to like or similar to seal query right so that is exactly what we’re going to do in Excel today that is using summs”
10. Introduction to Microsoft Copilot in Excel:
Functionality: Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered tool integrated into Excel designed to assist with data analysis and report creation.
Capabilities (based on the excerpt):Generating regional or country-wise sales reports based on text commands.
Identifying the day of the week an order was placed.
Potentially identifying customers with the highest sales (although an error occurred in the example).
Usage: Users can input natural language commands to Copilot to request specific analyses or reports.
Limitations (as observed): May experience issues with data type recognition (e.g., needing to explicitly format a column as “Text”). Can be slower compared to other AI modules. May encounter errors in certain data processing tasks (e.g., extracting text content from uploaded files).
Quote: “please help me create a regional wise sales report with this data set and can also give a few more commands right so it’s loaded right now you can see the icon here now you can write down give me country wise sales report and just fire the command”
11. Power Query for Data Transformation:
Purpose: Power Query (Get & Transform Data) is a powerful tool in Excel for importing, cleaning, and transforming data from various sources.
Data Sources: Can import data from Excel files, XML, JSON, PDF, cloud services, SQL databases, and more.
Workflow:Connect to Data Source: Select the data source (e.g., “From Folder”).
Transform Data: Open the Power Query Editor to perform transformations such as:
Removing columns.
Changing data types.
Splitting columns by delimiters.
Renaming columns.
Performing calculations (e.g., calculating profit by subtracting cost from revenue).
Load Data: Load the transformed data into an Excel worksheet or the Data Model.
Example Transformations: Changing the data type of “Order Date” and “Delivery Date” to Date format. Splitting a “Customer ID and Name” column into two separate columns using a space as a delimiter.
Quote: “Power Query window will shortly open now with the power query window opened you can select the orders 2022 Excel folder and it will be loaded now let’s try to cck click on the content button over here which should load our data”
12. Understanding Time Series Data and Forecasting:
Definition: Time series data is a sequence of data points recorded at specific and fixed time intervals. It is time-dependent, and analysis often involves forecasting future values based on past trends.
Graphical Representation: Time series data is typically visualized as a line graph with time on the x-axis and the measured variable on the y-axis.
Quote: “time series data is basically a sequence of data that is recorded over a specific intervals of time”
Components of Time Series Data:
Trend: The overall long-term direction of the data (increasing, decreasing, or stable).
Seasonality: Periodic fluctuations in the data that occur at regular intervals (e.g., annually, monthly, weekly).
Cyclicity: Longer-term fluctuations that are not strictly periodic (e.g., business cycles, recessions). The duration between cycles is typically longer and less fixed than seasonality.
Irregularity (Random Component): Random, unpredictable variations in the data that cannot be attributed to trend, seasonality, or cyclicity.
Quote: “Time series data consists of primarily four components one is the trend then we have the seasonality then cyclicity and then last but not least regularity or the random component”
Stationary vs. Non-Stationary Data:
Stationary Data: Data whose statistical properties (mean, variance) remain constant over time. Many time series models assume stationarity.
Non-Stationary Data: Data exhibiting trends or seasonality, where statistical properties change over time. Transformations (e.g., differencing) are often needed to make non-stationary data stationary before modeling.
Quote: “if you have taken the raw data this is how it would look and uh what do you think it is is it stationary no right because there is a trend upward Trend so this is not a stationary data”
Moving Average Method: A simple forecasting technique that smooths out fluctuations in the data by calculating the average of a fixed number of preceding data points.
Centered Moving Average: A moving average where the average is associated with the midpoint of the time period, further smoothing the data.
Quote: “we will just go ahead and uh manually do the forecasting using what is known as moving average method”
Multiplicative Model: A time series model where the components (seasonality, trend, irregularity) are multiplied together to represent the data.
Formula (simplified for prediction): Predicted Value = Seasonality × Trend × Irregularity
ARIMA Model for Time Series Forecasting (Introduction):
Parameters: Specified by three parameters (p, d, q):
p (Autoregressive): Number of lagged values of the dependent variable used in the model. The current value is regressed on its own past values.
d (Integrated): Number of times the data needs to be differenced to become stationary.
q (Moving Average): Number of lagged forecast errors used in the model.
Assumption: ARIMA models typically assume that the time series data is stationary.
Quote: “we will be using the arima model to do the forecast of uh this time series data so let us try to understand what is arima model so arima is actually an acronym it stands for autor regressive integrated moving average”
Autocorrelation Function (ACF) and Partial Autocorrelation Function (PACF): Tools used to analyze the correlation between a time series and its lagged values, helping to determine the parameters (p and q) of an ARIMA model.
Autocorrelation: The correlation between values of the same variable at different time points.
Partial Autocorrelation: The correlation between a time series and its lagged values, after removing the effects of the intermediate lags.
Quote: “in order to test whether the data is stationary or not there are two important components that are considered one is the autocorrelation function and other is the partial autocorrelation function so this is referred to as ACF and pacf”
Forecasting in R using ARIMA (Brief Introduction): The excerpt briefly mentions using the forecast package in R to implement ARIMA models for forecasting. It highlights the auto.arima function, which automatically selects the optimal parameters (p, d, q) for the ARIMA model based on information criteria like AIC (Akaike Information Criterion). Model diagnostics and validation using tests like the Ljung-Box test are also mentioned.
13. Creating Dashboards in Excel:
Definition: A visual interface that provides an overview of key performance indicators (KPIs) and relevant data using charts and graphs to facilitate quick understanding and decision-making.
Types: Strategic, analytical, and operational dashboards.
Advantages: Quick detection of outliers and correlations, comprehensive data visualization, and time-saving compared to running multiple reports.
Demo using Sample Sales Data (overview): The excerpt introduces the intention to create dashboards using a sample sales dataset, implying the use of charts and potentially PivotTables to visualize sales performance by various dimensions (e.g., region).
Quote: “a dashboard is a visual interface that provides an overview of key measures relevant to a particular objective with the help of charts and graphs”
14. Descriptive Statistics using Excel’s Data Analysis Toolpak:
Accessing the Toolpak: Requires enabling the “Analysis Toolpak” add-in (File > Options > Add-ins > Excel Add-ins > Go…).
Descriptive Statistics Feature: Under the “Data” tab, the “Data Analysis” option appears after enabling the toolpak, providing access to various statistical analysis tools, including “Descriptive Statistics.”
Output: The “Descriptive Statistics” tool generates a table summarizing key statistical measures for selected data ranges, including:
Mean: Average of all data values.
Standard Error: Measure of the variability of sample means.
Median: Middle value in a sorted data set.
Mode: Most frequently occurring value.
Standard Deviation: Measure of the spread of data.
Sample Variance: Square of the standard deviation.
Kurtosis: Measure of the “tailedness” of the distribution.
Skewness: Measure of the asymmetry of the distribution.
Range: Difference between the maximum and minimum values.
Minimum: Smallest value.
Maximum: Largest value.
Sum: Total of all values.
Count: Number of data points.
Usage: Select the input range, specify the output options (e.g., new worksheet), and check the “Summary statistics” box to generate the descriptive statistics table.
Quote: “moving on the first value we got is the mean basically it is the average of all the data values […] moving on we have the second one which is standard error it is nothing but the measure of the variability of sample means”
15. Using Chat GPT for Excel Tasks:
Capabilities Demonstrated:Identifying and Removing Duplicates: Can analyze an Excel spreadsheet and identify duplicate rows based on specified columns. Can provide options for handling duplicates (e.g., keeping the first or last occurrence).
Data Cleaning: Can find and remove extra spaces in cells. Can treat blank cells by filling them with placeholder values.
Data Analysis and Visualization: Can create PivotTables and corresponding charts (e.g., bar charts) to analyze data, such as sales performance by region. Can guide users through the process.
Advanced Analysis and Automation (Forecasting): Can assist in building forecasting models based on historical data, including steps like data preparation, model selection (e.g., ARIMA/SARIMA implied), and model evaluation. Can provide insights into time series characteristics (trend, seasonality) and perform statistical tests (e.g., ADF test for stationarity).
Interaction: Users interact with Chat GPT through text prompts, providing the Excel file and specifying the desired tasks.
Limitations Observed: May encounter errors during analysis or visualization (e.g., character encoding issues, plotting forecast confidence intervals).
Overall Value: Chat GPT can be a valuable tool for Excel users, assisting with various data-related tasks, enhancing productivity, and helping uncover insights.
Quote: “can you help me identify and remove duplicates duplicates from this Excel spreadsheet from the provided Excel spreadsheet […] please create a pivot table and a corresponding chart to analyze sales performance by region […] can you assist me in building a forecasting model to predict future sales based on historical data”
16. Introduction to Pivot Tables and Charts:
Pivot Tables: Powerful tools for summarizing and analyzing large amounts of data. Allow users to rearrange and aggregate data based on different fields, enabling multi-dimensional analysis.
Pivot Charts: Visual representations of PivotTable data, providing interactive ways to explore trends and patterns.
Creating Basic Charts (Line Chart Example): The excerpt demonstrates creating a line chart to visualize month-on-month sales data. The steps involve selecting the date and sales data, going to the “Insert” tab, and choosing a line chart.
Creating Pivot Tables (Steps): Highlight the data range (including headers), go to the “Insert” tab, select “PivotTable,” confirm the data range and location for the PivotTable. Drag fields to the “Rows,” “Columns,” “Values,” and “Filters” areas to structure the analysis.
Grouping Dates in Pivot Tables: Excel can automatically group dates in a PivotTable by year, quarter, month, etc., facilitating time-based analysis.
Creating Pivot Charts from Pivot Tables: Select any cell within the PivotTable, go to the “PivotTable Analyze” tab (or “PivotTable Options” in older versions), and select “PivotChart” to choose a chart type.
Customizing Charts: Chart elements (legends, titles, axes labels) can be edited and customized for better presentation. Chart types can be changed after creation.
Quote: “please create a pivot table and a corresponding chart to analyze sales performance by region […] so what’s the first step highlight the range of cells that contain your data set and including headers and go back to Excel and you can just click on any cell and control a all your T set has been selected or these days you can just select one of the cells and go to insert menu and pivot table”
17. Integration of Python in Excel:
Python Mode in Excel: Allows users to execute Python code directly within Excel worksheets.
Accessing Python: By typing =PY in a cell and pressing Tab, users can enter Python mode.
DataFrames: Python in Excel utilizes the Pandas library, with data from Excel ranges being represented as Pandas DataFrames.
Referencing Excel Ranges in Python: Excel ranges can be referenced within Python code (e.g., referencing a cell containing a data range).
Python Output in Excel: The results of Python computations can be displayed directly in Excel cells, either as Python objects (DataFrames) or converted to Excel values.
Basic Python Data Analysis in Excel (Examples):.describe(): Provides descriptive statistics for a DataFrame or a specific column.
.sum(): Calculates the sum of values in a column.
.mean(): Calculates the average of values in a column.
.groupby(): Groups data based on specified columns, enabling aggregated calculations (e.g., sum of sales per date or per month).
.plot(): Creates basic charts (e.g., line charts) within Excel.
Benefits: Leverages the power of Python’s data analysis libraries (Pandas) within the familiar Excel environment. Enables more complex data manipulation and analysis than standard Excel functions alone.
Quote: “you can see over this section that it is written the data range I mean the sales range and headers is equal to true as we have headers over here now press enter now you can see that it didn’t happen anything only it went to the next line for me to run this we need to press control plus enter Control Plus enter and see what we got we got a data frame over here”
18. Formulas vs. Functions in Excel:
Formula: An expression that you write in a cell that performs calculations or other actions on the data in your worksheet. It always starts with an equals sign (=) and can contain cell references, constants, operators, and functions.
Function: A predefined formula that performs specific calculations in a particular order using specified values (arguments). Excel has a vast library of built-in functions (e.g., SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, VLOOKUP).
Key Difference: Formulas are user-defined calculations, while functions are built-in, ready-to-use calculation tools. Formulas often use functions as part of their logic.
Quote: “a formula is an expression that calculates the value of a cell. Formulas can perform simple calculations such as addition and subtraction as well as more complex operations using functions. A function is a predefined formula that performs calculations using specific values in a particular order or structure”
19. Order of Operations in Excel (PEMDAS/PEDMAS):
Acronyms: PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction) or PEDMAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Division and Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction). The order for multiplication and division (and addition and subtraction) is from left to right.
Excel’s Evaluation Order: Excel evaluates formulas based on this order:
Parentheses ()
Exponents ^
Multiplication * and Division / (from left to right)
Addition + and Subtraction – (from left to right)
Importance: Understanding the order of operations is crucial for writing correct formulas that produce the intended results. Using parentheses can override the default order.
Example: =A1*10+5/2 will be evaluated as (A1*10) + (5/2). To force addition first, use =(A1+5)*10/2.
Quote: “the Order of Operations is first it will calculate what is there in the parenthesis it will perform this function and then it will see if there are any exponents in it and if it is there it will do that calculation the next and after that it will see if there is any multiplication or division […] and then it will see there is any addition […] and then the last one will be the substraction”
20. Key Text Manipulation Functions:
CONCATENATE (or & operator): Combines text from multiple cells into one cell.
Syntax: =CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], …) or text1&text2&…
Example: =CONCATENATE(A1, ” “, B1) or =A1&” “&B1 would combine the text in cell A1, a space, and the text in cell B1.
Quote: “the concatenate function is used to join two or more text strings together into one string. The syntax is very simple equals concatenate open parenthesis and then you specify the text strings that you want to join separated by commas close the parenthesis and you will get it all merged in one particular cell”
Text to Columns: A feature used to split a single column of text into multiple columns based on a delimiter (e.g., space, comma, tab) or a fixed width.
Steps: Select the column to split, go to the “Data” tab, choose “Text to Columns,” select the delimiter type, specify the delimiter, preview the result, and choose the destination for the split data.
Use Case: Useful for separating first and last names from a full name column, or splitting addresses into separate components.
Quote: “you need to select that particular cell and then go to the data Tab and then choose text to columns there will be an option where in you need to select text to columns”
21. VLOOKUP Function (Introduction):
Purpose: VLOOKUP (Vertical Lookup) is used to find and retrieve data from a specific column in a table based on a lookup value in another column (the first column of the table).
(Detailed explanation of VLOOKUP syntax and usage is expected in subsequent parts of the full course.)
Quote: “vlookup function is used for looking up a piece of information in a table and extracting some corresponding data or”
22. Report Formats in Excel:
Available Formats: When creating reports (often using PivotTables), Excel offers different layout formats for displaying the data:
Compact Form: Displays all row labels in one column, using indentation to show hierarchy. Saves horizontal space.
Outline Form: Displays each level of row labels in its own column. Can repeat item labels.
Table Form: Similar to Outline Form but does not indent subordinate items. Each field is in its own column.
Choosing a Format: The best format depends on the data structure and the desired readability of the report.
Quote: “Excel is basically used for reporting mainly used for reporting to management you have to extract different kinds of reports and what are the report formats that are available in Excel this is one of the uh important questions again uh for a beginner level and there are three formats basically compact form outline form table form”
23. Conditional Logic with IF and SUMIF Functions:
IF Function (Detailed): Performs a logical test and returns one value if the test is TRUE and another value if the test is FALSE.
Logical Test: Any expression that can be evaluated to TRUE or FALSE (e.g., A1>10, B2=”Yes”).
Nesting IF Functions: Multiple IF functions can be nested within each other to handle more than two possible outcomes.
Example: =IF(A1>20, IF(B1>40000, “Valid”, “Invalid Salary”), “Invalid Age”) (as interpreted from the description).
Quote: “the F function in Excel it actually performs a logical test and you will give a condition it performs the test and returns a value if the test evaluates to true and another value which you again will specify if the test result is false”
SUMIF Function (Detailed): Sums the values in a range that meet a specified criterion.
Syntax: =SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])
range: The range of cells to evaluate the criteria against.
criteria: The condition that determines which cells in the range will be summed.
sum_range: (Optional) The range of cells to actually sum. If omitted, the cells in the range that meet the criteria are summed.
Example: =SUMIF(G2:G6, “>75000”, G2:G6) would sum the salaries in the range G2:G6 that are greater than 75,000.
Quote: “the sum IF function okay again the sum function adds the cell value specified by a given condition or a criteria so you are giving a condition and you are actually doing another function which is performing the addition”
24. COUNTIF Function (Example):
Usage Example (implied): Finding the number of days where the number of deaths in Italy was greater than 200, using a COUNTIF function on a column containing death counts.
Syntax: =COUNTIF(range, criteria)
Example (hypothetical): If column G contains the number of deaths in Italy, =COUNTIF(G2:G100, “>200”) would count the number of cells in that range where the value is greater than 200.
Quote: “we will try to find the function so we’ll use the count function and count function is again simple count if you are specifying the column that is the uh source that you’re looking for that is G2 the column G and it is two it starts from two row two” (Incomplete sentence, but implies the use of COUNTIF with a range and criteria)
25. Data Validation:
Purpose: Used to control the type of data that can be entered into a cell, helping to prevent errors and ensure data accuracy.
Accessing Data Validation: Select the cells where you want to apply validation, go to the “Data” tab, and click on “Data Validation.”
Validation Criteria: Various criteria can be set, such as:
Whole number
Decimal
List
Date
Time
Text length
Custom formula
Error Alerts: Custom error messages can be displayed when invalid data is entered.
Input Messages: Helpful messages can be shown to guide users on the expected data.
Example: Setting data validation for a cell to only allow whole numbers between 1 and 10. If a user tries to enter text or a number outside this range, an error alert will appear.
Quote: “Data validation is one of the very important features in Excel which is used to restrict the type of data or the values that users enter into a cell. To apply it you need to select the cells where you want to apply the data validation go to the data tab and click on data validation”
26. Applying Conditional Logic (IF and AND):
Combining IF and AND: The AND function can be used within the logical test of an IF function to check if multiple conditions are all TRUE.
Example (Student Pass/Fail): To determine if a student passes based on marks greater than 60 AND attendance greater than 75%: =IF(AND(U5>60, V5>75), “Pass”, “Fail”).
Quote: “you have to use the IF function and check with the and condition to fill the results column […] we are checking the conditions here and the marks should be in row I mean the column U and it starts with u5 so let’s see u5 okay it will immediately go to column U and five row five okay and then what is the condition we are satisfying here it should be greater than 60 okay and the other condition is uh the column V that is the attendance column okay and what is the condition we are specifying V 5 should be greater than 75”
27. Calculating Age Using YEARFRAC and DATEDIF:
YEARFRAC Function: Returns the fraction of the year represented by the number of whole days between a start date and an end date. Can be used to calculate age as a decimal.
Syntax: =YEARFRAC(start_date, end_date, [basis])
basis: (Optional) Specifies the day count basis to use (e.g., actual/actual, 30/360).
DATEDIF Function (revisited for age): As mentioned earlier, can calculate the difference in whole years.
Example (YEARFRAC for age): =YEARFRAC(birth_date, today())
Example (DATEDIF for age): =DATEDIF(birth_date, today(), “Y”)
Quote: “use the ear fraction or dated IF function to return the number of whole days between start date and the end date […] here is a small example and this is how we use the ear Frack function”
28. Nested IF Statements (Detailed):
Purpose: To test multiple conditions and return different values based on which condition is met.
Logic: One IF function is placed inside another IF function’s value_if_false argument (or sometimes value_if_true).
Example (Excellent/Bad/Average): =IF(B2>80, “Excellent”, IF(B2<=60, “Bad”, “Average”)). This formula first checks if the value in B2 is greater than 80. If TRUE, it returns “Excellent.” If FALSE, it proceeds to the nested IF function, which checks if B2 is less than or equal to 60. If TRUE, it returns “Bad”; otherwise, it returns “Average.”
Quote: “the IF function can be nested I mean it can be Loop when we have multiple conditions to meet okay it can be nested the false value is replaced by another if function”
29. Descriptive Statistics Using Data Analysis Toolpak (Recap and Steps):
Steps:Enable the Analysis Toolpak (File > Options > Add-ins > Go > Analysis Toolpak > OK).
Go to the “Data” tab and click “Data Analysis.”
Select “Descriptive Statistics” and click “OK.”
Specify the “Input Range” (the data you want to analyze).
Specify the “Output Options” (e.g., a new worksheet).
Check the box for “Summary statistics.”
Click “OK.”
Output Interpretation: The generated table provides key statistical measures like mean, median, standard deviation, etc., helping to understand the central tendency and dispersion of the data.
Quote: “to analyze the data so we might come across a question and you will be given a data or a table and you need to find the descriptive statistics of the columns using data analysis tool […] how you do that is you have to add a pack okay okay you should be knowing that you need to add a pack which is called the analysis tool pack which you go to uh file options and then just click on the addin and select the analysis tool pack click uh Excel addin and just click go then it will add the option and then when you select the data you have to go to the click on the data analysis option”
30. Calculated Fields in Pivot Tables:
Purpose: Allow users to create new fields in a PivotTable based on calculations involving existing fields. This enables analysis of data that isn’t directly present in the original source.
Accessing Calculated Fields: Select any cell in the PivotTable, go to the “PivotTable Analyze” tab (or “Options” in older versions), click on “Fields, Items, & Sets,” and choose “Calculated Field.”
Formula Creation: A dialog box opens where you can enter a name for the new field and create a formula using the existing PivotTable fields and standard Excel operators.
Example (Bonus Calculation): Creating a “Bonus” field based on “Sales” and “Unit Sold” with a condition (e.g., if Unit Sold > 1000, Bonus = Sales * 5%, else Bonus = Sales * 2%). The formula might involve an IF function within the calculated field definition.
Quote: “Allow you to perform calculations on the data in your pivot table. These calculations can involve other fields in the pivot table and help you derive new insights from your data. To add a calculated field you need to go to the pivot table analyze tab click on fields items and sets and select calculated field”
31. Slicers for Pivot Table Filtering:
Purpose: Visual filters that provide an easy and interactive way to filter the data displayed in a PivotTable.
Inserting Slicers: Select any cell in the PivotTable, go to the “PivotTable Analyze” tab (or “Options” in older versions), and click “Insert Slicer.” In the dialog box, check the fields you want to create slicers for.
Usage: Clicking on items within a slicer filters the PivotTable to show only the data related to those selected items. Multiple items can be selected (often using Ctrl or Shift keys). Multiple slicers can be used simultaneously for multi-dimensional filtering.
Example: Adding slicers for “Month” and “Country” to a PivotTable. Clicking “Feb” in the “Month” slicer and “USA” in the “Country” slicer would filter the PivotTable to show data only for February in the USA.
Quote: “Slicers are used to further filter data in the pivot table suppose you already have some data and it’s for ease that you can do it by just adding a slicer you can select particular uh data in or a field and you can see the output for that particular field that you have chosen in the slicer […] go to the insert Tab and select slicer under filters”
32. What-If Analysis Tools (Goal Seek, Scenario Manager, Data Table):
Purpose: Allow users to explore how changes to certain input values in a formula affect the output. Useful for sensitivity analysis and planning.
Accessing What-If Analysis: Located under the “Data” tab, in the “Forecast” group, click the “What-If Analysis” dropdown.
Goal Seek: Allows you to find the input value needed for a formula to reach a specific target output value. Useful for answering “What input value do I need to achieve this result?” questions.
Parameters: Set cell (the formula cell), To value (the target output), By changing cell (the input cell to adjust).
Example: Finding out what interest rate is needed to achieve a specific monthly payment on a loan.
Quote: “Goal seek is a feature in Excel that allows you to adjust the value of one input cell in a formula to find the value needed to achieve a desired result in another cell which is the output cell. It’s particularly useful when you know the outcome you want but are unsure what input value is required to get there”
Scenario Manager: Allows you to define and save different sets of input values (scenarios) and see their impact on the formulas in your worksheet. More advanced than Goal Seek as it can handle multiple changing variables simultaneously. Provides a summary report of the different scenarios and their results.
Usage: Define different scenarios with varying input values, and the Scenario Manager will show the resulting output for each scenario.
Example: Analyzing the impact of different sales growth rates and expense levels on the company’s profit.
Quote: “the scenario manager it is a bit more complicated compared to the other two but then it is uh more advanced than goal seek as it allows you the uh to adjust the multiple variables at the same time”
Data Table: Allows you to see how one or two variables in a formula change the results of that formula. Creates a table of outcomes based on different possible input values.
Types: One-variable data table (examines the effect of one input variable on one or more formulas) and two-variable data table (examines the effect of two input variables on one formula).
Example (One-Variable): Calculating the monthly payment for a loan at different interest rates.
Example (Two-Variable): Calculating the total revenue based on different price points and sales volumes.
Quote: “data table is another what if analysis tool that allows you to see how changing one or two variables in your formula will affect the results of that formula it’s a way to automate multiple what if questions and display the answers in a table”
33. Functions vs. Subroutines in VBA:
Function (VBA): A block of VBA code that performs a specific task and returns a value. Can be called from other VBA code or directly used in worksheet formulas (if written as a user-defined function – UDF).
Called by: A variable or directly in a formula.
Purpose: To perform calculations and return a result.
Example: A VBA function to calculate the area of a rectangle given its length and width, returning the calculated area.
Quote: “a function always returns a value of the task it is performing […] functions are called by a variable […] functions are used directly in spreadsheet as formulas”
Subroutine (Sub) (VBA): A block of VBA code that performs a specific task but does not directly return a value. Subroutines perform actions, such as manipulating worksheet data, displaying messages, or controlling application behavior.
Called by: Name from other VBA code, by triggering events (e.g., clicking a button), or through the Macro dialog box.
Purpose: To automate tasks and perform actions.
Example: A VBA subroutine that formats a selected range of cells with a specific font and color.
Quote: “sub routine it does not return a value of the task it is performing […] sub routines can be recalled from anywhere in the program in multiple types […] Subs cannot be used directly in spreadsheets as formula”
This briefing document summarizes the key concepts and functionalities of Excel covered in the provided excerpts. It highlights the importance of understanding basic functions, data manipulation techniques, data analysis tools, visualization options, and the potential of advanced features like macros, Power Query, and integration with AI tools and programming languages like Python. The distinction between formulas and functions, the order of operations, and the difference between VBA functions and subroutines are also crucial for effective Excel usage.
Frequently Asked Questions about Excel Based on the Provided Sources
What is the COUNT function in Excel used for? The COUNT function in Excel is specifically used to count the number of cells within a selected range that contain numerical values (numbers). It is helpful for quickly assessing the density of numbers in a dataset, particularly when the data includes a mix of different types like text and numbers. The function ignores blank cells and cells containing text or other non-numeric data types. For example, =COUNT(J2:J5) would count how many cells in the range J2 to J5 contain numbers.
How does the COUNTA function differ from the COUNT function? While the COUNT function only counts cells containing numbers, the COUNTA function counts all non-empty cells in a specified range. This includes cells with numbers, text, dates, logical values, and even cells containing formulas that result in any of these types of data. Importantly, like the COUNT function, COUNTA does not count blank cells. For instance, =COUNTA(K2:K5) would count all cells in the range K2 to K5 that are not blank, regardless of their content (number, text, date, etc.).
What is the purpose of the COUNTIF function in Excel? The COUNTIF function in Excel is used to count the number of cells within a given range that meet a specific criterion or condition. This function is valuable for analyzing data based on certain requirements. For example, you could use COUNTIF to count how many times a specific product appears in a list or how many sales figures are above a certain value. The syntax for COUNTIF involves specifying the range to be checked and the criteria to be met.
How can you change the format of dates in Excel? Excel offers several ways to change the format in which dates are displayed. One common method is to select the cells containing the dates, right-click, and choose “Format Cells.” In the “Format Cells” dialog box, under the “Number” tab, you can select “Date” from the category list. This will present you with various built-in date formats that you can choose from. Additionally, you can customize date formats by selecting “Custom” and using format codes (like YYYY for year, MM for month, DD for day) to arrange the date components as desired. You can also change the regional settings (e.g., from India to United States) to automatically apply the date format conventions of that region.
How can you calculate age from a date of birth in Excel? To calculate the age in years from a date of birth, you can use the DATEDIF function (or sometimes referred to as DATE DIFF). This function calculates the difference between two dates based on a specified interval (like years, months, or days). The basic syntax is =DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit). For calculating age in years, the start_date would be the date of birth, the end_date would typically be today’s date (which can be entered using the TODAY() function), and the unit would be “Y” for years. For example, if the date of birth is in cell A2, the formula might look like =DATEDIF(A2, TODAY(), “Y”).
What is standard deviation and how is it calculated in Excel? Standard deviation is a statistical measure that quantifies the amount of dispersion or spread of a set of data values around their mean (average). A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be close to the mean, while a high standard deviation indicates that the data points are more spread out. In Excel, you can calculate the standard deviation of a sample using the STDEV.S function or the standard deviation of an entire population using the STDEV.P function. Both functions take a range of numerical values as their argument. For example, =STDEV.S(A1:A10) would calculate the sample standard deviation of the values in cells A1 through A10. The calculation of standard deviation conceptually involves finding the variance (the average of the squared differences from the mean) and then taking the square root of the variance.
What is the SUMIFS function in Excel and how is it used? The SUMIFS function in Excel is used to calculate the sum of values in a range that meet multiple specified criteria. It allows you to apply more than one condition to determine which cells should be included in the sum. The syntax for SUMIFS is =SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2], …). The sum_range is the range containing the values to be summed. Each subsequent pair of criteria_range and criteria defines a condition. For example, to find the total sales in the “West” region, you might use a formula like =SUMIFS(Sales_Column, Region_Column, “West”), assuming you have columns named “Sales_Column” and “Region_Column”. You can add more criteria by specifying additional criteria_range and criteria pairs. It’s often beneficial to format your data as a table in Excel before using SUMIFS for easier column referencing.
What is Microsoft Copilot for Excel and what kind of tasks can it help with? Microsoft Copilot for Excel is an AI-powered tool designed to assist users with various Excel-related tasks. It can help with data analysis by generating regional-wise sales reports or country-wise sales reports based on a given dataset. Copilot can also assist in data transformation, such as identifying the day of the week for order placement based on an order date column or finding the customer with the highest sales record. Furthermore, it can aid in building forecasting models to predict future sales based on historical data. While noted as being potentially slower than other AI tools, Copilot aims to streamline workflows and provide insights directly within the Excel environment by understanding user commands and data patterns.
Microsoft Excel Basics and Fundamentals
Based on the source “003-Excel_Full_Course_2025___Excel-03-24-2025.pdf”, let’s discuss Microsoft Excel basics:
What is Microsoft Excel? Microsoft Excel is a software product developed by Microsoft that is more than just a spreadsheet; it’s a powerful tool for turning data into insights that drive smarter business decisions. It is designed for storing data in an organized way using rows and columns. Excel is also capable of manipulating data through mathematical operations and can be used to extract insights from data and represent them visually using graphs and charts. In 2025, Excel is considered an essential skill in every data-driven industry.
Fundamentals of Microsoft Excel: When you start Microsoft Excel, you will first see the Microsoft Excel homepage. This page offers various suggestions based on the type of sheet you want to work with, including blank workbooks and templates for various purposes like business, personal use, planners, trackers, lists, budgets, and charts.
Once you open a sheet, you will encounter several key interface elements:
Toolbar Menu: Located at the top, this menu includes options like File, Home, Insert, Draw, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View, and Help. These tools are used to work on your data.
Toolbar Ribbon: When you select an option from the toolbar menu, a ribbon appears below it. This ribbon contains various options and functionalities specific to the selected tool. For example, selecting the “Home” tool displays a ribbon with options for clipboard functions (Paste, Cut, Copy, Format Painter), font manipulation (font type, size, bold, italic, underline), and text alignment. Each tool in the toolbar menu (Insert, Draw, etc.) has its own unique ribbon.
Toolbar Groups: The toolbar ribbon is further segmented into groups, where each group contains a set of related functions. For instance, the “Home” ribbon has groups like “Clipboard,” “Font,” and “Alignment,” each with specific operations. Some toolbar groups have a small arrow icon in the corner, which, when clicked, opens a dialogue box with more options that couldn’t fit in the main group section.
Cell and Address: An Excel sheet is made up of boxes called cells. Each cell has its own unique address, which is a combination of its column letter and row number. For example, a highlighted cell might have the address “B3,” where “B” is the column name and “3” is the row number. The cell address is displayed in a designated area of the Excel interface.
Sheet Tracker: Located in the bottom left corner of the Excel sheet, the sheet tracker allows you to navigate through different sheets within the same Excel file (workbook). You can add new sheets by clicking on a “+” option.
Sheet Size Control: In the bottom right corner, there is an option to increase or decrease the sheet size (zoom level).
Basic Excel Functions and Formulas: Learning basic Excel functions and formulas is crucial for mastering Excel and can significantly boost productivity. These are fundamental for daily tasks and data analysis. Some essential basic functions include:
SUM: Used to add up numbers. It can calculate the total of values typed directly into the function or values within a range of cells. The formula starts with =SUM() followed by the range of cells (e.g., =SUM(A2:A5)).
IF: Performs a logical test and returns one value if the condition is true and another value if the condition is false. The formula structure is =IF(logical_test, value_if_true, value_if_false) (e.g., =IF(B2>300, “Above 300”, “300 or Below”)).
AVERAGE: Calculates the mean or average of numbers provided. The formula is =AVERAGE() followed by the range of cells (e.g., =AVERAGE(C2:C5)).
MIN and MAX: Used to find the minimum and maximum values within a given range of data, respectively. The formulas are =MIN(range) (e.g., =MIN(D2:D5)) and =MAX(range) (e.g., =MAX(E2:E5)).
TRIM: Removes extra spaces from text, except for single spaces between words. It’s useful for cleaning data from inconsistent sources. The formula is =TRIM(text) (e.g., =TRIM(F2)).
CONCATENATE: Joins two or more text strings into one string. It can combine data from different cells. The formula is =CONCATENATE(text1, text2, …) (e.g., =CONCATENATE(H2,” “,I2)) or you can use the ampersand operator (&) for the same purpose (e.g., =H2&” “&I2).
COUNT: Counts the number of cells within a range that contain numbers. There are related functions like COUNTA which counts cells with any content and COUNTBLANK which counts empty cells.
Mastering these basic elements and functions is the foundation for using Excel effectively for data analysis, report creation, task automation, and building interactive dashboards.
Essential Excel Functions Explained
Based on the source “003-Excel_Full_Course_2025___Excel-03-24-2025.pdf” and our previous discussion, let’s delve deeper into the usage of several key Excel functions. The source emphasizes that functions and formulas are crucial for mastering Excel and are fundamental for daily Excel tasks. Learning even a few essential functions can significantly enhance your abilities.
Here’s a breakdown of the usage of some basic but important Excel functions:
SUM Function:
The SUM function in Excel is used to add up numbers.
It provides a quick way to calculate the total of several values, whether typed directly into the function or included within a range of cells.
Example: To sum the values in cells A2 through A5, you would select the cell where you want the result to appear and enter the formula =SUM(A2:A5) in the formula bar.
IF Function:
The IF function in Excel is used to perform logical tests and return values based on the results of these tests.
It checks whether a condition is TRUE or FALSE and then returns one value for a TRUE result and another for a FALSE result. This is extremely useful for decision-making processes within your data set.
Example: To check if the value in cell B2 is greater than 300, and display “Above 300” if true and “300 or Below” if false, you would enter the formula =IF(B2>300, “Above 300”, “300 or Below”). This logic can also be applied to other cells by dragging the fill handle.
AVERAGE Function:
The AVERAGE function in Excel calculates the mean or average of numbers provided to it.
This function is particularly useful for quickly finding the central values in a set of data, which can be helpful in various statistical analyses.
Example: To find the average of values in cells C2 through C5, you would enter the formula =AVERAGE(C2:C5) in the desired cell.
MIN and MAX Functions:
The MIN and MAX functions in Excel are used to find the minimum and maximum values within a given range of data, respectively.
These functions are useful for quickly identifying the smallest and largest numbers in a data set, helping you to analyze different ranges efficiently.
Examples: To find the minimum value in cells D2 through D5, use =MIN(D2:D5). To find the maximum value in cells E2 through E5, use =MAX(E2:E5).
TRIM Function:
The TRIM function in Excel is used to remove all the extra spaces from text, except for a single space between words.
This function is especially useful for cleaning up data that comes from other sources or has been entered inconsistently.
Example: If cell F2 contains text with extra spaces, you can clean it by entering the formula =TRIM(F2) in another cell.
CONCATENATE Function:
The CONCATENATE function in Excel is used to join two or more text strings into one string.
It helps in combining data from different cells, which can be useful for creating full names, combining addresses, or any situation where text needs to be merged.
Example: If “Andrew” is in cell H2 and “Garfield” is in cell I2, you can combine them with a space by using the formula =CONCATENATE(H2,” “,I2) or =H2&” “&I2.
COUNT Function:
The COUNT function in Excel is used to specifically count the number of cells that contain numbers in a Range.
It’s a crucial function for quickly assessing the numbers density in a data set, especially when dealing with mixed data types.
Example: To count the number of cells containing numbers in the range J2 to J5, you would use the formula =COUNT(J2:J5).
COUNTA Function:
The COUNTA function in Excel counts the number of cells in a Range that are not empty.
It is useful for determining the size of data sets that include various types of data such as numbers, text, or even logical values.
Difference from COUNT: While COUNT only counts numeric values, COUNTA counts any non-empty cell. It does not count blank cells.
Example: To count all non-empty cells in the range K2 to K5, use =COUNTA(K2:K5). This will count cells containing numbers or text.
COUNTIF Function:
The COUNTIF function is used to count the number of cells within a range that meet a specified criteria.
This function is valuable for filtering and analyzing data based on specific conditions.
Example: To count the number of cells in the range L2 to L5 that contain a value greater than 5, you would use the formula =COUNTIF(L2:L5, “>5”).
SUMIF Function:
The SUMIF function in Excel allows you to add up values in a Range based on specified criteria.
This function is extremely useful for performing conditional sums where you want to sum numbers that meet certain conditions.
Example: To calculate the sum of values in the range M2 to M5 that are greater than 5, you would use the formula =SUMIF(M2:M5, “>5”).
The source further highlights that Microsoft consistently updates Excel, introducing new functions to enhance data management capabilities. Mastering these basic functions lays the groundwork for understanding and utilizing more advanced features in Excel.
Excel for Data Analysis: 2025 Essentials
Based on the source “003-Excel_Full_Course_2025___Excel-03-24-2025.pdf” and our previous discussions, Microsoft Excel is presented as more than just a spreadsheet; it is a powerful and essential tool for data analysis in 2025. It enables users to transform raw data into valuable insights that can drive smarter business decisions. The source highlights that proficiency in Excel, from basic to advanced techniques, is vital for tasks such as creating reports, automating tasks, and building interactive dashboards. Furthermore, it mentions the exploration of advanced features like Power Query, Co-pilot for AI insights, and the use of key formulas to boost productivity.
Here are key aspects of data analysis in Excel as discussed in the source:
Foundational Tool: Excel serves as a foundational tool for initial data exploration and basic analysis. Its versatility in data manipulation, visualization, and modeling is unmatched at this stage.
Data Organization and Manipulation: Excel’s fundamental structure of rows and columns allows for organized data storage. It is also capable of manipulating data through various mathematical operations.
Essential Functions for Analysis: The source emphasizes the crucial role of functions and formulas in mastering Excel for data analysis. Basic but important functions like SUM, AVERAGE, IF, COUNT, and SUMIF are fundamental for daily Excel tasks and make handling data easier and more efficient. Our previous discussion elaborated on these and other basic functions like MIN, MAX, TRIM, CONCATENATE, and COUNTIF, which are all building blocks for analyzing data.
Data Visualization: Excel allows users to represent data in visually appealing graphs and charts, which is crucial for extracting insights and communicating findings effectively. The source demonstrates the creation of various chart types like pie charts, column charts, bar charts, and line graphs for different analytical purposes.
Interactive Dashboards: A significant aspect of data analysis in Excel is the ability to build interactive dashboards. These dashboards allow for dynamic exploration and presentation of data using elements like pivot tables and slicers.
Data Filtering and Sorting: Excel provides robust features for filtering data to focus on specific subsets and sorting data to identify trends and patterns, including sorting by date and multiple criteria. Advanced filtering options are also available for more complex data extraction.
What-If Analysis: Excel offers what-if analysis tools like Goal Seek to experiment with different scenarios and understand how changes in input variables can affect outcomes.
Data Cleaning: Preparing data for analysis is crucial, and Excel provides tools for removing duplicate values and using functions like TRIM to clean text data.
Advanced Analysis Features: The source introduces more advanced capabilities for data analysis:
Power Query: For importing and transforming data from various sources.
Power Pivot: An Excel add-in for analyzing large data sets from multiple sources and creating relationships between tables.
Co-pilot for AI Insights: Integrating AI to assist with data analysis tasks.
Data Analysis Toolpak: An add-in that provides advanced data analysis tools for statistical calculations, including descriptive statistics like mean, median, mode, standard deviation, etc..
Python in Excel: Integration of Python for advanced data analysis, visualization, and automation within the Excel environment.
Pivot Tables: Pivot tables are highlighted as essential tools for summarizing and analyzing large datasets. They allow for easy aggregation, filtering, and comparison of data, and can be used to create pivot charts for visual representation. The source demonstrates creating pivot tables with multiple variables and calculating percentage contributions.
Integration with Other Tools: While Excel is powerful, the source also acknowledges that data analysts often use it in conjunction with other tools like SQL, Python, Tableau, and Power BI for more advanced tasks.
In summary, the source “003-Excel_Full_Course_2025___Excel-03-24-2025.pdf” positions Microsoft Excel as a comprehensive tool for data analysis, offering a wide range of features from basic data organization and manipulation to advanced statistical analysis, visualization, and integration with other powerful platforms and languages. It emphasizes the continuous evolution of Excel with the introduction of features like Co-pilot and Python integration, further solidifying its role in the modern data-driven landscape.
Data Visualization Tools: Excel, Tableau, Power BI, and Python
Based on the source “003-Excel_Full_Course_2025___Excel-03-24-2025.pdf” and our conversation history, several tools for data visualization are discussed:
Microsoft Excel: The source extensively highlights Excel’s capabilities as a powerful tool for turning data into insights, with a strong emphasis on data visualization through various types of charts and graphs. Excel allows users to represent data in visually appealing formats, which is crucial for understanding trends, patterns, and relationships within the data. The document demonstrates the creation of pie charts, column charts, bar charts, and line graphs to represent different types of data, such as company shares, profits over time, and revenue growth. Interactive dashboards can be built in Excel using pivot tables and pivot charts combined with slicers to filter data dynamically, making complex data more understandable. The source emphasizes that data visualization skills are paramount for data analysts as data complexity grows, and the ability to present insights clearly and persuasively is essential.
Tableau and Power BI: The source mentions Tableau and Power BI as examples of data visualization tools that data analysts should be proficient in. These are presented alongside Excel, MySQL, and programming languages like Python and R, suggesting they are important components of a data analyst’s toolkit. The source implies that these tools are used for more advanced data visualization, although specific details about their functionalities are not provided within the excerpts.
Python: The source identifies Python programming language as essential for data analysts, enabling data manipulation, advanced statistical analysis, and machine learning implementations. While the primary focus mentioned is not solely visualization, it’s widely known that Python has powerful libraries like Matplotlib and Seaborn that are extensively used for creating various types of static, interactive, and animated visualizations in data analysis [information not in the source, please verify independently]. The source briefly touches upon using Python within Excel, showcasing the creation of a line chart as a Python output.
In summary, the source emphasizes Microsoft Excel as a key data visualization tool, equipped with comprehensive charting features and the ability to create interactive dashboards. Tableau and Power BI are mentioned as other important data visualization tools for data analysts. Additionally, Python is highlighted for its broader data analysis capabilities, which include powerful visualization libraries [information not in the source, please verify independently], and its integration within Excel is also noted. The ability to present insights clearly and persuasively through data visualization is considered a core skill for data analysts in the context of data-driven communication.
Becoming a Data Analyst: Skills, Qualifications, and Experience
Based on the source “003-Excel_Full_Course_2025___Excel-03-24-2025.pdf” and our conversation history, becoming a data analyst involves acquiring a specific set of skills, qualifications, and practical experience. The source outlines a five-step approach to becoming a data analyst: focusing on skills, obtaining proper qualification, testing skills through personal projects, building a portfolio, and targeting entry-level jobs or internships.
Here’s a breakdown of these aspects based on the source:
1. Essential Skills:
The source categorizes the necessary skills into six key areas:
Data Cleaning: Ensuring data is accurate and ready for analysis.
Data Analysis: Extracting meaningful insights from data. Proficiency in Excel remains vital for data manipulation, visualization, and modeling as a foundational tool for initial data exploration and basic analysis. Excel is capable of manipulating data through mathematical operations and extracting insights. Basic Excel functions like SUM, AVERAGE, IF, COUNT, and SUMIF are essential.
Data Visualization: Presenting data insights clearly and persuasively. Excel offers tools to represent data in visually appealing graphs and charts. The source also mentions data visualization tools like Tableau and Power BI as important for data analysts.
Problem Solving: Identifying issues, formulating hypotheses, and devising innovative solutions for complex data challenges.
Soft Skills: Effective communication of findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, teamwork, and collaboration within multidisciplinary teams.
Domain Knowledge: Understanding the specific industry or domain in which one is working to provide accurate results.
2. Technical Skills:
Beyond the core skills, specific technical proficiencies are crucial:
Microsoft Excel: As highlighted, proficiency in Excel is vital for data manipulation, visualization, and modeling. The source details various Excel functionalities like formulas (e.g., COUNTIF, SUMIF), charting, creating interactive dashboards using pivot tables and slicers, Power Pivot for large datasets, Power Query for data transformation, Co-pilot for AI insights, and even the integration of Python for advanced analysis.
Database Management: Skills in database management, particularly proficiency in DDB systems and querying languages like SQL, are indispensable for accessing and manipulating data seamlessly.
Statistical Analysis: Understanding statistical concepts and methods to uncover trends, patterns, and correlations within data, facilitating evidence-based decision-making. The source mentions tools like the Data Analysis Toolpak in Excel for statistical calculations, including ANOVA and descriptive statistics.
Programming Languages: Proficiency in programming languages like Python is essential for advanced data manipulation, statistical analysis, and machine learning implementations. The source also mentions R programming language as another tool in a data analyst’s arsenal.
Data Visualization Tools: Familiarity with dedicated data visualization tools like Tableau and Power BI is important for creating more sophisticated and interactive visualizations.
3. Qualifications:
Formal education and training can significantly enhance one’s prospects of becoming a data analyst:
Master’s Courses, Online Courses, and Boot Camps: These provide structured learning to gain in-depth knowledge and specialized skills in data analysis.
Master’s Programs: Offer comprehensive, academically rigorous training, often including research projects.
Online Courses: Provide flexibility to learn at one’s own pace while covering essential topics.
Boot Camps: Offer immersive, hands-on training in a short period, focusing on practical skills.
These qualifications enhance credibility, keep individuals updated on industry trends, and make them more attractive to potential employers.
4. Practical Experience:
Demonstrating practical skills is crucial for landing a data analyst role:
Data Analyst Projects: Working on personal projects demonstrates practical skills in data cleaning, visualization, and analysis. These projects help build a portfolio showcasing expertise and problem-solving abilities and bridge the gap between theory and real-world application.
Portfolio: A portfolio serves as tangible proof of data analysis skills and expertise through real-world projects, showcasing the ability to analyze and interpret data effectively. It highlights domain knowledge and problem-solving skills, providing a competitive edge.
Internships: Internships offer hands-on experience with real-world datasets, tools, and workflows, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. They provide exposure to industry practices, build professional networks, enhance resumes, and improve chances of securing full-time roles.
5. Career Progression:
The initial steps often involve gaining practical experience and exposure:
Targeting Entry-Level Jobs or Internships: These provide exposure to real-world data problems and allow for the application of learned skills in a professional setting.
In conclusion, becoming a data analyst in 2025, as outlined by the source, requires a combination of strong technical skills in areas like Excel, SQL, and potentially programming languages and visualization tools, alongside essential soft skills and domain knowledge. Obtaining relevant qualifications through various educational paths and gaining practical experience through personal projects, a strong portfolio, and internships are critical steps in this career journey. The source emphasizes that proficiency in Excel remains a foundational and vital skill for aspiring data analysts.
Excel Full Course 2025 | Excel Tutorial For Beginners | Microsoft Excel Course | Simplilearn
The Original Text
hello everyone and welcome to excel full course by simply learn Excel is more than just a spreadsheet it’s a powerful tool for turning data into insights that drivve smarter business decisions in 2025 Excel is an essential skill as data leads every industry in this course you learn from Basics to Advanced Techniques learning how to create reports automate task and build interactive dashboards you’ll also explore power query co-pilot for AI insights and 10 key formulas to boost productivity plus we’ll dive into dashboard creation charb automation database management and many more so let’s get started before we comment if you are interested to supercharge your career in data analytics the professional certificate program in data analytics and generative AI by E and ICT Academy it goari is your perfect choice this 11 Monon live online course offers interactive m master classes by I goti faculty and Industry experts combining Cutting Edge tools like generative AI chbt python Tab and SQL plus you’ll also earn an executive aluminize status from it goti and ibam recognized certifications to stand out in the job market Microsoft Excel so Microsoft Excel is a software product designed and developed by Microsoft storing data in an organized way that is rows and columns and Microsoft Excel is also capable to manipulate data through some mathematical operations followed by that Microsoft Excel is also used to extract the insights from the data and represent it in the form of visually appealing graphs and charts now we have a basic understanding or an overview of what a Microsoft Excel software product is now moving ahead we will understand the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel so following are some fundamentals that you need to know before getting started with Microsoft Excel so basically when you install the Microsoft Office in your computer you will have various Microsoft products out of which Microsoft Excel is one of the product so we will be dealing exactly with that particular product that is Microsoft Excel so when you get started with Microsoft Excel this is what you will see in the first page so this particular page is called as Microsoft Excel homepage where you will be having various varieties of sheets Microsoft Excel will give you some suggestions based on the type of sheet you want to work with we will see this in a better way through the Practical session so once you get started with the sheet you will have some more options so this particular option is called as the toolbar menu you will have the file home insert draw past layout formulas data review View and help so these are the tools that you will be using to work on your data using Microsoft Excel furthermore we have a toolbar ribbon so when you select some or the other option from the file home insert draw page layout formulas data review View and help buttons you will have a ribbon so for example you can see that I have selected the Home Tool here so when I press on the Home Tool this is the ribbon which Microsoft Excel gives me so this ribbon has some options in it which can perform various operations now in a further more detailed way we will have toolbar groups so when you see in the previous slide we have a complete toolbar ribbon so this particular ribbon been is segmented into groups so you can see the first group as paste Cut Copy format painter etc etc and the second group is the font the size of the font and to increase the size of the font to decrease the size of the font bold italic underline etc etc and here you can see the text alignment so each and every group has separate functions so each set is called as a group and I think you can see a small Arrow op over here so this Arrow option is used into the toolbar groups when the group is not able to fit all the operations or all the functionalities in one single provided section so when you click on this particular Arrow Mark you will have another dialogue box so this is called toolbar more options so you can see that when I clicked on this icon you can see a new dialogue box which opens me a new set of operations which are not able to be fit in this particular group so we will also see more about this in a better way in the practice iCal session now moving forward we have cell and address so when you open a Microsoft Excel sheet you can find boxes so each and every box is named as a cell and each cell has its own address for example the highlighted cell over here has an address B3 so B is the column name and three is the rule name and apart from that you can have the sheet tracker in the bottom left corner of the Excel sheet where you can navigate through different sheets and in the bottom right corner you have an option of increasing or decreasing the sheet size so these are the basic fundamentals of Microsoft Excel that you need to keep in mind before getting started so we will have more on this in the Practical session if you are new to Excel or looking to improve your skills learning these functions can really help Excel isn’t just making spreadsheets it’s a powerful tool for analyzing data and managing projects in this guide we will cover some basic but important Excel functions like sum average if count and sum if you’ll see how these functions do and learn and how to use them with practical examples this knowledge will help you with daily task and make you more confident in using Excel so let’s explore these functions together and see how they can make handling data easier and more efficient let’s get going and make the most of your data with Excel why learn basic Excel functions and formulas functions and formulas are crucial for mastering Excel by learning even a few essential ones you can outpace many around you they are fundamental for daily Excel task to deepen your knowledge or explore Advanced functions consider exploring a comprehensive database of all existing Excel functions Microsoft consistently updates Excel introducing new functions like xlup in Microsoft 365 enhancing your data management capabilities so now let’s move on to the demo part okay so first we will understand the sum function in Excel as we know the sum function in Excel is used to add up the numbers it provides a quick way to calculate the total of several values whether they are typed into a function directly included within a range of cells so these are the cells so you just have to type the numbers in the cell and uh give the function over here and it will give you the desired result let’s check how so first we will understand the sum function I’m just I’ll just write it over here so the first step is like open your Excel file in your computer and select any column or row like here I’m selecting the column for instance you might just put them in cells A1 till A5 so uh in the A1 part I’ve mentioned some for your understanding so we’ll start with A2 we’ll type all the values over here so just type any values like I’m typing 40 then we have 78 then 35 and then we have 67 from A2 till A5 we have typed the values and using the formula in the formula bar it will add all the numbers from cell A2 till A5 and it will display in this particular cell so just select the cell where you want your answer to be shown and just insert the formula over here the formula for sum function is equal to sum A1 till A5 so we just go back to this bar and just select this particular cell and here in this bar just type the formula A1 till A5 but then here we have A2 so we’re just going to change it to A2 till A5 all right and just press enter so here you get the value 220 which is the sum of all the values which we have mentioned over here so it was pretty simple right now let us understand the IF function in Excel okay so the IF function in Excel is used to perform logical test and return values based on the results of these test this function checks whether a condition is true or false and then returns one value for a True Result and another for a false result it is extremely useful for decision making process within your data set let us now understand what are the steps to use this if function so just input your data and put any numeric values in the cells from B2 till B5 okay so 56 90 36 23 and here I want my result to be shown so I’ll just insert the formula here in the function bar so okay just check out the formula with IF function which is equal to if A1 is greater than a00 above 300 300 or below so let’s see how it works we’re just going to enter the formula okay so this will tell Excel to check if the value of B2 is greater than 300 if true it will display above 300 and if false it will display 300 or below let’s check it out okay so there’s some mistake going to paste the formula here again so in place of A1 we will mention B2 we just type B2 over here if GR greater than 300 above 300 or 300 below just press enter so we’ll just enter the formula over here and in place of A1 we will provide B2 all right so we just type here B2 that’s it and we just press enter so you can see the result has come to 300 or below because the value is less than 300 and you can also so drag and fill handle from B1 down to B5 and apply the same logic in other columns as well and it will give you the same result let us now understand the next function which is the average function in Excel the average function and okay so what is this average function used for basically the average function in Excel it will calculate the mean or average of numbers provided to it this function is particularly useful for quickly finding the central values in a set of data which can be helpful in various statistical analysis let us now understand the steps to use the average function so the first step is like you just click on the cell wherever you want your value to appear all right so just provide any values suppose um let’s provide some bigger values like bigger numbers like 430 here we type 2 78 then we have 98 and we have uh 79 and here I want my value to be shown so I’ll just insert the average formula which is let’s check out the formula which is equal to equal to average what is the um column we have chosen from C2 so we’ll just type C2 over here till C2 till C5 C5 all right and we will just press enter so as you can see the average function value is shown over here so after pressing enter the Excel will compute and display the average of all the cells in the selected Cel the next function is the minimum and maximum functions in Excel it’s very very simple let’s discuss what is the minimum and maximum function used for the Min and the max functions in Excel are used to find the minimum and maximum values within a given range of data these functions are useful for quickly identifying the smallest and largest numbers in a data set helping you to analyze different ranges efficiently so let us now understand what are the steps to use this formula it’s very simple just type any values over here 500 next we have 389 then we have 200 190 198 and here I want my value to be shown the minimum value so in the function bar I’ll just press I’ll just type the function which is equal to Min and in the bracket you just mention the column which is starting from D2 right so D2 D2 till D5 so just type the formula over here and after pressing enter you can see the minimum value shown over here is 190 and it’s similar for the maximum function as well so for the max let’s let’s uh use some different values and I want my uh function to be shown here so same you have to use the same formula just type the in place of Max we’re using in place of minimum we using the max function so just type Max and then the column name which is from uh I think G no no no yeah e so just so in place of we will just write right e okay sorry we just type E2 till I think it’s still E5 right E5 that’s it and just press enter so you can see the maximum value shown over here that is 800 so it’s very simple the Exel will display the largest and the minimum value using Min and Max functions the next is to understand the trim function in Excel let us now understand the trim function in Excel so basically this trim function in Excel is used to remove all the extra spaces from text except for a single space between words this function is specially used for cleaning up the data that comes from other sources of data that has been entered inconsistently let us now understand the steps to use the STM functions it is same as we have seen for all these functions the only difference is that this stream function will exclude the spaces so assume your text Data with some Extra Spaces in cells suppose over here I type any sentence any text okay like hello and then I provide some extra space every one and suppose I want my value to be inserted over here to remove all the extra space or if you want some bigger text you can do that but let us now check how the trim functions work for this text just click on the cell where you want your clean text to appear that is F6 and using the function over here just write uh equal to trim and then in place of you just have to mention over here which is uh F2 which is F2 just press enter now you can see that I’ve provided some Extra Spaces over here but here using the trim function it will remove all the extra space and just make it in a clean manner so you can also drag the fill handle from B1 like from this F2 down to G2 and all of that and then you can use a trim function in other column as well to clean up the text the second function is the concatenate function so let’s discuss the concatenate function over here okay so this concatenate function in Excel is used to join two or more text strings into one string it helps in combining data from different cells which can be useful for creating full names from first and last names combining addresses or any situation where text needs to be merged so let us now look the step steps how to use this concatenate function so just assume that you have written your name suppose I’ve written Andrew in this column H2 and here I have written car field now if I want what if I want to combine Andrew Garfield together so just by using this concatenate function I can make it happen all right so if I want my uh result to be shown in this particular cell I’ll just click on this and then in the function bar I’ll just enter the formula which is which is uh equal to cona concatenate and then I have to mention the cell name which is H this is H2 right H2 H and this one is I2 so I’ll just mention the yeah and here and here after mentioning okay I have to provide some space over here so I’ll just put comma and then some space then comma and then here I’ll just I2 all right and here I’ll just press enter so you can see in this particular Rule and both name has been combined concatenated together into a single name so this is how we use the concatenate function and the next function we have is the count function in Excel let us now understand how to use this count function okay the count function in Excel is used to specifically count the number of cells that contain numbers in a Range it’s a crucial function for quickly assessing the numbers density in a data set especially when dealing with mixed data types we’ll just assume that you have added transaction counts in column J starting from column G2 till J5 so the transaction counts are as follows 7 89 0 100 till J5 and then click on the cell where you want your count to appear say J j6 and then you just go to the formula bar and just press just enter the formula over there which is equal to count bracket this should be J2 J2 in J5 and just press enter and you can see the Excel will display the number of cells that contain numbers in column J which is one 2 3 4 okay so this was all for count concatenate trim Max Min average if and Su functions next we have is the count a function let us now understand what is this count a function fun used for and how is it different from count function so this count a function in Excel counts the number of cells in a Range that are not empty it is useful for determining the size of data sets that include various type of data such as numbers text or even logical values so just it will just count the number of nonempty cells in a specific column just click on the cell where you want the count to appear okay let me just tell you the difference between count and count function is that the count function generally used to count a range of cells containing numbers or dates excluding blank whereas this count a function will count everything including numbers dates text or a range containing a mixture of these items but does not count blank cells so suppose if I enter 56 and I leave it blank and then I enter 98 and then again I leave it okay and then just enter 56 and I want my formula to be shown over here so I’ll just go in this formula bar and just enter equal to count a and then from K column this is K column right K2 K2 till K5 okay and I just press enter so as you can see it’s showing three one 2 3 it will not count the extra space or the empty call empty cell we have left behind and also one more thing that we can also type text over here it’s not necessary to type only the numbers you can also type the text for example I type Apple your right type banana now okay here is the function just press enter will count three which is 1 2 and three so this count a function is used both for text as well as the dates as well as the numeric values but the count function is only used for the numeric values and it it will not count the text over here now let us understand the count if function in Excel we have now understood count and count a function and what is the difference between both both of these function we will now understand the countif function over here so let’s understand the count if function okay so this counter function is used to count the number of cells in a Range that meet a specified criteria this function is valuable for filtering and analyzing data based on specific conditions to count the number of transaction that ex exceeds a certain amount of value a threshold value for example five just click on the cell and suppose you want your values to appear in column L2 so suppose I type here 89 7 3 and five and here I will enter the formula which is equal to count if and then from L2 till L5 okay just close the bracket and here you just also have to input the threshold value suppose I take the threshold value as uh let’s say three or let’s say five okay let’s take it five so this is my threshold value greater than five so it will display only the numbers which are greater than five and I just press enter so you can see it’s showing two okay because 7 and 89 are the only two values which are greater than five so you can see that using any threshold function even if I could have written over here let’s say three so it will show three because the number is greater than three are 5 7 and 89 so this is how count a function works we will now understand the last function which is the sum IF function in Excel so what is the sum of function used for basically the sum of function in Excel allows you to add up values in a Range based on specified criteria this function is extremely use useful for performing conditional sums where you can want to show the sum numbers that meet certain condition so to calculate the sum of transactions where the number is greater than five click on the cell where you want your total number to appear let’s say over here I select which is m6 and you just have to enter the formula before that just write any number values like 7 5 3 and 10 and over here just mention the formula which is equal to sum if and the column name is starting from M2 till M5 value should be greater than comma this is M2 right M2 to M that’s it and we’ll just press enter so it’s showing 17 So based on this formula bar the formula will check the values from M2 till M5 and if the number is greater than five and sum only those number so as I’ve mentioned the value five so it will only calculate it will it will only sum numbers which are greater than five which are 10 and 7 which is equal to 17 so this is how the summ function is used we have come to the end of our video and this was all for the top 10 most important basic Excel functions if you categorize the steps to become a data analyst these are the ones firstly you need to focus on skills followed by that you need to have a proper qualification then test your skills by creating a personal project an individual project followed by that you must focus on building your own portfolio to describe your caliber to your recruiters and then Target to the entry level jobs or internships to get exposure to the real world data problems so these are the five important steps now let’s begin with the step one that is skills so skills are basically categorized into six steps it cleaning data analysis data visualization problem solving soft skills and domain knowledge so these are the tools Excel MySQL our programming language Python programming language some data visualization tools like tblo powerbi and next comes the problem solving so these are basically the soft skill Parts problem solving skills domain knowledge the domain in which you’re working maybe a Pharma domain maybe a banking sector maybe automobile domain Etc and lastly you need to be a good team player so that you can actively work along with the team and solve the problem collaboratively now let’s move ahead and discuss each and every one of these in a bit more detail starting with Microsoft Excel while Advanced tools are prevalent Proficiency in Excel remains vital for data analyst Excel versatility in data manipulation visualization and modeling is unmatched it serves as a foundational tool for initial data exploration and basic analysis data management database management skill is indispensable for data analyst as data volume saw efficient management and retrieval from ddb is critical Proficiency in ddb systems and querying languages like SQL ensures analyst can access and manipulate data seamlessly followed by that we have statistical analysis statistical analysis allow analysts to uncover hidden Trends patterns and Corr relationships within data facilitating evidence-based decision making it empowers analyst to identify the significance of findings validate hypothesis and make reliable predictions next after that we have have programming languages Proficiency in programming languages like python is essential for data analys these languages enable data manipulation Advanced statistical analysis and machine learning implementations next comes data storytelling or also known as data visualizations data storytelling skill is Paramon for data analy data storytelling Bridges the gap between data analysis and actionable insights ensuring that the value of data is fully realized in a world data driven communication is Central to business success data visualization skill is a CornerStore for data analyst as data complexity grows the ability to present insights clearly and persuasively is Paramount next is managing your customers and problem solving managing all your customers data and companies relationships is Paramount strong problem solving skills are important for data analyst with complex data challenges and evolving analytical methodologies analyst must excel in identifying issues formulating hypothesis and devising innovative solutions in addition to the technical skills data analyst in 2025 will require strong soft skills to excel in their roles here are the top FES data analyst must effectively communicate their findings to both Technical and non-technical stakeholders this includes presenting complex data in a clear and understandable manner next soft skill as teamwork and collaboration data analysts often work with multidisciplinary teams alongside data scientists data Engineers business professionals collaborative skills are essential for sharing insights brainstorming Solutions and working cohesively towards common goals and last but not least domain knowledge knowledge on domain in which you’re currently working is really important it might be a phical domain it can be an automobile domain it can be banking sector and much more unless you have a basic foundational domain knowledge you cannot continue in that domain with accurate results now the next step which was about the qualification to become a data analyst Master’s courses online courses and boot camps provide strong structured learning that helps you gain in-depth knowledge and specialized skills in data analysis masters programs offer comprehensive academically reest training and often include research projects making sure you’re highly competitive in the job maret Market online courses allow flexibility to learn at your own pace while covering essential topics and boot gaps offer immersive Hands-On training in a short period focusing on practical skills all three parts enhance your credibility keeping you updated on industry Trends and make you more attractive to potential employers if you are looking for a well curated allrounder then we have got you covered simply learn offers a wide range of courses on data science and data analytics starting from Master’s professional certifications to postgraduation and boot camps from globally reputed and recognized universities for more details check out the links in the description box below and comment section now proceeding ahead we have the projects for data analyst data analyist projects demonstrate practical skills in data cleaning visualization and Analysis they help build a portfolio showcasing your expertise and problem solving abilities projects provide hands-on experience Bridging the Gap between Theory and real world application they show domain knowledge making you more appealing to employees in specific Industries projects enhance your confidence and prepare you to discuss real world challenges in interviews proceeding ahead the next step is about the portfolio for data analysts a portfolio is a testament that demonstrates your skill and expertise through real world projects showcasing your ability to analyze and interpret data effectively it provides tangible proof of your capabilities making you stand out to the employers additionally it highlights your domain knowledge and problem solving skills giving you a Competitive Edge during job applications and interviews last but not the least data analyst internships internships provide hands-on experience with real world D sets tools and workflows Bridging the Gap between Theory knowledge and practical application they offer exposure to Industry practices helping you understand how data is used to drive decisions internships also build you Professional Network enhance your resume and improve chances of securing a full-time data analy role so now we enter the demo inventory in Microsoft Excel so we will be using Microsoft Excel to create a sheet of the employees in a company so basically an employee in a company has employee ID name and designation salary etc etc so we will be trying to create the same table using Microsoft Excel but before that let us understand the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel through the the Practical demo first so I have started my Microsoft Excel and this is how the homepage of Microsoft Excel looks like so you have a blank workbook over here if you want to create a new workbook you can select new Option so Excel will provide you with various variety of sheets you can see money in Excel adjustable meeting agenda streaming showers small business cash flow and many more if you’re not able to find what you’re looking for then you always have an option of selecting the particular type of sheet what you’re looking for so you have various options if it’s business if it’s personal if it’s planners and trackers list budgets charts etc etc so let’s imagine that you wanted something from business so just by clicking at business option the Excel will load a variety of sheets related to business options so this might take a while so you can see that the Excel is loading few types of sheets so you can see that Excel has provided us with some online varieties of sheets for example any calendar business expenses Channel marketing budget budget sumary report blue product list etc etc you can see construction proposal Eno you name it Excel has got it so Excel will provide you with some variety of options based on your requirement now for this session let’s get started with your blank workbook which looks something like this since this tutorial is based on the fundamentals we’ll go with the blank workbook now over here you can see the toolbar that we discussed earlier that has the file home insert draw page layout formulas data review View and help so this is the toolbar and under the toolbar I have selected home and you can see this is the particular ribbon what we discussed about this particular ribbon belongs to homepage and when you select file option you’ll get back to home and if you select insert option you’ll have another different ribbon with different groups etc etc so every particular tool has different ribbons in them and remember the extra options that we discussed when you press over this Arrow key this is it so when you press the arrow key you’ll have few more settings which cannot be fit in this this particular section of groups so you can have some variety of options over here of changing the font changing some effects to the text font size and font style etc etc apart from this we have also discussed about the cells in every sheet so this particular cell has an address so you can see the address over here which is B3 so B happens to be the column name and three happens to be the row name now we also had a discussion about the sheet tracker right now we just have one sheet if you want multiple sheets you can just feel free to select on the plus option which will always create you some extra sheets and you can navigate through sheets just by pressing on the sheet name and when you get back to the bottom right corner you have an option of increasing and decreasing the cell size or the sheet size now let’s keep it default with 100% now these are the few fundamentals that you need to keep in mind before getting started with Microsoft Excel now that we know the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel let’s get started with a practical session which is about the employees details in a company now let’s select this particular cell and let’s type in employ details yeah we have the cell now an employee details table will have the information related to employees so the information will be about about name it will be about employee number it will be the designation and maybe salary and maybe blood group as well and uh let’s take another one which is phone number yeah so so far so good and uh you can see that we have some problem with this particular column the designation the name uh the the name of the designation is practically good but it is not visible so when you uh when you’re not on that particular cell you can see that the name is incomplete over here so you can always fix that you can just you know manually change the size of the row or cell or you also feel free to you know double click on that cell which will automatically you know set the size of that particular cell and same goes to the blood group just let’s try to double click on that and same goes to phone number great so you can see that the employees details are just confined to the first two cells it’s supposed to be somewhere in the middle right so no problem we can do that as well we can select all the cells and we have an option of merging them you can just select this one which will help you with merging and centering that particular data to the center part so that’s how we do it now let’s get started by adding the names of the employees uh let’s add the names Joe John uh Mary Mark Susan and then Jennifer let’s type in Mike let’s type in Tim Jeff Jeffrey yeah we have a couple of employees now let’s type in the employee numbers yeah we have the employee numbers now let’s type in the designation okay let’s choose uh Joe to be the CEO of the company and John as the software developer and Mary as tester Mark and finance Susan also in finance and Jennifer in testing and mik in uh marketing same goes for Tim and again Jeffrey into software development and uh Ming into testing again now let’s click on C so that it gets you know resized according to the length of the text now it’s done so let’s get into salary uh $10,000 and $115,000 $119,000 let’s increase the salary of a CEO so let’s keep it $1 lakh and finance again 20,000 so yeah the salaries are allocated again the blood group yeah we have the blood groups now let’s type in the mobile numbers for yeah now we have typed in some random mobile numbers as well so uh yeah this is how you can add in some data into your table and now let us imagine that you forgot to add or remove a column so let’s imagine that we wanted to add a serial number as well but somehow we forgot to add it now you can always add a new row or column for example here we wanted to add a new column so we just have to right click on a select the insert option here we have a new row now now let’s type in serial number and let’s type one now can you see the small box option over here if you just drag it you can you know copy paste all those over here and now let’s right click and fill series now we have the employee number starting from 1 to 10 that’s how you do it and apart from this you you can also uh you know change the font of the entire row you can change the font to say uh aroni and you can always also change the font and same goes to the employee table you can select it bold it and you can also increase the size and again select a color for the text maybe a different color green would be better and and uh you can also select the entire cells and align them to the center looks more good and you can select or double click the row names so you’ll have the proper spacing between all the rows and columns so we have double click on the column right yeah so basically that’s how you make things happen now let’s save this so I’d like to go to the save option and uh EMP data let me save this in my local location and just save it’s done so that’s how you work on your Excel file with some basic data and to learn more don’t forget to get subscribed to Simply learns YouTube channel and don’t forget to hit that Bell icon to stay updated so you are the first person to get an update on any technology not just Excel now let’s get back to the Practical mode and now we are on our Excel spreadsheet so here here we have some text boxes on the column A and on column B we have lower and upper okay so um we have a mix of uh uppercase and lower case in our text so first we’ll try to convert them to lower case and then we’ll try to convert the entire text into uppercase so for that you need to press on equal symbol and select the lower formula tap and you selected the function and now click on the cell A3 that’s your select press and press on okay now all the letters are converted to low case so we had J in the uppercase which is converted to low case now all you can do is drag the formula to all the cells and it will be applied to all the cells right now let’s similarly try to convert into uppercase and tab space and there you go you have selected the formula now the cell address press enter and drag the same address I mean drag the same formula to all the cell addresses and there you go all the cells are converted to uppercase now that’s how you convert the cells or data in Excel to uppercase or lowercase in Excel now we are on the Excel spreadsheet now here we have some sales data based on a store now what we going to do is we going to add some multiple rows or a single Row in this particular data so here you can see the region wise category Wise statewise subcategory Wise and the sales and quantities right now let us imagine that you must have to add a sale data here right so let us imagine that on the row 7th you were supposed to add some detail for example some technology related sale happened on that day and you missed out to add it right so how do you create a new rule now so for example if multiple sales happened on the same day like 3 to four and you missed out them so how do I add three to four rows in between the ex testing data right so don’t worry about it it’s completely simple all you have to do is select the row and right click and press on the option insert now this will insert one single row if you wanted to add one single uh row or you know toule and if you wanted to add multiple rows for example you wanted to add three rows Al together then it’s also simple all you have to do is select three rows and right click and press on insert and then you have three rows so there you go so that’s how you add multiple rows in a Excel spreadsheet or that’s how you add one single Row in an Excel spreadsheet now we have started our Excel worksheet and here you can see we have employee details on our worksheet now all of a sudden uh you wanted to add employee second name as well or a last name right so you are a beginner and you don’t know how to add a column or you know you might be a little ambiguous right so instead of using this simple step you might end up creating a whole new sheet or maybe other approaches as well which are timec consuming so let me give you this simple step all you have to do is select the column so here you wanted to add a last name right so B is your column with the first name and here you wanted to add a second name or the last name which is in between the columns B and C so remember that Excel adds a column always towards the left side of a column so here if I if you wanted to add a column next to V then you want to select the column C and right click and select the insert option so that it can be added in between B and C which is adjacent to B so let’s look at it right so you have added the next uh column or a new column right next to the column V and it’s in between the designation and employee name now you can add your you know second name so that’s how you create a new column in Excel now in case if you wanted to you know create multiple columns all together so uh here we have or here we needed a second name also here you have a designation and you wanted to add another column which you know assigns managers to the employees right so let’s delete it uh Delete the second column and let me explain you how what I want to do so here you wanted to add the second name of the employee and also the manager of these employees right so here you wanted to add two columns Al together right uh and now you might be wondering could I add two columns together or will it work only for the one column thing right no it it works for two columns and also more than two columns all together so you wanted to add two columns here right so select the two columns you you can select or you can click on the column see and hold that left key and drag it along the right side Okay so here I have selected two columns and here it’s three right so you can see here uh it’s 1 48 5 6 7 6 are cross 3C that means you have selected three columns if I navigate on the four you can see we have selected four columns right now right click and select on insert and you’ll have four columns in between employee name and designation now you might have to add your second name man man name manager employee ID you know and the department everything or you can add anything or any number of columns in between the existing columns now we are on our Excel spreadsheet now you might want to you know add uh some extension to your data since we have sales here you might want to add the dollar logo right so if you have like five to 10 rows then it’s easy but if you have multiple rows then it might be a little time consuming in such scenarios you might want to select the entire column right so how do you do that in a shortest method so there are multiple methods to do it so the easiest one the first and the easiest one is clicking on the column number or column name so here we have the column name that is e and if you click on it the entire column is selected and here we have numbers so let us imagine that you wanted to select the row number two click on number two and you have all the rows I mean the entire row selected all the cells are selected right so this is one way and again there is another way where you can just you know uh click on the first table header and press control spacebar so the combination key is control spacebar for columns and if you want to select the entire row it is shift space bar so this is the method two and another method so you might have a doubt here right so when you click on the column name or when you click on the row number the entire row or entire column gets selected right and you wanted to select only the cells which have data so we have another way for that so you can select the cell now hold the control and shift key and press the lower Arrow key to select the entire column with cells having data so there you go you have selected all the cells in one single column with only data and all the cells which do not have data are not selected same applies to rows as well control shift right arrow key or left Arrow key based on your rows and all the rows with data will be selected I mean all the celles in a row are selected not the entire row and U coming back to the first question that is adding the dollar symbol so here we have General so go to the data type and add currency so you have rupees here so currently we are in India so we have rupees now what is the advantage of selecting the entire row when you don’t have any data in the 57th row or the next cell right I’ll show you now let us add the number 100 and press enter there you go let us add another number like th000 and press enter so the data formatting is automatically applied to all the cells so most of the time your cells or the data sheet will be varying you might have to add or remove elements or numbers right so in such scenarios this will be helpful now comparing two different columns or multiple columns happen Happ s to be an important job when you’re working in data analytics as you have to come up with some decisive decisions based on the data now if you had to do it manually then you might end up taking hours or even days based on the data set you’re working with but if I say that you can do it within minutes then it would be interesting to work with right now we’ll be doing the same now we’ll work on a sample data set right on my screen so here we have column 1 and column two now our job is to compare the column one 1 and column two and come up with the result now the first and the simplest way to do it is use the built-in conditional formatting which comes with Excel by default now all you have to do is select all the data and navigate to home and then the home go to Styles group and select conditional formatting and in conditional formatting you can see highlight cells so in that you can use duplicate values when you click on duplicate values a small pop-up window will come on your screen and here you have an option of choosing whether duplicate or unique so duplicate means you’re comparing the cells and you can see there are some duplicate cells which are present in column one are also present in column two now you can also check how to uh you know find out the unique values which are only present in column 1 but not in column two so you can just press unique and there you go you can find it now you can also try to you know change the color by filling with green for The Unique columns and duplicate cells with color red now this was the first method and you can also work out some different ones like uh you can just directly uh press equal to and select the cell and equals to and the next cell press enter and if there is a match it will give you true if there is no match then it will give you false now you can drag it down and see which all are matching and and which I learn not now you can also make some minute modifications to this so uh if in case you didn’t find the data then you can say not found so for that uh you can try if and inside brackets and then you can give the value as not found if true it’s found first you have to give the True Values so for true you can write it as found and in case if it’s not found then you can write write it down as not found there you go close the bracket press enter and there you go if there is a perfect match you will have found and if there is no match then you’ll get not found now so far we have discussed uh comparing two cells using conditional formatting and also by using equals to operator and trying to uh add some tweaks to the equals to Operator by involving with if operator and apart from those we also have another way to compare two columns in Excel so uh another way is using the lookup functions so we’ll use a simple V lookup function to compare both the cells so for that let’s type in equals to we look up time space and um select the cell you want to check for and then the range of elements you want to uh compare and then I’ll press F4 to log them now uh you want the data from column one and now you want the exact match so zero press enter so there you go so the elements which are present in column 1 and column 2 are been displayed here so but in case if the elements are not found you’ll get an error so let’s look at that simply drag the formula to all the cells and there you go so the elements which are matching will give you the proper result but the ones which are not matching will give you not applicable or error message this can be fixed we can make some minor tweaks to the same formula so uh we can add if error comma simply write an as not found and close the bracket so that should do so we have closed the bracket and press enter there you go now simply drag this and soon you can see the data which is having no match is shown as not found now uh there is another possibility okay let’s get back to another different sheet so this should work so uh we we already have the formula so let’s erase that first I’ll erase the whole data and even this one yeah now we have the clear column for so here you can see we have Ford India and here you can see we have just Ford and similarly here you have Mahendra and Mahendra and here you have Mahendra right so in some situations you might have to compare two different columns but the names might be a little different right so for example uh if you’re working with Oracle and if you’re working with Oracle America and you have in the first case is Oracle and then the second column is Oracle America then those are one and same but you have some minor text changes right just like here you have for India and here you have Ford so what if you had such kind of issues so you can also make some minor tweaks to it so using the same lookup formula you can add equals to we lookup and also the comparision cell which is this one and you’re not you’re not stopping them you’re trying to add the wild card here so the wild card is HRI which means if there is anything like uh if you get the comparison between the first cell and and the second cell which matches and if there is anything extra rather than the actual cell please try to consider it so that’s what we going to do so after entering entering the wild card symbol you’ll select the range of columns which you have to uh you know fetch the data from and then try to fix them using function key F4 you’re looking from the column number one and then you’re finding the exact match now you can close it and ENT now let’s try to drag it there you go so you have the data Mahindra and Mahindra hindai India Honda India so that’s how you try to use uh comparing cells in Excel now you can see I’m on my Excel worksheet and I have one table on my worksheet right now so you can you know transposing or you know converting rows to columns is a very simple task I’ll explain you in two different ways so the first way select all the sales that you have on your sheet and press on contrl C so it will give you the copy option and then you can also paste in the same sheet or if you want you can go to a whole new sheet and select the paste option over here but before selecting the actual paste option you can see a small drop- down icon click on that and navigate to paste special and in this you can see transpose option click on that or you know make sure that it’s checked and press okay now you can see all your columns are been converted into rows and all your rows are converted into columns so this was the first way and uh what is the second way you ask me so it’s really simple select one cell somewhere and you know you can or let’s create a new sheet as well so here you can you know write down the formula as transpose and select the array which you want to transpose so this is the array so transpose is basically an array function in Excel so once you are done with you know selecting your data press enter there you go so all your rows are now columns and all your columns are now the rows now on my spreadsheet you can see some data which is the sales data of quarterly basis and the four different zones that is northwest southeast so you can you know make things look better by hiding these columns and if you hide these columns it’s critical for the end user to identify which columns are exactly hidden right to make things a little easier for your end user you can select the columns and then go to the data option and in the data option click on the group option so this will group these columns and you will have the symbol of minimization which will help you you hide these columns automatically and unhide these columns automatically now let’s also try to group GH i j columns and there you go now similarly let’s also try to group the rows of North and Rose of West then you have the rose of South and row of East right now all these rows and columns are been grouped now all you can do is just click on the minimize button and those will be minimized similarly the rules right and to unhide them all you can do is click on the plus icon and they will be unhidden you can also try to ungroup the columns and rows all you have to do is select the columns and click on the ungroup option similarly the rows as well and that’s how you can group and ungroup rows and columns in Exel now we are on our spreadsheet and you can see I have some sample data on my spreadsheet and it does have some blank rows now how do I eliminate these blank rows so one step is you can you know select the entire row and try to right click and delete it again this sort of method might take us to get rid of all the blank rows and most of the time you might end up even selecting the rows with data in it right so if I want to select multiple rows then I’ll be selecting some rows with data as well which might be a little Troublesome in the future now let’s try to use the easier way now for that go to the find and select option select the go to special option and in that select the blanks option and press okay now hold control key and press minus key and you will have an option of deleting the cells now select the entire row now we are selecting the entire rows with blank data and press okay and the cells will be shifted now this was simple but let me show you another example so even here we have some blank rows but in between those blank rows for example will take cell 17 or cell d17 or row 17 we have some data testing and here in the employee ID we have some data in a26 and again in b39 we have some data that is first name right in such scenarios how do I eliminate data so we have a simple Logic for it so all we need to do is add another row which is to count the number of cells in the row now that can be count now here equals to the function is Count a let Tab and the cells will be from A2 to G2 press enter now you have seven so now we are basically calculating the number of cells so if you apply the same to the entire um data set let’s drag it and there you go so there are certain places where you find zero which are basically the empty columns right now let’s do some formatting if you need let’s try to add filters crl a contr d and now table will have filters and headers now here you can see the drop- down icon click on that now instead of select all what you can do is Select zero now you will be highlighted with all the rows which do not have any data select all those and press on delete or what you can do is the same way control minus there you go now clear the filter now all you have is the data without any kind of blank rows so all the rows that had some amount of data are retrained and all the data or all the cells or all the rows which do not have any data which are completely blank they have been eliminated so here you can see columns and rows so especially the fourth row and the column C right so uh currently we have data on our uh spreadsheet and it is exceeding the number of rows currently visible on our screen right so when you scroll down you can see that the header or the headers of all the columns are getting vanished or scrolled up along with the data right and you might want to keep that so that you’ll have reference to every single aspect of or every single cell data you’re referring to right so for that reason you might want to freeze this and also you might have a doubt what if uh even even I had this data in the column section right and what if I had to freeze that and you know when when you scroll this and keep that data uh set on the column as it is right so we can also do that let’s look at both of them so there is a simple process to do that all you have to do is select the cell or for which you want to uh you know set the or freeze the column adjacent to it or the row adjacent to it right so currently you want to let me expand it so currently I want to freeze this particular row right and this particular column so the cell I would be selecting is the first cell here that is D5 right so when I select this particular cell I can be able to freeze this particular row and this particular column so now you need to navigate to the toolbar and then select the view menu and inside view option you can see there is an option of free pains right so click on the drop down so you can see three different options as we discussed earlier we can either choose to freeze an entire row that is the second option or you can freeze the entire column that is the third option or you can freeze both that is the first option right freezing rows and columns so let’s select this one and see if our rows and columns are frozen or not right so now let’s scroll down and you can see our row is successfully Frozen there right and similarly scroll towards right and you can see our column has been successfully Frozen right so this is how you freeze rows and columns or you can freeze panes in Excel now here on my sheet you can see we have some numbers that is $10 or 10 .20 $22 $ 53.1 two $12 and $110 now the task is to convert these numbers into word format that is representing the numbers alphabetically right this might be a little curious and we also might end up searching for a predefined method which is not readily available in Excel but there is a way where you can create a function using Excel VBA or macros now again creating a macro is completely complex now I identifying the trouble Microsoft has already come up with a readily available macro code on their official website which will support the various versions of Microsoft Excel starting from Microsoft Excel 365 to all the way up to the older Excel version that is 2010 now you can scroll down and use this particular macro function which Microsoft has readily made us available and use this to create our own macro in Excel VBA now let’s get back to Excel and you can create a macro using the developer option now developer options will not be readily available in Microsoft Excel to activate developer option go to home and go to the options menu in the last and here go to customize ribbon and here in the second drop- down menu you can see developer option by default it will not be checked click on the check option to activate developer options and and press okay now you have your developer options ready click on developer options click on Visual Basic and here to insert a new macro click on the insert button click on module and a new macro window is readily available for you now control V to paste your code and your function is with the name number to text right now close the macro and here your function will be ready available equals to and the function name was number to text press tab to select the function and select the cell where you have the data close the function press enter now drag the same formula across all the cells and here you have the text converted from numbers so here we have $10.20 and you have $102 $22 and no cense $53 and2 $12 and no cents and $110 with no sense now that’s how you can convert numbers to words using the macro which is predefined for excel in the Microsoft website so for example uh let us imagine that you wanted to create one single cell for all the employees in your company which stes the first name second name or last name including the email IDs at one place right if you want to do so like let us let us let me show you how it looks like so let me copy this here then that’s the first name now it’s your second name along with the email ID now let us imagine that you wanted to store all the employees in the same way right so you can do this by using combine operation in Excel now all it takes is just a simple formula that is equals to and the first cell address that is A2 and you can use an ENT sign now you can use the next cell reference that as B2 and then colon and the last C address that is E2 now press enter so when you press enter or tab you will get this particular answer but this data is completely uh in a state where you can’t understand it right the first name last name and the email ID has got combined all together so you want to use some spaces right so all you need to do is just make a little modification to this particular existing data so you can press another ENT and include spaces and then you can separate the email ID and the name with some colon so now we have separated the first first two cells that is the first name and the last name with the space using the ense and then again we have used an ampers to include the colon and see that we have also included a space between the colon marks that it gets separated cleanly and now let’s try to press Tab and see the result so there you go the first name and the second name is separated by space and the email ID and the complete name is separated by a colon now you can use this to all the cells and there you go all the first name last name and the email IDs have been printed here so that’s how you use the combin operation in Excel and you can see on my screen we have the sales data of one single employee in the month of January okay so this is the sales data of John in January sales now let us imagine that we have this same person’s or same John’s data of sales of all the three months okay so here we have the sales data of John for January February and March and you wanted to Club all these three months and write it down as quarter 1 right so let us try doing it now you can see that uh only January is replaced as quarter 1 and February and March are still uh remaining the same so let us try to delete them so we have deleted them and I think now it looks like uh this is a sales data of one single quarter that is quarter 1 but again quarter one is under column B and anyone who looks at it feels like a this data is of January February and March and all the quarter 1 details are only present in V column but C and D are completely you know different from this one right so you don’t want that kind of an on your uh you know the one who presenting to you so in those situations you want to merge all these three columns and make sure that the quarter one is present somewhere in between the cells so that all the data looks relevant and uh it it defines that these data elements belong to Coto one right so there is an option in Excel to do that so select all the cells that you want to merge and going to home button and in home button get into the alignment group and select merge and center so you can do it directly also you have a couple of more options that is merge and center merge across merge cells and unmerge so we’ll go through it one by one so first we’ll go through merge and center so there you go the cells Cod merged and it has been aligned into center now again if your manager or anyone Superior to you wants this to be you know independent like they want it to be in terms of January February and March so that they can have access to it in month-wise so you want to unmar it back right how to do that now so the same menu and select unmerge and there you go you have your data back in the original form again all you have to do is you know rename a few celles there you go and you have it back right so in a few situations okay you can also add the pters so that it looks more relevant now um you know let’s try to merge this again and merg in Center yeah now again uh let us imagine that you are going through an a pral cycle and you also wanted to add some comments about the sales happening in your company uh regarding uh all the employees right so also we have that here now let me expand a little bit Yeah there so again let’s margin center now uh you wanted to you know uh you wanted to take a review of your level one level two and level three managers so you have all the three um rows here but you can see the cells are not merged and uh you wanted to merge every single row so merging and centering everything rowwise would be a little time consuming I mean three columns is okay but what if you had like uh you had to take a review from a couple of more managers like 5 to 10 right or imagine you wanted to write some random comments apart from review you wanted to write some random comments based on month-wise uh sales or something like that so it would be timec consuming right so apart from that you have another option where you you
know select all the sales and come over here and select the option of merge across and all the sales will be merged all together at once and you will be having those individual rows where you can write down your reviews like review one and so on review two right so this is how the option of merge across works and we already have been through the merge and center and merge is completely similar to merge and center so this is how merge and center merge cells and uh merge across and unmerge cells in Excel now there are multiple ways to add dat to Excel spreadsheet for example equals to today this is a short cut method and you can enter done you will have today state but again there is some problem with this kind of approach so today’s date is 4th of September 2022 now if you open the same spreadsheet after today that is tomorrow or day after tomorrow then you will have a concurrent date that is 5th of September or 6th of September right the date will always vary or get updated according to time now you don’t want to change that that or you don’t want that to be happening with employee state of joining right it should be stagnant it should not vary right so there is another shortcut way apart from using the datetime functions there is a keyboard shortcut where you can add date to excel that is control semicolon so this is the shortcut way to add date to your Excel spreadsheet and this particular date will not change this will remain the same constant date throughout the time now there is a chance where you might also have to add time to your spreadsheet that is date of joining and time of joining right so there is another simple shortcut where you can add time by just pressing three keys that is holding control holding shift and pressing semicolon then you’ll have the time so this is how you can add date to your Excel spreadsheet and add time to your Excel spreadsheet and this date and time will remain constant it will not vary like the 2D function that we have used here so you can see on my screen we are on the Excel spreadsheet and on my spreadsheet you can see dates in column A and different formats in column C D E and F respectively Now by default the data type or the data present in the a column will be considered as general and there are a few situations where even if you try to format the date in your format like you know the customized format you may not be able to do it because it’s still under the general data type so for that for being on the safer side what we will do is select the data and navigate to the data toolbar and in that you have the text to columns option press that and remember to have the delimited icon you know you might be having the dash as your icon or slash as your icon for the delimited thing and select that and next next and here you can see right it’s in general mode so you can press on date and DMI will be a date format that is date month and year now click on finish so it’s been formatted now now let’s copy the same data and paste it in all the four formats so that we’ll see the different formats that we can change to or customize to right so there you go let’s expand the columns a little bit now we have day month and year so now you might want to change a couple of things right for example you wanted to change okay let’s see the menu so the way is to select the sales and right click and select the format sales option and in here you can see the date function and in here you can see different types of modifications that you can do to your data right so you might want to also change your dates based on the location so right now we are in India and imagine if you wanted to you know change something based on us or if you if you’re having your client in us and he wants the dates in US format it you can also change that so here you can see English United States and press on that press okay and you can see it’s been changed to us format where you have years in the first place months in the second place and dates in the last place right and now let us imagine that uh your client does not want the dates all he needs is just months right you can also do that get back to the format sales option go to custom and here instead of uh you know uh month date and year all you can do is just write down month and year and select okay so you’ll have only month and year not the dates now your client is being a little more you know he wants a little more detail and he wants you to add a lot of granularity to your data which includes day time Etc everything right so you can also do that so the same way go to format sales custom and here I think it’s in date itself so let’s navigate a little yeah here so you have the day date month and year press okay so there you go right so that’s how you can do it and now let’s try a little bit more if we have a few more options pending so go to format cells and custom and you also have timings so so here you have date month year and timings press okay and there you have all the timings as well so since these dates are you know I created them just a few moments ago to keep it simple so I did not have to add the diamonds here so if you are Keen about adding the timings you can also do that for example if you wanted to add the timings of the employees logged in and logged out you can also do that using the same format and you can see now we are on our Excel spreadsheet and you can see we have a column of date and on the column B we have age now how do you calculate the age using the date of birth so this is completely simple all you have to use is the dated IF function or if you also call it as date diff function based on your choice we also have a specific entire tutorial based on Dat diff in Excel for further information that video will be linked in the description box below you can go through it or you can use the end screens and ey Cuts linked to this video to get back to the tutorial based on date diff in x now let’s calculate the age of these dates or these people with these date of births so all you have to do is type equals to and type dated F and open a bracket we need three parameters here that is the date of birth that is the first parameter now the second one is the today function because you’re calculating the age of these people as per today right so we have a today function in Excel press on Tab to select it and give a close bracket now comma and if you wanted to calculate the age in terms of days you have to um you know give d as the input yeah here it should be D as the input and don’t forget to use the double codes here and if you use the single codes there might be an error so use double codes if you want it in the day SP you can give days and if you want it in months you can give months for now we want in ear so we will be giving y as the third parameter and press enter there you go you have the age here in 26 years you can drag the same function and you have the ages here as you wanted right so this is how you calculate age in Excel and on my Excel spreadsheet let me expand it we have two different timings that is in and out so here we are considering a scenario where we are calculating the total number of us worked by an employee in an organization so the in time will be the time where the employee logged in and the out time will be the time when the employee logged out so here we have made some minor cell formatting so when you right click on any of the cell you can get back to the formatting sales option and in that option we have selected the AM PM so there is also another option of choosing the 24hour timing that is 1320 uh 13:30 so this represents the 24-hour format but since we are you know working on Office timings let’s keep it as a PM okay so there you go so we have our uh timings of in and out now to calculate the time difference between the in time and outtime so this particular calculation is completely simple all you have to do is press equals to select outtime minus select in time so there you go press enter and you have the total number of asks the m has been working in your organization so here also we have made some minor cell formatting so usually it comes out as Am Pm right but instead of that we have made a minor cell formatting we have navigated into time and we have selected the 24hour formatting so that we have just hours in our output so that’s how we have calculated the time difference between two in times and out times of an employee using Excel now Dax and Excel is a sophisticated formulas type language that comes in handy while working with relational data and extracting information via Dynamic aggregation functions Dax in Excel stands for data analysis Expressions Dax functions are completely familiar to the general and default functions that are available in Excel now Dax allows users to perform slightly escalated and advanced and custom calculations upon various data types like character data date time time intelligence functions and many more and in Dax there are a variety of functions such as Dax table valued functions Dax filter functions Dax aggregation functions time intelligence functions date and time information time logical parent and many more now in today’s session we will look into one such type of Dax function in Excel that is Dax date and time function in Excel now without further Ado let’s get into practical mode and we have started our Microsoft X Excel inside Excel we have opened a new blank worksheet Now navigate to data option in the toolbar and in that go to the power pivot window now we have entered the power pivot window and inside that you can see the option of get external data click on that and you can see a variety of options that is you can get the external data from a database you can get from web servers that is from data service and you have also other forms of data sources and existing connections for now we will take other forms of data that is a Microsoft Excel data which is in our local system select next now provide the location of your folder just browse and we will select Dax employee data open and there you go we have our data connected to our powerpint window click on next and there you go you have the selected table and views click finish and you can see the data getting imported into your power window there you go by default if you want to add any tax related functions into your powerp window you’ll have an external added column over here which looks something like this if there is not an external column you can also add the column it’s not a big trouble now we have some data here that is the employee ID employee name designation of the employee Department of the employee salary and joining date Etc right let’s expand this View and see what’s what’s more in it so this column is the date of birth and this column is the employ joining date right now we have so much of data now let us imagine that we want to calculate the retirement age of all the employees so now let’s rename the column to retirement date so we have our new column that is retirement date now we will make use of Dax datetime functions to calculate the age and find out the exact retirement date of that particular employee so let us imagine that every employee will retire after the age of 65 so we have our date of birth of every employee and the joining date of every employee now we’ll come up with a da de time function and calculate the age and then we will find the retirement date of that employee now every Dax function starts with the same method or the same way as the simple Excel default method starts that is by starting with an equals to and then we will find eate eate and and now our first parameter that is the start date that is the employee uh the date where the employee joined the organization so our sheet name is sheet one now our joining date is in the F7 column select F7 press tab to select it and comma Now how many months so each and every year will have 12 months so 12 months into the age that is 65 Star 65 and now you can close the uh function and press enter and then you’ll find the retirement date of that particular employee so there you go so we have the employee dates that is Employee Retirement dates for all the employees so the first one that is Jack has the retirement date of 19 February 2085 and similarly Jennifer has her retirement date at 15th of August 2084 so that’s how we use the Dax functions in Excel so this is one of the several Dax functions in Excel that is Dax date and time functions in Excel so you can see that I’ve got some data which is first name of the employee last name of the employee and phone number and let us assume that uh your manager has given you a task to identify all those uh employees which did not give an phone number so you wanted to identify them using a check box right like you will be providing a check for all the employees that we have received the phone numbers and you will not be checking the employees which did not give the phone number right so let’s try to do that so to include a checkbox you might want to get into the developer option but for few reasons Microsoft has disabled developer option by default to enable developer option all you have to do is just navigate anywhere on the ribbon here and right click and then you can see customize the ribbon option when you click into it you will be redirected into the ribbon option and here you can see the developer option on the right side right this one so by default you can see that your developer option is not enabled to enable it you have to check in it and there you go you have it now so press okay and you’ll have the developer option now go to the developer option and select the insert option and there you can see the checkbox now draw the checkbox any I’ll draw it over here and there you go you have the first check box right now if you want you can even customize this so carefully click it you can edit the text and and write it as done okay now you can even copy this to all the cells just select and drag and there you go now you can go ahead and check all the employees which you have received the phone numbers and you can eliminate the ones which did not provide you with the phone numbers that’s how you can do it and there’s also another option where you can use this to include it in a formula since this data is only of 25 rows you can manually check in the data and you can leave the data which is you have not received but what if you you had 2500 right then you might need formula so in such scenarios you can use a formula so how do you use that so for example uh if this particular box is checked then you will get a True Value here and if it’s not check you will have a false value then you can use that Boolean value to include in your formula right sounds interesting now let’s try to implement that you can right click the cell and you can find format control then you can see here you have an option called cell link here select the cell link and press okay so here you can see if you have checked this the value is true and if you uncheck this you can see the value turned false now you can use this particular cell reference for including this in a formula now let us also check how to include checkboxes on Google Sheets in Google sheet it’s really simple all you have to do is get into the insert option and you can see readily available check boox you don’t have to use any developer options over here and there you go you can just check now let us assume that you’re giving an important presentation and you’re also requested by your manager to add the Excel document that you have used to create that particular report which would be something like this when you click on it it will open a new Excel document or Excel Window with all the data in it right so how do we do that let’s look at the demo now let’s have a blank slide and let’s get back to the source where our Excel file is located that is in my documents so we are currently in my documents and we have the Excel file which we used for creating that particular report now if we copy and try to paste it on our Excel document it would look something like this and clearly it’s not visible and it’s not accessible right so instead of this there is another way where you can directly add the Excel document in the form of logo which is a rather simple idea all you have to do is just click on the insert option in the toolbar then navigate to the text group and here you will find the option called object click on the object and it will give you a new window where you can identify which type of document or object you want to add either create or create from file so we have the file in our local system so we’ll choose create from file browse and from browse we will go into the documents section where we have our Excel file click on the Excel file and click on okay now if you want the data or Excel file to be displayed in the form of an icon then click on the display as icon section and here you can change the icon so you can choose any one of the given options let’s choose this particular one and and click on okay another okay and there you go the icon will be now displayed on your Microsoft PowerPoint PPD which is completely clickable as the previous one whenever you click on this the Excel document will be opened so that’s how you add Excel document into Microsoft PowerPoint now we are on our Excel spreadsheet and here I’m trying to insert some images onto my spreadsheet so here we have company logos and Company brand names so since we already have the brand names what we need to add here is the brand logos here so how do I add such kind of an image into an Excel spreadsheet that you might be thinking that Excel spreadsheets are just for data not multimedia image of files right so no it’s not it’s completely wrong you can also add your images onto your Excel spreadsheets it’s completely simple so click anywhere on the Excel spreadsheet navigate to the insert button select the illustrations option from the addin group click on that and you know in the drop down you can see the pictures icon or the pictures uh button click on that and select from this device or if you have an online stock image you can take that or you can also check out from online pictures for now I’ll select the device this device and here I have some images the images what we need are simply learn and simply code logos press okay or insert so so here you have them now you can also adjust the size of the image using the small buttons here PR it over here and done so you might be wondering is it all done is there anything more to do uh or just adding an imag is done no most of the times when you create or you work with Excel spreadsheet you will not just you know add some data and add a relevant image to it most of the time you add some graphs or you most of the time you’ll add some charts uh to showcase the data dashboard right so it will be something like this so this is how you add the image or graph onto your uh uh dashboard and sometimes you might not have enough play to uh display your entire dashboard during those situations what you do is you try to hide the row or column so now let’s try to hide this particular row let us imagine that you wanted to show only uh two uh charts and there is no space for your third chart in such scenarios you might want to hide or remove that third chart okay so let’s try to hide it and see if gets if it gets hidden or not when you try to hide it you can see the column A has no data and uh the row number four has been hidden so we have three and five but what about the image it is still present right so if you want to make sure that the row also hides the image then you might have to do a little formatting with it so select the image go to picture format or you can also right click and directly navigate to picture format this opens up a set of options and here you might want to go to the uh third uh one which is picture format third and select the properties and here select the option of move and size with cells so when you select this when you try to hide this it will also I mean the graph of the image will also hide along with the R so that’s how you do it so how to insert PDF in Excel now there are multiple ways to insert a PDF into Excel so we will go through a couple of ways first is here let us imagine that we wanted to insert some PowerPoint presentation in PDF format into our Excel sheet so that it belongs to excel Basics now click on the cell where you want to add the PDF or just click any cell in the Excel spreadsheet then go to the option of insert in the toolbar then navigate to text option click on it and select object and here you can select create from file and then you can can browse and here you have your Excel Basics PDF in my documents click on that select insert so here you can just press okay and the PDF will be inserted now you can minimize the size of PDF to fit the cell there you go the PDF code successfully inserted into your Excel spreadsheet now let’s discuss about the second way now the second way is completely same the only difference is you can add some logo to your PDF so you can see it has been added in direct form of a PDF like what’s the first slide of the PPD but instead of that if you wanted to highlight it as an icon then you can select the display as icon button here and press okay now you don’t have to reformat the size of your PPD or PDF all you have to do is add the logo to your PDF and it will also include the title so this is another way of adding you know PDF to your Excel sheet now another way so a few times you don’t want the first page of the uh PDF to be visible or any kind of logo of that PDF reader to be visible on your spreadsheet sometimes all you want is some dedicated image or a dedicated logo right so this time let’s try to add a dedicated image to our PDF so go to insert again here you can see the illustrations option click on picture and from this Dev device so I will select the simply larns logo and now you have to resize the logo a little bit to fit the cell there you go you can uh you know click on the right click button and and select the option of Link now um select the existing file or web page option so if you are interested to learn more on Hy Link in Excel we have a dedicated tutorial on that please go through hyperlinks in Excel by simply learn which will explain you everything about hyperlinks in Excel how to insert them different types of documents to be inserted and how it works in real time for now let’s try to insert the existing web page and go to documents navigate to documents and inside this you have the Excel basic PDF click on okay and it has been added to your image so when you click on it it will open the PDF document attached to it so when you hover over to the cell you can see it will ask you a permission do you want to continue or not just click on this ignore the warning so you can see the PDF has been successfully open convert PDF into Excel now to do this let’s get back to the Practical mode and try to convert some PDF data into Excel now you can see the PDF document which I’m looking to convert from PD PDF to excel so this particular PDF document has a table so this is the statewise GST collections that happened during March of 2020 now we need to convert this tabula data from PDF format to excel format now we are on the Microsoft Excel now to initiate the process we might want to choose a blank workbook for this so now we are on the blank workbook and the complete sheet is empty now let’s go into the data option in the toolbar and in the data option of the toolbar we have the ribbon of get and transform data in this ribbon you can see get data option select that and you can see various options here from file from database from Azure from other sources Etc now we need the first option that is from file and in that we have a drop- down and in that drop down you might to select the PDF if you have a Json file you can also choose from a Json and if you have the data from XML you can choose that and even you can extract the data from text or CSV as well now we need the PDF option so select the PDF Now navigate where your file is existing so my file is on the desktop and now let me select the PDF document select import now Excel will automatically analyze the tab data in the PDF format and give you the results now according to excel there are multiple table formats table one table two so basically this table is one and the same so all the 29 states are fixed in one table itself but since the PDF is divided in sheets this particular document is considering the first table as a separate table and the table which is present in the third page as a separate table so we have table one table to and there are a few more tables which Excel is assuming that it might be table but it’s not and another table which is page number 002 it is a table and another one is right here now there is an option of selecting all the tables all together at once or you can select only one table which you want to select so if you select multiple items Excel will automatically give you an option of choosing your tables you can just take and select the tables you want or you can directly select the table you want on your Excel sheet so right now let’s try to select multiple tables so I’ll be selecting 1 2 4 and five and this particular one is not a table so I’m eliminating that now you might want to choose the load option so Excel is now loading the data now all the data has been successfully loaded now yeah it is giving us a notification that all the data has been successfully loaded and now just right click on it and here choose the option load to and here select table option and if you want the data to be uh you know loaded to a new worksheet you can choose that and select okay now you can see all the data is been successfully loaded in the form of tabula format in the new Excel sheet similarly let’s try to load another page in the table format new worksheet select okay and the third sheet now get ready to impress your boss by converting all the PDF data into Excel sheet just in a matter of few seconds with few steps and there you go all the four tables have been loaded successfully in the form of excel in just a few steps now this is how you convert PDF to excel that is how to add tick mark in Excel now on my spreadsheet you can see some employee data so they’ve been assigned a task and they want to update the task status as done and not done using symbolic statements that is tick mark and into marks now how to do that it is really simple we’ll discuss two different ways the first way is to do it by conditional formatting so click a sell on the task status go to conditional formatting click on the new rule yes of course we can use the icon settings but we want to automate it so click on the new rule right so here instead of two color scale select icon sets now go to the settings here we don’t want the third set sy so select no cell icon and here instead of percentage number formula let’s add just a simple number and the second one as well just a simple number now in the icon settings select tich Mark you have various types of them you know the circular Tech Mark and let’s select the generic tick mark without any outer circles and into here generic X Mark and now let’s set the values when the value is greater than zero it will be green and when the value is less than or equal to zero it will will be X and the reference value is zero and here also the reference value is zero everything is okay click on okay and done and here you cannot see the logos yet we need to add some formula here which is equals to if click on Tab to select the symbol and if Cell address C2 is equals to done then the value should be one else the value should be zero close the bracket enter right now you can see this particular logo here now drag the same formula it’s done now you can see we do have numbers you can eliminate those numbers as well just edit the rules and here you can see show icon only click okay and the numbers will be removed also edit the second one and there you go the numbers are gone and only the symbols remain now what is the second technique the second technique is available in the developer options you can activated by you know uh going into the options here go to file and here go to options and here go to Advanced customized ribon and in here on the right hand side you will get developer options click on the tick box and it will be enabled now go into developer options and click into insert menu click on the form controls or active X controls select the checkbox and now just place it over here you know you can edit this particular checkbox delete everything drag it as checkbox as well now you can drag the same cell across all the functions and you will have the checkbox as well now you can click on it and say if it’s done or not that is how to add Watermark to excel now on my sheet you can see some data so here we wanted to add some Watermark logo to your uh Excel spreadsheet so that it looks genu and work by you right so that’s the overall idea of adding a watermark now go to the insert window and in the insert window go to the text option click on that select header and footer once you select header and footer you can see something on your screen like this so in this box which is highlighted by a cursor is where you’re going to add the picture on my top in the menu bar you can see header and footer elements in this select the picture element and it will navigate to you to a different option window since we are adding the image from our local system select from file or if you are adding from your Bing or any search window you can also add that or one drive as well but now let’s go with from file it will directly navigate you to the pictures folder in your local system so here is my SARS logo click on it and select insert now you can see the images added in this format which is ENT and picture and you might wonder where is the picture it is actually present to view it click on any cell in the spreadsheet and there you go you can see it now you might be wondering the image is a little towards top and abnormally placed right so no worries you can always you know format your picture just press enter and use enter to move your picture towards the center of your data spreadsheet and also there is another option of format picture alog together here you can adjust the height and width of your image by you know increasing and decreasing width or increasing and decreasing height using the arrow marks also works and apart from this there is another option of picture formatting where you can choose your image to be washing out black and white gray scale or anything so currently I’m going with automatic which will automatically adjust the brightness and you know everything for your image it looks perfectly fine so click on okay and there you go right so now this should be fine right now everything is done and everything is automatically saved if you are having that auto save option on your spreadsheet and let’s go back to the normal view from the header and footer view click on The View and go to normal you might be confused right where is the logo it vanish did I had to save it no it’s already saved everything is fine even the image is there but you cannot see it in normal view to see it click on file click on print then you can see the logo it will be present only on the printed Pages not on the normal view okay so that’s how you work with watermarks in Excel and that’s how you can add and customize your watermarks using Excel how to modify or increase cell size in Excel now most of you might probably want to increase just the cell SI you know just to increase the visibility of the text so one of the easiest way is just to press on the plus icon on the bottom right corner of your Excel spreadsheet so this will automatically I Ally increase the text size and you can see the text more clearly now apart from that if it’s just not that what you want to do you can also modify by hovering over to the line between two columns and right click which will give you the option of format cells or column width so either of these options will help you to maximize or minimize your column width similarly you can apply the same idea for your rows as well so you can either format the cells or modify the row height of your cell and this is another way and another simple way is to just hold that line and drag it so it improves your width of the column and another way is to just over onto that line and hold it and drag it to improvise or increase your width of the cell and same applies to your row so this is another way so apart from that there is another way that is format cells from this particular option in the home button you can select this and here you have the row height autofit row height column width autofit column width for example let us imagine that you wanted to you know just by mistake you U you increase the sell size and you wanted to restore it back to the original thing right so you can just click on the autoit height and click on the autoit column width there you go it happens in that way and now coming back to another s way let us imagine that you are given a lot of data and you are told to autoit all the rows and columns now we have already seen the format cell option where you will autof fit all the columns and width of the column and also the height of the rows Etc right but there is also a keyboard shortcut to do this so all you have to do is select a cell and press CR a to select all the cells in the spreadsheet and once all the cells are selected all you have to do is press hold ALT key and then release it then the combination of keys that is h o i so your column width has been now adjusted now the same formula or the same shortcut key with a small modification press and hold and release ALT key now h o and a to adjust the row height so this is the way where you can increase or decrease or modify or autofit all the cells in Excel now you can see that we have the First Column that is a column and the first set of that is text and all the other cells are numbers but as a whole Excel considers the whole column as a general data format so why are we discussing about this so to create a barcode in Excel you have to make sure that all the elements in the column are of Text data type so the first step is to convert this General data type to Text data type so you can do that by going into the data type and selecting text and now all the elements in your first column A are type text now the next step is to convert these elements into barcode now for that let’s create a new column called barcode now our new column that is barcode has been created now the next step would be is to check for the barcode font so the barcode font looks something like this but let me remind you the barcode font in Excel is not available by default don’t worry if it’s not available we can download it from open source so let’s go back to Google so on the Google you want to search uh for barcode font for Excel so the one that I would recommend is three of9 barcode font now you can download this font by just clicking on the download button over here now I’ve already downloaded this font on my local system let’s now try to install that now the three of9 barcode folder will come in the form of zip folder you have to unzip that and after unzipping you’ll get the setup file which looks something like this which is three of9 new select that that and you’ll be having the installer file over here you can install by selecting the install button over here so I have already installed it in my local system so it is readily available for me on my Microsoft Excel now we might want to create the barcode for this particular cell in A2 so let’s create that so to create a barcode we need to write in a formula that is equals to double codes star double codes and ENT symbol address of the cell that is A2 another erson symbol again double codes star symbol and double codes so you can either use this or instead of star you can use brackets as well so let’s try brackets now select enter now this will generate another type of code in your resultant cell now we will change the font for this particular resultant cell and we will get our barcode now you can just drag all the cells so that you can apply the formula to all the codes now I got all the codes over here now select all the cells get into the fonts and here select the barcode font and there you go you have the barcode for all the numbers you have in your column A so that’s how you create barcode in Excel Excel flashfill is a feature of Microsoft Excel where Excel can sense a pattern in a cell and apply the same logic to extract the similar resultant pattern out of the remaining cells in a table might be a little confusing right so let us simplify it so let us imagine that you have a text in one of the cells in the Excel sheet and you want it to trim a part of that text for example let us imagine that there is an assembly an assembly where the car parts are assembled together to finish a car so each and every part has a code the serial number the product code and the code Etc right and you wanted to separate all those three if you wanted to do that you might want to use the trim function which might be a little tedious to apply to all the cells but what if if I say there is a simple key format using which you can fill all the columns in the Excel sheet within a fraction of second sounds interesting right so that’s exactly the flashfill function in Excel does now before we get started let me tell you guys that we have daily updates on multiple Technologies if you’re a tech geek in a continuous hunt for latest technological Trends then consider getting subscribed to our YouTube channel and don’t forget to hit that Bell icon to never miss an update from Simply now without further Ado let’s get started with the Flash Fill in Excel for that we might want to start the Excel to get in the Practical mode now we are on the Microsoft Excel and remember the example we discussed so this is a similar example now the first column in the sheet is the product detail so this product detail consists of the product code that is 112 next we have the product serial number that is 1 025 637 and lastly the assembly code that is as snx now we want to separate this product detail into three columns where we have the First Column to be storing the product code second one to be storing the product serial number and the last one to be storing the assembly code so now if you want to do that using trim function you might want to apply the trim function here and trim out the left part and again for the product serial number you might want to use certain function again which might go into a little complicated pattern So to avoid the complications and and decrease the time spent we might want to use the Flash Fill in Excel now let us help Excel about the pattern that we might want to generate so the pattern is one12 and the next one is 322 so now you can see that the text was highlighted that was the intimation from the Excel that it understood the pattern now going into the NEX Cel and holding the control key and pressing the e button will help us to fill the remaining cells in the column B so that’s how it is done and similarly let’s try out for the serial number for that the serial number is one2 5 637 now in the next cell we have 13 6582 now we can go to the third cell and press CR e for Windows and if you’re using a Mac operating system then you have to press command e and all the serial numbers will be filled so this will reduce the time in separating the pattern and filling the columns now let’s try the last column that is as SX which happens to the assembly code next we have FG and V now the shortcut method that is contr e and there you go now you might be wondering will it work only for numbers etc etc or the text which is properly aligned or separated using a hyphen no it can also be used for some random text which is like this so let us imagine that we have a text which is of length like 20 or 30 and you wanted to print only a part of it so here I’m going to print the alphabets from position fourth to position 8th so I’ve already tried the first one that is taking out the alphabets from fourth location to the eighth location or the pattern of the text that is i f e from Jennifer Lopez and in the next cell we have the numbers starting from the location 4 to 8 so that is 7767 and similarly we have the other cells consisting of the names of few cars that is Alpha Romeo Bugatti Von and next we have Superman Returns text so now let’s press the shortcut key that is contr e and make sure that all the remaining cells are filled so that’s how the Flash Fill works so the Flash Fill in Excel will reduce the time consumed to fill all the columns by separating the text in your main cell that is the column A which we have here in this example and it also reduces the complexity of using a trim function in Excel as hyperlinks in Excel now hyperlink is something which is clickable and when you click on it it will redirect you to a different web page to a different worksheet or a different location in your local system so there are a variety of options and we will explore all of them using Excel now creating a hyperlink is really simple we have multiple ways now let’s write some text on the Excel worksheet I’ll write Simply longan Now creating a hyperlink is really simple you have multiple ways the first simplest shortcut is clicking on the cell where you want to place the hyperlink and holding control key and pressing K now this will enable the hyperlink menu box or the dialog box this is the first way and let me close it now again we have selected the cell there is another option where you have to click on the insert menu on the toolbar and navigate to Links group click on the link option and you will again have the dialog box of the hyperlink and Excel and the Third Way is right click on the cell and you can see the link option in the last and this will enable the hyperlink option in Excel now let’s create a hyperlink the simplest way again control K now we have a variety of options that is existing file or web page place in this document create a new document and an email address so we will address all of these one at each time so first one existing file or a web page now you can select an existing PDF file or any file in your local system and hyperlink or create a hyperlink to the text or you can select a website link and place it over here and create it as a hyperlink Let’s uh explore both the options first let’s try to explore the web page option so since I’ve have written as simply learn let’s use the website link of Simply learn and create a hyperlink let me open Google new tab and let me type simply learn.com let me copy the hyperlink and now let’s get back to the Excel workbook now here let’s place the hyperlink now you can press okay and there you go the hyperlink has been successfully created now this link is clickable when you click on it it will redirect you to a new simply learns home web page right so this is how you create a hyperlink to a website now we shall explore another option that is using an existing file right let’s create a new text box here let’s name it as existing file and okay existing file should be good again the same you can either click uh you know right click and select hyperlink or control ke now let’s select existing file or web page option now here you can see navigate key press on that and let’s navigate our files let’s select all files you here remember to select all files okay by default it shows as office files now let’s explore our file option so let’s select uh fundamentals of computer programming option which is a PDF file press okay and there you go we have created a hyperlink so when I click on this you can directly navigate to an existing PDF file in your local system and it will be open as a web page click on it and you can see the PDF file now close now another thing when you navigate on to this you’ll see the lengthier HTTP uh address and same happens here right so if you’re a little uncomfortable watching this lengthier link you can also edit it you can choose the option of edit hyperlink and see the screen dip option click on it and here you can change the text display option and write it as click here to know more press okay again press okay and now if you navigate onto it instead of seeing a lenia hyper link what you can see is click here to know more okay I think I made a spelling mistake so I think I forgot an e somewhere over here yes click here to know more and press okay right so here you can see click here to know more let’s try this again over here so edit edit hyperlink screen tap option and instead of the lender text box or hyperlink you can write as click to open notes or PDF click okay and click another okay and you are done so instead of seeing that lengthier hyperlink you can see click here to open PDF right so so far we have explored two options that is existing file and existing web page right now let’s try to explore another option again uh hyper link right click hyperlink and here you have seen places in document all right so which is like uh okay let me show this to you instead of telling you so here what it is doing is you have the cell A5 and you want it to refer to A1 or any other cell in the same worksheet so you can do that right so now for your reference let me cancel it and let me create a new sheet and here navigate me to here right let me write as navigate me to here okay so now what we will do is so here we will create that navigate link from using the hyp link option place this in this document you can see the sheet to option and the cell reference is A1 where we have written navigate me to here so when I click this A5 cell okay let me also rename it write it as navigate cell navigating cell right now create that control K let me select sheet two and the S address is A1 press okay now what did uh what What’s the change right when you click on this you will be redirected to sheet to cell A1 navigate me to here right so this can be like a shortcut when you have multiple sheets like 100 sheets then you can uh you know have a a different column over here and uh add the navigation address to all those cell links you can just click on that cell and go into the different sheet and to the specific cell which you have given the address in our case I have given sheet to address cell A1 right so this is another trick now let’s get back to the hyperlink thing again uh control K and another option is create new document so you might have been through you know option of uh having what’s say some cheat sheets or uh clip on clip boats right so uh let us imagine that you’re working through uh a huge worksheet and uh you wanted to you know uh have a a track of everything and keep notes updating right so it might be a little complicated to understand so let me show it practically so let me write it down as clipboard or sticky note right okay I think this has a hyper letter us okay this can be used no worries back to uh hyperlink option again create new document now here you can create a variety of uh documents right so it can be a text document it can be an Excel doc document it can be a PDF document right for now we’ll create a text document okay uh we’ll name it as uh tracker. txt so this should create as a text document and the location can be anything so you can you know uh take it as a desktop documents download so let me take documents here and select okay so I’ll be having the tracker. txt located in the documents folder and uh you can also choose to edit the document later or edit the document now let us select edit the document now press okay and there you go so you have your text tracker here so let us imagine that we have worked on the Excel sheet and we wanted to write on us a sticky note uh so that we can remember what we have done on the Excel sheet so update one and uh update two now you can close it so ask for a save option save it and done and let us imagine that you did something else and you also updated something else on the sticky note I mean Excel sheet and you wanted to update that on your sticky note so click on it and you’ll see a minor notice over here from Microsoft Excel based on potential security concerns you can select yes and you’ll be having access to your text document again and write down your update again here update three what you have written right the latest update what you have and you can save it and close so that’s how you keep track of your sticky note and you’ll have all your updates right now getting back to the hyperlinks again uh the last one is email address so you can also try to add uh okay let’s imagine that you’re working with a colleague and every time you make an update in your Excel sheet or anything and you wanted to send him out an email right so it would be a little timec consuming that you open your email and uh compose something and send it over here but what if you had a one single click and access to the email compose option right that can be done so let us write down email c b me with the spelling so again the control K and hyperlink select email option and you can write down your email which can be anything so you can write down your friend’s email address so I’m just writing down some random email here friend gmail.com and can write the subject about update and press okay this will navigate you to the Gmail option or the mailing address options click on it and you’ll have a variety of mailing options Outlook Office 365 Yahoo iCloud Google Etc so you can select any one of those since we have written as gmail.com we’ll navigate to Gmail and all you have to do is login you know all the formalities and you’re good to go with emailing so let’s skip this for now so you you know how to do the rest parts so so far we have uh you know covered all the hyperlink options in Excel that is existing file or a web page place this in the current executing worksheet or document creating a new document for your update thing and uh also including the email right so so far we have covered everything around hyperlink and Excel and if you have anything to know more about or if you feel that we have missed out anything important regarding hyperlink in Excel you can feel free to let us know round by formula in Excel now for this particular tutorial we will be using the student data set now let’s get back to the Practical mode and start our Microsoft Excel now we are in the Microsoft Excel and as you can see on my sheet okay let me expand this so as you can see on my screen we have the data set belonging to students so we have 10 students and every one of them has name role number class blood group and marks Etc and at the end we have the percentage and as you can see we have the percentage in terms of float values and we have a lot of decimal values like eight and above so what if you wanted to just have one or two digits after the actual percentage like 80.6 or 8.66 right it would be a little bit more or good to read right so that’s what a roundoff actually means so now let’s work on having rounded off values for the percentage now let’s create a new column let’s name it as um round of percentage great so to actually perform the roundoff uh formula we do have a pre method for that for that you just have to type in equals to round and there you go we have round up and round down so both of them perform the same operation let’s select a round up and this is the m column and the row number is three so we’ll have to press M3 and the number of values after the decimal point for now let’s select um one and there you go press enter and the value should be rounded off now 80. 66 is being rounded off to 80.7 now when you drag the cell to the all the rules then you can see all the values will be rounded off here you can see 75.1 16 has been rounded off to 75.2 and 82.3 3 has been rounded off to 82.4 so we end up with having rounded off so first we will understand what exactly is standard deviation so standard deviation is a calculated square of variance now what is variance okay nothing to worry let us also understand what is variance now the next part variance so what is variance variance is a measure of variability it is calculated by taking the average of squared deviation from the mean now what are deviations so slowly you can understand that we’re getting into the topic of statistics and graphs so uh before getting deep into it let’s understand what is deviation so the deviation is a measure that is used to find the difference between the observed value and the expected value of a variable in simple terms deviation is the distance from the center point so for example when you are going through a graph so you will be expecting some value right and if you get some difference that is above or below the expected point that is called the devision what is the difference between the expected point and the obtained point so that is the deviation now next is the observed value so the observed value is the value that you get in real time unlike the predicted value so now you might be thinking to calculate standard deviation we might need a few more parameters and you’re exactly right so to calculate standard deviation in Excel you need variance and then you need deviation and then you need mean right so all these parameters are supposed to be calculated first and then you will be having the final formula to calculate standard TV now that we understood the theoretical and formula based explanation about standard deviation it’s time we calculate the standard deviation using one of the most popular business intelligence tool that is Microsoft Excel so let’s get back to the Practical mode so now we are on the Practical mode and we have some sample data on my screen right now let me expand it a little bit yeah there you go so as discussed before to calculate standard deviation we might require the mean variance deviation and deviation squared and then we can calculate the standard deviation so let’s go step by step so the first one is calculating sum right right so to calculate average we might need some of all the scores so we have the index values that is 1 to 10 and scores of each index value that is 1 to 10 right now let’s calculate the sum of all values here press tab to select the function select and drag these cells press enter and then you have the scores now you want number of indexes so clearly you can see we have 10 but still let’s count them C N tab space to select and and select the number of cells press enter and you have count now what’s the mean so mean is simply the average of all the numbers right so you can either divide the sum by count or you can simply use the average function so let’s try to use the average function so that we also have an idea of how the average function Works press tab to selected and select all the cells press enter now you have the average or mean value now we have the mean value and now after finding the mean value we are supposed to find out the deviation so remember the deviation that is the difference between the obtained value and the predicted value right so the obtained value is this one which is here in C2 and the predicted value is this one that is 82.6 that’s our mean right according to formula we supposed to eliminate the value of obtained minus the mean right so select uh the cell equals to C2 minus the obtained value that is mean now press F4 to freeze the value and now press enter so that you can freeze the value and drag the formula across all the sets now you have the deviation right now the next step is to find the sum of all the deviation numbers so either you can apply the sum formula to all these numbers or you can just drag this cell over here and the formula will be automatically copied now similarly the count function to count all the values that us drag it and you’ll have it over here right now the next step is to find out the square deviations or the square of the deviations which is really simple all you have to do is equals to select the cell and uh see that small hat kind of logo on the number six use that now into two press enter you have the square similarly drag the same formula across all the cells and you’ll have your squared numbers similarly drag this summation function over here so you’ll have the sum of this and the count number as well now comes the final formula now we have the mean value that is over here let’s color it and we have the variation Square now that is which is this one let’s color it in a different shape and we have deviation as well let’s color it in a different shap now we need to find the variance and after we find the variance the last step is to count the standard deviation or calculate the standard deviation so what is the formula to calculate the variance so for variance you need the sum of deviation Square divided by total number of values minus 1 press enter and that’s your variance now the standard deviation so the standard deviation is really simple you need to calculate the variance to the power of5 and that’s your standard deviation so that’s how you calculate standard deviation in Excel I hope all the formulas and the explanation was clear so you can see that we have got started with Microsoft Excel and on the left hand side we have a simple table with all the teams in an IT industry starting from it admin testing development to client consultant support we have got everything in this particular table now our main idea is to find out the index of these particular elements for example if you wanted to find the index of the element marketing then how could you do it so here let’s try to use the match function in Excel for that we want look up value and position so on the right hand side you can see that I’ve created two separate columns as lookup value and positions so in the lookup value column we will be inserting the value of which you want to find the index now for example let us consider that we want find the index value of Team marketing so I’ll be writing Marketing in this particular lookup value now how to find the index value of the element marketing for that we will be using the match function in Excel now after writing the match function you can see that it is asking for three different parameters so the first one is the lookup value second is the lookup array and lastly we have match type so lookup value is the value of which you are trying to find the index that is marketing this particular cell so we have selected the lookup value which is the first one next we have to select the lookup array that is from which set of elements you want to find the index so the set of elements are this it admin testing the column which we have created the the a column now we have selected the lookup array and lastly the match type is it you’re looking for less than or is it you’re looking for exact match or is it greater than match so for now I want exact match so I will be selecting the exact match that is zero now there you go you have the exact index of the element that is five now we have selected all the 10 teams starting from it1 admin 2 testing three development for marketing five so that’s how you find the index of a selected element in Excel now we just have like 10 elements so we have got the uh writing of the elements or you know uh choosing the elements in a easy way but what if if you had like 100 elements right could be a little different okay so let me put it simple now you wanted to find the the index value of Finance so right now we have marketing and you wanted to type in finance and you missed out a letter A okay now you’re not finding the right index to avoid such problems you can always take the help of data validation in Excel that is using the list in data validation in Excel you can see a small drop- down icon here right you can choose that and here you can see all the tees that we have created in the left column right so here I can scroll down and choose the finance and there you go I have the index value okay again we need to copy paste the same match function in Excel over here equals to match look up value look up array and exact match so there you go that’s how you make use of data validation in Excel and using the list you can comprehend all the list elements in this particular column into the list of data validation and you can choose the team whichever you want to find the index for so this is how you can make use of match function in Excel or index match function in Excel to sort data in Excel so on my spread sheeet you can see some employee data and on the column f and g you can see employee date of birth and employee date of joining for example you wanted to sort the employee data in the form of earliest joining employee and the latest joining employee right that is who is the employee who joined first to this company and who is the employee who joined last to this company so for that you just need to select the column of date so let’s select both the columns and go to home and check or verify if the data type is date or not so generally the data type will be set to General by default by Excel so we need to make sure that we have the proper data type which is State now that we have the proper data type select the entire column and go to the data option and here select the sort option and in the sort option select the expand selection click on sort and here sort by employee data joining and oldest to newest that’s what we wanted the oldest employee or the you can also set it to the newest employee to oldest according to your requirement but we’ll go to oldest to newest according to the case study right now just click on okay and that should be done so Emily who’s a manager is the oldest employee who joined the company and Chris who is A traine in it support is the latest employee who joined the company now that’s how you sort date in now on my screen you can see the sales of four quarters from different regions that is east west south north and Central now you might want to calculate the sum of sales happened from all the regions in q1 or you might want to calculate the sum of sales happened in one region of all the four quarters that is either you want to calculate the sum of all the regions from quarter 1 or you might want to calculate the sum of all the quarters in one region right so to do this you have some simple functions in Excel so you might say me you have some function Etc right
for that you might want to go into the you know equals to mode and fetch some option and subtotal or some you have to select the function from here but what if I tell you that there is one simple easy shortcut where you just have to make one single click and you’ll have all the Su right so that seems interesting so on the top in the home bar select home and in on the top right corner you have the editing group in editing group you have aggregation function that is summation so you have different aggregations here some average count numbers maximum minimum more functions here you might want to select the sum and you can get all the sumission numbers here so I’ll select one cell so the second query where we wanted to calculate the sum of all the sales happened in each region with all the quarters included that is this one C2 to F2 right so let us select G2 and select the auto sum option and here it will automatically select the range for you that is C2 to FS2 if you want to change it can also you know change it like minimize the number if you just wanted to calculate the sum of three quarters you can do that so now we want four quarters so select enter and there you go you have all the sales of all the four quarters of each east region now if you simply drag it you will have the sum of all the four quarters of all different regions now let us calculate the summation of q1 of all the regions that is this one Select Auto Sun and it will automatically select all the cells for you that is from C2 to C6 right press enter and you’ll have the summation similarly you can you know drag it and you have the numbers here of all the Q2 sales of all the regions Q3 sales of all region and Q4 sales of all region now let us try to change the color that you can have a reference that is it’s different it’s it’s a total sum or right you just have a reference to identify it now similarly to this one as well so that’s how you implement Auto sum in Excel now we are on the Excel spreadsheet so you can see that I have five different sheets of the same data so why do we have that so I’ll be explaining you how to sort data for multiple parameters so firstly we will try to sort data in the form of numbers right so let us imagine that this data is being shared with you by your manager and he wants you to sort this data based on the salary numbers so so he wants you to arrange the data in the form of ascending order or descending order maybe which will help him find the employee with the highest salary right so how could you do that so it’s really simple you could sort the entire data just within a few clicks so how would you do that so since you’re focusing on salary select any sell from the salary column only right select this particular column and select any sell in the salary column get into the s filter options and here select this sort of arrangement you need that is largest to smallest or the smallest to largest since the problem statement was to find the highest salary click on largest to smallest and there you go so you have Tony and the designation is senior and he works in it support and he draws the highest salary of 80,000 right and there’s also another one which is Peppa and she works for the analytics team and now the next sheet let’s get into the sheet two and this time let us imagine that you wanted to you know uh arrange or sort the data based on the employe date of joining or date of birth right again if you wanted to arrange the data in which you find the youngest employee or the oldest employee of the organization you can do that click on any cell in the date of birth column and go back to the sort and filter and here you will be seeing the options sort oldest to the newest or the sort the data from newest to the oldest so since we want the oldest employee select oldest to newest and there you go so the oldest employee is Alfred who is an associate designation employee and he works in the admin department and he’s drawing the salary of 25,000 so that’s how you can sort the data when you are trying to sort the data based on date wise so first we try to sort the data on the number wise so you can apply the same for your employee ID salary and if there is any possibility you can do that as well and if you want to apply the same sorting based on dates you can do that as well using the Sorting function in the same way now let’s get back onto the third sheet and here now uh single column wise is perfectly fine there is no issues with that now you want it to you know uh let us imagine that you have two columns okay let’s eliminate a few columns here maybe we can eliminate the employee ID and uh okay let’s keep a few columns so we’ll just keep employee name and employee salary okay so here we are trying to demonstrate if you are uh trying to sort the data using one cell in the column B will it maintain its relationship with the cell a okay uh that’s our query right so let’s see I’ll go a little detail so let us imagine that you wanted to sort this data based on highest salary okay so when you do that will it also impact the cells in the column A so it will basically impact but just uh it’s a query right any of you viewers might have that query will I uh if in case if I try to sort the data based on this will it affect the cells on the rest of the data set okay so in basically it will impact so I’ll try to you know sort the data based on ascending order so this is the smallest to largest and you can see uh the Tony and pepper so since I selected the cell in the column B it also impacted the change on the cells of column A so that’s how the Sorting works now we’ll get to a little Advanced um sorting techniques so here we try to I mean already we try to sort the data based on numbers based on alphabets based on U you know uh date date of birth right so I think we forgot the uh ascending or you know sorting based on alphabets let’s do that as well select any um cell in the column A and go to S filter try selecting a to z or okay let’s try to Z to A okay so here you can see the U names have been sorted based on the descending order from Zed to a right so so far we tried on alphabets so far we tried on numbers date of birth and a couple of more things so let’s dig a little deeper and try to sort based on colors right so for that you don’t uh you know find that uh extra setting here in the regular sortant filter so you might want to get into the data option and here you’ll find another sort function which is a little advaned so that’s how you do it so since we have colored in the cell or column of salary select that salary and we’re going with cell value so in the cell values section select the cell color and and here on the cell color options you’ll have green blue and yellow that’s what we have used in our um cells so let’s keep Green in the first position which is on top and press okay now you’ll see green has been sorted to the first position now yellow and blue are left out so why is that so because you didn’t provide it right so you can do what that as well I mean you can always add uh the setting to it right select any cell go to sort and and add a level and then again select the salary and sell values to cell colors and now the cell color in the second position would be blue and that will be on bottom and I can add another level the same salary the cell values will be cell color and uh cell yellow will be somewhere in between or bottom okay so based on hierarch key uh it will be selecting press okay and there you go so you have sell yellow and blue at the bottom and green at the top position as for your suggestions now we are on the last sheet so here in this last sheet we are going to you know um dig a little deeper into the advanced sorting methods so previously we tried to apply the advanc Sorting methods for colors now we’ll try to apply the advanced sorting methods based on the data set we have here I mean the data we have in our data set right so select the sort option and let’s add a few details right so firstly let’s sort the column employee ID okay so let’s have the smallest to largest or yeah now that would be good now let’s add another level where we will sort okay uh I think we will sort based on employee name that would be a little better so let’s try to uh sort it on employee name here and here will be employee salary okay now the sell values and this would be from a to zed and the salaries will be from smallest to largest so basically what we are trying to do is we are trying to sort the employee list based on employee names from A to Z so the employees name starting from a to zed will be ordered first and another subset of the Sorting will be done based on highest salaries that is smallest to highest so let us imagine that we have three employees with Nam starting from a and their salaries are 10,000 20,000 and 30,000 so how would it sort so it will sort basically uh in the alphabetical order first so first three names will be sorted and then it will also have another condition to sort the data we keeping the lowest salary on top and highest salary in the last right so uh this is how the algorithm works for sorting now let’s press okay and see the output so there you go the names are Alfred and you have the highest salary here smallest to highest so this is 25,000 next we have Banner Barnes and Ben so here you might be seeing why we have Ben in the third position despite he has a low salary and name starts with B right so here it is trying to work based on the alphabets in the order right so B A and B E it’s not just comparing the first letter it’s also comparing the following letters as well right so n comes first R comes later so B is pushed to the second position a comes first and E comes later so B A letters r pushed to the first position and Ben is pushed to the third position so that’s how it works right so accordingly the set for BA is created here 3540 next Ben 12 and next you have Bobby Brian Brock Chris clar right so that’s how the data has been organized and sorted based on multiple levels of parameters you provide for sorting so that’s how you use sorting in Excel slicers and filters in Excel so slicers in Excel are software filters used along with Excel tables or Excel pivot tables over a large amount of data not just filtering out data but slices also help you with an easy understanding of the information being extracted and displayed on the screen now Microsoft Excel slices are compatible with Windows and Mac and tou operating systems now let us understand how to implement slicers in Excel so for that we might want to get back to the Practical mode that is starting our Microsoft Excel now we are on our Excel sheet and as you can see on my screen there is some data available on the Excel spreadsheet and this table is not just any table this table from Microsoft Excel is been converted into an actual table as you know by default Excel considers all the data which has been inserted into the spreadsheet as a database and to implement this sense in Excel we might want to create or convert the format of database into a normal table for that you can select all your data and just press contrl T and that will allow you an option called convert the data into table now since this table is is already converted as a table we can directly start implementing or inserting slices into the spreadsheet now for that select all your data then going to the insert option and in the insert ribbon you can see the filters group and in the filters group select the option called slicer now you will be provided with multiple options since we have the columns employee ID employee name Zone designation Department salary employees date of birth and employees date of joining so we can choose any of the options available according to our columns and create the slices now let me select the first one that is Zone next designation department and let’s also select employee name now press okay and there you go we have our slices now let us try to rearrange these slices all you can do is just select and drag them up and done now let us imagine that we want to see or take a look at the employees who are working in the Easter Zone then we have all the information displayed on the screen who are working in the East Zone they are Jack Tony bner Fred Etc and their Department designation etc etc all on one single screen so this really helps you while you’re presenting your data in a presentation now for a change let’s try to select the department now if your client wants to select the data from only analytics Department then you might want to select on the analytics key on the department SL ISO and there you go you have an employee called Luke hops who works in the East Zone and his department is analytics and his designation is contract based and the salary he is getting is 65,000 now similarly uh you can see that we have only selected analytics and your client also wants data from itop now you can see that analytics is gone but what if you want both analytics and it support then you have an option called select multiple then you can select analytics and it support and if you want HR you can also do that and in the zone if you want West along with East then you can do the same east and west and you have all the employee details and in the designation let’s try to select U senior traine okay select multiple senior traine and manager so that’s how you do it so that’s how it’s done and that’s how you implement slicers in Excel to simplify the filtering options using slicers during a presentation it is really simple to add filters in Excel so we are on a practical mode right now so on my screen you can see an Excel spreadsheet of sales data so here you have various columns regions category state subcategory sales quantity and much more right so now let us imagine that we want to add filters on the region part so we have south west east Etc right so we want to you know let us imagine that you want to extract the data of only vest region and you wanted a filter so doing it manually could take a lot of time so using filters will be helpful now select one cell on the headers part and select the filter option in the data toolbar you can see the data option on the toolbar right so click on the data option and navigate to sort and filter uh group and in that select the option of filter now you can see the filters are been added to all the column headers region category state subcategory sales quantity right now we wanted the West category so when you see or when you click on the drop down icon you can see all the options are selected right the central east west south every everything right but now we just want West one so click on West and select okay there you go so you have everything from the west region now let’s imagine that you wanted to look into uh office supplies only or technology only right you can do the same with the technology ology and press okay and now you’ll have all the technology related sales in the west region right so that’s how you use filters in Excel or that’s how you add filters in Excel goalseek in Excel so for this tutorial we’ll be considering the students database now let’s get back to the Excel so now we are on the Excel sheet and you can see that in this particular Excel sheet we have some student details we have the serial numbers names role numbers class blood group and some subjects like math math science computer statistics social GK and the final marks obtained percentage and total marks right so let us imagine that uh a company has come for an interview so all these students are going to attend an interview and uh the minimum percentage to attend the interview will be like 75% so you can see that we have 75 here and all the students have got above 75 except for the one student which is Mike right so for Mike to attend the interview he needs 75 percentage or above so uh he can make some modifications in one of these subjects right so there is always an exam after the exam called as Improvement exam so if you can like to score some extra marks in the subjects which you have scored less so that you can make up to the percentage what you’re expecting you can do that so here in this particular sheet uh Mike has six subjects right and in subjects you can see he has scored 76 91 45 71 94 and 62 so out of these he have scored Less in one subject compared to all the subjects one subject is really low that is computers so what if he can give an improvement exam and increase his percentage to 75 right so that can be done so we can do some root Force methods like we can change the marks like 55 and then check this particular one so it’s getting 74 right so using the brute force method will be a little bit lengthy so you can do this because it is just a small uh table which has least number of data and you just have one single cell to modify so that can be done in small tables but what if you had some table with hundreds of rows or thousands of rows that’ll be time consuming right so for that we have some inbuilt functionality in Excel that is called goal seek in Excel so for now let’s eliminate the marks here so we have eliminated the marks and the upgraded percentage is 65 now we need the target as 75 okay so let’s uh write it as Mike’s Target right we need mic so mik new Target as 75 okay now to make sure that we need a Mark here which can get mic to 75 percentage we will use the data operation so here on the toolbar which has file home insert Etc we have one other option called as data so when you click on data from toolbar you’ll have the ribbon and in this ribbon we have various options so when you come into forecast group we have an option called what if analysis when you click on wtif analysis you’ll have a set of options out of which we have goal seek now for goal seek we need to select a table cell that is this particular table cell that is M9 so we need the value 75 here right so what is the cell that you need to change here for that you need to select this one and select this particular cell here right and now you can select okay now you can see that Excel has automatically run all the permutations and combinations and has come up with a number so that the overall percentage of mic will be 75% right so the expected marks that Mike should be getting in his computer’s Improvement exam should be equal to 56 or greater than 56 to get the the final Target at 75 so that he can attend the company’s interview so this is how we use goal set or goal seek in Excel we are on our Excel spreadsheet and here you can see I’m trying to create an calendar for the employees in the company where you might have to you know write down the day and month and year or week of your birth date or maybe your joining date or maybe also your last working day right this might be useful for all the employees to you know uh avoid them from writing it down manually so how do I create it so it takes a few simple steps all it takes is some data validation methods and also there is an exclusive video specifically made on data validation in Excel link to which is in the description box below or you can search it on our official YouTube channel now you can see that uh the word calendar is on the first cell that is A1 but we have four cells below it that is A3 B3 C3 and D3 so you might want to add this to all the cells right like may be in the middle so for that you can do the option of mergin Center also there is a tutorial on mergin Center about all the options available in this particular thing so you can go through that also and uh yeah we have done the first step now all we need is day month year and week so in a calendar or in a month you’ll have days from 28 29 30 or 31 days right so let’s create a list or the drop down menu for that so that whenever you click it right so whenever you click on that particular cell you will have the list of all the days available right so let’s get started with that let’s create a new sheet so why are we creating a new sheet you won’t want that all the numbers in your calendar sheet right over here right so for that so we are creating a new sheet and all the data will be available here so here let’s write down the days first and here the second number also you can use the option of Flash Fill so that you can you know uh reduce the effort here so you can see the flash full option over here all you need to do is select the sales and drag them down until you get your required dates right so let’s keep it till 31 days there you go you have the days so these will be your days and here now the next option was month right yeah month and year now using the same flash F option you will you know add the months into your sheet so this will be Sunday so Excel has this smart flash F option where you can just drag the data and everything will be filled according to your requirements so Sunday to Saturday now the next one right that is your month so same as the before process we’ll create January now you can use the flash Bill option and all the way up to December now the last one was the year so 1990 and 1991 so you can select the cells and Flash Fill Up to 2022 maybe yeah 2022 should be good enough now this is The Flash option you have here and also we have an exclusive tutorial on flashfill all together you can go through it for a detailed explanation as well now coming back to the original sheet so this is where you create your drop- down list right so select the cell where you want to add the drop down list navigate to data and then here is your data validation menu so we have a variety of data validation options over here there is an exclusive tutorial on that you can go through it for now we’ll look into the list option only because we want to create a drop down list right so here it will ask for source click on the source here the source bar right now navigate to sheet number two where we have the days options select the range so this will be your range and select okay also you can add some message here right what you can do is uh in case if there is an error or something right you don’t want that to be happening so all you need to do is uh write down and select from dropdown let from drop down only so this could be a message select from dropdown only the title is Select options or just options in case if there’s an error you can write down your title as invalid data and you can write down a messag as please select from drop down only so um in case of someone tries to write as 32 or 33 to check the Integrity of your data validation then they will encounter an error and an error message and then they must be understanding what exactly they try to do and if it’s correct or wrong right so this is to make sure that whatever the data you enter is correct and valid so okay and here you can see select from the drown list only options with with option list as title and let’s try to enter 32 right and when you press enter you will see an error so the error messages invalid data please try to select from drop down only so you can go for a retry and select the drop down right so let’s eliminate them and now select something from the drop down so let’s take it as maybe 10 right so this is how you cleared the day one now let’s try to do with the month same data validation option settings will be list and Source will be this one think I made a mistake here so let’s cancel this and go back to sheet 2 and rename this as our week yeah now coming back to the month again it will be a list and the source will be in sheet 2 navigate to the sheet 2 and select your range and input message the same options select from dropdown only and error alert title will be invalid data this one will be please select from dropdown only it’s okay and that’s done now let’s continue with your as well let’s quickly do the same it will be a list Source will be in sheet two this is your list press okay and lastly the week same process it will be a list Source will be in your sheet two input message options tile invalidator strong down only right so your drop down list is ready now so the month will be anything So currently we have me and year can be anything anywhere so let’s take it as 997 and week can be you know the adjacent week so what was 10th of May 1997 let’s check our calendars was a Saturday so it was a Saturday and that’s how you create drop down list in Excel and if you want you can also add borders to your calendar right so that’s how it’s done so what is data validation in Excel so it is a feature by Microsoft Excel where it can restrict data entry into certain cells by using data validation and it will prompt the users to enter valid data in the cells based on the rules and restrictions provided by the creator of that particular sheet now this would be little confusing to understand so to understand it in a much better way let’s get back to the practical way where we will start entering some data validation rules to our Excel sheet and try to enter data into it now we are on the Microsoft Excel and this particular sheet is based on employee ID employee name employee Department employee salary fiscal year and work timings of the employees now we will be applying some data validation rules to each and every column and try to enter data based on the rules we have entered now for the first one which is the employee ID we’ll enter rules based on the employee ID number so to apply the data validation you need to go into the data tab on the toolbar and inside the ribbon you can see data tools group and in the data tools group you have the option of data validation now select the entire column go to the data tools group select data validation option and you will have this particular popup menu and here you can see different types of options so since we are entering employee ID it would be a whole number so let us select whole number option and now here you can see the option of between not equal to equal to not between greater than less than Etc so let us select between and let us assume that your employee ID has five numbers and uh it should be between 10,000 to 11,000 so let us provide 10,000 and 11,000 now select okay and now the new rule has been applied so now the minimum value of each and every employee ID should be equal to or more more than 10,000 and less than 11,000 and it should have five digits now let’s try to enter a wrong employee ID that is just one there you go you can see that Microsoft Excel is not allowing you to include a wrong number it says this value does not match the data validation restrictions defined for this cell so now you can press retry and try to enter some number which is in between 10,000 to 11,000 now it is 10,901 and this will take the entry now let is assume that because I’m the creator of this sheet I know what should be entered here but what if I give this sheet to you and you’re the person who’s trying to enter the number and it shows the error and you don’t know what was the error right to avoid this kind of confusion what you can do is you can do some uh ways where you can provide the message to the user so that can be done by okay let’s select the sheet again and go to the data validation and here you have the same settings now here you have another option saying input message so before input message let us go to error alert now here the error title would be data entered is not valid please enter this is the error message please enter EMP ID between 10,000 to 11,000 press okay now when you try to enter the wrong number it will show that particular error alert message see data entered is not valid please enter employee ID between 10,000 to 11,000 now this is fine but how long this will be you know what if there is an option where you just hover over to this cell and it automatically tells you to enter the value between 10,000 to 11,000 without having to face the error yeah even that can be done so you can select the entire column go to data validation and here this is the input message this is where you can do that so here you can write the message name valid data please enter data between 10,000 to 11,000 now when you hover over to any cell in this particular column it will automatically show you this message where you can avoid all the errors just select okay see when you select any cell in this particular column it will automatically tell you please enter data between 10,000 to 11,000 so here you don’t have to face any errors right now let us try to enter the valid data 109 02 and it will take it as the correct value and again 1 903 now in case if you try to provide the wrong number it will show show the error see so that’s how it is now we have finished the whole number part now let’s get into the employee name where we have to provide uh the second type that is text length now let us imagine that uh in your company you’re trying to provide ID cards to your employees and you know that ID card is really small and inside that ID card you need to include the employee photograph and your company name employee idid blood group phone number address everything and also you need to include the name of the employee so what if there is an employee with very lengthy name like 30 characters 40 characters yeah in India it is really possible that you might have a lengthy name so what you can do is you can provide the text length where the text is limited to like 15 or 20 uh um characters so you can include that name in the ID card so you can do that by allowing the data validation criteria with text length uh minimum can be anything so minimum can be one and maximum here you can provide 15 and press okay okay minimum will change it to at least uh two and yeah let it be one so minimum is one and maximum is 15 characters and press okay and uh let us also provide the input message enter character type character data please enter valid name and error alert invalid data please enter valid data okay please enter characters less than 50 press okay now let us try to enter a random name okay uh we’ll enter characters more than 15 here qu z uh yeah it’s like 1 2 3 4 5 11 okay okay now this is more than 15 okay I think it’s not more than 15 let’s try to enter a little bit more characters yeah now we have entered more than 15 characters and it is showing please enter characters less than 15 so now we can retry and try to enter some valid name um now we have characters less than 50 so it will take as the proper name now let us try to enter another name I’m just entering some random data so another name maybe great now the next type of data validation is also done now let us get into to employee Department employee department is something really superb so I’ll tell you about it it’s actually a list now let us finish the other ones first that is employee salary physical year and work timings after that we’ll learn about uh the list one now let’s come into employee salary so salary is something where you have to include decimal points so now let us go to uh data validation and inside the values we have already dealt with whole number uh text length yeah now we’ll uh deal with employee salary that is decimal now minimum is okay what is uh minimum can be 1. 0 and maximum can be 1 lakh or let us put that as 10 LHS press okay okay not not just them enter valid salary okay now let’s change it to minimum is 10,000 so the employee minimum salary will be 10,000 and input enter valid salary enter salary between 10,000 to 10 lakhs let us include a comma here too now error alert invalid salary please enter between 10,000 to 10 lakhs press okay now the message and the data validation conditions are apply to this column now let us try to enter some invalid data first it will show the error now we need to enter the valid data yeah now it is taking the valid data let us provide 20,000 and this has 35,000 now the next one is fiscally let us imagine that we wanted to you know work on the employees for current working year that is 2020 to 2021 and or you can 2021 to 2022 not more than 2021 and not less than 2021 for that you can provide the year option as well so for that you need to select the entire column go to data validation settings and inside here you have an option of date so uh let us provide the date option as between and start date is 01/ 01/ 2021 and end date is 01 sl01 SL 2022 and input message let us provide data as current fiscal year Current financial year enter date between 20121 to 2022 let is call copy this and go to error alert error message will be S invalid date select okay now the error message and uh the data input message and the data validation rule has been applied for this column so let’s try to enter some date here you can enter uh 02 of February 2021 it will take as the correct data now let’s try to enter some wrong data which is apart from 2022 02 02 20 22 it will not take this it will throw error so that’s how it works now let us try to enter uh 2021 and this is March it will take it now another data 04 this time and 2021 so that’s how your uh date data validation will work now coming into the next type of data validation that is time so we have time here let us imagine that you are providing some work timings to your employees that should be from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. not more than that so you want to keep your work life balanced for all your employees so you just want them to work between 9 to 5 and that should be fine and anything apart from that time should be invalid so you can do that by selecting in uh time option between it should be in between and the start time will be 09 0 0 and this should be uh 17 that is 5:00 p.m. in the evening and input message please enter time between 9 a.m. to okay 500 p.m this should be the input message now error alert invalid time error message okay now okay work timings now this should be okay we can do this as two columns actually let us cancel let us copy this and paste it here you can do it as login login timing and this should be okay this should be a log out so this should be okay so this will be considered as login and log out times now let us provide the login time this should be the right time and uh let’s try to provide wrong timings 08 now it will not take it it will throw as error so it’s working fine let us provide 10 now let us provide the log out time it should be below 5:00 p.m. so let us provide five it will take it okay let’s try to provide something just 1 minute less than five that is 59 okay there is some problem in this let’s check it okay it is taking uh three that is including seconds okay let’s provide seconds as well 05 0 0 0 0 okay still there is some problem okay we have entered four we should we are supposed to enter 24hour timing right 14 okay uh it should be 17 I think this will work yeah now we are following 24-hour timing here so let’s provide another timing that is 16 30 0 0 this will be valid and 1530 yes this is also valid now we have finished almost all types of uh data validation things that is we have finished with any value whole number decimal date timing test length and the last one is list so this is where things get interesting now let’s cancel this now select the employee column now if you’re running a company then definitely you’ll not have only one Department in it you might have multiple departments right so let us consider that you have a software development company so in that the basic departments will be software development team and software testing team so what you can do is you can provide a list so using that list you can just uh H over to that cell select the drop- down menu and inside that you can select the option so we will try to work something like that if we have selected the entire column selection okay yeah let us select the entire column again go to data validation the selection contains some cells without data validation settings do you want to extend data validation to the sales yes now let us provide the list option and here Source you can provide as developer and test press okay okay now input message select one select one error alert invalid data select from drop down only press okay now when you select the cell you can see small drop- down icon right so when you press it you will have developer and tester option so you can select developer for first one and for second one you can select uh tester right okay this is good for uh one or two options maybe three or even maybe like five but what if you have more departments okay let’s go to this uh second sheet where we have the department data so here we have like 14 departments no 15 departments or 15 employe type names so the first one is CEO second is developer tester quality analyst system analyst Finance human resource so so many options are there so you cannot keep on typing all of them right so here it is 15 what if you have like 25 like 50 departments right it will be tough so for this you have another option so let me select all this data and copy copy this from this sheet to our employee sheet let us paste it somewhere here let’s expand this okay now we have our uh list over here now let us remove the data validation from this column clear all okay now everything is cleared let’s select okay now let us erase this data as well now let us apply the list data validation again from scratch go to list now here we can select the source select this particular cell and drag it until here and it has been loaded now go to input message data options select one from the menu or the drop down copy error alert select only from the drop down menu invalid entry yeah now let’s select okay okay fine now you have the icon here you have all the provided options you can scroll down and select any one out of these you can select knowledge transfer for the first one and second one would be system analyist and the last one would be human resources now in the list everything is fine okay this is showing you the menu options and everything so but what if you provide this sheet to your new joiny or new employee in your company and by mistake he messes up something like deleting this okay so we have deleted systems analyst and when you click on the options here you don’t have systems analyst in that place you have blank space right so there is a way where all your U you know data can be messed up so to avoid this what you can do is you can actually um save this data in a different sheet like I did here like Department data you can hide this sheet or you can protect this sheet with password or something so that nobody can mess this up so now let us get back to the employe data and select this column and uh clear everything press okay and let us also clear this and this as well in this one too now let us eliminate the row our sales the employee yeah everything okay now we have basically removed this data from here now let us try to apply the data validation once again now here let us select as list and uh here let us provide the option let us go to next sheet let us select all these options and press okay okay let’s provide input message data options or Department options yeah now let’s select okay now let’s hide this sheet now the sheet has been hid hiden and you still have the options developer or let us provide CEO then we have developer then we have test so that’s how you can protect your how to protect and lock cells in Excel now why do we need to lock or protect cells in Excel let us imagine that there is an Excel sheet with really confidential data and you need to pass that data to your subordinate or your colleague to make some minor edits now let us imagine that the edits are supposed to be done to only one or two columns and the rest of the columns should be left as they are now there is a huge possibility that sometimes unknowingly or unwillingly there might be some edits done by your colleague or your subordinate So to avoid such kind of unexpected mistakes you might want to protect and lock yourselves that you don’t want your subordinate or your colleague to edit so before we begin be kind enough to get subscribed to our YouTube channel and don’t forget to hit that Bell icon to stay updated on the latest it Trends and Tech content now without further Ado let’s get started with our onepoint agenda that is lock or protect cells in Excel now let’s get back into the Practical mode and start our Microsoft Excel now we are on the Microsoft Excel and this particular spreadsheet is related to employee details yeah now the screen is visible a bit better now let us imagine that this is our confidential data and you want to edit only two columns that is the designation column and phone number column now let us imagine that the company has finished one annual year and now there are some promotions happening in the company and let us also imagine that the phone numbers of the employees provided by the company have undergone some changes so now the minor edits that you want to make are related to the designation column and phone number column now you can see that all the columns that is the blood group new salary salary hike current salary and name of the employee serial number employee number everything is editable so in such kind of scenarios when you pass on this data there might be a possibility where your colleague or subordinate might end up making some mistakes right so you want to avoid that so you can do that by locking the celles now let us rename the sheet now the sheet has been renamed successfully so now you can log the cells by the following process so in this process you have two major steps first one is to log the cells and the next one is to protect the cells by a password now when you select all the cells in this particular sheet you can just click on this edge here and you have all the cells selected and now right click somewhere on the sheet and you can see an option called format sales so in this particular option you have some options provided which is number alignment font and you want to go into the protection part so you can see by default Excel keeps all the cells locked now we want the phone number and designation to be unlocked okay so let’s cancel it for now and get back to the sheet and select the columns D and I and now let’s right click and go into format Cs and in the protection option make sure that you uncheck the loged icon now select okay and now okay so you cannot include the merged cell fine we have a cell here which is merged okay let’s remove that okay now again select the entire column right click get into format cells and uncheck the lock option select okay now we have finished the first part that is locking all the cells which you don’t want to get edit and unlocking the cells where you want to make some edits now the second stage is protecting the sheet now right click on the sheet name and you can see an option called protect sheet click that and now here you can see select locked Cs and also select unlocked CS so let us provide a password here so let us use some simple password so that we don’t forget that so I’ll be selecting 1 2 3 and now select okay reenter the password to proceed now let us type 1 2 3 again now select okay and now the sheet is protected now we have successfully locked and protected all the cells in Excel now let us verify that the cells you wanted to protect are really protected and locked or not so we have unlocked phone number and designation and everything else is locked now let me try and edit the blood group so when I double click or try to edit this particular sheet then I’ll be receiving a warning from Excel it says the cell or chart you’re trying to change is on a protected sheet to make a change unprotect the sheet you might be requested to enter a password so it says that this particular cell is locked and you cannot edit it now let us try to edit the phone numbers which we kept as unlocked so you can see I can really edit the unlocked cell here now let me try to change this phone number let me enter some random phone number so you can see the cell is editable now let us go through the designation column and try to edit this particular column now since since I said that there’s a promotion happening in the company so the deputy CEO is now the current CEO of the company and software developer happens to become the senior software developer and the tester as well let us imagine that he will become the senior and so on okay so this proves that this particular sheet is editable not the entire sheet but only the sense that we kept in the unlock mode okay now this is how you lock and protect your sales in ex you can see that I have sales data on my worksheet so uh let us imagine that your manager asked you to find the average of sales happening in your company right so let’s navigate to the bottommost cell and you know write it down as average here okay average sales so here this is a cell where you want to keep your average right so here we’ll be writing a small formula that is average and tab to select it now you must select the array of data right so this is my array since average is an array function and now press enter so there you go you have the average sales data that happened in your company so to understand the page setup in msxl we will go through a demo inventory in Excel where we’ll be considering some restaurant data now without any delay let’s get started with the Practical demo now we are on the Excel sheet and this is the data I was talking about the restaurant data where we have the First Column that is Rank and next we have the restaurant name followed by that we have the sales happening through that restaurant and then we have the segment category that is what kind of service does that particular restaurant offers now this is the list what we made and uh what if we wanted to represent this data in the form of a printed paper right so I guess you can see all the columns and rows here so you can see that we have almost like 250 rows so there is no chance or there is no way to print all those 250 rows in one page of course it is practically possible but when you try to read the content it’ll be so tough to read Because all the rows will be clued together so closely so that you cannot read it so uh you need to print them Page by page so and you need to also take care of the data is aligned properly according to the page size everything and even you need to take care of the margins of your page right so that’s what page setup basically means so we had a detailed overview of our data and what actually we’re trying to make now let us see how page setup is possible in msxl so to go to the page setup menu or go to the page setup options we have three methods let’s start with the simplest method so the simplest method is by just clicking on file and go to print option and you’ll see all the page setup options right over here and you can also go to print menu by pressing a shortcut method that is contrl p so you’ll directly end up on the page set of options now let’s look at the second method so the second method is you can see the toolbar over here right which has file home insert draw page layout formulas data review View and help so the second method we can use page layout option from the toolbar and you can see when you click on the page option from the toolbar you have a new ribbon over here so this ribbon is all about page setup options so it will offer you margins it will offer you orientation size print area brakes background print tiles etc etc right so all these options or menus in this ribbon belong to page setup now let us look at the third method so the Third method is something similar you have view option on the toolbar so just select View and you can see we have few page setup options over here as well the normal page break page layout custom views and we have grid lines formula bar heading zoom in zoom out select to zoom free certain panes right so all these are also the page setup options so we have the three methods to enter the page setup options now we are familiar with those now let’s get started with the Practical mode on P setup for that let me use the simplest method that is holding the control key and pressing P which navigates me to the print option now we have various set of options here we have no scaling normal margins letter portrait orientation cated print active sheets and note one for Windows you can see this option is the printers option for example example if you’re connected to a printer which is the hardware printer then your Ms XL will show the printer’s name here so other than printer you can also make some other arrangements where you can just directly print your complete data in the form of PDF and then you can export your PDF to your recipent that’s also possible okay now let’s get started with the first option that is print active pages okay to understand this better we need to create a new sheet not a problem so you can see that we just have one sheet over here so let us kind of select all the items and create a new sheet and try to paste it over here or let’s try to paste it over here okay now let’s try to extend this yeah this should be fine now let’s rename this sheet sheet uh or let’s rename it as restaurant sheet two for our reference now let us get back to the print sheet option so I’ll use the shortest method that is holding the control key and press P now you can see that here we have six pages in total from the active sheets so the current active sheet is the top 250 sheet so this particular sheet is the current active sheet so if you print the entire data in this particular sheet then we will end up printing six pages now let us select the other option where you have to print the entire workbook right so now you can see that there’s a change in the number that is 12 pages so what is a workbook so basically workbook is the collection of entire sheets in your Excel homepage so in this particular Excel homeage which you have the first sheet that is top 250 and the second sheet that is the resturant sheet to right so the combination of these two sheets make up a workbook so when you select the entire workbook option you’ll have 12 pages so that’s how we use this setting where you select the active sheets the entire workbook and there is another option where you can only print a selected item so if you want to do this then let’s get back here now what if your customer or what if your client wanted the top 10 restaurants only so you can select the top 10 restaurants by doing this now you have the top 10 restaurants let’s go to print so you can see Excel has automatically selected the selection only print the selected content only so you can see we have only the top 10 restaurants or top 11 restaurants that we have selected in our sheet and it is ready to get printed so this is how we use the first option now let’s get back let’s not select that and let’s make the pages normal now get back to the print option again now you can see the next option that is cated right so in cated you have different different options that is 1 2 3 3 1 2 3 and 1 2 3 and the next one which is uncollated 1 1 1 222 3 33 so why are these numbers present here and what does colleted mean anyway so this is your question right now the answer for this question will be a little similar to your examination Hall okay let us imagine that you are in examination Hall and you are the invigilator and you have 10 students in your room so you wanted to provide question papers to all the 10 students okay so you have your question paper distributed into three sheets that is you have marked questions and your questions are fit into three papers right in this scenario we have 250 rows and all the data is split into six sheets that is sheet one or page one page two page three page four right now if we wanted to print 10 copies then the arrangement of papers will be page 1 page 2 page three page 4 page 5 Page 6 in continuous order right that is CED if you wanted 10 copies of different different ways where you wanted to print the first sheet first then you wanted to print the second sheet second and the third sheet third that is you’ll have 10 copies of first page 10 copies of second page 10 copies of third page and so on that particular approach is called uncollated approach and if you’re printing the pages in continuous order for 10 times then that particular approach is called as collated approach so this is what we had to learn about collated and uncollated now let’s get back to the third option now let’s press again print now we have our data here there’s something wrong select all the elements control p yeah now we have our data back now we have the third option that is the portrait orientation okay so when we click that we have two options that is portrait and landscape so you might be having a good idea like when you try to click a picture in your phone we have two modes as well that is portrait mode and the landscape mode so when you click on the portrait mode this is how your data will be looking now to understand the difference let’s click the landscape mode so when you click the landscape mode this is how your data representation will change you’ll have a wider page to print so this is why we use the page orientation for now let’s keep the page orientation as portrait orientation and we have now the fourth option so what is the fourth option we have various sets of options in here that is letter and A4 size there are also some more page options over here where you can select the page types you want to print so basically you’ll be having few more options that is A4 A5 A3 Etc but here we just have two that is A4 and letter so basically you’ll get those options and followed by that next we have margins so here you can see we don’t have any margins for our data okay so now we can add some margins by setting up this one as an option like last custom setting or you can also choose normal wide narrow right so your page will be changed according to your margin size right so this is how you can change the margins now let’s keep it as default let’s set the normal one now we have the next option that is scaling option so here you can see we are trying to fit the page so when you’re trying to print these sheets using no scaling then the actual size of the page will be printed now you can also modify that you can fit and print these sizes so you can remember the first option that I said of printing all the 250 rows in one single sheet this is how you can fit it so fit the sheet on one page where you can see all the 250 rows are fitting into one page but the data is not readable so but we don’t want this type of an approach right so let’s keep it as the default one which is no scaling so these are the variety of options in print now if you wanted to print the all the six pages into the PDF format and mail it to your client you can also do that I think I have explained it in the first place so you can see we can do it by just selecting this option where you can print all the six p just and into PDF format and then you can mail them to your client and you can also select the number of copies you want you can increase the copies to two three and any number of uh copies you want for now I’ll keep it as one copy now let’s print this now let us select the location rename it and publish now let’s get back to documents and see if the page is printed or not here you go here we have the resturant data in the form of PDF so we have our entire six pages of data in the PDF format now we are back on the homepage now we had some limited functions in the print function over here we had try to export the data so you can also export the data or try to print it from the print option over here you can just select that as well anything F PDF yes the pages are printed now there you go we have the restaurant 2 PDF data so that’s how you can print all your data you can either choose the export option or you can either choose the print option now when you see into the print option we have limited number of page setup options over here now let’s check out what we missed so we are in the page layout here so we had gone through the margins we had set all the margins and then we have also gone through the portrait and landscape now you can see this size when we were in the print menu option we had only A4 and letter but here you can see there are a wide variety of options that is other than letter we have tabloid legal statement executive A3 right we have A5 and many more other options and if you want some more paper options you you can go to more and you can always select a few more options that’s how you do it and yeah we didn’t had the break option so remember when we had been through the print option we did not have the break option there let’s select this to normal A4 so you cannot see the break option over here right so here we have the break option so what does break option does right you can actually break the page uh remember we spoke about the top 10 things or the top 10 rows you can always do that so you can just keep the top 10 restaurants in your first page and then break the remaining and to set page breaks you can select the cell now I need the top 10 so I’ll select this particular cell which is in the 11th position and now I’ll try to implement the page break insert a page break and now you can see on my sheet there is a thin line which is separating the two pages that’s how you can see the indication of a page break implemented onto your page now how do you see it you can see it by SEL in control P where you can see the first top 10 restaurants being printed on your sheet so there you go we have the first top 10 restaurants printed on our sheets so that’s how you use the page break now let’s try to eliminate all the page breaks so you can select braks and reset all page breaks so the page break has been eliminated now you can always choose a background for your data as well you just uh if you want you can add a picture to your background I think that’s not available for now okay you can work offline as well let us select this one so you can see that we have added a background to our data we can select all the text files and then we can change the color so that the text becomes a little visible yeah that’s how you do it now if you don’t want the image to be added on your file you can also remove that delete background and there you go all the images are gone now the next important part that is the print titles now why do we need print titles for that let’s try to print this so now you can see the first page in the first page we have the title rank restaurant sales segment category but if you go to the second page you don’t have that title right you don’t have the title rank name of the restaurant sales and their service category so if we want that then we need to add titles now for that let’s select the print titles option now let’s select the row to repeat on top now for that we need the first row select the first row and this particular row will be repeating into all the pages now let’s try to print it so yeah now you can see the titles are being added to all the sheets you can see the page two page three page four page five and page six so you can see the titles added to all the sheets now we are on the spreadsheet so here what exactly are page breaks so page breaks are something which help you during your trying to print your data or present your data in the form of a web page right in those times you cannot fit your entire Excel data in one spreadsheet or one paper or one web page right so in those scenarios Excel will try to elimin a few parts of your spreadsheet or it will try to split the spreadsheet so how exactly it looks like so go to the view option and click on The View and click on page break preview here you can see the dotted lines right so these are the things which separate your data in form of pages so that it can be printable on one single page so some of the times the user or the xuser manually inserts a page break right so how do you insert it just go to the page layout and here you can see the page breaks insert a page break and you have successfully inserted a page break again go to the view go to page break View and here you can see the solid line so these solid ones are the ones which are inserted by the users or anyone who had the access to the data now how do we eliminate them right so we can eliminate them and we can try to you know get the shet back to the normal way so all you have to do is click on the the cell which has the page break which is right under the page break go to the insert page break yeah page layout menu go to the brakes option click on remove page break and there you go you have successfully eliminated the page break and page break preview to make sure that the page break has been successfully removed so you cannot see that anymore so that’s how you try to insert or eliminate a page break in Excel so conditional format is a method to visualize your worksheet we already have the charts in Excel to visualize our Excel sheets in graphical form but what if you had to see or visualize the data in your worksheet as it is so that is where the conditional formatting comes handy now let’s get back to the Microsoft Excel and try to implement some conditional formatting now we are on the Excel worksheet this particular data set is based on a store now we have various columns in this particular data set we have r ID order ID customer name Etc and finally we have quantity discount and profits now let’s go to profits uh let us imagine that we have provided this particular store with a target of minimum 15% profits now let us find out the stores that have hit the 15% Target and the ones which did not so for that let us select the entire column now you can find the conditional formatting option in the home toolbar and in that ribbon the ribbon with Styles has the conditional formatting option click on that and you have various options over here highlighting the cells top bottom rules datab bars data scales and icons so data bars are actually the bar graphs which highlight themselves on each and every cell if you implement them and these are the color scales if you want to implement some colors you can go through that and if you want to represent your C with icons you can also do that for now let’s highlight the sales so select that and inside this select the greater than option and here you can provide the percentage that is 15% and the sales or the stores which hit the target should be highlighted with green color and select okay and there you go you have your stores that hit the 15% Target and the ones which did not hit the 15% Target now if
we want to highlight the ones which did not hit the 15% Target you can highlight them with the color red so conditional formatting highlight the Cs less than 15% with color red and text dark and there you go it’s done now let us consider another example so this particular example is based on train data set and here we have the passenger ID survived passenger class name Etc now we have a tra an accident incident over here now one is indicated that they are alive and zero is indicated that they are not alive now let us use this column and conditional formatting highlight the cells containing the text as one with color green okay and highlight the cells that contain text zero as r that indicates they are not alive and let us select the icons now we have the icons over here the X indicates that they’re not alive and the Green Tech Mark indicates that they’re alive now that is how you use conditional formatting in Excel Excel now here on my spreadsheet you can see some data so this particular data has some color markings so we have used color codes to Mark the designations of all the employees with different colors so for example blue for manager purple for senior and so on right now our duty is to count the total number of emplo present in a company based on the color code this can be done using filters but let’s try with color codes now we don’t have a readily available function in Excel to count cells based on their colors but we can make use of macro now to make use of macro you might want to enable the developer options so by default these will be disabled in Excel to enable them right click on the toolbar and you can see this particular option click on the customize ribbon option and you will be provided with various set of options now on the right side you can see developer options so make sure the checkbox is clicked to enable developer options and press on okay to completely enable developer window right now when you click on developer options you can see various options here visual Basics macro Etc now click on the macro to create a macro now just give a name to the macro function so I’ll give simply long and press on create to create that particular macro function so we have already created a macro that is Count colored cells which we will be using in our current spreadsheet for counting the colored cells now let us erase the newly created function now getting back to the original code so how does this particular count colored cells works so let us understand the function first then we will try to make use of it in the spreadsheet so the function name is Count colored cells as you can see and this particular function will have two parameters current cell and spreadsheet area so the current cell will be the cell address where the color you want to count is present and then the spreadsheet area so what is the range of cells where you want to locate that particular color and count the number of repetition that is the spreadsheet area and then comes the variables used colored cell range color code and color cell count so the colored cell which particular cell is having that particular color and what color code is involved in that colored cell and colored cell count so what is the total count what is the total number of colored cells you have in that particular range that is colored cell count now let us consider color code is equals to current cell interior color that is current cell do interior do color so this is the function which will identify the interior color of a selected cell let us imagine that initially color code is equals to the current cell’s color code okay now we will have the for Loop and that for Loop will include colored cell which is the current cell in the spreadsheet area and if the colored cell the currently selected colored cell do interior do color is equals to the color code that we have set selected then colored cell count the variable which is used to count the number of colored cells is equals to + one initially by default it will be zero in case if this particular if condition is true that is the current cell color and the color code given is equals to same then the value of colored cell will increase by one and this particular if Loop will run as many number of times the condition is true so let us imagine that the condition will remain true for five times then we have obtained five similarly colored cells in the given range of cells in a spreadsheet and once the condition fails then the latest value present in color cell count variable will be displayed which will be a final result so this is how the macro function works now let’s close the macro window and get back to a spreadsheet now let us try to make use of the macro function that we just created so that is equals to count colored cells press tab to select the macro function and the first one is the current cell so this is the current cell where the current color is being provided comma this cell range so our cell range will be from C2 to c31 right so this is the range where we want to count the similarly colored cells that is sky blue colored cells close the function and press enter now you can see the function has identified six repetition of sky blue color in this particular range of cells now you can drag the same formula across all the cells and it will be providing the results of the same so six senior colors that is pink or purple color then two repetition of this particular color two repetition of trainy color five for dark blue and six for green right so this is how the macro function works and the key point to remember here is this particular macro will work only for manually colored cells so there are situations where we have used conditional formatting to color a single cell let us imagine that we have used conditional formatting to recognize the employees with salary above 30,000 as green color and if we try to use that particular green color to be counted by the color count sales function no it will not happen it will not consider that color as a feedback or an input now in future we will also try to design a macro which can recognize the colors made by conditional format as well but this particular function will be exclusively used for manually colored cells only dated IF function is majorly used to find the differences between two individual dates so it is also called as dated if by a few people and a few people also reference it to date diff that is date difference so anything is good now to find the difference between any two dates let’s select a few dates so the first date would be uh let us imagine that you’re an employee and you want to to find out how many years that you’ve been working with an organization so for that you might want to need today and the date where you join the company right so it might be date of joining and today so what’s the difference right so let us imagine that you join the organization somewhere around 2010 01 05 2010 and today so for today can you can give any particular date let us imagine that uh today is 1st of January 2021 or 2022 now we have up both the dates that is the joining date and the current date which can be the current date so the day can be anything so you might be watching this on a different date as well so the date of that day for today would be a little different so we’ll imagine the today’s State as an imaginary date now we might want to find the difference that is in terms of years so you wanted to find the difference in terms of ear so here you can find the difference in terms of ear days and months as well so currently let’s try to find out the difference in terms of years so for years you might want to specify the third parameter in the data function as why if you wanted months you have to give the M as the third parameter and if you wanted to find the days you might want to give d as the third parameter uh so we have discussed the third parameter so what are the first two parameters right so the first two parameters are the first date and the last date so the first date in this situation is your date of joining and the last date or the final date which you want here as your today so let’s find the difference so for that equals 2 so it can be dated if or date diff so date if and the first state which is the A2 and comma the last state that is B2 and your parameter third parameter in terms of ears that is why close the bracket and press enter so there you go you have your date here so it’s been like 11 years that you’re working with your organization so that’s how you find out the differences so we have 11 years because uh we did not finish the 12th year completely so if we had given the month as uh maybe six where we have finished our total years then it will automatically change to 12 years so now for this particular task we will be considering the student database now let’s get into practical mode and start our Excel so on my screen you can see some data related to students now let us try to duplicate some of the rows here so we have selected the rows 8 9 10 and 11 now we shall copy them and paste in so now these are the duplicate elements right now they there might be possibilities about the duplication of class because all the students all the 10 students are in same class so there might be a duplication but we are not looking for such kind of duplications right we are looking for the duplication of the entire row for example we have the details of mic over here in the eighth row which has the role number or serial number as seven name as mic role number class blood group and subject scores percentage round of percentage and total marks so the entire eighth row is been copied here and it is in the row number 12 we have the exact same details so what if you have the exact same rows duplicated so that’s what we’re going to deal with we’re going to eliminate the duplicate rowes all completely together now to carry over this task we have to select the data from toolbar so you have various options file home insert Etc so you need to select the data and inside data toolbar we have the ribbon and inside ribbon you have got the duplicate values or remove duplicates uh option in the ribbon so select all the data select remove duplicates and now you can see that we have all our uh column names over here and make sure that you have selected my data has headers and then select okay and now you can see that Excel has automatically removed four duplicate values so four duplicate values are found and removed 10 unique values remain now another type of uh remove duplicates can also be done so you can see that here we have another data set which has phone numbers or phone names that is phone makers that is Samsung Huawei VI Oppo Etc so there are some duplicate values in this I’ve copy pasted them so now you can also do that so just select all the data and now go into home and select conditional formatting and here select highlight a cell rules and inside that you have duplicate values selecting this option will help you identify the duplicate values in your data set but not to remove them so you can select that and you can see the duplicate values are highlighted over here in the red color now again you can get back to data and uh select the option of remove duplicates and select okay and the duplicate values will be automatically eliminated so that’s how you delete or eliminate duplicate values in uh data set and you can also see that we have another duplicate in this particular row and if you wanted to select a particular row and eliminate the duplicates you can also do that now for that you need to go to the same process remove duplicates and here Microsoft Excel is asking you if you had to expand the selection to the entire data set or you want to continue with the selected data set itself or selected column itself so for that you need to select the continue with the current selection and remove duplicates and press okay and you can see one duplicate value was found and it has been removed and six unique values remain so that’s how you use the function of removing duplicates and Exel so what is sumers and Exel now you might want to calculate uh the total sum of sales right so let us assume that this is your entire stores sales data and you wanted to calculate the entire sum of sales so there is a sum function in Excel where you just have to you know select all the sales and apply some function onto it and you’ll get the sum of all the sales right so with something like this you’ll select all the cells and then you’ll apply a sums function and you’ll get the sum here and average everything right so this is fine but what if you just wanted to find the sales that are happening in only western region as you can see our column f is based on region so we have four regions South West East and Central so your manager asks you to find the sales happening in suppose say west region so how do you calculate it would you manually go into each cell and check if it’s West and Cal that will be time consuming right so what if you had a method which could do it for you just in a matter of few steps or few clicks right so that’s exactly sus so it will basically add a condition calculate the sum of sales where the region is equals to West simple to like or similar to seal query right so that is exactly what we’re going to do in Excel today that is using summs now let me add here Sales of West Region now in the next cell let’s add uh sums function remember there are multiple sum functions in Excel so when you type in suum you can see so many options based on some right you just have some followed by that you have some if it is just some if not some ifs today we are concentrating on some ifs so not just some if we’ll go to some ifs so we’ll be having an option of placing multiple if conditions there so let’s also try that more on that later now let’s press tab to select our sum ifs function now okay we forgot another important step so before we apply sufs we need to convert our table into a table format yes it looks table but right now it’s not in Tabo format it is in the format of database we know that Microsoft Excel considers its data as a database by default so to convert the database into table just click anywhere on the data and press contrl T so that you’ll have a new dialogue box and and it will ask if your table has headers just make sure that you have Ted in it our table does have headers so select okay now our database has been converted into a perfect table and it’s ready for applying sums function so now you can see our database has been successfully converted into our table now let’s begin with our sum ifs now again remember we are using some ifs here not some if or sum so select Su if and press Tab and we have our sus function now the first step which column are we looking at what are we finding out right which is a sum range what sum do you want for now we need sum of sales so select the sales column and we have a simple key function here let’s hold control again press shift and hold shift together so we’re holding control and shift key together and now we’re pressing lower Arrow key once yes the entire sales column has been selected comma Now where do you want to look so we want to look I mean which part of the table you want to fetch right so this is the region part we want to fetch right now so again hold control and shift together lower Arrow key the entire column is selected now the next last part so we want to look into the both of the columns that is sales column and region column now which type of data you want so for now we want Western type of data that is the sales data which is happening only in West right so we’ll select this cell with the data as West or you can also manually enter it for now let’s select the data so I’m selecting the cell F7 which has uh data as West right now let’s close the parenthesis and press enter so there you go you have the sales happening in the western region now you can also try to format it in the form of currency so let’s use uh dollars since it is based on American states so let’s use dollars so there you go now we are having the sales data of West now let’s try to copy the same to all the for Cs and uh now here let’s type in East and this can be South right and this can be your central there you go right now you can also copy the same formula and make minor edits to it so here instead of f8 you can select uh East so where is East here and press enter so you have the sales related to East now let’s try to edit F9 with South select South Region enter so you have South sales and what remaining is Central so let’s edit Central as well and press enter so there you go right now you have all the separate sales data from West west east south and Central now again uh you might want a bit more granularity in data right or in your reports right like you wanted to find the sales data happening in West and you wanted to find out the category based on only Furnitures so your manager will ask you okay a fantastic job so now just give me another minute detail on the data I want to calculate the sales happening on West based on category Furniture right so he wants furniture or he wants office supplies only right you can also do that it’s not an issue at all now let’s try to copy the cell and paste it here and sales invest let’s add another input here on furniture right now you wanted to calculate the sales happening in west region only on furniture so you can also do that now we can use the same formula as well just copy paste the formula here right and you can add few things here when you try to add a comma it will automatically generate the next criteria so it is expecting that you are looking for adding another criteria right now which column you want you want category so let’s select category you want to select all the cells same trick control shift lower key and again press comma and you want it to select only uh Furniture so select on furniture cell there you go now press enter so there you go we successfully have the sales data from west region based on category Only Furniture so that’s how you do su and Exel you can also add a few more details to it like in Furniture you can also look only for tables so here you can see in west region we have furniture sales data and we have sales data of West Region based on furniture which includes only tables you can also do that using sums function in the same way all you have to do is Select this subcategory column and select the cell which has the data as tables so this is how you use Su in Excel now creating a pivot table is just a way from a few clicks trust me it’s just a couple of clicks and you’ll have your pivot table ready to operate now click any cell or select any cell on your spreadsheet which has the data and navigate to insert menu on the toolbar and select pivot table and that’s how simple it is now automatically Excel will choose your data you can see the line L over here dotted lines that means the Excel has already selected the range of data that you want to put into your pivot table and you can either select the existing worksheet or a new worksheet I’ll select a new worksheet over here and just press on okay and there you go you have your pivot table ready now here you can see your pivot table is a little empty all you need to do is drag and drop the data elements that you want on your pivot table so here you can see on our spreadsheet we have some business data related to our store which has has furniture and states and subcategories of the furniture and all the you know in in category you have furniture office supplies technology Etc right so those have some subcategories as well and different states and the regions as well and the quantity total sales happen right so using this business data we can find out some key insights of this particular data using our pivot table right so here we’ll add the data now let me drag the region into rows click and drag and let me drag uh categories into columns which are the different categories which are involved in the sales data and values what are the sales happened right and there you go you have Furnitures office supplies technology as the three different categories and those are the sales happened in central East South and West regions and this is the grand total and instead of regions you know you have all the regions over here right right so Central East Southwest or instead of uh all the regions or instead of all the categories you can you know place a specific category in your pivot table for example let me push the category into the filters and here you can see the total sales happened in those particular regions now what if someone asks you to find the sales of Only Furniture right so your manager comes to you and he’ll ask you getting the sales of only Furnitures you can select that and there you go you have the furniture sales in all the regions right or you can also do the vice versa you can also drag uh regions into the filters and if you wanted to find out the region wise sales of furniture you can also do that right so here we have furniture and here you have all the regions and let us try to find the sales of furniture in the central region and there you go right so this is how um the priv table works and you can also remove the regions for example if you wanted to remove a certain element from filters or anywhere if it is columns rows anything you can just drag and drop it right so that’s how it works and also you can increase the level of detail or improve the granularity right so here we have U categories on our uh you know columns so you can also include subcategories into the column right and and you have the region wise sales so in the region filter select all press okay and in the category select all press okay and you have the furniture here office supplies here and Technology here and also if you want to include the quantity how much or how many number of um you know things got sold in those particular categories and subcategories you can also do that so here in the furniture section books these are the sales and these are the number of quantity or elements sold in in those particular you know sectors so you can you can also improve the level of granularity you can also improve the level of detail using pivot tables in now AutoFill in Excel is a feature where you can add some series automatically using Excel for example let us imagine that you wanted to add index numbers right so starting from 1 to 10 so manually you will be typing in the numbers and you’ll be doing it right so instead of this what if I said you there was a simple way where Excel will fill all the data for you right so just start with one two and select these two cells and you can see the flash logo over here right so that’s the indication that Excel has understood your pattern and it is ready to fill the remaining numbers so as long as you drag this logo or that ending part where you have a small square box that will fill all the numbers until where you have draged it so that’s how autofill works and you might be wondering will it work only for numbers no it will also work on some Logics as well okay this was the first part let us also look at some other tricks with autofill now most of the time time you might be just adding one number and try to drag that cell and the result is it’ll copy the same number all the time right so you can change it by clicking on this menu you can click on fill series and it will change to series and this was one more trick with numbers now getting back to the next type so let us imagine now the next type of series you want to add is weeks in a day right so you’ll be having Monday Tuesday save and stay right so you can also do the series of weekdays using AutoFill in Excel as well so drag that cell and it will give you all the days or week days in a week now let’s try January and this will give you the months in a year in the shortcut TOA right since you just added the first three letters of the month it will recognize the pattern and it will do the same for you now let us try the full names of months right and now let’s try to drag it it’ll fill all the full names of all the months now let’s try the dates so let us imagine that this is the first day of the current year right it will now give you all the dates of that current month or until the end of the year as well there you go now let us imagine that your manager tells you to add the dates of working days in the month of January so how can you do that it’s simple all you need to do is select the cell go to the fill option select series and here select column wise since you w the dates and columns and here in the type select date date unit should be weekday and the stop value should be the next month right since your manager asked for the weekday of January so you stop value will be the 1st of February press okay and there you go so since the 1st of January is Friday it’s selected over here and the rest two Saturday and Sunday are eliminated similarly we have all the dates here of working days only so that’s how you use AutoFill in exit so on my screen you can see a simple spreadsheet with student names and their marks on my sheet so we will be calculating what are the total marks obtained by the students in overall subjects and calculate what is the percentage now we will carry forward a few simple inbuilt functions in Excel to calculate that first we will be calculating the sum of marks so here equals to sum function and select the range of cells close the bracket press enter so you have the sum now so we have to calculate it repeat so by clicking on the the same formula now we have the total of all the subjects for individual students and now let’s calculate percentage so usually we use the you know divide by option that is divide the total number of marks obtained by the total number of marks available that is we will be dividing 47 by 500 and then we will be multiplying that into 100 so that’s how we calculate the percentage so cell G2 divide by cell H2 press enter and you will end up with you know uh the decimal format that’s perfectly all right now we have also extended the same formula for all our cells now select this overall column or select the highlighted cells right and get into the data type here you have General so that’s why we have got that uh decimal format but when you press percentage you’ll have the actual percentage of all the students according to their marks achieved now we are on our Excel spreadsheet and this spreadsheet has some values of employees that is their employee ID name designation Department salary date of birth and date of joining now our concern is to highlight some cells which are duplicate in this or some rowes which are duplicate so for example here you can see on rule number seven we have the details of Mara and you can see the same details of MAA in the row number 14 as well right so you need to eliminate those cells or you need to eliminate those rows now you can say there is a quick way just few clicks and those will be eliminated that is conditional formatting yes that is also one way but I’ll show you what’s the problem with that okay so let us select the entire table and get into conditional formatting and here you have duplicate values highlight cell rules with duplicate values and there you go the problem so here we have designation which is duplicated in certain ways department and salary state of joining right so there are certain conditions or scenarios where you cannot directly identify which is the duplicate rowle again you can use the same for this right so you can select the entire uh column of employee ID and you can uh identify the duplicate cells here since the employee IDs are unique for every one so this is a way but let’s dig a little deeper and understand the way of highlighting duplicates with an advanced technique so let me cancel this and for that let’s create a new um column and let’s name this as duplicate flag e flag so the new column has been created which is D flag so here we will be using a simple formula that is Count F and here press tab to select the formula and here we will be adding our range that is which range are you considering so the range will be the employee ID since employee IDs are unique for every employee and and let’s press function F4 to fix it and now uh again the criteria and the criteria will be the same cell that is A2 and now close the bracket and press enter now let’s track the same formula to all the rows okay now here we have now what you can do is uh sort it in an advanced way go to sort and filter and custom sort and here you’ll be sorting by the D flag and it will be smallest to largest so now uh you can apply the conditional formatting to highlighted you can select the column H or the D flag go to conditional formatting highlight cell rout and here you can get into greater than and give the value as one okay so all the cells which are you know repeated multiple times will be selected here and they will be highlighted with a selected color what you have given so I’ve given Red so now you can select these cells and highlight them or delete them from your spreadsheet and now all your data in the spreadsheet is unique and clean now let’s quickly get onto the Practical mode where we will have some data sets over which we will be trying to apply the charts now there are various types of charts in T and those are the pie chart the column chart the bar chart column versus line P chart and sparkline charts so we will discuss one after the other first let us discuss about the pie chart so as you can see we have a small data set on my screen which I have personally created and uh this deals with the companies and this deals with the shares of the automobile industry so now for this let’s create a pie chart select all the data and then get into the toolbar and inside the toolbar you can see various options and inside that we going to use the insert option and when you select the insert option you will have a ribbon here and inside the ribbon you can see groups tables illustrations addin and here you go these are the charts so now we needed a pie chart so select on that icon and you have various types of pie charts you have two dimensional pie charts three dimensional pie charts donut type of charts Etc right so I would like to go with the three-dimensional pie chart as it looks a little more appealing and easy to understand and now there you go this is the title of the chart and these are the legends of the chart and this is the chart area and these are the values now we can uh know kind of add the data labels as well so you can just have to press the plus icon over here and you’ll have the options you can add the data labels which will give you a lot more interesting values and uh you can also turn this around as you can see we on double clicking any part of the pie chart you’ll get this option which is called as format data point and uh let’s imagine that you wanted to show the information related to this particular one which is Volvo which has the biggest share so this is in front right now now what if you wanted to show the information related to data which is over here right for that you can select this particular Arrow key and you can just twist it and there you go it is coming in front this will be uh a great way of presenting your data to your clients right yeah and there is another option where you can directly explore this like you you can pick it out you can see this right Point explosion where you can split it out and you can show that especially like you can highlight it and show it so that’s the you know a great way of presenting your data so that’s how you can work with pie charts in Excel now let’s quickly move to the next one that is the column chart and in the column chart we have the data related to some company and uh the profits of that company based on a so you can see that the year has started from 2008 and it has gone until 2021 and these are the profits of that company year after year so since we are dealing with column chat I’ll tell you the simplest way to create a column chat there is a shortcut key for that which is alt F1 and there you go you have the chart right on your screen now you can uh expand the chart just by dragging it like that and you can see that there is some problem with this chart that is we have numbers here instead of ear right you can see that the First Column is the es which is 2008 to 2021 but here you can see we have 1 2 3 4 which is not proper right so to change the axis that is you can see the axis which is 1 2 3 let me expand my screen a little bit Yeah so if you look at my screen we have two different columns one column is about the ears and the second column is about the revenue now what we want to do is we want to create a line graph where we have ear on the x-axis and revenue on the y- axis and we will be generating a line graph based on the data we have now for that we have to select the entire data what we have then we need to go into the insert option in the toolbar and then you can can see a lot of chart options in the insert ribbon now here you can see that we have a line chart or area chart option select that and here you can see 2D line graphs now let’s select the first one and there you go you have the line chart here now let’s rename the title and there is one problem with the chart here you can see that the x-axis is not actually pointing the ears you can make a change to that no worries just right click and then you can see the select data option and there you go you have the edit option here just edit it and now select the range I am selecting the ears now let’s select okay and there you go you have the years here you can just try to expand it a little more yeah so now you have the revenue on the Y AIS and year on the x-axis and this shows the growth of Revenue in your company so this is how you create a line graph in Excel C on now let us imagine that you are the CEO of an IT company and you have taken up multiple projects let us imagine that you wish to keep track of all the projects so what if there was a tool which could keep track of all the projects in the form of a detailed visualization with the percentage in the form of a graph or a bar chart interesting right that’s exactly what we going to design today using Microsoft Excel so without further Ado let’s get started with our onepoint agenda that is progress tracker in Excel now to design a progress tracker in Excel let us get back to the Practical mode where we might have to use our Microsoft Excel now we are on the Microsoft Excel and we have taken some sample data to make things look simple so here we’re considering a set of students and their attendance percentage so we will be using this particular data and design a progress tracker now let us try to increase the size of the cells now select all the cells in the attendance column now we have selected all the cells in the attendance column and in the toolbar select the Home tab and inside the Home tab you have styles group inside the Styles group select conditional formatting and inside the conditional formatting option select new rule so so in the new rule we want to select the first option that is format all cells based on the values now here you can see format style since we trying to create a databas we need to select the option of databas here and under the datab bar options we have some more options on the drop- down menu so here in the type select number and the minimum number is zero it is automatically stored here and the maximum value is again a number and let us provide it as one now here you can select the color for your pass now since we have already chosen green for all the column headers let’s choose blue and select okay now here you can see that the values are being indicated using bar graphs right and you can also see the percentage values but we can make it look a little more better by shifting them to the left side and text could be given as white so that it’s more uh vibrant to look at and now we can also apply some conditional formatting onto these attendance columns so let us try TR to highlight the students having attendance less than 65% so highlight cell rules less than 65% attendance with red color select okay and there you go you have the progress tracker right on your screen and and using the same principles you can track the attendance for all the students and also you can apply some conditional formatting onto all your cells and highlight the ones which are not on the track now this is how you can Implement progress trackers using Excel now for this particular example we going to use the employees data now let’s quickly get back to the Practical mode and enter into Excel now you can see that we are on Excel sheet right now so let me expand my screen a little bit so that the data is a little more visible yeah so here on my screen you can see that we have employees data so the First Column is the name of the employees and the second column is the start dates of the employees that when have they started working with the organization and when they have ended or resigned to their position in that particular organization and the duration gives us the number of days they have worked in that particular organization so to create a g chart is really simple you just have to select the data and then go to the insert option and in there you can see the charts icon and select all charts and in that select the bar chart and here you can see the Stacked bar chart select that and press okay and there you go you have the Stacked bar chart right on your screen let’s expand this a little more so that we have the clear visualization of the dates as well now you can if you want you can change the title as or RG data or employe data and now we are partially done with our chart now the next thing we have to do is select the bar chart right click on it select data and here select the add icon now you need to select the series name so the series name is duration for our gchart and series values are let’s select this and select let’s move a little yeah so these are the data series let’s select okay and you can see the Gan chat on my screen right here select okay and it’s done and still now it’s not complete yet so to finish it you need to select the blue colored bars here and right click on them and select format data series go to the fill icon and select no fill and it’s done for now and you can see that there is a difference in this particular arrangement we had Joe at the first place and Susan at the last place but here you can see Joe is in the last place and Susan is in the first place so we need to make some arrangements here for that right click select format access and then here you can see categorize in reverse order and there you go it should be done and there you go you have your Gant chart right on your screen so window here we have some data set so we have row ID order ID order date Shi date Etc so these are the rows over here let’s quickly select the entire data set and remove any filters that we have so the filters is gone and uh at the last you can see country region product category subcategory and extending further we have sales data quantity ordered discount and profit so now let’s proceed and try to build one single dashboard okay now imagine yourself in a situation where you’re working for this particular you know um store or a company which sells products and you have a team meeting with leadership and you are supposed to be hunting for simplicities in complexities and you need to present an interactive dashboard which gives a visual representation of what exactly is happening with the company the sales the quantity order profit Etc right and if you show this particular data set as it is in the form of named rows and columns your leadership might not be able to understand it or they might not be able to justify what exactly needs to be done in the future to keep the numbers same or improve the sales right so in that scenario an interactive dashboard could be beneficial so in today’s session we’re going to create the scene and creating a chart that is an interactive chart or a dashboard which is interactive everything lies on one single point that is the pivot tables and pivot charts if you’re good with pivot tables and pivot charts you can create interactive charts you can create dashboards and much more so the process is simple but in case if you need a quick overview of how exactly a pivot table is created or performed then you can check out the link in the description box below which will give you a complete detailed description and to understand how to create a pivot table and a pivot chart in real time and move further right now we will continue with this particular topic for today which is creating a dashboard now click any where in the cell select the entire data set using control a and go to insert option over here and choose pivot table right from the table range should be the option here you can see the table range has been selected and uh you also have two more options which will help you understand where exactly to create your PIV table so we will be creating that in a new worksheet so click on a new worksheet and press okay there you go you have the Pu you know table here and let’s say we want a few charts so here we have a region wise sales country wise sales and shipment majorly used subcategory uh category segment and let’s say we also want quantity wise country and quantity right or let’s say Okay country and quantity so how many number of orders basically you receive from each country right so let’s say we want all these charts now how many number of charts do we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 and seven remember creating a chart which is interactive relies on pivot table now so far we have created one pivot table or one pivot chart or one pivot sheet but we want seven pivot charts how to do that it’s really simple just hold control and drag that sheet and you have a new pivot chart right you can do that few more times seven so we have seven pivot tables as we required there you go and now let’s get back to the first sheet and let’s see the first option we looking for so we want region wise sales right we have five different regions north south east west and Central and we want region y SS in a pictorial way for that let’s go to the options over here we have the row uh names or the metadata you can drag region into either columns or rows wherever you want I’ll Cho and just drag and drop it in the columns and now go back to sales and you can drag sales to rows values sorry sales in h region right now you can go back to this particular pivot table go to home home eliminate any and go to pivot table analyze and here you can see pivot chart click on that and now you have a all charts window on your uh desktop I mean screen you can choose the one which you uh feel is good right so I’ll prefer a bar chart column chart here click on okay and there you go now you can edit this particular data set and chart and you can also remove any of the things you don’t want so for for example I don’t want Legends so I’ll remove Legends and uh this is what I have here you can also edit for few more things right now I can simply copy this particular chart and go to the dashboard so let’s create a new sheet and name it as dashboard merg and Center can add a color Bo now here you can paste the first chart now you can rename this chart title so you can rename this as region wise saes so therefore you have the first chart we here you can also increase or decrease the size of the chart by just dragging the corner points and uh let’s go go to the second pivot table we have the second pivot table right here what was our second request the second request was country wise right now close this the country and drag it to columns or rows let’s go with rows this time and SES go go to pivot table analyze pivot table chart and here you can choose a pie chart since you’re going with the country wise and click okay now you have the by chart over here you can rename that as country wise you can copy this and paste it onto the dashboard in case you want to you know uh keep the size of the pie chart and the column chart in the same uh you know width and height you can do that just go to uh format here you can 5.6 and it can be 9.9 and similarly you can go with 5.6 this can be 9.9 just so that you can accommodate a few more chats in the uh dashboard you can align them like right now our next request test is sub category shipment sorry so go to shipment so this is the fifth uh sheet so we need to go to the third spreadsheet where where is where we have the pivot table so close the format shape and we have shipment here ship mode so select the ship mode drag it to rows or columns Sal to here and we have uh or you can count it right you can change it to count okay so you have standard class with the highest number of um you know sales happening so many sales which are happening in your store choose the standard class of shipment right so very least people choose first class where or same day shipment which is highly expensive and standard shipment will take minimum pricing and most of the customers have chosen that now you can choose the same data here go to pivot table analyze and here we have pivot charts and of this you can select anyone let’s say if you want to go with the tree map or if you want to go with the bar or anyone you can go with that so let’s go with the bar graph press okay and here you created now rename this particular chart as ship mode now now you can copy the same chart and press paste it onto the dashboard can close that if you go to format you can do the same setting 5.9 and 9.9 4.6 and 9.9 there you go you have everything lined up and this space that we have over here we can add a few more things which will come under slicers and filter do so we’ll have to wait for that until we finish the rest of the charts now we will go to the fourth sheet so what was the fourth request let’s check our list here so subcategory wise sales now we can check the category subcategories over here yeah we have the subcategory select that and track to rows or columns and sales to values okay and there you go and if you want to sort you can also sort by right clicking and sort it to minimum smallest lar largest to smallest there you go so the highest number of sales are happening through mobile phones next comes the book cases next come copers etc etc now select this and go to pivot table analyze pivot chart and you can choose any one of those we can go bar chart or the column chart and you can can also rename this as subcategory device you can copy it based it on the dashboard and you can also make few Arrangements if you want you can resize it 5.6 and this will be 9.9 the next request is about the category wi sales and segment so we have the category here drag it to row and sales here you can keep it the way it is or you can go to Pivot analyze and here go to charts choose the one you want and proceed copy it and go to dashboard you can paste it over here there you go country wise and segment quantity so now you we have country over here country to rows and sales to columns or you can yeah let’s go with sales since this is a sales dashboard this should be beneficial now we have uh we can also sort it again sort to largest to smallest and we have France with the highest number of sales I can copy that or go to pivot table analyze and here pivot chart we can go with by chart you can rename it as country wise there you go and copy this paste it on the dashboard I think we already did a country wise sales so I think we can proceed with the next type of uh chart which is segment wise let’s go to the same sheet where we created the country wise sales and close the format delete the chart instead of country we can select segment so which segment has the highest number of sales past it over here format to adjust the size of the chart there you go so we have region wise sales country-wise sales ship mode subcategory wise category wise and segment wise sales now we have a dashboard but to make it a little more interactive we might require a few filter like options which are also called as slices so when you add slices onto the sheet or the dashboard what you can do is you can select the options you want let’s say I want the region wise sales in Belgium then you can identify that let’s say you want Australia’s or Austria’s shipment modes what kind of shipment mode is most used in Austria you can you can find out it and let’s say you want to find out the Finland segment wise sales then you can find out this is only possible when you try to include a slicer into the dashboard now let’s go ahead with it now if you select any of the charts let’s say I want to go with the first one now go to insert and here you can see filter options right so here you want to insert slices now here you have a slices right now okay so you can select the slicer you want so I want the slicer for region I want the slicer for Country I want the slicer for ship mode which is right here and I want subcategory wise slicer I want country or category wise slicer so category and segment wise which is here so I want six slices there you go I’ve got the six slices created let’s minimize to make it look a little more better there you go and uh we will paste the slices right here you can also you know modify the size of the slices let’s try to make them fit here and uh the next one should be right here there you go now let’s drag this here the last Slicer in the last section there you go now we have an dashboard but is it interactive I guess not so how to make it completely interactive so you might have a doubt let’s say I want to click on machins now only one out of the six charts is you know uh reacting let’s say I want to click on papers it is giving me the data for phones and Etc and if I click for Belgium you can see only one chot is being interactive right now what should I do so that every chart which is on the dashboard gets completely interactive and shows all the data in real time that can be done all you have to do is select any of the uh slices right click and go to the option which says report connections so select all the pivot tables pivot table which are present in your uh chart right now sheet one sheet 2 sheet three sheet four sheet Five sheet six and Sheet 7even press okay now all the chart cards are interconnected with each other and now if you click on any one of the options let’s say I want the data for Austria country and every data changes correct report connections you need to do that with all the slices press okay there you go now if you select Finland Denmark or Austria you can see the charts are changing right every chart is now interactive so that’s exactly how you create an interactive dashboard now you might be having a doubt okay it’s working for the existing data but what if I add some new data so here we have data until 2022 and this is the new data until 2023 now if I add this particular data to the end of this particular data set right here and remove the row heads and go back to dashboard go to Pivot chart yeah on data dashboard we need to go to data and here click on refresh all then you will get the updated data set and now you have the updated results as well and with that we have come to an end of the session on sales dashboard in Excel or realtime interactive dashboard using Excel in today’s video we are diving into Power pivot in Excel so if not aware power pivot is a powerful tool in Excel that allows you to import analiz large data sets from multiple sources for example if you have any separate data sets for sales transactions and product details the power pivot enables you to link them together using a common identifier like the product ID create custom calculations with Dax like the total or average sales and quickly generate interactive reports like the pivot tables basically it simplifies the complex data analysis making it easier to work with the large amounts of data without relying on traditional formulas and help users create meaningful insights in a more efficient and error-free way by the end of this video you will be equipped with everything you need to master power pivot in this video we will cover activating the power of pyo as an Excel addin creating relationships between tables calculating the profit total profit and more and wrapping it up with kpis to filter data like a pro this video is packed with exciting and super informative tips to level up your Excel game so I am inside Excel and before going to the pivot table I have a list of data over here I have basically three tables the salaries transaction and the employee and we can see that some columns is common like the employee level the employee level over here and in the salar in the salary Street and the level column and the employee sheet they are the same so let’s get started with installing power pivot for that we need to go to file and then options and here in the addin as I have already activ ated it so it is in my active application addin you will find it over here in the activate application addin if you have not activated and you can just click over here and in manage Excel addin you can go for com addin as it is a type of com adding and then click on okay so I am inside Excel and before going to the pivot table I have a list of data over here I have basically three tables the salaries transactions and the employee table and we can see that we have some columns in common like the employee label in the salaries table and in the employee table we have a level section these are basically the same so let’s get started with installing power pivot for that go to file and then options and here in the options then you have to go to this addin and select Microsoft power pivot for Excel it is in my active application addin as I have already activated it you will find it in an inactivated application addin if you have not activated it so you have to just click on it and in spite of excel addin you have to go for com addin as it is a type of com addin and then click on go and when you click on go you will have a drop down over here for in that drop down you have to select Microsoft power pivot for Excel and just click on okay and there up in this section you can see this power pivot just got available and now we can close the file and open a new Excel file where we will do the calculations and Analysis a blank workbook so we need to cross this and in the new Excel file you can click on power pivot and then click on manage and this will take you to the power pivot in Excel sheet right now we don’t have any data so let’s import data from the external sources so let’s go to external data from other sources and you just need to scroll down and you will find the Excel file over here and then click on next and when you click on next you will get this Excel file path basically you need to locate the place where you have already saved your Excel file so click on browse and as I have already kept in it my downloads I will just open this I will take this box as use first row as column headers and click click on next and now you will see the three available tables over here and I want to import all the three and hit on finish after it is being initiated you can close this and when you close this now we can see everything is uploaded over here we have employees salaries and transaction now that we have whole data over here you can do the diagram View and see let’s go back to data View and try to delete this delete yeah now we can go to this diagram View and let’s build some relationships we can now basically connect staff ID over here with that staff ID of the transaction table so you can just click over here and attached to this so it has created a relationship same goes for the employee level the employee Level under the salaries table and this Level under this employee table we’ll connect this so it got connected so now that we have basically added connection it’s no longer just three tables but one large data model now we will go back to this data View and we can basically add columns if we want as we have the selling price and the cost price we will find out the profit in add a column you need to write here just equals you have to just click the selling price minus this cost price and just click enter over here this is basically our profit and now we will rename this as profit now we have the staff ID what if we want to know their names as well not only their staff IDs now basically we will write over here equals related and you will get a suggestion over here as related and then if you click on enter you will get all these options now basically I want this employee name to be written and click enter and close this parenthesis and finally click enter and see you have got the names now what about measures asume we want the sum of all the profit we all meet we will go down somewhere over here and select a sell and over here I will write equals sum sum and click on enter and then choose profits and I will close this parenthesis and put on enter see it’s done now I can rename this as total profit as it looks good and click on enter definitely it will change here in the cell as well now we are all set to begin the analysis and click on just pivot table and then click on existing worksheet and just okay it may seem like a normal pivot table but it’s not we actually have three tables over here employees salaries and transactions let’s assume we want to see which employee is getting what Revenue so under employees we will drag the names to rows we will drag the names to rows and we want the revenue that will be under the transaction table selling price and I will drag you to values then if you want to see the level they belong to under salaries and the salaries we can often go to employee level and add it to the columns now it looks good now when you move forward just beside this measures we have kpis and click on kpi new kpi we can have an absolute value like for example I’ll give 20,000 that is a target value basically and I will choose this icon and I’ll click on okay now I will clean it a bit okay I will only have profit and values under it so under the transaction we will go to this total profit I’ll click on status and see I have got this Anna and John is basically not doing well they have basically failed to achieve the Target and the whole team may be not doing very good this Alex and Sam they are basically having a not so good one but yeah they have passed it and Jones too so Microsoft 365 co-pilot is one of the latest AI products launched by Microsoft so the Microsoft 365 co-pilot will be your AI assistant for all your office sus from Microsoft so it can help you EAS up your process of making PowerPoint presentations it can help you write down the notes on Microsoft Word and many more but today we will be using this particular 365 copilot for our data analytics using Excel so let me remind you this particular AI tool works with the versions of Microsoft Office 365 and later right now there should be a new feature added upon to your Excel on the top right corner of your home button but again if it’s not it’s completely all right you can use your Microsoft home button where you can find the Microsoft 365 Co pilot so let’s navigate to the home button yeah now I’m on my home button and here you can see a small icon which is completely new out of nowhere this is your co-pilot right and you can just click on it and you can fire your co-pilot and uh today’s point of discussion is about co-pilot with Microsoft Excel so when you are starting Excel there are some prequisites when you’re working with copilot So currently it is in the preview mode so it is capable of using some data set which is in the table format I have converted this into a table format it’s really simple contr a to select all the celles and then contrl T to convert this table uh the option my data set has headers and okay so your data it will be converted into a table and another prerequisite is when you pop up the Microsoft uh co-pilot it will asks you for a data set which is under 1,000 kilobytes so my data set here is about 800 kilobytes which should be here so the only process is you just have to click on this particular option which says attachments go to the data set that you want to work today so I’ll be selecting my sales EU copy and just press open it it will take a little time because it’s completely new so it might take a little time for that so the only uh catch is Microsoft co-pilot is a little slow compared to the other competive co-pilots or AI modules it’s not a big deal they will catch up soon let’s wait for some time while the D set loads and then you can fire some of the commands let’s say I have given my command here please help me create a regional wise sales report with this data set and can also give a few more commands right so it’s loaded right now you can see the icon here now you can write down give me country wise sales report and just fire the command you can also um you know perform all your data analytics what you regularly do right when you have a sales data set you might be wondering what it can do and what it cannot you just have to build a story about the report what you want to create create and then just you know write it down to the co-pilot and it will generate the report that you are looking for currently it is working on the country-wise sales report so it should be giving me the report shortly it’s okay so there are some problems with this so maybe it’s the data set data type so here we have uh country and the data is General so you might want to change that to text format or character format so you have the text data type here and just okay now save it back now you can ask the copilot once again okay or let’s try to do a different one okay now here we have the order date and column C right now let’s say I wanted to find out which day did they inquisit right is it a Friday is it a Saturday or Monday right so just try to ask the copilot let me write it down can you help me find out which week of the day was an order placed you we have a column named aate column is C we need a new column that tells me the day of the week when an order was placed so let’s file the command now it should give us a column D which is an empty column right next to order date or it should give us the steps to do the same just by the command it might take a little while okay here we have it certainly I’ll create a new column D and you D set great this is what we needed and so let’s try to ask another query can you tell me name of the customer with highest sale record in the data set so the previous query which we fired at will not be reflected on this particular D set but it can be reflected on the basis that shared with the go pilot here so currently I don’t have a
direct connection with my Excel over here I think it should be taking some time for getting me an update over here but anyways it will be updated in the say that it is currently dealing with that’s not a problem now let us see what’s the answer I apologize but it seems that I’m unable to extract any text content from the uploaded file it’s okay let’s try to file there are some discrepancies but it should be resolved soon but let’s let’s try some other thing like region wise sale so let’s say you are an Excel expert so you can do it within a few fraction of seconds you can just apply filters and get that data but there are a lot of people new to excel so for them the co-pilot from Microsoft could be a boon right but down the line there are improvements rolling out so I could predict that it could be a lot faster and can have seamless integration with your Microsoft Excel and your co-pilot and things could be a lot easier right so far we have the result over here so it is giving us a few results and it is finding a little difficulty to extract a few that shouldn’t be a problem in a few couple of days where the new updates roll out so um proceeding ahead let’s try to give it another query or so so let’s check the data set so here we have the categories and sub categories I think we can give it uh okay can you give me the category wise profits so here we can identify which category is performing really good and giving us highest number of profits so I think let’s check out if we have a profits column yes we do have a profits column over here so let’s check that brilliant right so it’s giving us distilled reports in one prompt so that should be helpful for any of the data analysts which are aspiring right and which don’t have have any idea about how Excel really works okay it seems that I’m able to extract text content from uploaded files okay let’s try to copy this and write it down as okay is it category okay let’s copy this as well I think it’s about the case right category subcategory okay let’s let’s first subcategory category sales report okay it’s giving us the pre answer to the previous query okay I think this should help it’s unable to extract a lot of answers so far currently there should be some discrepancy but down the line it should be fixed able to extract any text content from the uploaded file okay so basically that’s how you can work with your co-pilot in Microsoft 365 Exel so there are some discrepancies so far so it should be fixed down the line so that’s how you can use copilot in Excel for your data analytics and and with that we have come to an end of this session on Microsoft 365 co-pilot for Excel and if you have any queries regarding any of the topics covered in this session or if you require any of the resources that we used in the session like the data set that we used which is in tabular format and under 1,000 k byes please do let us know in the comment section below and RM effect Parts we’ll be happy to resolve all your queries on the aist let us know your experience working with co-pilot and Excel and we can learn a thing or two from you as well hey everyone welcome to Simply learns YouTube channel today we will learn how to use Microsoft power query that said if these are the type of videos you’d like to watch then hit that like And subscribe buttons and the bell icon to get notified now without further delay let’s get started with the topic which is how to use Microsoft power query so imagine you have a lot of data it can be an Excel file it can be a PDF SQL database cloud or anything if it is Data it’s your data right so you have a lot of data now you have the source of the data after that I’m absolutely sure that the data is not clean enough to perform some analysis so you go through another step where you have to clean your data from unwanted rows and columns which doesn’t make sense or might have some invalid data right so you need to make sure that your data is completely accurate and has some standards for your analysis right so that’s the next step which is clean and transform after the clean and transform step you have the next step which is load that particular data to your platform it could be Excel it could be some data visualization tool like TBL power VI Etc right after that you generate some meaningful information of that you create some pivot tables pivot charts and uh line graphs Etc right so which makes the some sensor of that data you will understand what what exactly is happening with your business how many leads or how many traffic orders what’s right and which is the best performing product which is the worst performing product and you need to take some decisions on your business which can make some impact on your overall profit or Revenue right so imagine if you want to do this for an year if you get one year’s data and you do it in a day or two it’s fine and if it’s on a monthly basis you get month-on-month data and you want to do it okay it could not be worse you can spend one or two days and it’s fine but if what if it’s week on week you start to think right what if it’s a daily task it’s a mundane task right you have to do all these Steps step by step repetitively and it it doesn’t make any you interested anymore in that particular type of job and uh the major point of this is you end up spending more time on cleaning the data transforming loading it and the worst part you don’t get proper time specific time which you want to actually dedicate to plan out something and bring up strategies to improve your business right so what if you could automate this right what if there is someone who could perform all these steps for you in in the way you want and you can actually have some time to produce some pivot tables pivot charts and then understand what exactly is happening with your business and find out some critical points where you can improvise and bring up some good Revenue what if there was someone who can perform all these steps for you clean your data transform it the way you want load it to your platform and help you create your P charts and P tables and actually save you a lot of time where you can spend all that time understanding your critical points where you need attention you can fix them and plan some strategies out to bring out some good Revenue right that exact someone who can do all these steps for you and automate your data cleaning data transformation and loading tasks for you is exactly the Microsoft power query so you can use Microsoft power query either in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft PI right now let’s uh kind of generate some data so uh this data will be generated using chat GPD and we will not generate data like which is not small like for a week on WE analysis or a day-by-day analysis we will create data for years so we will take five consecutive years starting from 2020 to 2024 and we will have some uh data generated using chat GPD and we will Auto me that data and try to get some analysis done right let’s jump on to chat GPD so before we go to chat GPD I have a prompt written here so this particular prompt will guide or explain chat jpd what exactly you want right so giving some uh like the Excel data right over here we have audit date order ID shift mode and customer name customer ID everything right so we have the sales quantity discount profit Etc so in the same format or a similar format if not the same format we are explaining chat gbt that we need these columns the order ID order date delivery date Etc and we want all these files in a downloadable Excel file links right so you can also specify this column should have certain certain things and this column can have certain certain things right so we will copy this prompt and head back to chat GPD and you can just paste the prompt and and hit enter there you go now your request has been analyzed and shortly you should be receiving some downloadable Excel files or some recommendations from chat GPD I’ve already performed this process and we have already downloaded some data so there you you go you have the data from 2020 to 2024 you can just click on this to download the file so I’ve already uh done this job and U I’ve downloaded the files so so those files are exactly in my downloads here so if you go to downloads here we have ERS data for 2021 2022 2023 and 2024 so this orders data has just one file which is orders 2020 so we will perform the data cleaning so first we will specify the source of the data then we will perform the data cleaning and transformation process then we load this particular Excel 2020 data into Excel and then we load this Excel data into the visualization tool we’ll use Excel for this and then generate some pivot tables and pivot charts we will only do this for one file which is 2020 right now what’s the surprising part is this particular file will also get data continuously for the next year 2021 for the next year 2022 for the next year 2023 and the current year 2024 right when we just copy paste or cut copy paste these files into this particular folder the same transformation steps the same data cleaning steps and the same data loading steps and also including the analysis will be done for you in the Excel pivot table right the process has been just automated right so you can see that happening for that let’s open a new Excel file so I have the Excel folder right over here so a new blank Excel workbook will be opened and if you go to data here you have get data as we said it can be a file it can be an Excel file XML Json PDF it can be from cloud it can be from a SQL database any any other source if it’s data you can work from it so we will give a file here right so just uh uh okay so so we will give a file here so select file and go to the last option which reads us from folder right so go to downloads and select that AIT data yeah go to downloads and select that a this data remember this particular folder should have only one file according to us which is 2020 data the first year data right select the folder and open and this should include the data of only one file which is AUST 2020 right so if you have have multiple files you can either combine transform and load if you have just one file you can just go with the transformation option over here or you can load if you are comfortable with what you have so I feel there are some minor changes which I would like to make to my data so I would go with the transform option now the power query window will shortly open now with the power query window opened you can select the orders 2022 Excel folder and it will be loaded now let’s try to cck click on the content button over here which should load our data now you can go with the first file so here’s the preview as we expected we have the order ID order date delivery date Etc just press on okay so the data has been successfully loaded right now we have the First Column as Source name which we will not be needing anymore and you can just remove that order ID is fine order date is fine is it no right so you can just select both the columns and change the data type right so here you have the option of change the data type where you will change the data type from whole number to date so that you get a date right so you have that the First Transformation step changing data type has been recorded here so this is like uh we uh Excel vbx or macro which will save all the steps and will apply uh to all the uh upcoming files right you have to change the type of delivery date as well so we will be finding uh the how many days it took to deliver or if if the delivery got delayed right so we can test that and here if you see uh yes we requested customer ID and customer name so we got customer ID along with the name so we don’t want that we want that in two separate columns we can do that so you can just select the entire column go to the split column option over here select by D limiter so I think it all automatically recognize that for us but there is one loophole we have a space Del limiter space option so just press okay and they should be helping us with the customer ID so let’s rename the customer ID to just customer ID and this to uh customer name space name right and that’s done here we have product which is fine quantity is fine traffic is fine leads is fine orders and here comes the money part so we have Revenue cost to company so we don’t know the profit yet right so to calculate the profit what you need to do is substract revenue from cost to the company and automatically you will get your profit so in some instances you might get a negative value don’t worry about that because uh that can be a discount offer or some 50% off 75% off that you regularly sell out your products which are selling in less num so that you can just you know uh move out the products from the store so that can be done and order status so we have order status as delivered in transit not delivered yet or order cancelled right so we might have to rule out some uh status here right right so we are calculating profit here so we don’t want the profit for cancelled orders or not delivered okay maybe okay okay not delivered orders uh this might be considered as the cost of company and revenue because uh it takes some delay to refund the amount to the customers so we can just add a filter to this particular column and and uh we will unselect not delivered products and Order cancel products so not delivered happens when the vendor is not available to deliver the product to the delivery agencies so in that case uh the order gets automatically cancelled and uh the order will be the money will be refunded to the customer so we will rule out these now the data is clean now uh as we thought to calculate the profit select these two columns first Revenue then cost a company because we are subtracting cost to company from revenue right so we will go to add to column and standard and here we have some options so we will subtract that so we will get the profit here so now you can name it as profit done so we just move that column to the money part of this particular data set so profit cost to company and revenue are the money parts so we will change data typ from just values to currency right so then that should be converted into the dollars format now the first one we don’t need this Source name so you can just rule out this you can just uh remove this column and there you go now you have a clean data you have the order ID order date delivery date yeah we forgot uh the another part of this particular data set transformation where we wanted to find out the number of dat it took to deliver the product okay I think we changed order ID so we don’t want this so the first okay let’s change this to the to the whole number as it was okay so order ID fine now we wanted to find out the number of days it took to deliver the product so we will select the delivery date first and then the order date second go to add column and uh we will select subtract in days and we should have that now let’s change the uh substract subtraction name to days to Der and you can move this column right select the whole column and hold it drag it and you can move this column along with the dates part of this data set where we have the ordered date and delivered date right right over here and you will find how many days it took to deliver a certain product now um let’s recheck once order ID order date delivery date dat to deliver customer ID customer name what product did he or she ordered and what quantity and uh the traffic which we received to the website the traffic which we received to the website the number of leads we got out of those traffic numbers the number of orders we got out of those uh uh lease and what’s the revenue we got out of those orders and what was theost the company and what is the profit that we made out of that order right and we also have the order status remember we only considered remember we only considered two types right uh we considered in transit and delivered statuses only we ruled out cancelled orders and not delivered orders so that we have accurate results of our profit made and revenue made out of this right now I’m completely satisfied with my transformation and cleaning of my dat set now let’s go to home and here we have the option of close and load so we will go with that and this particular dat set should be loaded to the data visualization where we have selected Excel right uh so we have the ERS data for 20 20 correct okay let’s not add date here because after all we will have some more data for 2021 2 3 and four right so let it be the way it is and if you just check the filter here we have only one year and if you just check the filter here you will have only one year and if you just check the filter here you will have only one year 2020 and if you go to the delivery date which let’s say if you have an order placed on December 31st and it got delivered on January 5th or something so you’ll have a little bit of a part of 2021 data which is completely all right not to be worried about so the main important thing is audit date so we want the audit dates of 2020 so that is loaded here right now you can just select the whole data set over here and uh uh you can add or insert some pivot tables here right from the selected range and uh let’s go with the default option which creates a new sheet and everything in a new location right here you have it now let’s say you wanted to make out some insights from this uh data set let’s delete the other sheet which we don’t want and let’s name it as pivot now the products will be loaded to the columns and uh profit will be loaded to values so you have a data set over here sum of profit from beds chairs cupboards sofa tort so here you have the pivot table which has sum of profit bed chair cupboard soofa T and grand total sum of profits made from these these these and these now select this entire data and go to the sech option here go to the pivot chart and uh here automatically here you can see that it is you know suggesting or recommending us to go for the bar chart which is a lot more better to s okay and you have your PIV chart here right and see the grand total here 22 4811 4.15 now this is only for one years of data now what we will do is go back to the downloads folder select the remaining years which is 2021 2 3 and 4 add that to the file location so let’s quickly go to our folder here and go to downloads select the folders I’m going to cut them from here go to a data and paste them here right now our job is done if we go back to the data here go to home and data okay so now that we have added the data to our folder go to the a data and here select the data segment and just select refresh all so everything is refreshed now let’s check the audit date filter and we will have all the five years from 2020 to 1 2 3 and four and let’s press okay for that and if you go to the pivot table you can also see the changes here just press refresh all and there you go you have the updated data right over here now that saved a lot of time for you and now that time can be utilized to plan a strategy and focus on the lower parts of your business and improvise them and bring a big change to the revenue and with that we have come to an end of this session on how to use Microsoft powerquery so here you can see that I’ve got some sales data of various car manufacturing companies and I’ve also got some slices so using these slicers I can get the realtime information from the dashboard so I’ll select an E from the first slicer and I’ll go into the second slicer and I’ll select a company now I’ll select BMW and SUV type so we have the data of all the SUV types cars manufactured by BMW car manufacturing company in the year 2018 now let’s start and create something similar to this one so how did I create this mis report let’s go through this in a step-by-step way so on my screen you can see that we have created a completely new Excel workbook and we have some sample data with five rows and 20 columns so this particular data is is based on the manufacturer year and the car manufacturing company and the type of the car manufactured and number of cars manufactured in that particular year and also the price of that particular car now to create Mis reports we need to play around P tables so we also have tutorials on P tables and you can go through that in our simply learn YouTube channel and also we will try to link those in the description box below now let’s select the entire data and go into the insert ribbon and there you can see the first option that is pivot table so after selecting the pivot table option it will show this particular dialogue box where it will ask you for the range of cells you need to select and the next one is to create the P table in the same sheet or a new sheet so we’ll take a new sheet here now select okay and there you go you have the pivot table here so first you have an empty pivot table and on the right side you can see we have p table Fields now you can either drag these options into the rows and columns or you can also click it so now let’s drag and drop these first we will select here and car followed by that we will take type quantity and price to columns so there you go we have our pivot table now let’s select all the data in the pivot table table and again let’s get back to the insert option and here you can see an option called pivot chart select that and you will have various pivot chart options here now you can select any one which you can prefer or which you like or whichever you think can represent your data in a best way possible so now let’s go with column chart first let’s select okay and we have our column chart over here now this happens to be our first chart now let’s create a few more charts so to create few more charts we’ll go back to the same original data select again insert and pivot table now again a new worksheet so here we have another Mt P table in the similar way let’s drag the same data into Ros and columns there you go and again we will select all the data and create a pivot chart go to insert option pivot chat and now let’s try to select pie chat select okay and we have our pie chart over here now let’s try to to create one more same procedure select table select pivot table then create new worksheet for the new pivot table and now drag and drop the data now let’s go to insert again let’s select all the data go to insert option and pivot chart now let’s try to select the bar chart select okay and there we have our bar chart now remember the first chart we created that is in sheet two this one so we will try to move all the charts to this particular table or this particular worksheet so let’s get back to the sheet number three right click and you can see an option called pivot chart analyze so from here you can move the chart select the option of moving the chart and don’t select the first one select the object in option and select the sheet number to which you want to move this chart for now we want to move this chart to sheet number two select that press okay now we have the chart moved to the sheet number two and in the same way let’s go to the sheet number four and let’s move this particular chart to sheet number two there you go the chart got moved to sheet number two now you can insert the slices so we have selected the third sheet or third chart and inside the pivot chart analyze option we have an option of inserting the slicer now we will insert the slicers for ear car and type now select okay and you will have all the three slices onto your sheet now let’s rearrange them so I’m just organizing them in a neat way there you go and you can also customize your designs for all the charts so that they look a little more better now if you see if I make some changes only one chart will be interacting for this right so if I select Ferrari and year 2020 and option as Sports you can see only one chart is interacting to these particular slices why because all these slices are connected to just one chart here so you need to make sure that all these slices are connected to all the three charts what we created so let’s erase all the filters and select one slicer at a time right click and you will see an option of report connections select that and you see that the connections are only connected to the pivot table 3 so select the remaining pivot tables as well select okay and in the same way select the second slicer select the report connection option connect pivot table 1 and two and select okay and in the same way the third one so now all the slices are connected to all the pivot charts now if you make some changes here they will respond automatically in the same way now let’s select the for company the year 2019 and hatchback option and you have all the cars which were made in the year 2019 from Ford Company in the segment of hashack so this was the sample data set that we worked on now you can also work on some complex data set such as this Superstore data set now one thing you need to make sure that when you’re working with Exel Mis they need to make sure that all the macros are disabled on your data set and you convert the entire data into the regular table format of excel right now Excel is considering this particular data as a database so for that you need to select all the datar Press contrl T and then convert the entire data in the form of tabular data and also don’t forget to click this icon which reads my table has headers so the first row is the headers now let’s select okay and your entire data will be converted into tabular form now let’s reset this to the normal type which has the clear color not all the fancy colors now the entire data is converted from the dbms to the tulet form and now you can start implementing the Mis reports and PIV tables and uh so why exactly do we need to do time series analysis typically we would like to predict something in the future and uh it could be stock prices it could be the sales or um anything that needs to be predicted into the future that is when we use time series analysis so it is um as the name suggests it is forecasting and typically when we say predict it need not be into the future in machine learning in data analysis when we talk about predicting we are not necessarily talking about the future but in Time series analysis we typically predict the future so we have some past data and we want to predict the future that is when we perform time series analysis so what are some of the examples uh it could be daily stock price the shares as we talk about or it could be the interest rates weekly interest rates or sales figures of a company so these are some of the examples where we use time series data we have historical data which is dependent on time and then based on that we create a model to predict the future so what exactly is uh time series so time series data has time as one of the components as the name suggests so in this example let’s say this is the stock price data and uh one of the components so there are two columns here column B is the price and column A is basically the time information in this case the time is a day so the primarily the closing price of a particular stock has been recorded on a daily basis so this is a Time series data and the time interval is obviously ly a day time series or time intervals can be daily weekly hourly or even sometimes there is something like a sensor data it could be every few milliseconds or micros seconds as well so the size of the time intervals can vary but they are fixed so if I’m saying that the it is daily data then the interval is fixed as daily if I’m saying this data is an hourly data then it is the data is captured every hour and so on so the time intervals are fixed the interval itself you can uh decide based on what kind of data we are capturing so this is a graphical representation the previous one here we saw the table representation and this is how to plot the data so on the Y AIS is let’s say the price or the the stock price and x-axis is the time so against time if you plot it this is how a Time series graph would look so as the name suggest what is time series data time series data is basically a sequence of data that is recorded over a specific intervals of time and based on the past Valu so if we want to do an analysis of Time series past data we try to forecast a future and uh again as the name suggests it is time series data which means that it is time dependent so time is one of the components of this data time series data consists of primarily four components one is the trend then we have the seasonality then cyclicity and then last but not least regularity or the random component sometimes is also referred to as a random component so let’s see what each of these components are so what is Trend trend is overall change or the pattern of the data which means that the data maybe let me just uh pull up the pen and uh show you so let’s say you have a data set somewhat like this a Time series data set somewhat like this all right so what is the overall trend there is an overall trend which is upward Trend as we call it here right so it is not like it is continuously increasing there are times when it is dipping then there are times when it is increasing then it is decreasing and so on but overall over a period of time from the time we start recording to the time we end there is a trend right there is an upward Trend in this case so the trend need not always be upwards there could be a downward Trend as well so for example here there is a downward Trend right so this is basically what is a trend overall whether the data is increasing or decreasing all right then we have the next component which is seasonality what is seasonality seasonality as the name suggests once again changes over a period of time and periodic changes right so there is a certain pattern um let’s take the sales of warm clothes for example so if we not it along the months so let’s say January February March April May June July and then let’s say it goes up to December okay so this is our December D I will just mark it as D and then you again have Jan FB March and then you get another December okay and just for Simplicity let’s mark this as December as the end of the year and then one more December okay so what will happen when if you’re talking about warm clo clothes what happens the sales of warm clothes will increase probably around December when it is cold and then they will come down and then again around December again they will increase and then the sales will come down and then there will be again an increase and then they will come down and then again an increase and then they will come down let’s say this is the sales pattern so you see here there is a trend as well there is an upward Trend right the sales are increasing over let’s say these are multiple years this is for year 1 this is for year two this is for year three and so on so for multiple years overall the trend there is an upward Trend the sales are increasing but it is not a continuous increase right so there is a certain pattern so what is happening what is the pattern every December the sales are increasing or they are peing for that particular year right then there is a new year again when December approaches the sales are increasing again when December approaches the sales are increasing and so on and so forth so this is known as seasonality so there is a certain fluctuation which is uh which is periodic in nature so this is known as seasonality then cyclicity what is cyclicity now cyclicity is somewhat similar to seasonality but here the duration between two cycles is much longer so seasonality typically is referred to as an annual kind of a sequence like for example we saw here so it is pretty much like every year in the month of December the sales are increasing however cyclicity what happens is first of all the duration is pretty much not fixed and the duration or the Gap length of time between two cycles can be much longer so recession is an example so we had let’s say recession in 2001 or 2002 perhaps and then we had one in 2008 and then we had probably in 2012 and so on and so forth so it is not like every year this happens probably so there is usually when we say recession there is a slump and then it recovers and then there is a slump and then it recovers and probably there is another bigger slump and so on right so you see here this is similar to seasonality but first of all this length is much more than a year right that is number one and it is not fixed as well it is not like every four years or every six years that duration is not fixed so the the duration can vary and at the same time the gap between two cycles is much longer compared to seasonality all right so then what is irregularity irregularity is like the random component of the time series data so there is like you have part which is the trend which tells whether the overall it is increasing or decreasing then you have cyclicity and seasonality which is like kind of a specific pattern right uh then there is a cyclicity which is again a pattern but at much longer intervals plus there is a random component so which is not really which cannot be accounted for very easily right so there will be a random component which can be really random as the name suggests right so that is the irregularity component so these are the various components of Time series data yes there are conditions where we cannot use time series analysis right so is it can we do time series analysis with any kind of data no not really so so what are the situations where we are uh we cannot do time series analysis so there will be some data which is collected over a period of time but it’s really not changing so it will not really not make sense to perform any time series analysis over it right for example like this one so if we take X as the time and Y as the value of whatever the output we talking about and if the Y value is constant there is really no analysis that you can do uh leave a time series analysis right so that is one another possibility is yes there is a change but it is changing as per a very fixed function like a sine wave or a c wave again time series analysis will not make sense in this kind of a situation because there is a definite pattern here there is a definite function that the data is following so it will not make sense to do a Time series analysis now before performing any time series analysis uh the data has to be stationary and uh typically time series data is not stationary so in which case you need to make the data stationary before we apply any models like ARA model or any of these right so what exactly is stationary data and what is meant by stationary data let us take a look first of all what is non-stationary data time series data if you recall from one of my earlier slides we said that time series data has the following four components the trend seasonality cyc and random random component or irregularity right so if these components are present in Time series data it is non-stationary which means that typically these components will be present therefore most of the time A Time series data that is collected raw data is non-stationary data so it has to be changed to stationary Data before we apply any of these algorithms all right so a nonstationary Time series data would look like this which means like for example here there is an upward Trend the seasonality component is there and also the random component and so on so if the data is not stationary then the time series forecasting will be affected so you cannot really perform a Time series forecasting on a non-stationary data so how do we differentiate between a stationary and a non-stationary Time series data typically or technically one is of course you can do it visually in non-stationary data the the data will be more flattish the seasonality will of course be there but the trend will not be there so the data May if we plot that it may appear somewhat like this right it’s a horizontal line along the horizontal line you will see compared to the original data which was there was an upward Trend so it was changing somewhat like this right so this is non-stationary data and this is how a stationary data would look visually what does this mean technically this means that stationarity of the data depends on a few things what the mean the variance and the co-variance so these are the three components on which the stationarity of the data depends so let’s take a look at what each of these are for stationary data the mean should not be a function of time which means that the mean should pretty much remain constant over a period of time right so there is there shouldn’t be any change uh so this is how the stationary data Outlook and this is how a non-stationary data Outlook I’ve shown in the previous slide as well so here the mean is increasing that means there is an upward Trend okay so that is one part of it and then the variance of the series should not be also a function of time so the variance also should be pretty much common or should be constant rather uh so this is a if we visually we take a look this is how time series stationary data would look where the variance is not changing here the variance is changing therefore this is nonstationary and we cannot apply Time series is forecasting on this kind of data similarly the co-variance which is basically of the ath term and the i+ MTH term should not be a function of time as well so co-variance is nothing but not only the variance at the ith term but the relation between the variance of the ith term and the I plus MTH or the I plus n term so as again once again visually this is how it would look if the co-variance is also changing with respect to time so these are the all three components should be pretty much constant and that is when you have stationary data and in order to perform time series analysis the data should be stationary okay so let’s take a look at uh the concept of moving average or the method of moving average and let’s see how it works we’ll do simple calculations so let’s say this is our sample data we have the data for three months January February March the sales in hundreds of in thousands rather not hundreds thousands of dollars is given here and uh now we want to find the moving average so how do we find the moving average we call it as moving average three so moving average three is nothing but you take three of the values or the readings add them up and uh divide by three basically the way we take a mean or average of the three values so that is as simple as that so that’s the average first of all so what is moving average moving average is if you now have a series of data you keep taking the three values the next next three values and then you take the average of that and then the next three values and so on and so forth so that is how you take the moving average so let’s take a little more detailed example of car sales so this is how we have the car sales data for the entire year let’s say so rather for four years so year one we have for each quarter quarter 1 2 3 4 and then year two quarter 1 2 3 4 and so on and so forth so this is how we have sales data of a particular car let’s say or a showroom and uh we want to forecast for year five so we have the data for four years we now want to forecast for the fifth year let’s see how it works first of all if we plot the data as it is uh taken the raw data this is how it would look and uh what do you think it is is it stationary no right because there is a trend upward Trend so this is not a stationary data so we um we need to later we will see how to make it stationary but to start with just an example we will not worry about it for now if we will just go ahead and uh manually do the forecasting using what is known as moving average method okay so we are not applying any algorithm or anything like that in the next video we will see how to apply an algorithm how to make it stationary and so on all right so um here we see that all the three or four components that we talked about um are there there is a trend there is a seasonality and then of course there is some random component as well cyclicity may not be it is possible that cyclicity is not applicable in all the situations for sales especially there may not be or unless you’re taking a sales for maybe 20 30 years cyclicity may not come into play so we will just consider uh primarily the trend seasonality and irregularity right so Random it is also known as random irregularity right so we were calling the random or irregularity component so these are the three main components typically in this case we will talk about so this is the component and um we will see how to do these uh calculations so let’s take a look red draw the table including the time code we will add another column which is the time code and uh this the column and we’ll just number it like 1 2 3 4 up to 16 the rest of the data Remains the Same okay so we will do the calculations now now let us do the moving average calculations um or ma4 as we call it for each year so we take all the four quarters and we take an average of that so if we add up these four values and divide by four you get the moving average of 3.4 so we start by putting the value here so that will be for the third quarter let’s say 1 2 3 the third quarter then we will go on to the next one so we take the next four values as you see here and take the average of that which is the moving average for the next quarter and so on and so forth now if we just do the moving average uh it is not centered so what we do is we basically add one more column and we calculate the centered moving average as shown here so here what we do is we take the average of two values and then just adding these values here so for example the first value for the third quarter is actually the average of the third and the fourth quarter so we have 3.5 now it gets centered so similarly the next value would be 3.6 + 3.9 ided 2 so which is 3.7 and so on and so forth okay so that is the centered moving average this is done primarily to smooth the data so that there are not too many rough edges so that is what we do here so if we visualize this data now uh this is how it looks right so if we take the centered moving average as you can see there is a gradual increase if this was not the case if we had not centered it the changes would have been much sharper so that is the basically the smoothening that we are talking about now let’s go and or do the forecast for the fifth year so in order to do the forecast what we will do is we will take the centered moving average as our Baseline and then start doing a few more calculations that are required in order to come up with the prediction so what we are going to do is we are going to use this multiplicity or M multiplicative model in this case and this is how it it looks so we take the product of seasonality and uh the trend and the irregularity components and we just multiply that and in order to get that this product of these two We have basically the actual value divided by CMA YT value divided by CMA will give you the predicted value on YT is equal to the product of all three components therefore St into Y is equal to YT by CMA so this is like this is equal to YT right so therefore if we want St into YT the product of seasonality and irregularity is equal to YT by CMA so that is how we will work it out I also have an Excel sheet of the actual data so let me just pull that up all right so this is how the data looks in Excel as you can see here year 1 quarter 1 2 3 4 year 2 quarter 1 2 3 4 and so on and this is the sales data and then this is the moving average as I mentioned this is how we calculate and this is the centered moving average so this is the primary component that we will start working with and then we will calculate since we want the product of St into ITT that is equal to YT by CMA so if you see these values are nothing but the YT value divided by CMA so in this case it is 4 by 3.5 which is 1.14 similarly 4.5 by 3.7 1.22 and so on and so forth so we take we have the product St into it and uh then the next step is to calculate the average of respective quarters so that is what we are doing here average of respective quarters and then we need to calculate the deseasonalized values so in order to get deseasonalized value we need to divide YT by St that was calculated so for example here it is 2.8 by .9 so we got the decisional value here and uh then we get the trend and then we get the predicted values so in order to get the predicted value which is basically we predict the values for known values as well like for example year one quarter one we know the value but now that we have our model we predict ourselves and see how close it is so we predicted as 2.89 whereas the actual value is 2.8 then we have 2.59 the actual value is 2.1 and so on just to see see how our model works and then continue that into the fifth year because for fifth year we don’t have a reference value okay and if we plot this we will come to know how well our calculations are how well our manual model in this case we did not really use a model but we did on our own manually so it will tell us the trend so for example the predicted value is this gray color here and you can see that it is actually pretty much following the actual value which is the blue color color right and the gray color is the predicted value so the wherever we know the values up to year four we can see that our predicted values are following or pretty much very close to the actual values and then from here onwards when the year five starts the blue color line is not there because we don’t have the actual values only the predicted values so we can see that since it was following the trend pretty much for the last four years we can safely assume that it has understood the pattern and it is predicting correctly for the next one year the next four quarters right so that is what we are doing here so these four quarters we did not have actual data but we have the predicted values so let’s go back and see how this is working in this using the slides so this is we already saw this part and um I think it was easier to see in the Excel sheet so we calculated the St it the product of St and it using the formula like here y by YT by CMA we got that and then we got ST which is basically YT so this is average of the first quarters for all the four years and uh similarly this is the average of the second quarter for all the four years and so on so these values are repeating there are they are calculated only once they get repeated as you can see here and uh then we get the deseasonalized data and that is basically YT by St so we calculated St here and we have YT so y YT by St will give you the deseasonalized data and uh we have got rid of the seasonal and The Irregular components so far now what we are left with is the trend and uh before we start the time series forecasting or time series analysis as I mentioned earlier we need to completely get rid of the non-stationary components so we are still left with the trend component so now let us also remove the trend component in order to do that we have to find the or we have to calculate the intercept and slope of the data because that is required to calculate the trend and uh how are we going to do that we will actually use um what is known as a regression tool or Analytics tool that is available in Excel so you remember we have our data in ex Excel so let me take you to the Excel and uh here we need to calculate the intercept and the slope in order to do that we have to use the regression mechanism and in order to use the regression mechanism we have to use the Analytics tool that comes with Excel so how do you activate this tool so this is how you would need to activate the Tool uh from Excel you need to go to options and uh uh in options there will be addin and in addin you will have um analysis tool pack and you select this and um you just say go it will open up a box like this you say analysis tool pack and you say Okay And now when you come back in to the regular view of excel in the data tab you will see data analysis activated so you need to go to file options and addins and then analysis tool pack typically since I’ve already added it it is coming at the top but it would come under inactive application addin so when you’re doing it for the first time so don’t use VBA you just say analysis tool pack there are two options one with VBA like this one and one without VBA so just use the one without VBA and then instead of just saying okay just take care that you click on this go and not just okay so you say go then it will give you these options only then you select just the analysis tool pack and then you say okay all right so and then when you come back to the main view you click on data okay so this is your normal home view perhaps so you need to come to data and here is where you will see data analysis available to you and then if you click on that there are a bunch of possibilities what kind of data anal analysis you want to do if there are options are given right now we just want to do regression because we want to find the slope and The Intercept so select regression and you say okay and you will get these options for input y range and input X range input y range is the value YT so you just select this and you can select up to here and press enter and input X range you can for now you start with uh the baseline or you can also start with the D seasoned values so you can just click on these and say okay I have already calculated it so these are the intercept and the coefficients that we are getting for these values and we will actually use that to calculate our Trend here right so which is in the J colum so trend is equal to intercept plus slope into the time code so The Intercept is uh out here as we can see in our slide as well so if you see here this is our intercept and the lower value is the slope we have calculated here and it’s shown in the slides as well so intercept the formula is shown here so our trend is equal to intercept plus slope into time code time code is nothing but this one t column A 1 2 3 4 okay so that’s how you calculate the trend and that’s how you use the data analysis tool from Excel using these two we calculate the predicted values and using this formula which is basically trend is equal to intercept plus slope into time code and then we can go and plot it see how it is looking and therefore so we see here that the predicted values are pretty close to the actual values and um therefore we can safely assume that our calculations which are like our manual model is working and hence we we go ahead and predict for the fifth year so till four years we know the actual value as well so we can compare how our model is performing and for the fifth year we don’t have reference values so we can use our equations to calculate the values or predict the values for the fifth year and we can go ahead and safely calculate those values and when we plot for the fifth year as well the predicted values we see that they are pretty much they captured the pattern and we can safely assume that the predictions are fairly accurate as we can also see from the graph in the Excel sheet that we have already seen okay so let’s go and plot it so this is how the plot looks this is the CMA or the centered moving average the green color and then the blue color is the actual data red color is the predicted value predicted by our handcrafted model okay so remember we did not use any regular for forecasting model or any tool we have done this manually and uh the actual tool will be used in the next video this is just to give you an idea about how behind the scenes or under the hood how fusting Works a Time series analysis how it is performed okay so it looks like it has captured the trend properly so up to here is the known reference we have reference and from here onwards it’s purely predicted and uh as I mentioned earlier we can safely assume that the values are accurate and predicted properly for the fifth year so let’s go ahead and Implement a Time series forecast in r first of all we will be using the arima model to do the forecast of uh this time series data so let us try to understand what is arima model so arima is actually an acronym it stands for autor regressive integrated moving average so that is what is ARA model and it is specified by three parameters which is p d and q p stands for autor regressive so let me just mark this so there are three components here Auto regressive integrated moving average okay so these three parameters correspond to those three components so the P stands for auto regressive D for integrated and Q for moving average so let us see what exactly this is so these three factors are p is the number of Auto regressive terms or ar we will see that in a little bit and D is how many levels of differences that we need to do or differentiation we need to do and Q is the number of lagged forecast errors so we’ll see what exactly each of these are so a is the number of autor regressive terms and which is basically denoted by the p and then we have D which is for the number of times it has to be differentiated and then we have q which is for the moving average so what exactly AR terms so in terms of the regression model Auto regressive components refer to the prior values of the current value well what we mean by that is here when we talk about time series data focus on the fact that there is regression so what exactly happens in regression we try to do something like if it a simple linear regression we do some equation like y = mx + C where there are actually there are two variables one is the dependent variable and then there is an independent variable let me just complete this equation as well MX plus C right so this is a normal regression curve or a simple regression curve now here we are talking about Auto regression or Auto regressive so Auto regressive as the name suggests is regression of itself so which means that here you have only one variable which is your maybe the cost of the flights or whatever it is right and the other variable is basically time dependent and therefore the value at any given time and that we will denote as YT for example so there is no X here there is only one variable and which is y and we say YT which is basically the predicted value at a time interval T for example is dependent on the previous Valu so for example there may be A1 and then YT minus1 and then there will be like plus A2 and right plus A2 and YT minus 2 and uh all right and then plus A3 into y tus 3 all right so basically here what we are saying is there’s only one variable here but there is a regression component so we are doing a regression on itself so that’s how the term Auto regression comes into play so only thing is that it is dependent on the pre previous time values so there is a lag let’s say this is the first lag second lag third lag and so on so the current value which is YT is dependent on the previous time lag values so that is what is auto regression component so this is what is shown here for example in this case instead of Y we are calling it as X so that’s the same and this is represented by some equation of that sort depending on how many lags we take so that is the AR component and the term p is BAS basically determines how many lags we are considering so that’s the term e for now what is d d is the degree of differencing so here differencing is like to for the nonseasonal differences right so for example if you take the values like this which are given for five 4 six and so on and so forth if you take the differencing of one after another like for example 5 – 4 or 4 – 5 the next value with the previous value so 4 – 5 so this is known as the first order differencing so the result is min -1 similarly 6 – 4 is 2 7 – 6 is 1 so this is first order differencing and uh here we call it as D is equal to 1 okay and same way we can have second order third order and so on then the last one is q q is the actually by we call it moving average but in reality it is actually the error of the model so we also sometimes represent as ET all right so now ARA model works on the assumption that the data is stationary which means that the trend and seasonality of the data has been removed that is correct okay so this we have discussed in the first part how what exactly is stationary data and how do we remove the non-stationary part of it now in order to test whether the data is stationary or not there are two important components that are considered one is the autocorrelation function and other is the partial autocorrelation function so this is referred to as ACF and pacf all right so what is autocorrelation and what is the definition correlation is basically the similarity between values of a same variable across observations as the name suggest now how do we actually find the aut correlation function the value right so this is basically done by plotting and autocorrelation function also tells you how correlated points are with each other based on how many time steps they are separated by and so on that is basically the time lag that we were talking about and it is also used to determine how past and future data points are related and the value of the autocorrelation function can vary from minus1 to 1 so if we plot this is how it would look autocorrelation function would look somewhat like this and there is actually a readily available function in R so we will see that and you can use that to plot your a corelation function okay so that is ACF and we will see that in our R studio in a little bit and similarly you have partial autocorrelation function so partial autocorrelation function is the degree of association between two variables while adjusting the effect of one or more additional variables so this again can be measured and it can also be plotted and its value once again can go from minus1 to one and it gives the partial correlation of Time series with its own lagged values so lag again we have discussed in the previous uh couple of slides this is how PF plot would look in our studio we will see that as well and once we get into the r studio and with that let’s get into our studio and take a look at our use case before we go into the code let’s just quickly understand what exactly is the objective of this use case so we are going to predict some values or forecast some values and we have the data of the airline ticket sales of the previous years and now we will try to find the or predict the forecast the values for the future years all right so we will basically identify the time series components like Trend seasonality and uh random Behavior we will actually visualize this in our studio and then we will actually forecast the values based on the past values or history data historical data so these are the steps that we follow we will see in our studio in a little bit just quickly let’s go through what are the steps we load the data and it is a Time ser data if we try to find out what class it belongs to the data is actually air passengers data that is already comes preloaded with the our studio so we will be using that and we can take a look at the data and then what is the starting point what is the end point so these are all functions that are really available we’ll be using and then what is the frequency it’s basically frequency is 12 which is like yearly data right so every month the data has been collected so for each year it is 12 and then we can check for many missing values if there are any and then we can take a look at the summary of the data this is what we do in exploratory data analysis and then we can plot the data visualiz the data how it is looking and we will see how the data has some Trend seasonality and so on and so forth all right then we can take a look at the cycle of the data using the cycle function and we can see that it is every month that’s the cycle end of every 12 months a new cycle begins so each month of the year is uh the data is available then we can do box plots to see for each month how the data is varying over the various 10 or 12 years that we will be looking at this data and uh from exploratory data analysis we can identify that there is a trend there is a seasonality component and how the seasonality component varies also we can see from the box plots and we can decompose the data we can use the decompose function rather to see the various components like the C ality Trend and the irregularity part okay so we will see all of this in our studio this is how they will look this is the Once you decompose and this is how you will actually you can visualize the data this is the actual data and this is the trend as you can see it’s going upwards this is the seasonal component and this is your random or irregularity right so we call it irregularity or we can also call it random as you can see here yes so the data must have a constant variance and mean which means that it is stationary before we start any analysis time series analysis and without so basically yeah if it is stationary only then it is easy to model the data perform time series analysis so we can then go ahead and fit the model as uh we discussed earlier we’ll be using ARA model there are some techniques to find out what should be the parameters so we will see that when we go into our studio so the auto ARA function basically tells us what should be the parameters right so these parameters are the p d and q that we talked about that’s what is being shown here so if we use autoa it will basically take all possible values of this PDQ these parameters and it will find out what is the best value and then it will recommend so that is the advantage of using Auto ARA all right so like in uh this case it will tell us what if we use this parameter tra we set the parameter Trace is equal to true then it will basically tell us what is the value of this AIC which has to be minimum so the lower the value the better so for each of these combinations of p d and q it will give us the values here and then it will recommend to us which is the best model okay because whichever has the lowest value of this AIC it will recommend that as your best PDQ values so once we have that we can see that we will basically we can potentially get a model or the equation model is nothing but the equation and based on the parameters that we get and we can do some Diagnostics we can do some plotting to see how whether there is a plot for the residuals so which shows the stationarity and then we can also take a look at the ACF and PF we can plot the ACF and PF and then we can do some forecasting for the future year so in this case we have up to 1960 and then we can see how we can forecast for the next 10 years which is 1970 up to 1970 and once we have done this can we validate this model yes definitely we can validate this model and uh to validate the findings we use uh
junkbox test and this is how you just call box. test and then you pass these parameters and you will get the values that will be returned which will tell us whether this how accurate this model is or accurate the predictions are so the values of P are quite insignificant in this case we will see that and that also indicates that our model is free of autocorrelation and that will basically be it so let’s go back and into our R studio and uh go through these steps in uh real time so we have to import this Library forecast package is not installed you to go here and install the forecast package okay so that’s the easy way to install rather than so click on this install I will not do it now because I’ve already installed so the first time that’s only one time then after that you just have to load it into memory and then keep going so we will load this data called air passengers so by calling this data method and if you see the the data a passengers is loaded here and if we check for the class it is a Time series data TS data so we can check for the dates we can also view the data in a little bit and start date is 19 49 and January and our end date is 1960 December and the frequency is 12 which is like collected monthly so that is the frequency which is uh 12 here and then we check if there are any um missing values there are no missing values and then we take a look at the summary of the data this is all exploratory data analysis and then if you just display the data this is how it looks and then we need to decompose this data so we will kind of store this in an object TS data and then use that to decompose and store the new values let me just clear this for now and uh if we decompose basically as we have seen in the slides decomposing is breaking it into the trend seasonality and The Irregular or random components then you can go ahead and plot it so when you plot it you can see here let me Zoom this this this is our original plot or observed value as it is known as then we have decomposed the three parts which is basically the trend as you can see there is a upward Trend then the seasonal component so this is some regularly occurring pattern and then there is a random value which is basically you cannot really give any equation or function or anything like that so that’s what this plotting has done and then you can actually plot them individually as well so these are the individual plots for the trend for the seasonal component and the Rand component all right so now let’s take a look at the original data and see how the trend is in a way so if we do this linear regression line it will show that the it is going upwards and we can also take a look at the cycle that are there which is nothing but we have a frequency of 12 right so the Cycles will display that it is January February to December and then back to January February and so on and so forth and if we do box plot for the monthly data you will see that for each of the months right and over the 10 years that the data that we have we will see that there is a certain pattern right this is also in a way to find the seasonality component so while January February sales are relatively low around July August the sales pick up so especially in July I think the sales are the highest and this seems to be happening pretty much every year right so this is every year in July there seems to be a peak in the sales and then it goes down and slightly higher in December and so on so that is Again part of our exploratory data analysis and once again let’s just plot the data now as I said in order to fit into an ARA model we need the values of PD and Q now one way of doing it is there are multiple ways actually of doing it the earlier method of doing it was you draw the autocorrelation function plot and then partial aut correlation function plot and then observe that and where does this change and then identify what should be the values of p and Q and so on now R really has a very beautiful method which we can use to avoid all that manual process that we used to do earlier so what R will do is there is a method called Auto ARA and if we just call this Auto ARA method and it will basically go and test the ARA model for all possible values of this parameters PDQ and then it will suggest to you what should be the best model and it will return that best model with the right values of PD and Q so you we as data scientists don’t have to do any manual you know trial and error kind of uh stuff okay so we got the model now and uh this is the model it it has PDQ values are 211 PDQ and this is the seasonal part of it so we can ignore it for now and so if we want to actually understand how this has returned these values 21 one as the best one there is another functionality or feature where we can use this Trace function or Trace parameter so if you pass to Auto ARA the trace parameter what it will do is it will show you how it is doing this calculation what is the value of the AIC basically ASC is what you know defines the accuracy of the model the lower the better okay so for each each combination of PDQ it will show us the value of AIC so let’s run it before instead of me talking so much let’s run this if we run auto ARA with Trace you see here there is a red mark here that means it is performing it’s executing this and here we see the display right so it starts with certain values of PDQ and then it finds that value is too high so it starts with again with some 0 1 1 0er and so on and so forth and ultimately it tells us okay this is our best model you see here it says this is our best model 211 let’s go back and see did we get the same one yes we got the same one when we ran without Trace as well right now why is 211 let us see where is 211 here is our 211 and if you compare the values you see that 1017 is pretty much the lowest value and therefore it is saying this is our best model all other values are higher so that that’s how you kind of um get your model and now that you have your model what you have to do you need to predict the values right so before that let us just do some test of these values so for that you install T Series again if you are doing it for the first time you would rather use this package and install and say T Series and install it and then you just use this Library function to load it into your memory all right so now that we got our model using Auto ARA let us go ahead and forecast and also test the model and also plot the ACF and psf remember we talked about this but we did not really use it we don’t have to use that but at least we will visualize it and uh for some of the stuff we may need this T Series Library so if you are doing this for the first time you may have to install it and my recommendation is don’t use it in the code you go here and install tseries and I will not do it now because I’ve already installed it but this is a preferred method and once you install it you just load it using this libraries function and then you can plot your residuals and this is how the residuals look and you can plot your ACF and psf okay so this is how your PF looks and this is how your ACF looks for now there is really nothing else we need to do with ACF and PF this just to visualize how that how it looks but as I mentioned earlier we were actually using these visualizations or these graphs to identify the values of p d and q and how that was done it’s uh out of scope of this video so we will leave it at that and uh then we will forecast for the next 10 years how do we forecast that so we call forecast and we pass the model and we pass what is the level of accuracy that you need which is 95% and for how many periods right so basically we want for 10 years which is like 10 into 12 time periods so that’s what we are doing here and now we can plot the forecast value so you see this is the original value up to I think 62 or whatever and then it goes up to 72 this blue color is the predicted value let’s go and zoom it up so that we can see it better so from here onwards we forus and you can see that it looks like our model has kind of learned the pattern and this pattern looks very similar to what we see in the actual data now how do we test our model so we can do what is known as a box test and we pass our model here residuals basically with different lags and from those values here the P values here we find that they are reasonably low the P values which means our model is fairly accurate we’ll be creating two dashboards using a sample sales data set so if you want to get the data and the dashboard file that we’ll be creating in this demo then please put your email IDs in the comment section of the video our team will share the files via email now let’s begin by understanding what is a dashboard in Excel a dashboard is a visual interface that provides an overview of key measures relevant to a particular objective with the help of charts and graphs dashboard reports allow managers to get a high level overview of the business and help them make quick decisions there are different types of dashboards such as strategic dashboards analytical dashboards and operational dashboards an advantage of dashboards is the quick detection of outliers and correlations with Comprehensive data visualization it is time-saving as compared to running multiple reports with this understanding let’s jump into our demo for creating our Dash boards we’ll be using a sample sales data set let me show you the data set first so here is the sales data set that we’ll be using for our demo so this data set was actually generated using a simulator today we are going to talk about descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel and I will walk you through a stepbystep guide on how to perform this in Excel but before we dive into that let’s first take a quick look at what descriptive statistics really means descriptive statistics is is all about summarizing and describing the key features of a data set it helps you get a quick snapshot of your data by calculating things like mean median mode standard deviation range and more these are essential to understanding patterns and Trends in your data without having to look at every single value it’s the first step in analyzing data before jumping into more complex statistics now that we have a basic understanding of what descriptive statistics is let’s get into Excel and see how you can easily calculate these statistics using the buil-in tools I am in Ms Exel and I have a sample of data in my Excel to perform the descriptive Statistics over there is an amazing feature in Excel that many people are not aware about is a data analysis tool pack if you have not come across this word the data analysis tool pack in Excel is an addin in that provides Advanced Data analysis tools for statistical and Engineering calculations it simp fies the complex data analysis Tas by offering the buil-in features to perform various statistical test and data processing without needing to write formulas manually so we need to ensure first if we have activated the tool pack correctly so for that go to file then options and then addin inside addin at the bottom we have manage and where you make sure you have selected the Excel addin and then click on go and then in the check box make sure you have chosen the analysis tool pack option and then click on the okay button now when you see the topmost bar in the data bar has a data analysis button now we are all set to perform the descriptive statistics to perform this I will click on this data analysis button and from there I will choose the descriptive statistics option and select okay now in the input range here we need to enter the range of cells containing your data for that I will click on this upper arrow and highlight the cells containing my data and press enter the next option is grouped by depicts how your data is arranged in your sheet if it is arranged in the columns just like mine you can obviously choose columns and if it is arranged rowwise then go for rows if you have levels on the first row of your data you can take on the checkbox your levels in the first row I don’t have that so I will skip this then if you go for the output options this is where you want your descriptive statistics result to be returned the first option that is output range is where you can specify a particular cell in this sheet only where your result to be returned second option is new worksheet that will answer your your descriptive statistics in a completely new worksheet the third option is new workbook we’ll enter the result all together in a different Excel file I want to enter my data in the same shet here so I’ll go for output range and I’ll choose somewhere here and I will press enter underneath I have various options available I will take all of them and don’t worry I will explain each in more detail so go for okay and here you go you have got the whole descriptive Statistics over here mean standard deviation and more now moving on the first value we got is the mean basically it is the average of all the data values the mean is actually the sum of all the data points divided by the number of the data points available in the sheet it tells you the central value of the data you can separately calculate it in Excel using the function average now moving on we have the second one which is standard error it is nothing but the measure of the variability of sample means in a sampling distribution of means if you want to calculate the standard error separately in Excel with the formula standard deviation divided by the square root of count now moving on we have median in short it is the middle value when data is sorted if I elaborate it then the median is the middle value in a data set when it’s ordered from smallest to the largest if the number of data points is odd is a middle number if it is even it is the average of the two middle numbers separately you can perform this in Excel by using the function median now we have mode it is basically the most frequent value rather it refers to the value that appears most frequently in a data set we can perform it separately in Excel using the function mode next we have a standard deviation the standard deviation measures the spread or dispersion of your data a higher standard deviation means the data points are spread out widely while a lower standard deviation means they’re close to the mean you can perform this by using the function stdv now coming to sample variance variance is the square of the standard deviation if it gives an idea of how data points spread out from the but in squar units to perform this you need to use a v function now we are going to kosis kosis measures the tailess of the data distribution High kosis means more outl of the heavy Tails while low kosis means the data has fewer extreme values describing the higher kosis and the lower kosis next we have skewness skewness measures the asymmetry of the data a positive SK skew means the data is skewed to the right more lower values while a negative skew means the skewed to the left that is more higher values now moving on we have range range is the difference between the maximum and the minimum values in your data set the maximum value we have over here is 9.23 and the minimum value we have is 11.67 so the difference is 78.5 6 to find out the minimum value in the Excel sheet use the function minimum to find out the maximum value in the Excel sheet use the function Max then coming to sum as you all know sum is the total addition of all the values in your sheet we can calculate sum separately by using the function sum then we have count this is the total number of values in the sheet in my case it’s 20 it will vary in everyone else then we have the largest the first written in the bracket denotes the first largest number that is 9.23 if the number would have been two it will denote the second largest number same goes for the smallest the smallest number in my case is 11.67 last but not the least we have confidence level this is the number we need to add and subtract from the mean the addition of the CL and mean is greater than 95% of the CL the subtraction of Cl from mean is lower than than 95% of Cl welcome to Simply learn in this video we are focusing on chat GPT and its groundbreaking role in data analytics in a world where data is the new gold understanding and analyzing this wealth of information is crucial but as the volume of data grows exponentially traditional analysis methods are being pushed to their limits enter CH GPT a revolutionary AI developed by openi that’s transforming how we approach data analytics but what makes chat jbt stand out in the crowded field of data analytics tools how can it not only streamline complex processes but also uncover insights that were previously hidden in plain sight stay tuned as we unrel the capabilities of chat GPT share real world applications and show you how it’s being used by analysis and businesses alike to make smarter datadriven decisions and whether you are a data scientist a business professional or just a tech Enthusiast curious about the future of AI in data analytics this we video is for you so let’s dive in and discover how CH GPT is not just revolutionizing data analytics but also how we understand and interact with the vast Universe of data and don’t forget to hit that like button subscribe and ring the bell to stay updated on all our future Explorations into the fascinating world of technology now let’s get started and unlock the potential of chat GPD for data analytics together so guys an Excel data analyst always looks for ways to improve their efficiency and gain deeper insight sites from the data that’s where chat jbt comes in handy so chat jbt is an AI powered language model that can assist you in various task including Excel based data analysis and for that data analysis let’s dive into some demos to see how it works so guys as you can see this is the chat jpt 4 and you could see this has the support of D browsing and Analysis and usage limits May apply like we have the version that has some usage limits and for the day data I have downloaded the data from the kar I will provide you the link in the description if you want to download the same data you can and I have that in my downloads so this is the data that we’ll be using so the first thing we’ll be doing is data cleaning and preparation so firstly let’s explore data cleaning and preparation before diving into analysis it’s essential to ensure that data is clean and ready for processing so for that we will write a prompt in chat JB and ask him to clean the data chat JP has the feature to insert the files provide the Excel file to the chat jpt and we’ll ask him that can you help me identify and remove duplicates in this Excel spreadsheet so let’s ask him can you help me identify and remove duplicates duplicates from this Excel spreadsheet from the provided Excel spreadsheet you could see that J has started generating the response and he is telling us that he can definitely help us with that and he is analyzing that so you could see that J has provided us the response so let’s first go to our spreadsheet so this is the spreadsheet order number quantity ordered price of each quantity and Order lines so you could see that first J GPT has encountered an error and that is with the character and coding Mis patch and then he has loaded the spreadsheet successfully with the second attempt and you could see that he has provided a like the smaller or the briefer version of the spreadsheet that is the data set consist of sales data with column such as order number quantity order price each order line sales order date status so he asking us could you specify how you would like to identify duplicates for example should we consider a row a duplicate if all its values match another row exactly or are there specifically columns we should focus on to determine duplicates so we should or here we will be focusing on the column section so here we want to identify column section so is asking which columns they should identify duplicates so we want the duplicates in order number so the CH G has started analyzing this spreadsheet so you could see that CH gpts address the response that they have identified a total of 287 rows in the spreadsheet that have duplicates based on the order number column so this indicates that multiple rows share the same order number suggesting there might be different items or transactions within the same order would you like to proceed by removing these duplicates while keeping either the first for last occurence of each order number or do you have another approach in mind for handling these duplicates so before identifying the duplicates what we’ll do is we’ll first get rid of the extra spaces so we’ll ask chat jbt that first find the Extra Spaces in the spreadsheet and help us remove move them so you could see that it has started analyzing it so he is asking us that would you like to proceed with any further cleaning or data manipulation yes we want to proceed further with data cleaning only and now we will treat all the blank cells if there are any now treat all the blank cells if there are any so the spreadsheet contains blank cells in the following columns with the respective counts of blank entries that is address line two has 2521 blank sales than the state so depending on your preference or the requirements of data analysis we can treat these blank cells in several ways such as filling them with the placeholder value that is not provided using a specific value that makes sense for data that is example a default state or TY but potentially leaving them as if blanks carry meaningful information in the context of your data so what we’ll do we will provide a placeholder provide a placeholder instead that is not provided or not applicable okay so you would see in that has responded that it has replaced the plank cells in the columns that is address line to State postal code and territory with the placeholder node provided so you could see there’s a verification sample showing the updates so this is how you could clean the data and now with chat jpt you can quickly identify and eliminate duplicates in your Excel spreadsheet using buil-in functions and formulas saving your time and effort so that would be done by the chat GPT and you can download the Excel file from the chat GPT only after that you can just ask him that provide me the output or the resulted spreadsheet so if we talk about now data analysis and visualization let’s delve into that so Excel offers powerful tools for analyzing and visualizing data and chat GPT can help you make the most of them so for this also we’ll write a prompt to the chat gy and we’ll write for example we’ll write please create a pivot table and a corresponding chart to analyze sales performance by region so let’s see like this prompt what output does chat Jey show to us so let’s ask him please create a PR table and a corresponding chart to analyze sales performance by region so you would see that jut has started analyzing the data and the spreadsheet and you could see that the pivot table below shows the sales performance per region or the territory so this table indicates that the EMA region has the highest Sal performance followed by regions where the territory was not provided than apek and finally Japan so now let’s create a chart to visually represent this sales per performance by region you could see that it has provided a chart that is a bar chart illustrating the sales performance by teritory so you could see the guys that it has provided us the analysis and J jpd can guide you through the process of creating pivot tables charts and other visualizations in Excel enabling you to gain valuable insights from your data with ease so let’s move to Advanced analysis and automation so lastly we will explore Advanced analysis and automation so Excel capabilities extend beyond basic functions and chat jpt can help you leverage its full potential and for this also we’ll write a prompt to the chat GPD that can you assist me in building a forecasting model to predict future sales based on historical data present in the spreadsheet so let’s see what Chad j respond to us so let’s ask him can you assist me in building a forecasting model to predict future sales based on historical data so let’s see what CH J respond to us so you could see that building a forecasting model to BU future sales based on historical data involves several steps so for this you have to prep prep the data select a model train the model evaluate the model and make predictions so let’s start by preparing the data we’ll aggregate sales by order date to create a Time series of total daily sales then we’ll choose a model based on data’s characteristics so we will grant the permission to chat gyy to proceed with the steps so we started analyzing the data so you could see that that the data has been prepared into a Time series of total daily sales and before choosing a forecasting model it’s helpful to visualize the sales time series to understand its characteristics such as Trend and seasonality so Jad jyy has looed a daily sales data and then he has given the visual Trends and the possible seasonal patterns and the next steps would include testing for stationarity model selection and parameter touring model training and then forecasting so you could follow all these steps with the help of chat GPT and could create a forecasting model if you want we can move to the next step so you could like provide a prom to the chat chipy that move to or proceed with Next Step so step by step JJ will provide you a forecasting model or it will help you create a forecasting model as you can see it is started analyzing it so the augmented D Fuller that is ADF test gives up a P value of approximately 0.33 since this P value is less than the common significance level of 0.05 we can reject the null hypothesis that the time Series has a unit root meaning the time series is stationary so you could see that is asking us shall we proceed with the Sima model parameter selection yes here is the model parameter selection so you could select any based on the trends and the bar graphs ploted by the chat gbd so you could see guys that the chat G has analyzed the spreadsheet and provided the response that the grid search for the optimal Sera parameters based on the lower information Criterion suggest the best fit model uses the parameter 011 and for ARA and 01112 that is for the seasonal component so you could see that it has provided the model and the parameters now he asking us shall we move on to forecasting future sales with this model yes proceed with that so you could see that with chj assistance you can build complex forecasting models in Excel allowing you to make informed decisions and plan for the future effectively so chat jpt is a valuable tool for Excel users and data analysis offering assistance in data cleaning analysis visualization and Automation and by integrating Chad GT in your Excel workflows you can enhance your productivity and uncover new insights from your data so you can try J gbt for Excel data analytics today and take your Excel skills to the new level and you would see that uh this an error in the analyzing and he has encountered an error while trying to plot the forecast with its confidence intervals so this type of error can occur due to data type issues particularly when handling data indices in forecast and despite the cup the forecasting process using the ca model was completed and we were able to generate forecast for the next 12 months unfortunately due to the plotting issue he couldn’t visually display it so we’ll ask him can you try once again so you could see that this time J gbt has provided us the forecast for the next next 12 months that is the forecast have been successfully ploted along with the historical daily data so here we have our forecast model and with the chat G’s assistance we can move with other analysis also today we are going to talk about Anova in Microsoft Excel and I will walk you through a stepbystep guide on how to perform this in Excel but before we dive into that let’s first take a quick look at what Anova really means Anova which is analysis of variance in Excel is a statistical method to compare the means of three or more groups to see if they are significantly different from each other it helps determine if variations in data due to real differences or random chance it’s useful because it helps in finding differences as it shows if groups have different results it saves time as it tests all the groups at once it clears insights and helps make decisions based on our data for example if teacher wants to compare the effectiveness of the three different teaching methods on students Math course they can divide the class into three groups of 14 students each using Anova the teacher can analyze the math scores to determine if one teaching method is truly better or if the differences in scores are due to chance now that we have a basic understanding of what Anova actually is let’s get into Excel and see how you can easily calculate this using the build tools I have a sample of data in my Excel to perform the Anova over there is an amazing feature in Excel that many people are not even aware about is a data analysis tool pack if you have not come across this word the data analysis tool pack in Excel is an addin that provides the Advanced Data analysis tools for statistical and Engineering calculations it simplifies the complex data analysis task by offering the buil-in features to perform various statistical test and data processing without needing to write formulas manually so we need to ensure first if we have activated the tool pack correctly so for that we need to go to the file and then options and then we have to move to addin and here in the manage you have to choose for the Excel addin and click on go after that you need to click on this analysis tool pack and click on okay now when you see the topmost bar that is the data if you click on this data you will see a data analysis button over here now we are all set to perform the analysis of variance to perform this I will click on data analysis button and from there I will choose an over single factor and select on okay now here in the input range we need to enter the range of the cells containing your data for that I will click on the supper arrow button and highlight mys that containing the data the next option is grouped by depicts how your data is arranged in your sheet if it is arranged in a column like like I have arranged choose columns and if it is arranged in a row go for the rows now here in the labels in the first row if you have labels like mine like group a group b and Group C do take this button then Alpha is generated and here in the output options this is where you want your result to be return the first option is the output range is where you can specify a particular cell where you want your result to be returned the second option will enter the answer in a new worksheet and the third option will enter the result in a particularly new Excel file I will chose the second option and we’ll name it as Anova now we have got this result within just one click you can definitely get the Anover single Factor results now I will explain each factor what it means count some average variance SS dfms Etc in the next PP so the first table depicts the summary of the data available in the analysis so the first one we have got is count count is a total number of data points in each group here in group a group b and Group C we have 14 data points now moving on we have sum sum is a total value if you add up all the values in each group so the sum of group a is 958 sum of Group B is 1093 and sum of Group C is 1280 now moving on we have average average is the sum divided by the total number of data points in each group so the average of group a is 68.42% this is the average of the square differences from the mean now the variance of group a is 14134 the variance of Group B is 20 9.60 and the variance of Group C is 11 9.49 now the second table here is divided into three groups the between groups within groups and total so the first row depicts the result when the between rows are classed as a source of variation the second row depic when the source of variation is with within the groups and the finally the last row is just the total now we will see what each column represents so the first one we have is SS SS stands for sum of squares between group SS is the total variation explained by the differences between the groups within group SS is actually the total variation within the groups due to the random error or individual variability and the total s’s is the sum of the between group s s and within group SS so the between group SS over here is 37351 n within group SS is 6115 78 and the total SS is 98597 now moving on we have DF DF stands for degrees of freedom this is calculated slightly differently for between groups DF is the number of groups present in your data minus one I have three groups so 3 minus 1 I have got two to determine this within groups DF is the number of observations minus the number of groups that is 42 minus 3 that is equal to 39 then we have MS Ms stands for mean Square you can think it as the variance for each source of variation to calculate this we can simply divide the sum of squares by the degrees of freedom now moving on we have f f stands for statistic here the F statistic is calculated as Ms between the groups divided by the MS within the groups and it is equal to 11995 4 now moving on we have the F critic F critic stands for f critical value it is calculated easily by Excel or you can perform it manually by looking at the critical value table so the F statistics is then compared with the F critical value if the F statistical value is greater than the F critical value we can conclude that the test is significant now moving on we have the P value the probability of obtaining an F statistic as Extreme as were more than the observed value assuming the null hypothesis is true a small P value that is less than 0.05 suggests that the significant differences between group exist as my P value is more than the alpha level that is the 0.05 we fail to reject the null hypothesis therefore there is no difference between the means of the three groups so now you can see some data on my spreadsheet so we have row ID order ID audit date and ship date ship mode Etc so this means that this particular data set belongs to a a sales data set for a store or something so what I have done is if you look out the videos on our Channel we already have created one of the interact Ive dashboards using the same data set so we try to extract month- on Monon sales region category subcategory sales country-wise sales shipment type sales Etc right so I have uh you know kept the data as it is and all the pivot tables as it is now let’s say we do not know how to create all these pivot tables and pivot charts and slicers Etc we just know that we have the data and you’re new to this and you want to an analyze your data how do you do that chat GPD is here for the rescue so before we get on to chat GPD let’s quickly remove all our reference pivot tables about pivot table so I’m quickly deleting all these they left out with only the data right and again you can do this dashboard using chat gbd 3.5 or in case if you have a premium version which is chat gbd 4 you can detect ly attach your data set onto the chat GPT prompt and chat GPT will do all the analysis you need right but for now let’s experiment using the chat GPT 3.5 version which is basically open source and free to use now let’s quickly hop on to chat GPD so there you go we have chat GPD version 3.5 we are not switching to four so now let’s quickly um EXP explain what we are up to H GPD just keep it simple as if you’re talking to your friend the D set belongs to Superstore sales or is about the data set is about uh Superstore sales report and I need to create a dashboard for mon one month SE so this is the prompt and basically I just explained in a brief way I’m not uh giving a detailed information but hope this works so basically uh what you are supposed to do is uh give uh the requirement one by one but I’m giving it in a single PR so that I’ll get the results in one single Pro let’s move for that so what you’re trying to explain CH GPD is that you have a sales data set and you’re using Excel for for storing it and for manipulating the data and trying to build some Innovative interactive visually appealing charts and you don’t know how to do it so you explain that to your chat jpd and uh what are the uh things you are looking to build what are the charts you’re looking to build so I’m looking to build a month- on-month sales report which can be a quarter on quarter month on month year on Year date wise however the way you like it right so uh make sure that your data is properly formatted first so here let’s check out that your date column is formatted to date data type right sometimes what happens is the representation of date uh changes to user by user let’s say this particular data set or this particular inventory is been allocated to five different people to entry the data right somebody might use this type of you know here you have uh let’s create a new sheet and try to let me elaborate what I’m trying to explain so let’s say U person one person three so let’s say I use this type of uh formatting 15th December 2025 something like that and somebody else uses 15 12 2025 and another one uses 15 December only 25 and also sometimes few people also uh intend or you know may uh follow uh a date pattern which looks something like this December the 31st 2025 right and it’s not wrong so many people will have different uh conventions of writing their dates so you need to make some data cleaning and okay if you are coming back to data cleaning we have listed a video in our descriptions for data cleaning in Excel and uh that would help you in various uh data cleaning operations that are um you know used in day-to-day lives of a data analyst so that should help so basically what you are looking for is so instead of General go back to the data types and here you can check out the data type options and you can either give a short date long date or in the case you want to go for some additional formatting you can also go to more formatting and here you can check out the custom formatting options here you can give a customized option for now I want to go with date and the date I want to go with is this particular one which gives me date month and yeah click on that and you should be good to go right so make sure that all the uh uh dates in your spreadsheet are following one single date pattern so that when it comes to uh month on month quarter on quarter and earby sales that will help you a lot okay it will just give you a filtered option it will give you year on year first then quarter on quarter next and if you expand the option of quarter on quarter you will have month on month and if you expand the month then you will have date wise so you will have a you know better understanding when we perform this operation in a practical Way in real time and then we have the next type of chart where we want to identify country-wise sales then we have regionwise sales so let’s say I have one country here let’s say I want sales from France and uh I want to know what are the uh sales happening in central region of France North region of France so you’ll have region wise sales there and category wise which category is giving you the maximum profits or the maximum sales and inside the category which is that subcategory or which product is that that which is giving you the highest number of sales you can identify that and based on that you can plan a business uh you know you can get up with a business strategy there and shipment modes so which type of shipment mode which should you invest in much so that you can you know offer better services to your customers so everything comes so this is what I want to um you know um extract from my D set so this is my requirement you have explained this to your chat GPD through the prompt and just enter now chat GPT should help you break down the requirements and chat GPT should help you uh how to you know it’ll get tell you how to uh do the process so here it will tell you the line chart so basically it’s a it’s a it’s a rule that month on Monon sales or quote on quote sales basically wherever the time is involved the line chart is the best to represent your numbers so now um it basically tells you how to uh represent your charts in what or how what type of chart to be selected that’s good but now uh can you help me create create the first chart in Excel there you go so it tells you how to create it and sure you have a column for dates and other corresponding values so basically it is telling you to have a properly mentioned or properly defined metadata or column headers then select the data go to the insert tab choose the line chart okay and let’s say uh you wanted to create an interactive dashboard right so to create an interactive dashboard or to basically create a dashboard you need a pivot tables and you don’t know how to create a pivot table you can ask chat GPD to help you create a a pivot table help me create a private table for the first type for all the types okay or for the data set certainly so it’ll mention you the steps to follow to create a PIV table there you go so what’s the first step highlight the range of cells that contain your data set and including headers and go back to Excel and you can just click on any cell and control a all your T set has been selected or these days you can just select one of the cells and go to insert menu and pivot table and now from the table range Excel will automatically select the entire range of the table you’re looking for or you’re working on and in casee if you are having any doubts on that you can just select all the range and go to the same insert option and select the pivot table click on okay in a new worksheet and there you go you have your new uh say U pivot table let’s delete this now remember we wanted to create the month-on-month sale for the first U pivot table and pivot chart so and remember about the uh date formatting so we’ll be looking on that now we will drag odd date onto rows here and you can see here so this is what I was talking about so Excel has automatically segmented your dates we we have about 10,000 rows in this particular data set and it has segregated all the 10,000 rows into four different years 2020 21 22 and 23 and if you expand the selection of year it has uh segregated again into pter one two three and four right and if you expand P one you have month-on-month sales in quarter one month-on-month sales in quarter two and month-on-month sales in quarter three and so on right so this is why I was requesting you to have a proper data formatting for all your dates right which could be really helpful when you want to extract the quarter on quarter sales and date wise sales and year-wise sales right so now we wanted to find out month- on-month sales right or year on-ear sales so where is the sales yeah here we have the sales parameter just drag that onto the values and there you go now format this into the currency type so the currency is dollars American dollars and you can eliminate the leading zeros here if you don’t want them there you go now you have the whole number here you can also do the same for this you can select the entire table go to pivot table okay let’s check the uh options provided by chat GP so basically we have created a pivot table now we want to create a pivot chart how do I create a pivot chart so again it’s making really clear statements and really clear steps so it’s again making sure that you create a pivot table first right so we have a pivot table and uh highlight pivot table data click anywhere on your pivot table to highlight the entire range insert pivot chart with the pivot table selected go to the insert tab on the ribbon then click on pivot chart and uh open the insert chart dialogue box choose the type you want and uh customize the chart select the chart so customizing the chart we’ll look onto it and Fields if you want to keep a few Fields you can and if you want to eliminate a few Fields you can you can also do that refresh data let’s say why refresh data see charb is so brilliant right so let’s say uh I have the sales data until 2023 and now we are in 2024 let’s say we update 2024 onto this particular stret sheet and now we have that particular data in the original spreadsheet but that is missing here in that scenario what you can do is just go to data and here you will find the refresh all option once you click on this you can find the 2024 data updated here for now we have not added yet but in case if it’s added all you can do is just refresh your sheet and everything will change so brilliant suggestion from chat jpt and save and share in case if you want to share so let’s follow the same steps select any cell in the pivot table select all the sheets go to insert Tab and here recommended charts or go to the charts option and select the chart that you are looking for so we are dealing with uh time so I would go with the line chart just click okay but in case if you want to create an interactive dashboard just go to pivot table analyze and here you have the pivot charts and again it’ll give you the same option just select the line chart here and press okay so you have your line chart over here so again if if you are editing this so you can remove the Legends if you want remove um anything else or you can customize that okay there you go and if you want to edit the name of the chart you can also do that so I will do this as M Sales report okay accordingly I’ll change the sheet name there you go right now quickly we will create the other charts as well so the process is same you can hold control and drag this particular sheet and you have the next sheet so the next uh requirement that we had that we requested chat jpd was the country wise sales so everything will remain the same what changes is okay let’s close this and here instead of order data we will have okay let’s remove this from rows and quarters months right country so we will drag country into rows and there you go now we have countries now country wise so you can uh select this cell go to pivot table analyze pivot chart and you can select the bar graph so it automatically gave you the first suggestion is bar graph click on that and you have the bar graph over here and you can also edit the chart you don’t want you don’t want the Legends you can remove them and edit the name of the chart to Country wise sales go and uh quickly drag and drop the sheet again new pivot table and here you wanted categ wise sales or segment wise sales uh close this particular thing be this and instead of country you’re going to add segment to the Rose and remove country and you have segment wise sales select any cell on the pivot table go to pivot table analyze pivot chart and here you can use any of the available um charts here let me use the final chart or histogram bar chart will be better press okay and there you go you have the bar chart same edit your you know customize your uh chart change the name to segment wise sales hold control and drag the sheet now you have subcat wise sales instead of segment you will be selecting the subcategory you can remove segment and you can see the chart also changed here and again you can do the category wise sales so this was segment wise sales you can quickly change the segment to category and you have it we quick quickly go back to yeah so we have done the category Wise subcategory Wise region wise is remaining and shipment modes so quickly drag or drop the region remove subcategory from the list there you have the region wise sales edit the name and the last one which is about the shipment modes remove region and there you go you can create a new dashboard over here and name it as dashboard you can do some customization to your dashboard like selecting these sales giv it a color there you go now you can quickly copy and paste all these uh charts to the dashboard starting from the month-on-month sales copy paste so I’ll quickly do all the uh pas thingss as soon as possible e e there you go you can also manage the size of these charts so that everything fits onto one sheet so for now let’s try to unpen this so that we have a little better visual appearance okay not a problem and now uh we need some filter right so something which can make it a little more interactive that’s when you add slices and let’s say you don’t know how to add slices back to chat gbd and ask chat GPD how do I add slices to my dashboard there you go so is telling you to uh add everything in a step-by-step way and it also is talking about the inter activity right it’s it is asking you to connect all the slices it it’s telling you to report the connections right if you just add the slices based on one single okay basically you need to select one of your charts here and select a pivot table or pivot chart go to the pivot table a chart associate with a slicer and insert and go to the insert Tab and insert a slicer I I’ll tell you that so basically it it’s telling you in a very beautiful way step by-step manner right and even after adding the slicer it it is telling you to connect all the uh basically all the charts or all the um you know chart dashboards and charts you created at this particular tutorial and connect all the charts to that particular slicer using the report connections option and you can get the interactivity right so in in a very beautiful manner it has explained let’s try the way it has explained to us go to the dashboard select any one of it and uh go to the insert option and here you have have the slicer right so now you have all the slices over here so basically we wanted what type of slices so I have created a month-on-month uh chart so I’ll go with audit date slicer which is here then I have created segment wise sales so I want segment slicer country wise slicer category and subcategory wise slicers region wise so region slicer and do I have anything else else let’s scroll down that’s the last one so where is shipment here yeah shift mode country region category subcategory segment order dates and Shi mode so I will have multiple slices in one go right now you have to arrange your slices in such a way that they are interactive and they they look like they are sorted in one place so let me do that quickly we have some space left here in the bottom place of the dashboard you can also keep your slices there so what basically chat GPD meant was if you try to use the slices here it will you know the changes will reflect only in one of the pivot charts not on all the pivot charts so to get that interactivity to get that connectivity between all the charts you need to do a small setting which is called as report connections so select one of the slices over here right click and here you have something called report connections so when you report connections you have all the pivot charts and pivot tables that you just created you can just select all those pivot tables that you created and press on okay so that all these pivot tables are connected to that particular slicer uh you can just expand this and check if all the pivot tables are selected press okay do the same for all the slices I’ll quickly do that e e so there you go we have interconnected all the charts now let’s say I want to find out the sales that happened in the latest year just go to the filters select any of the dates 2023 and you have the data and if you want to select any particular country then you can also do that I want to go with United Kingdom and in United Kingdom we have all the data here let’s say I want to check out only for the phones there you go now you have an interactive dashboard which will tell you the sales that happened on the date of 16th of November 2023 in the region United Kingdom for phones all right and uh segment is home or office ship and mode with standard class and major sales that happen are from nor region and the categor is from tech technology right and that’s how you create an interactive dashboard using chat GPD in Excel so each and every step has been mentioned very clearly by chat GPD and you have all the data in one place so let’s quickly remove all the filters and there you have the entire dashboard now before we get started let’s look at the website through which we want to pull the data now this is the stock analysis website that we are looking at and we want to pull this particular data from this particular data set so here we have some sample data and this is the table that we looking at now if you expand each and everything from this data set we have a few more couple of tables you know go through that but now let’s focus on this particular data right now we need to switch to Microsoft Excel so here you can see you have a lot of options here and if you see into the data here you have an option that says get data and here you can pull data not just from a website you can also pull data from an existing workbook from a database from cloud or any other if it’s data you can just pull it now that’s the best feature of Microsoft Excel now if you just go to the bottom section here which says other sources and here select the from web option and this will open a par quy window for you but before we get started on pulling the data we need to do one more thing which is about copying the URL which you need to paste it somewhere here let’s go back to the website now I can just copy the URL go back to Excel and here you can paste the URL and press on okay now here you go you have established a successful connection with the particular website now here you have a couple of tables in that particular website now just click on those tables and you can see the sample preview of the data you’re looking at table 0o table one table two Etc just look at the preview and select the data table that you are looking forward to have it in your dat set now let’s say I want to go with this particular one you can just click on load or if you have some transformation to be done let’s say you wanted to categorize this based on name like first name last name or if you wanted to make sure to do some calculations or find out the rate of the product or anything as such mathematical calculation or data transformation that you want to do you can go with the option which says data transformation or if you’re feeling happy with the data that’s currently on your data set then you can just click on load now go with load for time being and it’ll run some queries and your data will be loaded and also just in case if you wanted to know if this particular dat set is really dynamic or not let’s say somebody does some an update on the particular website since this is a stock trading website maybe there are updates u based on per day or based on week right and someone adds some new data onto the website and again you cannot carry out the same operation right in such scenarios you just go to this option which says refresh all and you can refresh the data and automatically the new entries will be added to the same table you can also see some of the queries running right now it is quick so you can see that you can see an option that says query is running in the bottom section of the Excel spreadsheet let’s look at it once again while I press the refresh button run in query background that’s how it runs and you have the updated data table on your Excel spreadsheet imagine combining a Simplicity of excel with the power of python sounds exciting right you must be wondering if it requires a lot of coding what if I tell you that with almost negligible coding with python in Excel lets you perform the Advanced Data analysis you don’t need to be a coder or a developer to use it with python and Excel you can analyze large dat dat sets creates stunning visualizations with libraries like mat ploted and even automate task like report Generation all within excel’s familiar interace it’s a game changer for anyone looking to work smarter and faster with data no matter the coding experience in this video I’ll show you some amazing things you can do with python and Excel from creating data frames to filtering data with the simple queries it’s packed with features that make your work easier but before before we dive in let’s take a quick look at what python in Excel is all about python in Excel is a feature in Microsoft Excel that integrates python directly into the Excel environment allowing users to write python code and execute it within Excel shets this integration combines Python’s powerful data analysis visualization and automation capabilities with excel’s familiar interface now that we know what python is in Excel let’s explore how we can use it so I am inside Excel and you must be looking for python over here so basically you can go to this formula section and see insert python option available over here you can get started just by clicking on the icon or you can just click one cell and you can write equal to py and then press tab now the python mode is activated so as we are working with data the first step is to send the data to that python because it needs to see it so that it can actually work with it to do that you need to select the whole data set for that I’ll select this and now you can see over this section that it is written the data range I mean the sales range and headers is equal to true as we have headers over here now press enter now you can see that it didn’t happen anything only it went to the next line for me to run this we need to press control plus enter Control Plus enter and see what we got we got a data frame over here if not aware data frame is a two-dimensional TBL data structure in Python provided by the Panda’s Library it is similar to an Excel spreadsheet or SQL table consisting of the rows and the columns now take a look at beside the formula button here this is actually the python object and even we have a drop down over here so it is written python output and we have a python object that is the present form and the Excel value now I can switch to this Excel value and we get my whole data available over here this is basically dates so we have imported this data set over here now as it is taking too much space I can go back to the python object and make it compact now if you’re interested in knowing what’s inside this data frame you particularly click on this image and there will be a visualization appearing for you the first five sets over here and the last five data sets over here it is basically the beginning and the last part part of the whole data set this data frame is a fundamental part of a specific python Library that’s called the pandas pandas is like your goto toolkit in Python for working with data it makes the handling tables like spreadsheets or databases like this super easy with this data frame structure so whether you’re cleaning the messy data or analyzing Trends or marging data sets pandas has covered everything plus it works great with the libraries like numai and matl so you can explore and visualize data effortlessly so better you can go and research about it I will talk about this later but guys now I’ll tell you what all cool things you can do with this now I’ll go to another cell then switch to python mode py and tab and then take the reference of this previous data frame and I’ll write dot describe open and close parenthesis and then Control Plus enter see I got another data frame back so as I got a new data frame I’ll switch to this Excel mode value and let’s see it’s a date so we have some information so the total count of quantity we have is 20 the mean is 23.7 and the sales mean is also 168 7.6 minimum is this and everything we have got now we’ll move to python object it basically gives a quick Insight of the data set now it must be planning to perform various calculations using this data set so it’s better we give it a name so that you don’t have to reference to the cell again and again for that you need to go and select the first data frame and then write in the formula bar here just type the name given to it I will give it as DF which represents the data frame before everything and then um you can press control enter so I have already defined the name to this so every time I don’t need to take a reference of this data frame now now basically we can now go and write DF do describe control enter now nothing has changed now let’s talk about the shortcut keys like the quotations now suppose if I go to this Excel value and I want my product details over here so for that I would go here DF do product do describe and control enter now you can see that the total product count is 20 the unit products we have is eight and the top selling product is headphones and the frequency of that headphones are five now keep one thing on mind that now my value for this header is just product if I would be having like product details like having spaces and everything I can’t write product over here I need that third bracket on and third bracket off so keep that in mind unless you don’t have a space in your head and name you can type like this you can write DF do product. describe now there are lots of functionalities in P I repeat now there are various functionalities in the Panda’s Library some of them that all are familiar with is a sum and average so let’s suppose I want the total cells over here so I’ll shift to this python mode and I’ll write DF dot sales dot sum and open and close parenthesis then I press control enter for running it and you can see the total sales has come in the similar way you can even get the average you just have to replace this sum method with mean and then Control Plus enter and now you can see the average value of the sales so you must be thinking right now that this can be done with Excel functions as well so why do we need python don’t worry I have got you covered so let’s take this tutorial a little forward let’s think we were a total sales for each date available over here then for this I’ll switch to a cell and I will activate this python mode and then type DF that is this data frame initially we have dot Group by this is a function in Excel then open parenthesis and we’ll write date then close parenthesis dot sales dot sum just like the previous one we made and then control+ enter and I want an Excel view of this whole series so let’s see this may be loading and you can see the date over here and the corresponding sales it works so wonderfully that you can do data filtering and data analysis in just a few seconds so now I want everything on a
monthly basis so for that I’ll do I’ll get inside this group by and I’ll write PD dot dot grouper first bracket on and will write key equal to date comma frequency equal to M and close parenthesis and control enter so it has basically given C for February for March for April May and in this way you can get the whole monthly wise sales now I want to give this a name as chart type as and I will press enter now I will write chart Dot Plot xal to date comma y = to sales comma kind equal to line and I will close this parenthesis now press control enter and you will get a very little chart over here have to wait for some time and you can see a great thing very interesting one over here now I’ll show something more cooler than this so I’ll select one cell over here now I will select something over here equal to Python and tab and then I’m using pd. melt start the first parenthesis DF that is a First Data frame comma ID verse that is equal to date comma product close the third bracket then comma value verse equal to third bracket open quantity comma sales and control enter and we’ll see something amazing we’ll go to this Excel View and we can see the date product variable and we have actually merged the quantity and the sales and this is basically the date so with this you can do very amazing things in Excel using python so there are much more than this a cell address is a combination of column letter and a row number that identifies a cell on a worksheet basically each cell will have an Associated column number column letter and a row number so you have to keep in mind it will be always be a column letter and a row number each Excel sheet will have suppose for instance if you take row five rows will be in numbers and the columns will be in letters column a column B column C column D and so on and the numbers will be for the rows so for instance if you take this particular uh cell the cell address is D5 row column D and row five so this is the cell address now let’s move on to the next one now you will be asked what is relative cell referencing and absolute cell referencing in Excel so relative cell referencing is usually the relative references change when a formula is copied to another cell depending on the destination’s row and column okay so this is called relative cell referencing absolute cell referencing irrespective of the cell you know you don’t have to depend on the value of the cell destination there is no change when a formula is copied so this we I’ll explain it in the uh next Slide the basic difference is this type of referencing is there by default in Excel relative cell referencing you just insert the formula you don’t need to put a do dollar sign in the formula whereas absolute cell referencing if you don’t want to change in the formula when it’s copied across cell then absolute cell referencing requires you to add a dollar sign before and after the column and row address so C for instance this is relative referencing you know if you see this this particular cell is having a we put the value as A3 into B3 so what it will do is it will multiply A3 and B3 and it will give the product this is relative cell reference whereas absolute cell referencing is again the same thing but you have to put a dollar sign before the column and the row number so here your specific Ying this as A3 into B2 okay A3 into B2 and it will give you this particular answer irrespective of that it will give you it will calculate what is there in this and it will give you the answer okay now we move on to the next point is basic question when you scroll across an Excel sheet sometimes you have a header on the first row and if you scroll down you will not be able to see the first row so there is a process or the there is a trick to freeze the pains in the Excel so you just need to have the rows locked so how do you freeze pain this is the question so what you need to do is you need to select the view tab go to the view Tab and go to freeze pains it’s a basic thing and you will see this if you see here select the third row and click freeze paines so you just select this and click freeze paines okay so you’re going here and you’re going to the third row and you are going to view Tab and you’re selecting free Spain so what happens is first two rows will be locked okay these two rows will be locked similarly for uh if you want to freeze the columns okay okay it’s the same thing I am going to select this particular column and then click on view and then click fre spin so what happens is the first two columns are locked A and B will be locked and if I scroll right you will always see the uh customer name and category column so these two we have locked and the next will be scroll so this is the function of freezing pains okay now coming on to the next one and you will be asked and you have an Excel sheet or a spreadsheet and you want to restrict you want to protect the data for from anyone or from someone cop from copying the cell for your worksheet so how do you do that you need to select that particular data that you want to protect and then click control shift F and then you will see the protection tab okay you just need to go to the protection Tab and select Lo okay and you will be asked to put a password wherein you will be getting the review tab where you you you need to select the sheet put a password and just save it so I will show you across in one of the examples here so this is particular uh data that you have and you need to protect you select it so here as I said I selected it and then I just just press control shift F so here you see the protection tab click the protection Tab and then click select and then uh locked and then click okay and then you need to go to the review Tab and then click on the protect sheet and you having the you need to select this protect worksheet and contents of locked cells so you’re selecting these and you are protecting the content and you just need to uh put some password okay and then click okay okay so this is how you protect the data on a worksheet and you are selecting this area control shift F and just put up a password and select lock sheet so this is how you protect the sheet from anyone to copy it the cont now the next question that you might be ask is what is the difference between a function and a formula in Excel so you will be asked this question and you need to remember this formula is like an equation which is typed in by the user you are typing it suppose A1 + B2 you are typing this formula in one particular cell okay whereas function functions are predefined calculations it is like a formula which is already there in Excel and you can use it so as it says here it consumes more time and it has to be typed in manually you this is as per the need basis and this is particularly it’s very quick and very efficient you have inbuilt formulas in Excel the sum and multiplication product and various other things that you will come across so this is the basic difference between a formula and a function in Excel okay the now the next question that you might be ask is uh or you need to know basically is the order of operations used in Excel while evaluating the formulas so what is the order you need to remember this acronym pad Mass p d m a s or in other simple terms you can use this also please excuse my dear and Sally so these are the acronyms p e d m a s now let’s see what happens first and you uh in math when you do some calculations you have order of operations okay Bard mass is the one of the order of operations now in Excel similarly in Excel when you put up a formula you Excel will calculate it in a particular order and this is called the order of operations and the Order of Operations is first it will calculate what is there in the parenthesis it will perform this function and then it will see if there are any exponents in it and if it is there it will do that calculation the next and after that it will see if there is any multiplication or division so p e d and then it will see there is any addition okay and then the last one will be the substraction so Excel knows this and you have to know this so that when you put up a formula you will know what is going to happen first and you will not mess up with your formula okay this is the order of operations it is one of the important questions in the interview for a beginner Excel level now the next one is uh how will you write the formula for following multiply the value in a cell A1 by 10 and add the result by five and divide it by two it is quite simple okay see I’m just giving it an example in the slide and you might be ask something else so you will be given a task to calculate or put up a formula for this so so when you are asked multiply the value in a Cell of A1 by 10 so this is particularly thing okay A1 is the particular cell that is being given and you’re multiplying it okay you put it in parenthesis and then add the result by five so it will calculate the parenthesis first okay and if it sees if there are any exponents you have to think in that way if there are any exponents in it or not and then first it will see the parenthesis and then exponent there are no exponents here and then it will do the multiplication and then the addition and the division okay so you will get this particular answer and if you put it simply in this way your answer is wrong because it will multiply it into 10 add 5 and divide by 2 so you have to check which one is right and you have to make sure that you’re putting the right parenthesis okay so this is the formula okay the next question is uh there is a difference what is the difference between count counter and count blank these are three particular important things that you need to these are similar but they are quite different when you actually see it okay so first we will see what is count count is basically it counts the number of cells which have numeric values as the name suggest it is count it will count the number of cells which has numeric volumes okay if you see this column and we at A1 we putting it as count equals to A10 to A2 to A10 so you’re taking this range and you’re finding out what are the number of cells which have numeric value if you see this 1 2 3 4 5 so five cells have numeric values it counts the cells which has numeric Val and the next thing is the counter okay what counter does it counts the number of cells which has any form of content it can be anything it can be a number it can be a alphabet it can be anything it will see what are the uh number of cells which has any form of content okay for example this is the same example we here taken here and we have put the function as counter A2 to A10 now see 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven so it sees that there is seven cells have some content in it it is numbers and letters it can be anything but it has some content so count is the fion for this and the next one is Count blank okay as the name suggests it will count the number of blank cells only so again the same examples count blank A2 to A1 okay it will see what are the number of blanks okay if you see this is blank and this is blank so two cells are blank so it will count the number of blank cells only okay now the next one is uh what is the shortcut to add a filter to a table why do we use filter and it is one of the basics uh function in the Excel where you need to do some sorting and it can be done by using a filter what is the shortcut key it’s very simple control shift and L this is the key that is used to put up a filter you just press this control shift L all together and you will find the filter and you can sorted now the next question that you’ll come across is uh how do you create a hyperlink in Excel so it’s quite simple there is a simple shortcut control K you press these two together and you will get the option you will select the it will select the cell where you have to insert the hyperlink hyperlink basically it redirect to any other document it can be a web page it can be a Word document it can be another Excel sheet or so on okay so these are the things okay now another important questions uh that is uh how to merge multiple cells text strings in a Cell so how do we merge the text strings in multiple cells into one cell there is one particular uh simple function that you can use used which is called called as concatenate concatenate function is used to merge text strings present in multiple CS okay and uh it’s a very simple thing you just need to put this equals to concatenate and then if you for example this is the formula concatenate text one text 2 text three or this is concatenate A1 comma B1 comma C1 this is the data in our uh three cells X cell is one in A1 B1 and C1 so now if you want to put them all in one and you can merge it in one cell using the concatenate function and it’s very simple concatenate in parenthesis A1 comma B1 comma C okay and you will get it all merged in one particular cell okay so this is how you use the concatenate function and you can also use the and operator to combine cell values it is the same thing you can use e and operator instead of commas okay and I will show it to you in the example here okay now we have this I’ll just copy this thing to here okay and let’s make it simple and now I want to put this here equals con concatenate and A1 comma B1 comma c i just close it and I put enter so you see this this all three the different text is merged in one particular cell and it will you can perform various merge functions using the concatenate function it’s a very simple thing and it is a frequently asked questions in the interview okay the next question uh it is very very important one again and very basic as well so how can you split a column into two or more columns you have some particular text or a sentence written or data written in your cell or a column and you want to put them across in two or more or many number of columns so how do you perform this function it’s very simple again you need to select that particular cell so for instance we have it here is India is a democratic country India space is space a space Democratic space country so the it’s a different text here and you want to split this particular sentence into different columns okay you need to select that cell and then go to the data Tab and then choose text to columns there will be an option where in you need to select text to columns okay and you will see this screen okay and you need to select the choose the delimeter here and what we are specifying here is first it is delimer and then we are selecting a delimer as space because we see that that is space here which is very common and we want to split it so you will see a preview here which shows what your output will be like India in one column is a democratic country so the dener is space here and and you need to select this and then click next okay so you will see the options select the columns data format and choose the destination now you see the data Pro and you need to select the destination where you want to put this output as and you select that and then click finish and this one what it does it it it splits the text into multiple columns okay so you see this you have selected this as the output and it starts here India is a democratic country so uh you will come across some data which is you know huge and there are spaces or OBS or anything that is uh differentiated it with and you need to put them in different rows or different columns so this is the function or that you need to use to split the text into different or multiple columns okay okay the next uh question can be very simple one or most widely used in fact and what is the use of vooka and how do we use it so what is this particular thing in Excel vup function is used for looking up a piece of information in a table and extracting some corresponding data or information so you have some set of values in one particular column and you want to retrieve or extract the data corresponding to that particular column or a cell in the whole sheet okay so the syntax is something like this it is you need to go to one particular uh cell where you want the output as and you type the function we look up and you are selecting the value where is the cell exactly where you want the output to be and you’re selecting the table here and the you’re specifying the column index and range lookup so value this indicates the value that you have to look for in the First Column of a table okay and then the table table basically this refers to the table from which you have to retrieve a value we will show this in the example in the next slide and the column index column index it provides the column in the table from which we are to retrieve a value okay you will specify by the column index which one you are looking for the next thing is range lookup which is optional true with uh if you put true it is approximate match which is default and false if it is exact match if you’re looking for the exact match so what is the use of V lookup and how do we do it okay so find the product related to a customer name Richard okay you have this sheet and in this one you want to see what Richard has bought okay what is a product that he has bought and you can do this with the vooka function okay so you just go here and you type in the function V lookup you’re naming it as Richard and first thing is the value it is H4 okay and then the next thing is the table okay table is A2 this this is the table okay and you’re looking for customer name Richard okay and then you’re selecting this the whole column index which is E15 that mean you’re selecting this whole table till 15 okay E15 you’re selecting this and then the next thing is optional which is giving you the uh range lookup okay what it does is it’s optional it is you’re looking for an exact value or an approximate by default it is approximate map so how it performs the function okay so it gives you the answer as scam it goes and look ups for Richard in this particular it will give you the output here and the A2 is the table that it will look for the customer name and it will search for Richard and then it will give you the output as cam now the next thing will be we lookup different from lookup function how different they are we look up lets the user look for a value in the leftmost column of a table so as we’ve seen in the example it uh allows you to look for a data in the leftmost column of the table and Returns the value in a left to right way okay it sorts in left to right way where lookup function lets the user look for data in a row column and Returns the value in the another row or column it will give you the lookup funion in the next row column okay not very easy to use as compared to the lookup function okay as we see uh it’s a bit complicated when you compare it to the lookup function it’s quite simple and it is used to replace the V lookup function okay so this is the different lookup and V lookup function now uh Excel is basically used for reporting mainly used for reporting to management you have to extract different kinds of reports and what are the report formats that are available in Excel this is one of the uh important questions again uh for a beginner level and there are three formats basically compact form outline form table form okay these are the three formats that are available report formats that are available in Excel okay the next question is about a function which is how does IF function work in Excel okay the F function in Excel it actually performs a logical test and you will give a condition it performs the test and returns a value if the test evaluates to true and another value which you again will specify if the test result is false okay for instance we have here a simple example which is shown in the slide and what we doing here is a written record is valid if age is greater than 20 we have age here specified and salary is greater than 40,000 else return the record is invalid so we are giving two conditions and it actually checks and evaluates whether these conditions are met and it will give you an output whether record is valid or invalid based on the two conditions that are specified okay and F22 XIs which is this this uh column we are specifying it should be greater than 20 and G2 to G6 which is the salary column and we are specifying the condition to be greater than 4,000 So based on this two things it will check and perform if these conditions are uh met then it will give the desired result okay so this is the function that is used in Excel IF function okay the next thing is sum IF function okay again the sum function adds the cell value specified by a given condition or a criteria so you are giving a condition and you are actually doing another function which is performing the addition okay it will add the cell values based on a condition again it is shown here the total sum of salary where salary is greater than 75,000 again for example the salary column is G2 to G6 and we are doing a sum IF function what the result will be it will perform the addition of salaries which are greater than 75,000 so it will see which values are greater than 75,000 and then then the the output will be it will be adding these salaries which are greater than 75,000 okay now coming to the next uh slide we will discuss a another important function count F and we’ll find the data I result based on the data that we have and the count F function so we have a slide uh data here and using the co data find the number of days in which the number of deaths in Italy has been greater than 200 okay it’s not uh shown here for some reason but I will show you in the exal sheet okay so this is the data that we have and we will try to find the function so we’ll use the count function and count function is again simple count if you are specifying the column that is the uh source that you’re looking for that is G2 the column G and it is two it starts from two row two G2 till g357 which is the end of the column and what you’re looking for is Italy you’re specifying it in codes Italy and then the next column that it will look for is the E column the number of cases okay here we have the number of cases e22 again we are specifying the range and what we’re looking for is number of cases which are more than 20 so we’ll perform this function and it will show you the output okay I’ll show you to you in the Excel so here is the sheet and I will uh try to get the answer here and the so we performing count F okay count F and you’re giving the brackets parenthesis G2 which is the countries column okay countries column here who has specified the whole range 3 5 7 it is Bally uh a long long list of uh data and you’re specifying the r and what you’re looking for is particularly uh any country you can pick up like uh Algeria okay Algeria and you specify it in codes okay comma then what is the next Target that you looking for is the column e where is it is mentioning the number of cases okay so you specify the column range for the number of cases which is again e and then uh the 3 5 Tri 7 I mean it’s a basically long list of data that you’re looking for and then you are what is the condition that you want to know and you have to specify it at C and what you’re looking for is number of cases which are more than and you hit enter okay so it give you the output as 143 so there are 143 days in which the number of cases were more than 20 so so let’s uh refine our search further let’s see 30 and it gives 140 so another example that you can take is let’s pick Afghanistan Afghanistan and so there are 11 19 days that uh you will see the number of cases were more than 30 and this can be done with the count F function so so the next question is uh about the pivot table so what is a pivot table it’s basically is a summary of table of the data set I mean the data that is there that can be you know multiple number of rows and columns which has different uh data that has to be uh that is there in the reports and you need to analyze those Trends and you need to create a report and basically present it to the management or in a presentation so pivot table is a summary of table you know whatever data is there you can put it in a summarized format they are useful if you have long rows or column that hold values you need to track okay so you have long list of data and you need to summarize it and put it in a presentation or a you need to track the values so it’s very simple you have to select the data and then go to the insert Tab and select fav table okay and then it will show up like this and you need to uh select the table which is a table or range and then you need to specify where you want to put up this private table okay and it’s quite simple and I can show it to you in one of the examples okay so what you need to do is you need to select this and once you generate or as we have seen in the previous slide you need to select this and you need to uh select the output where you want to put the PIV table and then once you do that you will see something like this and you need to select these particular fields and put it in value so it will for example you need to select the death number of death you can just simply click this select this drag and drop it in the values okay so these are the different fields that can be put up in the table okay we can show it to you in the example here so this is our data and we need to show it in a p table okay select this and then go to the insert Tab and click private table okay select that and it will show you the uh table or the range and now where you want to put it okay I will put it in the existing worksheet okay and I’ll just select which color I’ll put it here for example and it will show you this and click okay so this is the table and now you need to select the fields that you want to show in the table for example we need to see the continents the number of cases as per the continents okay I selected and put it in the row and we see the immediately we see it in a table where you see the number names of the contents and now I want to see the number of cases and I simply select it and put it across in the value so this is quite simple and very informative very short and crisp form of presenting the data in a pivate table okay so this is how it is being used and it is being presented you just need to go to the insert tab fa table and it will generate the table and then you can select the fields all right so the next question here is uh how do we create a dropdown list in Excel this is particularly useful when you need to sort uh particular data with the drop- down list where number of uh different variables are there and you need to select one particular uh field and sort the data so you can do this by creating a drop-down list using the data validation option present in the data tab it’s quite simple you select the data and you go to the data validation tab in the data and click select data validation so once you select that it will ask you to specify a range so you need to select what data you need to sort and put a drop down so you need to select this and click data validation and you select the list option which shows you that there is a different option okay I’ll show it across in the Excel for example what we have here is uh some particular data and we have different variables we need to sort or put a drop- down list so just go to data as in as said in the slides and go to data validation and click data validation now as you click it it will ask you to data validation settings okay and in the drop down go and select list option so it will ask you to specify the source so when you asked uh to specify the source just click this particular column and click okay so here I’m mentioning the source is column B okay B 3 T B4 Okay click okay and then it will give you the option so here you can uh you can put this in anywhere across the Excel and click the option okay okay so this is the way to drop down using the data validation option so in the next example we will see so how do we apply Advanced filters in Excel we use the advanced filter option present in the data tab so this is the scenario wherein you have multiple set of datas and you need to sort it and it’s it’s actually huge data and you need to sort a particular column or a Fe with this criteria and you can select it and specify the criteria and specify a range what you want to uh select or based on what criteria the range can be specified and you can just get it in a single click so this is the option you have to go to data tab Advanced and you have to apply the advanced filter and then you need to specify the list range that is the basically the source and then the criteria wherein you specify the criteria present here I mean you are specifying in this case we will take an example where we are trying to sort the data of the number of cases based on number of deps and in a particular country and we are specifying the output we the copy to field is the output where you will see the output so I’ll show it to you in the Excel so here we have a spread sheet wherein you will see all the uh data covid data that we have and based on the countries and the continents and the number of deaths number of cases and so on okay and it also has different field like the date uh year and month so so here I am going to sort the data which is particularly for Europe and which has deaths of more than 200 in a day so how do we do it go to data advance and the you need to select copy to another location okay and this is the list range so it’s basically given in this countries okay and the criteria range you have to specify this so I am going to select this as my criteria okay and then I have to put the output in one particular cell so I need to select it again let’s say here okay and then I just click okay see it quite simple instead of running through the whole thing we can just do it with a simple function okay so it shows me the deaths which are more than 200 and for which particular country and for which particular uh continents all right so this is basically made very simple with this option the next question is uh you know you need to highlight some particular cells using using a particular criteria in this case we are trying to analyze or highlight those cells where the total sales is more than $5,000 so what we do is we use conditional formatting to highlight the sales based on the criteria it’s a very useful tool in analyzing data and Visually it helps you know you can have a look at the data in quick flash you will see the data and is quite visible using the conditional formatting so how we do that is I will show it to you now so as said in the slide we have the data of the sales that is provided to us and we need to see who has done more sales which is greater than the $5,000 so just go to home and you need to say go to conditional formatting so for that you need to highlight or select this go home conditional formatting highlight okay and you have different options here you select greater than and you specify the value here my criteria is $5,000 okay we can select which color so let’s go for green okay see this you will immediately see the option you don’t have to dig or look in deep into the data and find out which one is more than 5,000 or any particular value okay so conditional formatting now moving on to the next question the index and match function you must be familiar with the index and match function and why it is used basically index uh function is a very powerful tool where in you know you for example you have a table of planets in our solar system and you want to get the name of the fourth planet Mars so you can do it with a formula using the index one fun and at the same time you can use the match function okay with the match function together you can play wonders with it okay match function is another function that is designed to find the position of an item in a range for example we can use the match function to get the position of a word or uh look or in this case we have a name and we can use the index and match function to find the city how we do that is shown here okay it uh it looks quite complicated here when you see the formula but uh I can show it to you in the Excel and explain it further okay so here I have and I want to know where these people are and where they belong to okay so let’s see how it goes as we have seen it and we use the index function okay index okay now when I have to specify the range okay so the range is A2 it shows it selects the name and I want to select it from A2 to a s okay E7 sorry e call on E7 okay so as you see it highlights the whole table okay now what I’m going to do is I want to match it Okay match it with a condition I am I am specifying a condition a 10 why because I have to specify a name here and it will show me the city where he belongs to okay where it shows is a 2 okay if you see A2 it shows the name through A7 I have to specify the range here okay not just one name we are specifying the whole range as as you see if you put the values it will show you the selection okay a and what it should be it should be the exact match so zero denotes the exact match parenthesis close and I am putting another match condition okay what is this then this will give me the output what output is okay B9 okay this is my city B9 9 is the city where I’m trying to find from okay and what it should look for is a column A A1 through E1 okay it you select these this particular row and what it should be it should be the exact match again okay let’s see how it go it will give you an error because you haven’t put the value here okay so let’s see Andrew okay hit enter and you will see the city where he belongs to okay now let’s see where Anna belongs to enter and show Dallas okay so this is the one other function index and match function being used and it can be asked in frequently in the interview questions okay the next question will be uh how to find duplicate values in a column okay there are two ways that you can actually do this and one is uh basically the very simple one which is the conditional formatting and the other one is we have seen this before count if function okay how we do that you need to Simply select the data and go to conditional formatting and select duplicate values and it’s quite simple and there is another way which give you the color coded conditional formatting okay and there is another way that is the count count if function how we do that is again we you have to put another column and put up a count if criteria cont function wherein you see that you are specifying the range and the the value which is being twice or enter duplicate and you have to put up a condition I’ll show it to you in the X so here we have the data and I need to find the duplicate values here so I just select this and as I said it’s quite simple go to conditional formatting form and then go to conditional formatting and select highlight cell rules and simply go down and select the duplicate values okay it will give you with color you want you can simply select red or anything as you see the moment you select you will see the duplicate values highlighted okay so I just cancel this and there is another way then count a function so I’ll put another column where it says duplicate names and I will put up a cter function here okay so let’s see how a cter function works here to check the or find the duplicate names so as I said I will put up a formula or function here for the count F and we’ll drag it to other CS okay count it and uh uh since it’s an absolute uh reference I have to put up a dollar symbol okay my reference here will be H the column here h 2 okay and again dollar because I’m using it as an absolute reference colum through dollar symbol again nine okay so it drag still at the whole it drags still the all the names okay the H9 all right and then what I’ll do is I’ll put a comma in y I want to do is I have to select h two okay this is my criteria I mean it is repeating twice all right and I have to close the parenthesis and if it is more than one okay so this is my formula I just put enter and it should say true so this is the condition and it is true okay I simply drag it the whole thing and whether events is uh repeated yes it’s true Andrew it’s a duplicate entry false me is a duplicate entry and it says true and as you see me and events are duplicate entries so this is how we use the count function and the conditional formatting to sort duplicate entries in the date now let’s move on to the last question for the beginner level and since we have duplicate entry there is also a problem to remove duplicate entri so how can you remove duplicate values in a range of cells okay to Simply do that you can delete the duplicate values in a column by simply selecting the highlighted cells and press the delete button so you go in each column and you see the duplicate values select it and delete it okay and this is one tedious way of doing it and you can also after deleting the values you can go to the conditional formatting choose clear rules to remove the rules from the sheet so this is one way okay the next thing is again a simple button that is there in the data tab that is the is one of the tools present in the data tab which is simply called as remove duplicates it’s quite simple and it’s there in the data tools let me show you in the Excel so here we are and uh we have this data and we need to check and remove the duplicate so as I said go to the data Tab and simply click on remove duplicates and when you click on it it will ask you you want to continue or expand the selection I just say continue with the current selection and remove duplicates okay select all click okay two duplicate entries that were removed previously we saw that events and uh Anna were there Emy were there so that has been removed okay so that’s it for the beginner level and we’ll go to the intermediate level in the next slides choose from over 300 in demand scales and get access to 1,000 plus hours of video content for free visit skillup by simply learn click on the link in the description to know more so here we are at the intermediate level questions and these are like uh higher level or intermediate level compared to the previous things that we have discussed with the basic level questions uh for the Excel interview so let’s move on to the next thing and so there are there are some scenarios where you enter the date or uh some dates in particular data sheet and you need to find out what is the day of the week okay so you might be asking a question how do you find out the day of a week or a particular date so that is the function we we have a specific function and that is the weekday function to find out the day of the week or a particular date okay so as we know these are the seven days of the week and we just put the function as it says equal equal to week day and we need to enter the column or the area or the cell address here so week day is the function and it will give you the which which day it is of the week okay week as it says one it denotes Sunday okay and three is again Tuesday okay so this is the function that is used to find the day of the week so now we move on to the next one and there is a there might be a question what are the wild cards available in Excel so basically Excel supports three types of wild card which are asteris the star it represents any number of characters it can be used in different formulas and all like multiplication and all so it represents any number of characters okay the next one next Wild Card is the question mark it represents one single character okay you just need to memorize this in the back of your mind that it represents one single character okay whereas asteris is it represents any number of characters and the third one which is rarely used in Excel it is the TAA it is used to identify a wild card character that is Tilla ASX question marks in the text okay and it is very rarely used so you need to memorize these three things that the there are three types of wild cards we can see the functions of these in the later sessions okay the the next one is we have a question here what is the data validation illustrate with an example you might be asked this question and you have to know what is data validation what is what is it used for and you you should know how to set up in example okay data validation is a feature in Excel that is used to control what a user can can enter into a cell okay so you have with the data validation you’re not allowing a data kind of data that should be input in the cell okay for example you have the authority uh by setting up the data validation that you can enter either a number or a text or a just number and so on okay using the data validation and where is it available it is in the data tab okay select data validation option present under data tools okay and you just need to select the particular cells where you want to set up the data validation I’ll show you to you in an example so this is how it looks like you just need to go to data tools and click on data validation and it will show you and you have the options here allow and if you click on the drop- down you will see different options like I will show it to you in the example here okay for this particular thing if I want you know this column should have only names and it should have if you insert a number you will be thrown with an error okay you will get an error message saying that this is not a valid option okay so there are some columns where you have to put only names or you have to put only numers so you can set this up with the data validation technique okay you just allow it or customize it as per your requirement so this is how it looks like when you set up an so here we have set up a data validation saying that it should not allow you to put any text okay so you will get an error when you put a number here the value does not match data validation restrictions defined for this cell okay so here as an example I have some data where I am putting the names here and I’ll put the salary here I want to make sure that you know we cannot enter any numbers here okay it should be only text it should have only name so how do I perform that how do I restrict any user to that they should not be able to enter any number and it should only enter the text okay so there is a function okay you just need to go to data validation click data validation and here in the settings I’ll go to custom there are different options here you you can choose whole numbers decimal list date time so you these are the option and I go to custom and I’m giving a particular formula here okay what is that it should be only text okay so it’s a simple thing it should be text and I need to define the range okay so how I’ll Define the range I just select this okay and I select the range okay so I have selected the range here and if you go to input message and error alert you can customize it and here we are taking the default one and this is the input message if you want to set or customize something okay so let’s see how it works okay I have set this and then I try to put a number here and it throws me an error the value entered is not valid because we have set a restriction a user has restricted values that can be entered into the cell so this is how the data validation work okay the next thing is you will be given a situation wherein you have to uh you will be given data and you have to fun perform a function like in this example we are taking a condition where in you will have data and you have to specify the result based on the data you have to formulate okay so given below is a student table write a function to add pass or fail to the results column based on the following criteria you will be given a criteria so this is the student table you’re giving the student names marks and attendance and then based on that you will have to specify a next uh a a formula wherein you will see the result okay based on the pass uh student data you have to put a pass fail results in the column based on the following criteria what is the criteria and for example here in this example what they’re saying is you have to say this the student is passed if his marks is more than 60 and the attendance is more than 75% okay so how we perform this function as it says you have to use the IF function and check with the and condition to fill the results column okay so let’s see this in the example here here so here is the example and we will perform the IF function and check with the and function so how we do that is here okay so I have to put the IF function here okay and check with the and function okay and I have to specify the conditions I have to specify where it should see the or check the conditions okay so we are checking the conditions here and the marks should be in row I mean the column U and it starts with u5 so let’s see u5 okay it will immediately go to column U and five row five okay and then what is the condition we are satisfying here it should be greater than 60 okay and the other condition is uh the column V that is the attendance column okay and what is the condition we are specifying V 5 should be greater than 75 okay and we just close this conditions with the parenthesis and now we have to specify the result whether it is pass or fail pass comma in codes again F okay so let’s see how this works okay okay see this works okay the marks is 50 and attendance is greater than 80 so he is fail because his marks are 50 his attendance must be more than 75 but yes he is he has not scored marks more than 60 so we drag the same formula to the whole thing and you will see the result okay this is quite simple and you will see this formula and using the if and check and check with and condition okay now moving on to the next uh question you might be asked to you know this is simple function wherein you can you will be asked to calculate your age in years from the current date okay so how we do that there is a particular function and it’s very simple use the ear fraction or dated IF function to return the number of whole days between start date and the end date so you specify a start date which will be uh today’s date and the I mean the birth day and then the end day will be today’s date for example okay and you will get to know the age using the year Frack function and dated IF function okay so here is a small example and this is how we use the ear Frack function okay you specify this uh function and then specify the input dates that is the today’s dates and the date of birth and the uh today’s date okay and this is one of the ways to get it and there is also dated F okay this again it is day to-day function and you specify the input cells okay so let me show you an example for the same so here we are and U we have today’s date that is 4th of May and date of bir for anything it could be so I will specify the ear frag okay equals ear rack okay and then I should as soon as you enter you specify the start dat and the end date okay and I will specify the start date as today’s date it picks the column and then I put the comma and then the end date should be this thing okay and just close it and it will give you the age okay so this is the age for example if you want to find out my age I don’t want to reveal my birthday but it’s okay okay let’s see if it calculates I’m 32 years old okay all right so this is one of the ways and and similarly you can use the dated F function shown in the example all right now moving on to the next question you have nested if statements this is very important and you will definitely be uh coming across this question how are nested if statements used in Excel what are nested if statements the IF function can be nested I mean it can be Loop when we have multiple conditions to meet okay it can be nested the false value is replaced by another if function okay you have specified some condition and you are uh putting up a condition and if that condition is not there or not met then if it will be replaced with another IF function so uh the syntax will be like this below is an example so we actually we use two if statements in conjunction okay so here is an example here we are are specifying a condition where in you know uh the result is excellent if it is more than 80 and if it is less than 160 it is bad or average so this is very simple you want perform one if condition and if that is not met it will go for the next if condition so we are nesting two if conditions we are joining to if statements okay uh I’ll show the same example here in the Excel so here we are we have some data and the students and their marks okay and we are specifying a condition wherein uh if the result or marks are more than 80 the result is excellent and if it is less than 60 it is bad or average okay so how we get this is we use two if conditions if statements so uh as we have seen it if if now the first condition is uh our source or the source is B2 okay so b 2 and what I’m specifying is it should be greater than 80 all right I just close this and the result should be excellent okay excellent if it is more than 80 and if this condition is not met it will go to the next if statement okay we are nesting another if statement what is the condition here for the next statement it will check B2 is less than or equal to 60 you can specify any marks all right so if it is less than 60 it should give the result as bad or average okay specify anything and you okay and just close the double parenthesis so let’s see how it works okay see it works like this now let’s pull up the same formula the for the other results okay see if it is more than 90 it is 90 it is excellent so it is checking the first thing if it is greater than 80 it is excellent okay now in this case for Mark it is bad why because it will first see whether it’s excellent or not if it is not excellent then it will check the other condition if it is less than 60 it will give you the a bad result all right and similarly so on for the other marks all right so this is how we use the nested if statements you are adding two if statements the first condition and the second condition with another if statement okay okay when it comes to excel it is basically involves a lot of data and a lot of data to be analyzed and we have some powerful tools which are used in Excel to analyze the data one such uh important tool is descriptive statistics that is used to analyze the data so we might come across a question and you will be given a data or a table and you need to find the descriptive statistics of the columns using data analysis tool okay so you will be given us maybe for example anything and you will have a lot of data you have to use the descriptive statistics option in Excel for the data analysis okay how you do that is you have to add a pack okay okay you should be knowing that you need to add a pack which is called the analysis tool pack which you go to uh file options and then just click on the addin and select the analysis tool pack click uh Excel addin and just click go then it will add the option and then when you select the data you have to go to the click on the data analysis option which will be which will show up when you select the addin or when you add the addin okay then you need to select the descriptive statistics what we need to do is we need to analyze this data and it will show you the values like mean and the you can also customize you can you see you have this data and for you to check each and every row and find the mean the smallest the maximum number and things like that so this can be easily done using the descriptive statistics for the data analysis uh I’ll show the same thing in the Excel how it can be performed so here we are and I’ll show you first how to add the option to it okay go to add and select analysis tool pack as shown in the slide and you need to click go if you just click okay it will not add so just click go and then you need to select analysis tool pack okay it will give these are the different options uh for now now we are selecting analysis tool p and then click okay as soon as you do that you will see the data analysis this option gets enabled when you add that pack so this is the data that you have you need to find or analyze using the descriptive statistics so as you see it click data analysis and click uh select descriptive statistics okay and it will show up the option like this and you need to select the input range okay okay for some reason it’s already there and if you want me to show I will show it to your across you have to select the whole dat okay this is my input range and you need to select this labels in the first row so that you know it doesn’t take the first row okay I’ll show okay and now I’m putting the output in another worksheet okay you can specify or you can pry a new worksheet and these are the options that you can select you can you are getting a summary statistics which is the default and you can select the confidence level that is the mean value and you can set it up by whatever value percentage you want and you are selecting the largest one and the smallest number so all these data will get analyzed and it will open up in a new sheet and just click okay and you will see this so these are the if you see this this is our data paid organic social and revenue so this is uh okay make it more precise okay so with a single click all our data is analyzed okay this is the mean value and this is the minimum is zero maximum is this is the total and the number of count is thousand so you don’t need to scroll down and check what is the largest amount that is paid so this is the largest amount for the paid okay and so on so for the largest revenue generated all these things are generated with a descriptive analys okay descriptive statistics with a data analysis tool so the next question is about a pivot table and this is more refined or more advanced compared to the last oneth that we discussed in the uh beginner level so here you are asked to create a pivot table to find the total cases in each country belonging to their respective continents you are giving you are being asked to uh put up a table or pivot table with two variables basically each country and their respective continent so again we have the same data and we need to set up a pivot table which shows the continents in the countries with the respective continents the number of cases okay so let’s see how we get this in the example so here we are we have the same data it shows the days months year cases countries and the continents okay continents here and so on okay so I am I’ll go to the insert Tab and select the pavot table okay again the same thing I will be asked to enter a input range okay so I select this and since it’s huge I’ll just put the number to be 7777 okay let’s assume now this is our input data and uh where you want the output to be it’s already selected you can put it anywhere I’m putting it here okay just click okay and it will give you the option to select the fee s now what we want is number of cases okay which will show you the value and the countries and territories their respective continents so okay so this is how it looks like and we have to check now it is asking us to find the countries okay so with their respective continents you see this you see Africa as a continent and you will see okay you will see Africa if you just remove this you will see the number of I mean the cases with the respective continents and if you want to include these countries territories where the respective continents you will see as such if you just expand this you will see the countries that are having the cases in the continent Africa okay so country wise sorted with the continent okay this is another Advanced step to get the data or show the data in the prev table okay another question that you might be ask this is a basic and we have already seen this in the previous example that I have shown how do you provide the dynamic range in data source of a pivot table you have to select a particular data source in your input table of for to show up in the piver table so you have to select the input range but how do you create or how do you create or provide a dynamic range in this data source so just need to create a name table to provide a dynamic range so where is the data of your table so as we have seen in the previous example you will be able to select the input range and you just need to put this value any number so that you know it will pick up the dynamic range for your input source for the tape Okay so Now we move on to the next one and is is about about the pivot table again is it possible to create pivot table using multiple sources of data yes yes you can create a paper table from multiple worksheets sometimes you will have different data in different sheet can you create a pivot table for all the worksheet in a single payot table yes you can but there is a condition there should be a common Row in both the tables so you cannot have different types of data there should be a common row okay so then only it will act as a primary key for the first table and the forign key for the second table okay so this is something that you have to remember and you need to create a relationship between the tables and then build the pivot table so you have to analyze what kind of data it is it should have a common Row in both the tables on both the sheets and then you have to establish a relationship between this table and then build the table okay there is a visit for that we’ll see that later now let’s move on to the next question so the next question is again you know with the pivot table uh wherein you will be asked to further refine or uh you know refine your search and show it in the data so here we have with the covid data example again you will be asked to create a pivot table to find the top three countries from each continent based on the total cases using the co again and we have done this before we have created a prev table for this and we need to further refine it showing the top three countries with the number of cases and I will show that same thing in the Excel and we already have created a table and we’ll refine it further to show the top three countries which are having the highest number of accounts in the respective count so here we are we have the uh table uh already with us and I just just click on the show field list it will show me the countries and territories what we are asked is you know to show the countries with the top three that is number of cases so you just need to go here and you need to select the value filter there is a filter which you can select with the value and now I select top 10 and what I need is top three it’s very simple and you just need to know this thing okay and based on the Su of cases okay this is our field already then just click okay and it will show you the top three countries so it’s quite simple and it is very important to know this uh field and how you play with the value of the filters for each particular uh field in the pivot table so it shows you these things all right and now you can refine it further with the continents and all okay so different continent and you can see this so you go there and there is a value filter you can set up all right you have set up a value filter okay okay now there is another one how do you create a column in a pivot table okay like you will be given a situation where you need to add one more column and show it in the pivot table with a particular calculation or with a particular value and you have you don’t have that actual value in your your data but you have to calculate it and show it across in the table so there is another option which is called pivot table analyze and you need to create a calculated field from pivot table analyze option so when you go to your table and then go to pivot table analyze you will see the option to add a calculated field okay just go there and click select calculated field and you need to Define so in this example we are going to Define another column where we calculate the bonus of the sales and there is a particular formula the formula is you put an if and statement and then you calculate the formula you specify what is the bonus and what is the way that you’re calculating the bonus and it will particularly added another column to your table so let’s see how we we do that in the table actually so here we are we have this table and I have inserted a pivot table and I am putting it in output here okay then you will get the table okay now you need to select the customer name and the unit sold unit price saes okay so we’ll add another column to it how we do that is this go to pivot table tools and then you go to analyze Okay click on field items and set okay you need to select calculated field here select that and we are defining a new field here which is the bonus bonus and as I said we will put up a formula for this and we will Define it how we calculate the bonus okay with an if and statement which we have seen before how we uh put up a and if and statement okay now I’m going to say it as a like this sales my sales should be I’ll specify a condition how they will calculate the bonus if sales is greater than 4,000 and the unit sold okay I am trying to put it as the unit sold it also depends on the unit sold is greater than th000 okay for example let’s say th000 a person who is uh able to do uh sales of th 4,000 and the unit sold should be more than th000 then the sales what is this the bonus will be sales into that is the amount of sales he has done into 5% okay let’s say 5% bonus and sales is if it is 2% okay okay we are adding this field bonus and click add okay okay so we have added this and we have put up a calculation for the formula and you will see this in the so this is simple way of adding the column to your existing data and we are doing the calculations and showing it up okay so this is one way go to pivot table analyze and field items and sets you can select this option and add it okay you can customize this as I said with adding different fields this is pretty handy in analyzing the data which does not exist in the table and you add some value to your favor table okay the next uh question will be about slicer you must be familiar with what a slicer is and a pivot table and how do you use it what are the purpose of using it and how do you put up a slider in the pivot table so how does a slicer work basically slicers are used to further filter data in the pivot table suppose you already have some data and it’s for ease that you can do it by just adding a slicer you can select particular uh data in or a field and you can see the output for that particular field that you have chosen in the slicer okay so it’s very simple go to the insert Tab and select slicer under filters okay and then it will be like this okay and here if for example you see this is our period table we have added two slicers to filter our table that is month and countries and territory so this will be the general pivot table that looks like and we have added another two slies that is month and Country so if you go uh for example if you want to see what is the number of cases and some of the deaths for a particular month and for a particular country you can just do it by a single click and it
will show that particular data only in the table let’s see and do this in our Excel okay so there is a table uh pivot table already created for this and I want to add a slicer so how do I go ahead and do this is I go to the options and insert slicer okay and the moment you click on it you will see what are the options that you want to add you can select different fields and uh select the slicer for it uh for this example we are choosing month okay this is one of our sliders you can just put it here adjust to the and again this will be our slider okay let’s add another slicer here okay and this will be the countries and territories Okay click on that and you will see two simple badges here that you can choose from so if I want to know in the month of Feb how many number of cases were there for particular let’s see the moment I choose the month it will show that particular number of the corresponding table for the whole and now I want to further refine it to a particular country so for example Australia okay so there were total number of 18 cases and zero deaths at the same time if I go for Algeria it is like this so as you see it goes like this okay so this is one of the very important tool that you can use to show the data in a much simplified Manner and ease okay so the next question is about the pivot table again what is the percentage of contribution of each country and continents to the total cases again the same example for our code the covid one and this time we want to show the output as the percentage of contribution for each country and continents to the total cases so we have the same data and we generate a pivot table and we should show it as the sum of the cases uh to be percentage okay and this is how we do it this is our uh data and I’m going to create a pivot table for this okay so it shows the table and here I have to show what is the fields that we need to select okay for E we just selecting the cases and the contr and territories okay so cases to be the values okay okay so this is how it looks like now when I see let me show it to you see it shows the number of cases now if I just want to refine it further and see it as number of percentage percentage as the number of cases okay so how I do it show field list I go here and I go to Value field settings okay then again number format show the value as okay sorry show the value as you need to select this thing percentage of grand total and then just click okay and you will see this to be the percentage so it shows the data in the form of percentage okay this is very simple and you just need to remember as we have seen before show field and then value field settings okay this is the thing that you need to check okay Grand percentage there are other options also and you can select from whatever you want to do it in this case we are showing it to be the percentage okay okay guys now the next question is about very important aspect of presentation when we come to Pivot charts how do you create a pivot chart in pivot tables this is very basic or very you know important aspect of pivot tables that you can represent a data in a in the form of a chart and there are different types of charts which I’ll show it to you in the uh example okay so we have a data here and we want to show it in right now it is in a table form okay we have put up a pivot table for this and now the same thing can be put up in a fav chart okay so what you need to do is go to the insert Tab and select the pivot chart it depends on different versions of excel that you have different uh forms or different buttons so I will show it across to you and this is how it looks like okay it’s very simple it can be a pie chart it can be a bar chart it can be different forms and we can see that in the example here okay so let’s go to the example and so we have the uh pivot table generated here already what you need to do is you need to select the table table and go to insert and see the options there are there is a column chart there is a line chart there’s Pi Bar area scattered and other parts okay there are different forms okay so right now what we do is we will select the column chart here okay you need to select the pivot table and click on the column chart again there are different forms which can be seen uh in some time now so this is the basic form okay and it will show you the countries I mean the it will show it as a form of a chart okay again you can change the chart type you can change it to Pi okay this personally is very good in presenting or doing presentation and you can select different forms different styles okay will also show you the percentage so this is one form of presenting your table into a chart okay again bar type is also there so this won’t suit here in our example there are different ones I’m just showing it to you as how it looks like so depending on your I mean the aesthetic you can see and select what kind of chart is best suitable okay so this is how you put up a pivot chart in pivot tables okay so this is then last for the intermediate level and what are macros in Excel create a macro to automate a task basically you have some daily task that you perform in Excel okay and you can do this with quite ease using the macros okay it basically is a program that resides within the Excel file and it is used to automate task in Excel some daily task that you run like run when you come across in any data and you have to scrub that data and you do some daily routines and by removing some columns or adding some formulas and you know do doing some adding some colors and changing the fonts or beat anything that you form and you have to do a repetitive task so all that can be done by recording a macro and this is what macro is used for in Excel so how you capture those steps in Excel is through a macro to record a macro you can either go to the developer tab in the Excel and click on record macro or you can use or access it from The View tab Okay so these are the uh ways to access macros okay just go to the developer tab and click record macro where in you know when you click record macro it will record the steps that you performing in each step and it will capture that and you can save that it is like a daily routine that you run and you can do all these multiple steps maybe n number of steps within a single click by running that macro later on okay so you record macro and run that okay you do it through the developer tab go to developer tab and click record macro and it records all the steps that you are performing okay you need to name it and you just need to perform the actions and it will record the macro and you just save it later on whenever you come across the same daily task that you run you can just click it by running that macro okay B so in a single CLI it will perform all the actions that you have done or steps that you have performed on that particular Excel sheet or any other Excel sheet okay this is very handy when you have similar data and you do the similar task each day okay so this ends the intermediate level and in the next we slides we will see the advanced level so now we discuss the advanced level uh interview questions for excel and when it comes to the advanced level you will come across definitely you will be asked about what if analysis how does it work how does it how does what if analysis work in Excel so what if analysis as the name suggest uh you have to have an analysis done okay with the help of different complex mathematical calculations like formulas and using different formulas and calculations you can experiment with the data and you can analyze if this particular input changes what will be the scenario how will your output turn out to be so as you can see uh it is about different variables to see how your changes would affect the outcome of a situation so this is what uh what if analysis is and the same thing can be done with Excel and how it is done is you need to go to the data Tab and click on the what if analysis under forecast okay so there are three options and one is the scenario manager goal seek and the data table so these are the three situation or three tools which are available in the watf analysis in the data tab okay so goal seek is basically for reverse calculations okay and you have some idea you have some set goal in mind and you have certain variables and what you need to do and what you need to achieve to have certain set goals okay you have you will set a value for the goal and with the goal seek option you can get to know what value you have to achieve to come to that level okay so this is what goal seek is it is one of the simplest sense sensitivity analysis tool and uh so for example you know that you know a single outcome you would like to achieve like you have a set goal that you have to achieve this particular grade okay and the goal seek feature in Excel allows you to arrive to that goal by mathematically adjusting a single variable within that equation so you set the goal and you will do the what if analysis goal seek uh option to know what you have to do or what you have to achieve for the set goal the next option is the data table and it is basically uh used for sensitivity analysis okay so in this uh scenario you the data tables allow the adjustment of only one or two variables within a data set but uh each variable can have unlimited number of possible values okay so basically they are used for side by side comparisons and it makes it very easy to read the scenarios okay one but you need to set up the data table correctly okay and what you do is uh you give the input in the table and then you set up the formula and for instance you need to calculate the monthly payments for a loan okay you provide the principal amount like uh whatever amount you’re taking 2 lakhs three lakhs and you set the interest rate in a formula okay and uh you set the term in and then you need to uh provide different uh input options like what loan amount that you’re taking and you set the formula and go to data table and I mean go to what if analysis and select the data table stretches across and then you will see the monthly payment options or the monthly Emi that you can calculate there are different uh things that you can calculate you can calculate the Target or the sales bonus or things like that okay giving different scenarios in the variables okay but you need to set up a data table it might be a little challenging but yes it is a very powerful tool okay so the next one is the scenario manager it is a bit more complicated compared to the other two but then it is uh more advanced than goal seek as it allows you the uh to adjust the multiple variables at the same time okay and uh this is very complicated compared to the other two and it is even I mean it gives more better output when it compares to the other two wtif analysis tools so here when you go to wtif analysis and the scenario manager you have to select the data and provide different scenarios that is different values for each scenario and then it will create a it will analyze calculate and create different scenarios okay so it becomes very easy for you to analyze what if you are changing the value of your interest amount or the uh term of loan or your targets like uh monthly targets or an yearly targets and things like that and you just have to uh see what the scenario will be when you set this particular value for a table or for data whatever targets that you need to set you can use this what if analysis in Excel for the different scenarios and different calculations okay these are very powerful tools and you need to know this now as we move on to the next one you might be asked what is the difference between a function and a sub routine in a VBA okay even though these two are used us quite frequently that is uh pretty much different from each other okay so a function always returns a value of the task it is performing okay so when you are uh writing a module you will have a function when you have a function it will always give you a value okay for example you are performing an addition it using the function it will give you a value for sure whereas sub routine it does not return a value of the task it is performing functions are called by a variable okay you can uh set up a variable and you can call the function okay where sub routines can be recalled from anywhere in the program in multiple types okay in many different ways you can recall a sub routine like we have seen uh we write a sub routine and we put up a button and we can when you click the button it will recall the sub routine functions are called by variable okay you have have to set up a variable and when you enter it it will come up okay functions are used directly in spreadsheet as formulas whereas Subs cannot be used directly in spreadsheets as formula okay this is very important difference and the next thing is the functions can be used to perform repetitive task and return a value whereas users must insert a value in the desired cell before getting the result of the sub so this is particularly limited okay whereas functions can be used to perform different repetitive task and return a value user input is not required whereas if you see the sub routines user must insert a value okay in the desired cell that to in a particular cell which is defined in the sub routine to getting the desired result okay so these are the differences between functions and sub routines now the next one is what is the difference between this workbook and active workbook in VBA so when you work on modules and different Excel spreadsheets and workbooks you will have these different workbooks open and there is a particular difference and you might be asked what is the difference between this workbook and active workbook so as the name suggest this workbook refers to the name of the workbook where the code is actually running from okay you are running a code VBA code and it is the actual workbook where you are running the code from and that is this workbook okay and you have multiple spreadsheets open and you’re working on particular suppose for example you’re working on uh sheet X okay and you active workbook is the workbook that is currently active from the different open workbooks you have different open workbook but you are working on one particular workbook and that is called the active workbook so this workbook is the refers to the name of the workbook where the code is actually written whereas active workbook is the one that is currently open currently active okay so this is the difference between this workbook and the active workbook in VBA as shown in the example this is a simple uh sub that is written a code that can be written to find out which workbook is the uh uh which workbook is the uh this workbook in the VBA and the active workbook as well okay so this is a simple thing that you can run to determine okay it shows the active workbook and the this workbook okay so as we move on to the next one so this is the question how will you pass arguments to a vbf function okay there are two ways basically arguments can be passed to a VBA function as a value or as a reference so this is uh an example that you can see it is by reference the key word for this is by reference okay so when you are passing an argument by reference the keyword should be by RF whereas uh by value your specifying a value and the keyword is by V value okay so these are the two ways that you can pass an argument in VBA so when you pass an argument by reference in a procedure the variable itself okay the variable itself is accessed by a procedure and it is to the location or the address in the memory okay the value of the variable is changed permanently by the procedure in this case all right okay so to pass an argument by reference you should use by ref that is the keyword before the argument okay so in this example it is clearly shown what is the keyword that is being used okay and by reference is the default in the VBA unless you specify something else which in this case is by value okay and as I said the keyword for by value passing the argument by value is by V okay so when you set the keyword by Val the variable uh what happens is the by value argument function or argument uh uh is passed through by value okay the number function is called here which means it assigns a value to the variable X here okay because the variable was passed by value in the function any change to the value okay any change to the value of the variable is only the current function so it ends after it performs the function okay then it revert back to the value when it is declared again where it is set to zero so if the variable has been passed by reference in the function then the variable would have permanently assumed the new assigned value so this is the basic Difference by reference and by value so now we move on to the next one so there might be a question that you will be asked that how do you find the last row or a column in a VBA okay so to find the uh last row sometimes you have long list of uh data and it has like n number of rows and N number of column so instead of scrolling down all together to find the uh last row you can use this uh VBA code you can write this code it’s a very simple one and it will give you the last row you will find the last row with a single click okay let’s see it in the VBA so here I have a sheet which uh you know it has long list of uh rows and instead of scrolling down I can just find out the last row with this VBA code okay I just click on this and as seen in the slideshow I have just return it and you will see the you just run it and you will see the number of it will give you the last row in the sheet okay similarly we can do this for the column as well okay in case if you have long list of or large number of columns instead of scrolling right you can just uh run this VBA and you can see you can know the last number of column okay number of columns so as we’ve seen in the last row now we’ll see the code for the finding the last column it’s the same thing uh instead of row you will see it as column all right and it will when you run it you will give the it will give you the last column okay today I am here to show you how you can start earning extra money with Excel even alongside your 9 to5 job with just an hour a day you can create a steady second income stay tuned as I work you through a stepbystep guide to turning your Excel Sals into a profitable side hustle imagine turning your Excel CS into a steady source of extra income in today’s world where costs are always going up having a second income is not just nice it’s a smart move with just your Excel knowledge you could earn up to 30,000 or more every month helping you manage expenses and chase your dreams you don’t need to be a pro to start beginners can join in too whether you are freelancing analyzing data or creating custom Excel Solutions the possibilities are endless with practice and consistency you can grow your income while building your skills don’t let your Excel knowledge go to West use it to create a flexible financially secure future Excel is not just a tool it’s your key to success and freedom let’s get started and make your skills work for you suppose I have a data set like this and just imagine you have received this from the client’s end so the work will basically be on data analysis and you can have five 00 rows or you can even have 5,000 rows and even have more than that or even less than that so don’t worry it won’t be a manual work for sure with the help of AI that is artificial intelligence we can analyze data in Excel in just a short time now you must be feeling how much they are earning by performing the data analysis in Excel so I have opened here Fiverr if not a is one of the top freelancing platforms that is available and here you will find the various gigs out there when you search for this Excel data analysis now if you look nicely you will see people charging 2,695 and even much more than that and sometimes even less now if I open something like this that is a top rated one you will see an overview see this is the basic there charge for 2,695 and here I will do excel dashboard development and Excel data analysis so if you see minutely you will even have this comments over here they have got from their clients and even they have their overview they what they’re doing uh and what he is building like we build templates off and everything this is a standard one uh he is charging for 8,984 for the um 3-day delivery and n divisions he has done and premium is much more you can even imagine that is 22458 so in a nutshell on an average if you see this whole one you will find that you can earn 1,615 just an hour with your Excel skills now if you open one of the ranking freelancer any of this you will get an overview now I will cross this and I will go back to this data set now we have columns like population on males population on person females literacy rate females and everything and so on so just assume that the client’s requirement was give me the top five City by the average literacy rate females as a pie chart and he will pay you a certain amount for that so the basic part is the client may be un aware of how to do it or maybe having lack of time to do the data analysis in Excel so what you have to do is you have to select this whole data set you have to select this whole data set it will take time as it is so much long and go on the top right side of this Excel and you will find analyze data Under This Home tab so you click on this analyze data and it will take some time for processing after clicking it it will process the data no human interference is required it has automat ically discovered some Data Insights as you can see it has even made this bar graphs and somehow plotted this and even you can get this insights now simply what we need to do is we need to pay attention to what my client requires and simply we need to type that requirement over here and then ask a question about your data and the question to was give me a top five City by average literacy rate females as a pie chart so I will type this question over here so I will type over here the question give me a top 5 City by average literacy rate females as py chart and enter and see I have got one so automatically it will generate a pie chart according to the request M given over here and all we need to do is to click on this insert pivot chart over here so that it will be inserted in a new worksheet sheet two so this is basically nice because you will even getting the five cities that are having the greatest literacy rate of the females and you can earn up to 33,000 with just minimum skill set in Excel with just basic Excel knowledge you can get start a second income stream while your initial earnings might be modest consistent effort and practice will soon help you scale up to 30,000 or more per month as you can experience your skill will command higher pay as a freelancer so I have a pro tip for you start with the competitive rates as a beginner in the freelancing market with time and persistence you will position yourself as a top earning freelancer the journey is worth it your Excel skills can truly transform your financial future so that’s a wrap on a f course guys if you have any doubts or question ask them in the comment section below our team of experts will reply you as soon as possible thank you and keep learning with simply learn staying ahead in your career requires continuous learning and upskilling whether you’re a student aiming to learn today’s top skills or a working professional looking to advance your career we’ve got you covered explore our impressive catalog of certification programs in cuttingedge domains including data science cloud computing cyber security AI machine 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The provided text from “01.pdf” serves as a comprehensive guide to using Microsoft Excel efficiently. It begins by explaining various keyboard shortcuts and mouse actions for navigating within worksheets and workbooks, along with methods for data entry and cell editing. The text then covers essential formatting techniques, including adjusting cell dimensions, aligning content, and basic visual styling, emphasizing the difference between data and formatting. Furthermore, it introduces concepts of inserting and deleting rows, columns, and cells. The guide also explains number formatting options, allowing users to customize how numerical data is displayed. Conditional formatting is discussed as a way to visually highlight data based on specific criteria. The text details the “Go To Special” feature for advanced cell selection based on various attributes like blanks, constants, formulas, and more. It thoroughly explains “Paste Special” functionalities for selective data transfer, including formulas, values, formats, and operations. Finally, the document covers the “Find and Replace” tool and demonstrates using random data generation formulas and lookup functions like IFS, FILTER, and a basic INDEX/MATCH.
Excel Fundamentals Study Guide
Quiz
Explain the concept of a cell reference in Excel and provide an example of a relative cell reference.
What are the three fundamental types of data that can be entered into a cell in Excel?
Describe the order of operations that Excel follows when evaluating a formula containing multiple operators.
What is the purpose of the SUM function in Excel, and how would you use it to add a range of cells?
Differentiate between using direct numbers and cell references within an Excel formula, and explain why using cell references is generally preferred.
Explain the difference between the “Fill Series” options for “Linear” and “Growth” trends, providing a scenario where each would be useful.
Describe how the “Text Join” function works and provide an example of how you might use it to combine text from multiple cells.
What is the purpose of the LEFT, RIGHT, and MID functions in Excel, and how do their functionalities differ?
Explain the function of the IF formula in Excel and describe its three main arguments.
How does the RANK.EQ function in Excel determine the rank of a number within a list of numbers, and what is the significance of the “ref” argument?
Answer Key for Quiz
A cell reference is a pointer to a specific cell or range of cells in a worksheet. It allows formulas to refer to the values in those cells. A relative cell reference changes when the formula containing it is copied to another cell. For example, if cell G3 contains the formula =C3+D3+E3+F3, and this formula is copied to cell G4, it will automatically update to =C4+D4+E4+F4.
The three fundamental types of data are numbers (numerical values used for calculations), text (alphanumeric characters, including words and labels), and formulas (equations that perform calculations on data).
Excel follows the standard mathematical order of operations, often remembered by the acronym PEMDAS/BODMAS: Parentheses/Brackets, Exponents/Orders, Multiplication and Division (from left to right), and Addition and Subtraction (from left to right).
The SUM function adds all the numbers in a range of cells. To use it to add cells A1 through A5, you would enter the formula =SUM(A1:A5) in the desired cell and press Enter.
Using direct numbers in a formula means manually typing the values. Using cell references means pointing to cells containing the values. Cell references are preferred because if the data in the referenced cells changes, the formula result automatically updates. Using direct numbers requires manually editing the formula every time the underlying data changes.
The “Linear” trend in “Fill Series” adds a constant step value to the previous value in the series, creating an arithmetic progression (e.g., 2, 4, 6, 8…). This is useful for creating sequences with a consistent difference. The “Growth” trend multiplies the previous value by a constant step value, creating a geometric progression (e.g., 2, 4, 8, 16…). This is useful for creating sequences with a consistent percentage increase or decrease.
The “Text Join” function concatenates (joins) text strings from multiple ranges and/or strings with a specified delimiter between each text string. For example, =TEXTJOIN(“, “, TRUE, A1:C1) would join the text in cells A1, B1, and C1, separated by a comma and a space, ignoring any empty cells.
The LEFT function extracts a specified number of characters from the beginning (left side) of a text string. The RIGHT function extracts a specified number of characters from the end (right side) of a text string. The MID function extracts a specified number of characters from a text string, starting at a specified position.
The IF formula checks whether a condition is met, and returns one value if true and another value if false. Its three main arguments are: Logical_test (the condition to evaluate), Value_if_true (the value to return if the condition is true), and Value_if_false (the value to return if the condition is false).
The RANK.EQ function returns the rank of a number within a list of numbers. The “ref” argument specifies the array or range of numbers to rank against. Excel compares the “number” argument to all the numbers in the “ref” range to determine its rank.
Essay Format Questions
Discuss the importance of using formulas and functions in Excel for data analysis and manipulation. Provide specific examples of how different types of formulas (e.g., mathematical, text, logical) can be applied to solve common data-related tasks.
Explain the concept of cell referencing in detail, including the differences between relative, absolute, and mixed references. Illustrate with scenarios how each type of reference can be effectively used in creating and copying formulas.
Describe the various “Fill Series” options available in Excel and analyze their utility in generating different types of data sequences. Discuss specific situations where the “Date” series options can streamline data entry and analysis.
Compare and contrast the functionalities of several key text manipulation functions in Excel (e.g., LEFT, RIGHT, MID, TEXTJOIN, LEN, TRIM). Explain how these functions can be used individually and in combination to clean, format, and extract information from text data.
Analyze the role of logical functions, particularly the IF, AND, and OR functions, in creating dynamic and decision-making spreadsheets. Provide detailed examples of how these functions can be nested and combined to handle complex conditions and automate outcomes based on data values.
Glossary of Key Terms
Cell: The intersection of a row and a column in a worksheet, identified by a unique address (e.g., A1).
Cell Reference: A way to identify a specific cell or range of cells in a worksheet, used in formulas to refer to their values.
Relative Cell Reference: A cell reference that automatically adjusts when the formula containing it is copied to another cell.
Absolute Cell Reference: A cell reference that remains constant regardless of where the formula is copied, indicated by dollar signs before the column letter and row number (e.g., $A$1).
Mixed Cell Reference: A cell reference where either the column or the row is absolute, but not both (e.g., $A1 or A$1).
Formula: An expression that calculates the value to display in a cell. Formulas can contain numbers, operators, cell references, and functions.
Function: A predefined formula in Excel that performs specific calculations or operations on data.
Argument: A value or cell reference passed to a function, providing the data it needs to perform its calculation.
Operator: Symbols used in formulas to specify the type of calculation to perform (e.g., +, -, *, /).
Order of Operations: The sequence in which Excel performs calculations in a formula (PEMDAS/BODMAS).
Range: A contiguous group of two or more cells specified by the cell addresses of the top-left and bottom-right cells, separated by a colon (e.g., A1:B5).
Concatenate: To join two or more text strings together into a single string.
Delimiter: A character or sequence of characters used to separate data elements.
String: A sequence of characters, treated as text in Excel.
Logical Test: An expression in a formula that evaluates to either TRUE or FALSE.
Criteria: Specific conditions or rules used to filter or analyze data.
Array: A range of cells containing values that are used in a formula.
Rank: The position of a number within a sorted list of numbers.
Round Off: To approximate a number to a specified number of decimal places or to the nearest whole number.
Data Validation: A feature in Excel used to control the type of data or values that can be entered into a cell.
Filter: A way to display only the rows in a list that meet certain criteria, hiding the other rows.
Sort: To arrange data in a specific order, either alphabetically or numerically.
Briefing Document: Analysis of Provided Sources
This briefing document reviews the main themes and important ideas presented in the provided excerpts. The sources primarily focus on basic Microsoft Excel functionalities and formulas, explained in a conversational and tutorial-like manner.
Source: “01.pdf”
This source is a transcript of an Excel tutorial, covering fundamental operations and formulas. The main themes and important ideas are:
1. Basic Formula Construction and Cell Referencing:
Summation using direct cell references: The tutorial begins by explaining how to calculate the total of marks across different subjects (Hindi, English, Maths, Science) for a student. It emphasizes using the “=” sign to start a formula and then adding individual cell references (e.g., =c3+d3+e3+f3).
“You know g3 = c3 + d3 + e3 + f3 ok”
Understanding cell relationships: The tutorial highlights the relative nature of cell references. As a formula is dragged down, the row numbers in the cell references automatically adjust (e.g., g3 referencing c3:f3 becomes g4 referencing c4:f4, and so on).
“so you understand one thing as this is your g4 this will be g5 this will be g6 this will be g7 in the same way this will also be c4 this will be c5 c6 will be c7, d4 will be d5, d6 will be d7, so it will keep increasing in this manner, okay, you have understood one thing, we are talking about cells here…”
Difference between cell references and direct numbers/text in formulas: The tutorial explains that cell references update when a formula is dragged, while direct numbers and text within a formula remain constant. Text must be enclosed in double quotes.
“Numbers: If you are writing a direct number, if you are writing a number then it is always fixed, it will never change and in the same way, if you are writing any text, it is always fixed. The second thing is that the number is written directly, the text is written inside the double ted comma, okay now these things are now.”
Summation using the SUM function: The tutorial introduces the SUM function as a more efficient way to add a range of cells. It emphasizes the syntax: =SUM(number1, number2, number3, …) or =SUM(range).
“If we say equals to sum then we will put equals to sum and tab and always remember one thing, never listen to any person in the formula, you always have to listen to the formula, you have to do what the formula is saying, what is the formula saying number one comma number two comma number three comma number four comma and so on it has come then we will do number one comma number two comma number three comma number four and turn off the parentheses and hit enter.”
Using ranges with the colon operator: The colon (:) is explained as a way to define a range of consecutive cells (e.g., c3:f3 means all cells from c3 to f3 inclusive).
“if I say now what does it mean, add a1 to a2, then plus th, then plus four, plus fv, I can also write it like this, from a1 to a5, when you have consecutive numbers, there is this colon in between. What does this colon say? What does this colon say? It says from to means this is a range…”
Quick Sum using Alt+=: The tutorial introduces a keyboard shortcut for quickly summing a contiguous range of numerical cells above or to the left.
“The easiest way is that wherever you want the sum, you go to the cell and keep a condition along with it that there should not be any gap in between and then After that, if you press Alt Equal Two together then the formula appears to be the same.”
Basic Formatting: Simple formatting adjustments like using the format painter and adjusting column widths are briefly mentioned.
2. Filling Patterns with Series:
Linear Series (Addition/Subtraction): This section explains how to use the “Series” option (under the “Fill” dropdown in the “Home” tab) to create sequences with a constant step value (addition or subtraction). It demonstrates creating sequences like 2, 4, 6… and 100, 95, 90…
“Whenever you have to do plus or minus, if you keep it in linear, then you have to do plus or minus. You have to do plus. Well, how much plus has to be done. Step value means, how much has to be done, then you have to do two and when to stop, what answer should come, stop when you reach 100, stop where the last 100 comes, then stop .”
Growth Series (Multiplication/Division): This section explains how to create sequences with a constant multiplicative or divisive step value. Examples include 2, 4, 8, 16… and 100, 50, 25…
“Second, the one that comes to you, comes to you, growth and growth deals in what , deals in both of these, in multiply and divide… when you use growth, it will be 2 * 2, then it will be 4, but 4 * 2 will be 8, 8 * 2 will be 16, 16 * 2 will be 32, 32 2 * 2 will be 64, that is this.”
Date Series: This section details how to create sequences of dates, with options to increment by day, weekday (skipping weekends), month, or year, and with a specified step value.
“Within the date, I have already told you in number format but still let me tell you what does date date mean today? … one way can be that I keep increasing every day from today, one way can be, I can show month wise and one way can be, I can show year wise…”
Using the SEQUENCE function (briefly mentioned): The tutorial briefly introduces the SEQUENCE function as an alternative for generating number sequences, available in later versions of Excel. It advises against using it for now due to potential issues with references if rows/columns are deleted.
3. Understanding Constants and Formulas:
Defining Constants and Formulas: This section clarifies the difference between entering a value directly into a cell (constant) and entering a formula that calculates a value (formula). The formula is visible in the formula bar, while the calculated value is displayed in the cell.
“side I wrote I give, this cell is mine and here I write 100 and on one side here is the cell of mine, I write the sum a1 a10 then the answer is this is my formula will be visible in the bar but the answer is mine what will be visible is 100 so here which is only value there is no formula so what has become constant and here the value is there but is this value constant is it just value no check the formula b what? There is some formula attached to it.”
Types of Constants and Formulas: The tutorial distinguishes between number constants, text constants, logical constants (TRUE/FALSE entered directly), and error constants (errors entered directly). Similarly, it discusses number formulas, text formulas, logical formulas (resulting in TRUE/FALSE), and error formulas (resulting in errors).
Using “Go To Special”: The “Go To Special” feature (Ctrl+G, then “Special…”) is introduced as a way to select cells based on their content type (constants or formulas) and subtype (numbers, text, logicals, errors, blanks). This allows for targeted actions like formatting or editing specific types of cells.
4. Filtering Data:
Introduction to Filtering: The tutorial briefly introduces filtering as a crucial Excel feature for analyzing data by showing only rows that meet specific criteria. It highlights its importance for reporting and understanding data.
“Filtering is very important. Filter and Sorting is one of the most important topics of Excel. The best feature is the single which helps us in many things, which also helps us in a lot of reporting, it helps us a lot in understanding something after seeing it, especially with the data…”
Conceptual Explanation of a Filter: A simple analogy of a water filter is used to explain that filtering removes unwanted elements (impurities) to show the desired outcome.
Important Quotes Highlighting Key Concepts:
(On relative cell references):“so it will keep increasing in this manner, okay, you have understood one thing, we are talking about cells here…”
(On the SUM function):“always remember one thing, never listen to any person in the formula, you always have to listen to the formula, you have to do what the formula is saying…”
(On the colon operator for ranges):“What does this colon say? It says from to means this is a range…”
(On the difference between constants and formulas):“here which is only value there is no formula so what has become constant and here the value is there but is this value constant is it just value no check the formula b what? There is some formula attached to it.”
(On the purpose of filtering):“The best feature is the single which helps us in many things, which also helps us in a lot of reporting, it helps us a lot in understanding something after seeing it, especially with the data…”
Overall, “01.pdf” provides a beginner-friendly introduction to essential Excel concepts, focusing on formula creation, cell referencing, efficient summation techniques, generating sequences, understanding data types within cells, and the basic concept of filtering. The explanations are conversational and emphasize practical application.
The analysis of the remaining sources will follow in a similar structured manner to provide a comprehensive briefing document. Please provide the text from the subsequent files (“02.pdf”, “03.pdf”, etc.) for a complete analysis.
Excel Basics & Formulas FAQ
1. What are cells in Excel, and how do they relate to formulas?
Cells in Excel are the individual rectangular boxes where you enter data. Each cell is identified by a column letter and a row number (e.g., A1, B3). Formulas in Excel are expressions that perform calculations on the data in these cells. When you write a formula, you often refer to cell addresses to use the values contained within those cells in your calculations. For example, =C3+D3+E3+F3 in cell G3 adds the values in cells C3, D3, E3, and F3, and the result is displayed in G3.
2. What are the three basic components of an Excel formula, and how do they behave when dragging the formula to other cells?
The three basic components of an Excel formula are: * Cell references: These refer to specific cells (e.g., A1, $B$2, C$3). When a formula with relative cell references (like C3) is dragged, the cell references automatically adjust relative to the new row or column. Absolute references (like $C$3) remain fixed regardless of where the formula is dragged. Mixed references (like C$3 or $C3) have one part fixed and the other relative. * Numbers: These are constant numerical values entered directly into the formula (e.g., 90, 27). Numbers remain constant and do not change when the formula is dragged. * Text: These are constant text values entered directly into the formula and must be enclosed in double quotes (e.g., “Pass”). Text also remains constant when the formula is dragged.
Dragging a formula applies the same underlying calculation to adjacent cells, automatically adjusting relative cell references based on the new position, while keeping numbers and text constants.
3. What is the SUM function in Excel, and what are the different ways to use it to add numbers?
The SUM function in Excel is used to add numbers together. You can use it in several ways: * Adding individual cells: You can list individual cells separated by commas, like =SUM(C3, D3, E3, F3). * Adding a range of cells: For consecutive cells, you can specify a range using a colon, like =SUM(C3:F3). This adds all the numbers in the range from C3 to F3 (inclusive). * Adding non-adjacent cells and ranges: You can combine individual cells and ranges, like =SUM(A1:A5, C3, F1:F10).
A quick way to use the SUM function for a contiguous range is to select the cell where you want the total and press Alt + =. Excel will often automatically detect the adjacent range of numbers and insert the SUM formula.
4. How can you fill a series of numbers or dates automatically in Excel using the “Fill Series” option?
The “Fill Series” option in Excel allows you to automatically populate a range of cells with a sequence of numbers, dates, or text based on a defined pattern. To use it: 1. Enter the starting value in a cell. 2. Select the cell (or a range of cells establishing a pattern). 3. Go to the Home tab, in the Editing group, click on Fill, and then select Series. 4. In the Series dialog box: * Choose whether you want the series to fill in Rows or Columns. * Select the Type of series: * Linear: For sequences with a constant increment (e.g., 2, 4, 6…). Set the Step value. * Growth: For sequences with a constant multiplier (e.g., 2, 4, 8…). Set the Step value. * Date: For date sequences. Choose the Date unit (Day, Weekday, Month, Year) and set the Step value. Weekday will skip Saturdays and Sundays. * Autofill: Extends existing patterns. * In the Step value box, enter the increment or multiplier. For dates, it’s the number of days, weeks, months, or years to add. Use a negative value to decrement. * In the Stop value box (optional), enter the value at which the series should end. 5. Click OK.
You can also often drag the fill handle (the small square at the bottom-right of a selected cell) to automatically fill a series based on an initial value or pattern.
5. What is the difference between “Constants” and “Formulas” when using “Go To Special” in Excel?
The “Go To Special” feature in Excel allows you to select cells based on specific characteristics. When you choose either “Constants” or “Formulas,” you are selecting cells based on how their values are derived: * Constants: This option selects cells that contain values entered directly into them. These values can be numbers, text, logical values (TRUE/FALSE), or errors that were directly typed in (not resulting from a formula). If you further refine the selection within “Constants” by checking specific data types (Numbers, Text, Logicals, Errors), only constants of those types will be selected. For example, selecting “Constants” and then only “Numbers” will select all cells containing manually entered numbers, including dates (as Excel stores dates as numbers). * Formulas: This option selects cells that contain formulas. Similar to “Constants,” you can further refine the selection by checking the “Numbers,” “Text,” “Logicals,” or “Errors” checkboxes. This will select formulas that result in those specific types of output. For instance, selecting “Formulas” and then “Numbers” will select all cells containing formulas that calculate and display numerical results.
The key difference is whether the value in the cell is the result of a calculation (Formula) or directly input by the user (Constant).
6. How do relative, absolute, and mixed cell references work in Excel formulas, and when would you use each type?
Cell references in Excel tell formulas which cells to use in calculations. There are three types: * Relative References (e.g., A1): By default, cell references are relative. When you copy or drag a formula containing relative references to another cell, the row and column parts of the references automatically adjust relative to the new position. Use relative references when you want the formula to apply to a range of similar data, and the referenced cells should change accordingly for each row or column. * Absolute References (e.g., $A$1): An absolute reference is specified by adding a dollar sign ($) before both the column letter and the row number. When a formula with an absolute reference is copied or dragged, the cell reference remains unchanged. Use absolute references when you want a formula to always refer to a specific cell, regardless of where the formula is copied. This is useful for referencing constants, tax rates, or other fixed values. * Mixed References (e.g., $A1 or A$1): A mixed reference has either the row or the column part absolute and the other part relative. $A1 keeps the column fixed but allows the row to change when the formula is copied down. A$1 keeps the row fixed but allows the column to change when the formula is copied across. Use mixed references when you want either the row or the column reference to remain constant while the other adjusts. For example, when calculating percentages of a total where the total is in a single row but you want to apply the formula to multiple rows of individual values.
To quickly toggle between relative, absolute, and mixed references for a selected cell reference in the formula bar, you can press the F4 key.
7. What are some common text functions in Excel, such as LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, TRIM, LOWER, UPPER, and PROPER, and how are they used?
Excel provides several functions for manipulating text strings: * LEFT(text, num_chars): Extracts a specified number of characters from the beginning (left side) of a text string. * RIGHT(text, num_chars): Extracts a specified number of characters from the end (right side) of a text string. * MID(text, start_num, num_chars): Extracts a specified number of characters from the middle of a text string, starting at a given position. * LEN(text): Returns the number of characters in a text string. * TRIM(text): Removes extra spaces from a text string, including leading, trailing, and multiple spaces between words. It leaves a single space between words. * LOWER(text): Converts all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase. * UPPER(text): Converts all lowercase letters in a text string to uppercase. * PROPER(text): Capitalizes the first letter of each word in a text string and converts all other letters to lowercase (also known as sentence case or title case). * TEXTJOIN(delimiter, ignore_empty, text1, [text2], …): Joins two or more text strings into one text string with a specified delimiter between each text string. ignore_empty is a TRUE/FALSE value to specify whether to ignore empty cells.
These functions are used to clean, format, extract, and combine text data within your spreadsheets.
8. Explain the IF, AND, and OR logical functions in Excel, and provide examples of their use.
Logical functions in Excel allow you to perform conditional tests and return different values depending on whether the conditions are true or false: * IF(logical_test, value_if_true, value_if_false): Checks if a condition (logical_test) is TRUE or FALSE. If it’s TRUE, it returns value_if_true; otherwise, it returns value_if_false. * Example: =IF(B2>45, “Pass”, “Fail”) in cell C2 checks if the value in B2 is greater than 45. If it is, “Pass” is displayed; otherwise, “Fail” is displayed. * Example with empty cell check: =IF(A2=””, “Pending”, “Payment Done”) checks if cell A2 is empty. If it is, “Pending” is displayed; otherwise, “Payment Done” is displayed. * AND(logical1, [logical2], …): Returns TRUE if all of its arguments are TRUE; otherwise, it returns FALSE. * Example: =AND(B2>5, C2>4) checks if both the value in B2 is greater than 5 AND the value in C2 is greater than 4. It returns TRUE only if both conditions are met. This can be used within an IF function: =IF(AND(B2>5, C2>4), “Bonus Eligible”, “Not Eligible”). * OR(logical1, [logical2], …): Returns TRUE if any of its arguments are TRUE; it returns FALSE only if all of its arguments are FALSE. * Example: =OR(B2>5, C2>4) checks if either the value in B2 is greater than 5 OR the value in C2 is greater than 4. It returns TRUE if at least one of the conditions is met. This can also be used within an IF function: =IF(OR(B2>5, C2>4), “Meets Criteria”, “Does Not Meet Criteria”).
These logical functions are fundamental for creating dynamic and decision-making spreadsheets.
Excel Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts
Based on the sources, there are several keyboard shortcuts for page navigation within Excel.
To move to another sheet within the same workbook, you can use the following shortcuts:
Control Page Down: This will move you one sheet to the right (or downwards in the sheet list).
Control Page Up: This will move you one sheet to the left (or upwards in the sheet list).
To move between different workbooks that are open, you can use the following shortcut:
Control Tab: This will jump from one open workbook to the next. You can repeatedly press Tab while holding Control to cycle through the open workbooks.
Additionally, you can use the mouse to navigate between sheets by clicking on the sheet tabs at the bottom of the Excel window. You can also go to another workbook by clicking on it if it’s visible, or by selecting it from the Window menu (which can be accessed without clicking, though the exact keyboard shortcut for this menu is not specified in the sources).
For fast movement within a single sheet (not between sheets), the sources mention:
Page Up: To quickly scroll upwards.
Page Down: To quickly scroll downwards.
These shortcuts help you navigate large datasets within a single worksheet.
The name box can also be used to jump to a specific cell within a sheet by typing the cell address (e.g., A1, Z100) and pressing Enter. While not directly page navigation, it’s a method for quick movement to a specific location within a potentially long sheet.
The sources emphasize using these shortcuts for efficient work within Excel, especially for repetitive tasks.
Managing Multiple Excel Workbooks
Based on the sources and our conversation history, here’s a discussion on workbook movement in Excel.
Our previous conversation established that you can move between different open workbooks using the keyboard shortcut Control Tab [our conversation history]. This allows you to cycle through all the Excel workbooks you currently have open.
The new source provides further context related to working with multiple workbooks:
You can open new workbooks by going to the “File” tab, then “New”, and selecting “Blank workbook” or choosing from various templates. Templates offer pre-designed layouts for different tasks, saving you from starting from scratch.
You can also open existing workbooks by going to “File” and then “Open”. This will allow you to browse your file system to select the workbook you want to open. Alternatively, you can use the search functionality within Excel to find and open workbooks.
The source also mentions the concept of a “workbook” as the entire file you are working in. When you save your work, you are saving the entire workbook. Multiple worksheets can exist within a single workbook.
Interestingly, the source details how you can move or copy entire sheets between different workbooks. To do this:
Right-click on the sheet tab you want to move or copy.
Select “Move or Copy…” from the context menu.
In the “Move or Copy” dialog box, under “To book:”, you can choose a currently open workbook or select “(new book)” to create a new workbook for the sheet.
If you want to create a copy and keep the original sheet in the current workbook, make sure to check the “Create a copy” box. Otherwise, the sheet will be moved to the destination workbook.
The “View” tab in Excel also offers options for managing multiple workbook windows:
“New Window” allows you to open another window displaying the same active workbook. This can be useful for viewing different parts of a large workbook simultaneously.
“Arrange All” lets you tile or cascade all open workbook windows on your screen. You can choose from options like “Tiled”, “Horizontal”, “Vertical”, or “Cascade” to arrange them in a way that suits your workflow.
“View Side by Side” helps you compare two workbooks (or two windows of the same workbook) next to each other.
“Switch Windows” provides a dropdown list of all open workbooks, allowing you to easily select and switch to the desired one.
These features, along with the Control Tab shortcut, provide comprehensive ways to navigate and manage multiple workbooks in Excel. You can open new and existing workbooks, move content (sheets) between them, and arrange their windows for efficient multitasking.
Excel Cell Data Entry Methods and Techniques
Based on the sources, there are several methods for entering data into cells in Excel. These methods cater to different user preferences and situations:
Direct Cell Entry: The most straightforward method is to simply select a cell and begin typing. Once you have entered your data, you can press Enter to move to the cell below or press Tab to move to the cell to the right. This is the initial way to input new information into a blank cell.
In-Cell Editing (Double-Click): If you need to modify existing data within a cell, you can double-click inside the cell. This action places the cursor directly within the cell’s content, allowing you to make changes at the desired position.
Formula Bar Editing: Another way to edit cell content is by using the formula bar located above the worksheet. When you select a cell, its content is displayed in the formula bar. You can then click in the formula bar and edit the data directly. This can be particularly useful when the cell contains a long formula or a significant amount of text that might be easier to view and edit in the expanded space of the formula bar. Pressing Enter after editing in the formula bar will save the changes to the selected cell.
Using the F2 Key: A keyboard shortcut for entering edit mode in a cell is by selecting the cell and pressing the F2 key. This action places the cursor at the end of the cell’s content, ready for modification. The source also notes that on some laptops, like HP models, you might need to press the Function (Fn) key along with F2 to achieve the same result.
Beyond basic entry, the source also touches upon efficient data entry techniques:
Fill Handle for Series: For entering sequential data like numbers or dates, you can use the fill handle. After entering the initial value (or a pattern of values) in a cell, a small square appears at the bottom-right corner of the selected cell. You can click and drag this fill handle down or across adjacent cells. For numbers, if you only enter ‘1’ and drag, it will copy the ‘1’. To create a series (1, 2, 3…), you need to either enter the first few values to establish a pattern or click on the drop-down arrow that appears after dragging and select “Fill Series“.
Auto Update Settings: The source briefly mentions a setting in Excel that can automatically extend data ranges and formats based on patterns. This setting can be found under File > Options > Advanced. Turning this setting on allows Excel to automatically recognize patterns and apply them when you enter new data adjacent to existing data. Turning it off will prevent this automatic updating.
These methods provide flexibility for entering and modifying data in Excel cells, whether you are starting fresh or editing existing content. The choice of method often depends on personal preference and the specific task at hand.
Excel Data Entry Shortcuts: Efficiency Tips
Based on the sources, there are several useful shortcuts to enhance data entry efficiency in Excel.
Moving Between Cells After Entry:
Pressing Enter after entering data in a cell will automatically move the cursor to the cell directly below. This is useful for entering lists of data in a column.
Pressing Tab after entering data will move the cursor to the cell immediately to the right. This is helpful when entering data across rows.
Editing Existing Cell Content: When you need to modify data that is already in a cell, you can use the following shortcuts to enter edit mode:
Double-clicking directly inside the cell will place the cursor within the cell’s content, allowing you to make changes.
Alternatively, you can select the cell and then make your edits in the formula bar located above the worksheet.
Selecting a cell and pressing the F2 key will also put you into edit mode, with the cursor typically positioned at the end of the cell’s content. On some HP laptops, you might need to press Fn + F2 to achieve this.
Filling Data in Adjacent Cells: Excel offers shortcuts for quickly populating adjacent cells with similar or sequential data:
The fill handle, the small square at the bottom-right of a selected cell, can be clicked and dragged to copy the cell’s content or extend a series into neighboring cells. For a numerical series, you might need to establish a pattern (e.g., by entering ‘1’ and ‘2’ in consecutive cells and then dragging) or use the “Fill Series” option from the AutoFill Options menu that appears after dragging.
To quickly fill down the content and formatting of the cell directly above the currently selected cell(s), use the shortcut Control D.
Similarly, to fill right the content and formatting of the cell immediately to the left of the selected cell(s), use Control R.
Entering Multiple Lines in a Cell: If you need to enter text on multiple lines within a single Excel cell, you can use the shortcut Alt Enter to insert a line break at your desired point.
These data entry shortcuts can significantly speed up your work in Excel by reducing the need to constantly use the mouse for navigation and repetitive actions. Understanding and utilizing these shortcuts can lead to a more efficient data entry process.
Excel Basic Formatting Guide
Based on the sources, basic formatting in Excel involves modifying the appearance of your data to make it more readable, understandable, and presentable. It encompasses various aspects, from the fundamental structure of workbooks and worksheets to the visual styling of cells and their contents.
Workbook vs. Worksheet
Before discussing formatting, it’s important to understand the distinction between a workbook and a worksheet. A workbook is the entire Excel file you save. Think of it like a notebook. Inside this workbook, you can have multiple worksheets, which are like the individual pages in a notebook where you do your work. Your manager might ask for a specific worksheet (a single page with certain data) or the entire workbook (the whole file containing all your work). You can add more worksheets by clicking on the plus (+) sign.
Saving Your Work
To preserve your formatting and data, you need to save your work. Excel provides two primary options: Save and Save As.
Save As is used when you save a file for the first time. It prompts you to choose the file name, location on your computer, and the file format (e.g., Excel Workbook, PDF).
Save is used for subsequent saves after the initial “Save As”. It saves the changes to the same file name and location without prompting you again.
The shortcut key for both Save and Save As (after the initial save) is Control S. If you press Control S on a file that hasn’t been saved before, it will act like “Save As”.
Basic Formatting Steps
The process of basic formatting typically involves these steps:
Selecting Data: Before applying any formatting, you need to select the cell(s) or range of cells you want to modify. You can select the entire current region of data by clicking anywhere within it and pressing Control A.
Adjusting Cell Dimensions: You can adjust the width of columns and the height of rows to better display your data.
You can double-click the right border of a column header to automatically adjust the column width to fit the widest content.
Keyboard shortcuts for adjusting column width include Alt H O I and Alt O C A.
To adjust the row height automatically, you can use the shortcut Alt H O A.
Understanding Data vs. Formatting: In Excel, there’s a distinction between the raw data you enter and the formatting you apply to it to make it presentable. Formatting includes things like colors, borders, font styles, and alignment.
Common Formatting Options
The “Home” tab in Excel contains the primary tools for basic formatting.
Alignment: You can change the horizontal alignment of text within a cell (left, center, right) and the vertical alignment (top, middle, bottom). Left alignment generally looks natural for text, while center alignment can be suitable for headings.
Font: You can modify the appearance of text by applying styles like bold (Control B), italics (Control I), and underline (Control U). You can also change the font type (e.g., Calibri, Arial) and font size. Additionally, you can change the color of the font.
Cell Styles (Fill Color): You can change the background color of cells using the “Fill Color” option (the paint bucket icon). This can help to visually highlight specific data.
Borders: You can add borders around cells or ranges of cells to define them visually.
You can apply all borders (thin lines around each cell).
You can apply a thick outside border to emphasize the edges of a selected range.
The “Borders” dropdown offers various border styles.
To access more border options, you can go to “More Borders…”.
To remove borders, you can select the range and choose “No Border” from the borders dropdown.
Shortcut Keys for Formatting: Excel offers several shortcut keys for common formatting actions:
Accessing the “Home” tab functions starts with pressing Alt H. After pressing Alt H, letters will appear over the various groups and commands within the “Home” tab.
For All Borders: Alt H B A.
For Thick Outside Border: Alt H B T.
For More Borders: Alt H B M (likely based on the pattern).
For No Border: Alt H B N (likely based on the pattern).
Bold: Control B.
Italic: Control I.
Underline: Control U (source says Control Ya – likely a typo and should be Control U).
Merge & Center: To combine multiple adjacent cells into a single larger cell and center the content within it, you can use the Merge & Center option in the “Alignment” group of the “Home” tab. Select the cells you want to merge and then click “Merge & Center”.
Turning Off Gridlines: The faint lines that appear around cells (gridlines) can be turned off for a cleaner visual presentation by going to the “View” tab and unchecking the “Gridlines” option in the “Show” group.
Number Formatting
Excel allows you to display numbers in various formats. You can access these options in the “Number” group of the “Home” tab.
General: The default format.
Number: Displays numbers with decimal places.
Currency: Adds a currency symbol (e.g., $) and decimal places.
Accounting: Similar to currency, but aligns the currency symbol and decimal points in a specific way.
Percentage: Multiplies the value by 100 and adds a percent (%) sign.
Comma Style: Adds a thousand separator (comma).
Increase/Decrease Decimal: Allows you to control the number of decimal places displayed.
You can also access more number format options by clicking the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the “Number” group. This opens the “Format Cells” dialog box, where you have more granular control over number formatting, including date, time, fractions, scientific notation, text, and custom formats. The Text format can be useful for displaying numbers with more than 15 digits, as Excel might otherwise convert them to scientific notation or round them.
Date Formatting
Excel recognizes and formats dates in various ways. You can choose from predefined short date and long date formats in the “Number” group or access more options in the “Format Cells” dialog box. Custom date formatting allows you to specify the exact way you want dates to be displayed using codes like d (day), m (month), and y (year).
Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting allows you to automatically apply formatting to cells based on specific rules or conditions. This is found in the “Conditional Formatting” group on the “Home” tab.
Highlight Cell Rules: Allows you to format cells based on criteria like greater than, less than, between, equal to, text that contains, a date occurring, or duplicate values.
Top/Bottom Rules: Allows you to format cells based on their ranking, such as the top 10 items, bottom 10%, above average, or below average.
Data Bars: Fills cells with colored bars that represent the value in relation to other cells in the selected range.
Color Scales: Applies a gradient of colors to cells based on their values.
Icon Sets: Adds icons to cells that visually represent their values relative to other values.
You can clear conditional formatting from selected cells or the entire sheet. You can also manage conditional formatting rules to edit, delete, or reorder them.
Table and Cell Styles
Excel also offers predefined Table Styles and Cell Styles that apply a consistent set of formatting to tables and individual cells, respectively. These can be found in the “Styles” group on the “Home” tab and provide a quick way to format your data with a professional look.
In summary, basic formatting in Excel is crucial for organizing and presenting your data effectively. By understanding and utilizing the various tools and shortcuts available, you can create clear and professional-looking spreadsheets.
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The Original Text
Hey, have you brought a resume? There is neither AI nor chat, GPT. There is no need to bring a resume like this. The formula does not solve it. Everyone says drink tea, drink tea, the problem will be solved. Drinking tea does not solve the problem. Got my sister married. Did 99 workshops. Did thousands of interviews. Neither did I get a job nor did Excel come. So what happened ? What happened? What happened? Forget it. Now let’s talk a little about the real thing. Single compress features and The formulas range from basic to advanced and now there is a twist of AI in it, so in this video I have covered all the important features and formulas which are important for you if you want to survive in the corporate world. Here we have created such creative dashboards. If we talk about data, we have worked on huge data here, so whether you are a beginner or advanced, we have covered all these things here. What else will be the benefit? If you complete this video, then you get free certification and access to it. You can get data for practice on our app. Yes, you will also get the data which I have used in this video and apart from that, you will get extra data. You can check it under the free content inside our app. Mam, how to know what all I have covered in the video, for that you can check the description where pay time. If stumps are given, then you can go there and jump to your topic in a single click. So, if you want to do live training with us, that too on many accounting software’s, data analytics and finance, then you can join us. You will get all the information in the description, so check it quickly, like it, comment and don’t forget to subscribe because a lot of courses are coming, be it Excel. Pabi I have SQL, SAP, Telemark busy, so many courses, don’t wait too long, let’s start this video right here, let’s get started, now stop wasting, watch it, let’s start from the very beginning. If you want to read about Excel, then first of all you have to open Excel, then go to your search engine and type excel from here, after that you can open it from here, it will hardly take 5 seconds and your Excel will be open with you. There may be different versions, the version we are using here is 2021, it will take a little time and will open, see that it has opened and here we will maximize it so that the entire screen is visible to you, now it is possible that if you are opening it for the first time, then all these files will not be visible to you, whatever options you are seeing, all these will not be visible to you and if you are already working. Your files will be visible here, after that you can see Home New Open here , we will read about them later, here you can see that there is a blank workbook in which we work and apart from this, many templates are also made, here you will get more templates, so basically what are templates, see, it is simple, when suppose you are doing some work from scratch, then you will go to the blank workbook, but what are templates? Let me explain with an example, suppose you have 10 pictures and now you have to make a video of them. So what do you do? You go to some app, put those 10 pictures and choose a template and put it. There are many effects inside that template, there are a lot of stickers, there are a lot of text, there are a lot of frames, it automatically gets applied on your pictures and a video is prepared for you very quickly. So that which is ready in a second, what is it, that is your template, so in the same way, if you do not want to do any work from scratch, then here you have many templates available, you can use these templates, all you have to do inside it is your data, you can save it in it, you can do whatever you have to work in it, like this is a bill page checklist, you have to do some work in it, you open it and do the work inside it. You have to do something else, this is some weekly attendance report. If you want to work in it, you can do it in it. It has already created many templates in this way, if you want, you can use them. Here you also get to know how Ekal works, like Get Started with the formula, the formula is explained in detail, Power Query, Pivot Table, Pie Chart, if you want to see then you can see these also. Above you have it saying that suggested search, if you want to do any search, search from here, if there is any template related to it, then it will appear in front of you, here you get lots of templates, okay, let’s go, now we will read further, because we are studying from scratch, so what will we take, we will take a blank workbook because we have to learn to create all the things ourselves, so what you are seeing right now is Excel as is. You open Excel, you get this type of interface. Now the first thing we are going to do is to do an interface overview. What are we going to do? So let’s do that. To do that, I have found a way to do that, just because you have understood everything, so I have already taken a screenshot of this entire screen. From that screenshot, now I will be able to draw, I will be able to explain each and every feature to you very well, so I did one, now as soon as I move it down a little bit. And let’s zoom it from here so that it becomes easier for you to understand and from here we take the draw, see if there is a different feature visible on the top or any feature is visible somewhere else, then you do not need to worry, these features can be added to you too, how will it happen, we will add it now, okay, after that, now we start reading, you will see the Excel logo at the top most, this will let you know that you have opened Excel, after that You have the option of auto save, for now it is off, you can also keep it on so that the work you are doing gets saved automatically. In any case, you were doing some work, you were working on a big data and suddenly the light went off, your system is not charging and it is switched off, then in such a case, even if all your data is lost, it will continue to be saved. You can save it from here , at any place like let’s say this is the option you are seeing. Let’s say Quick Access Tool Bar, what is Quick Access Tool Bar ? There is an option of Redo and Undo, so you can do it directly here only. If you want to keep something else here, then you click on it. Whatever you want to keep here, you can keep it here, like Touch Touch Mouse Mode, Sort Ascending Descending, Spelling Check, Quick Point of Email, Open key, New key, whatever option you want to keep, you can keep it here. I find these options to be the most useful like there is an option to save or undo and so on. There is an option of Redo, I find these the most useful, so I have kept them here, you think something else, don’t do anything, see where my cursor is going, click on this dot drop down and add any option from here, OK, now let’s move forward, when you open Excel for the first time, then by default the name that comes here is Book One, so this is your file name, this is the name of your file, basically this is the current name of your file. The name given is Book One. Can we change it? Yes, of course we can. Is it mandatory to do so now? It is not at all mandatory. You can change it even when you are saving it. You can give whatever name you want to give. Yes, of course you can give it as per your wish to save it. You can do it by default. What comes is Book One, Book Two, Book Three. Now I open another file just because three files are already open, so by default that is it. What name will come, book four will come, you can change the name if you want, you can do it, after that you get this search engine inside which you can search, earlier if there is any file created, if anything is created, then you can search it here, after that look above, you will see all the same options, because we have taken the same screenshot of this, so that you can understand easily, here you can see my picture here. It is coming and here you will write ‘TS’, see, ‘ Not for now’ it is writing ‘Coming’, the picture is visible. Otherwise, the initials of your name are also visible here, so here I can tell you that this is just because I have logged in, this is my licensed version, so your picture will be visible here or the initials of your name will be visible. These three things will help you to minimize and maximize. You can save your screen by using this cross. You can also close it directly. After closing it, as soon as you cross it, it asks you whether to save it or not. It’s totally up to you. If you want to save it, you can do it. Look, these are the options here. Okay, I was talking about these options. Let’s go here right now, we are not going to get any other option in the left most left. That’s it. There were options which we have explored. Now let’s move towards this side a little bit. See, always remember this thing, whether it is single or any software, it is full of features and Excel has a lot of features but do we have to learn all the features. Do we have all the features visible on the screen here? So the answer is no. Okay, we do limited things which are useful to us, we do those things. Now as you can see, here I use a different color like you can see here. It is File Home New Tab Insert Draw Page Layout Formula Data Review View Help Acro, you may not have some options in the middle like it is not a new tab, whether it is a draw or not , then this is the one of Acrobat, it is okay, we can add it, I will tell you how to add it later, but what do we call these, what do we call these, what do we call tabs, what do we call tabs, file tab is home tab, new tab is insert tab, draw tab is page layout. If there are tabs, then these are your tabs. Now you will see a color difference. Here you are seeing a color difference, which is charcoal yellow and sorry, charcoal gray and this one above is black, right, meaning there is a box inside this black, what do we call this box, what do we call this box, what do we call ribbon, what do we call this ribbon, what is ribbon, so basically there is a tab at the top, there is a box below the tab, inside which all the features are given now about it. We will read in what is that box called ribbon, that is, there are things given inside the ribbon, okay after that you can see that there is Clipboard, then there is a line, there is Alignment, there is font, then there is a line, there are numbers, then there is a line, there is style, then there is a line, look, the same thing is there in other tabs too, there is insert, then there is tables, then there is a line, there is illustration, then there is a line, there is charts, then there is a line, there is spark line, then there is a line. What is this basically that you are seeing, what is this, so let us read it, these are our groups, if I talk about what is alignment, what is font, what is clipboard, what is number, what is style, what is cell, what is all this, what are your groups, what are groups, basically if suppose I have to do some work related to font, then the whole Excel has been put in this group, then inside it you will get all the options scattered like this. No, if it is in a very organized way, then this is your group, this is a group of fonts and inside the group, like this is visible to you for the font, this is the BiU border color and all these things which are there in the paint, so these are what are inside and what are the features, these are the features but the group that has been formed which means within which these features are, each one that is visible written below is your group. If I talk about insert, then the table is a group. Illustration is a group, Chart is a group, Spark line is a group, Filter is a group, but if I talk about page layout, then theme is a group, page setup is a group, scale to fit is a group, sheet option is a group, arrange is a group, so in this way it is a group and all the things that come inside it are its features. Got it, no one understands anything, there is no doubt anywhere, please let me know in the comment section, this is the whole thing . The session is going to be quite long, so there may be n number of doubts in it, so you keep writing down the entire doubt, wherever it is, you can tell it in one go, you can tell it separately, no issue, but you must tell it so that it can be replied to and you can get clarity about it. Okay, so you keep writing the note down and after that you will tell it because you are going to read it completely, right, so let’s go a little more. Let’s move ahead. After moving ahead, we leave these two options. This or 28 and this is visible. We will understand later. Now we will go down. What we see is this sheet one. So we call it sheet. What do we call sheet and with this plus sign, we can insert more. Add, insert is the same thing, we can insert. Now suppose I have created many sheets here, I want one more sheet, I come to this sheet, once the last sheet is here, I did plus, then look, another sheet has been created, I have this sheet inside it, it is by the name of sheet 14, it is fine, I have to delete it, I right clicked on it, I have deleted it, I come to the first sheet, look, by following these three dots, these three dots will appear in your sheet only when this one of yours. The portion will be filled on the screen. This portion will be filled only when there is nothing to do further. Otherwise, the option to do further will not appear. Okay, from here you can increase more sheets. After this, the options that you see are these options. Here on one side there is this and on the other side there is this, both of them do the same work, do the work of movement, do the work of which one do the work of movement and The movement it is doing is basically the one which is taking you left to right, left to right and the one above is taking you up and down. What is it taking you up and down? Okay and what are these two called scroll bars? What are scroll bars called? Okay, we call them scroll bars because it is helping us in scrolling. Now I am also showing this to you by zooming. If I am telling you, what I am doing is going left and right here and there like this again and again. If I want to go up and down then I use this, so these are our scroll bars, after that the options you will see are these three types of views. Okay, there are three types of views, so what do they mean? Look at what they do. Understand that, which is the first view. I take it for a second, which is the first view, what is the first view, what is your first view called? The first view is called normal view because it is the normal screen and you will see it in normal view, so what will we call it? Normal view which is the second view and is your page layout view. Well, if you go near it, it will automatically tell you the name. Like, if I moved the cursor here, this name came automatically. What is page layout? What is page layout? What does page layout do? Suppose you have to check this because you have created the data and then after that. Obviously, if you take a print out of it, then you have to know that later on, if I take a print out of it, then my data is not getting cut in the print. If I do this, in any case, if you want to check this thing, then you can do it like I suppose, now I click on the page layout, then it is showing me that if at today’s time I go to print it, then my data will be cut in this manner. You can see in different pages, it will be cut in this manner, so now. I can adjust my data accordingly and on clicking on the normal view, the normal work that we do is good, after this comes the page break view preview, so you can also see directly how the page break is happening, so it is showing me the page, in this way, this line is visible, this will become one page, this will become the second page and the rest will go in the third page. These four pages of yours are being created because you have written below also, in this way. This gives us the view, for now we have taken this normal view, so from here you understand the three types of views. Okay, after that see what is the option you are seeing here. I take it for once. Yes, after that what is this option you are seeing? Just give me a minute, look, this is what you have, to zoom in and zoom out, you zoom in and zoom out to zoom in and zoom out. From here, look at the zoom of your screen. If it is zoomed then it is at 175. Now if we zoom in then it will reduce. If we have to do more then it will become more. So if you want to zoom in and zoom out then you can do it directly from here. So here you have learned most of the things about the interface. Now let us move a little further that inside the interface you will see this in the middle. Just because when we started Excel, it was looking like this, so here they are coming in the form of boxes. So, what do these boxes mean? What are these boxes, what are they called, why are they called, why are they there, now we are going to understand the meaning of all these. Okay, now you have understood what we are going to understand, as much as you have understood is enough, now we are going to read about these boxes, so let’s just give me a minute, we have come here, look, you know that we are going to read about pay boxes here and the boxes that you had read till now, in what way were they coming, a line was coming like this. One line was coming like this and then one line was going like this And one line was going in this way and after that it was coming in the middle as a box, it is coming in the same way, look at the side, see this, a line is coming from here, a line is coming from here, a line is going from here, and a line is going from here, by doing this this box is getting formatted and what do we call this box, I am talking about it, so what do we call this box, we call this box, okay, what is this? Let’s say cell, let’s say OK, I understood that all the boxes in our Excel, we call them cells, so from now on, whenever I say something, I will not say box, I will say, is this work to be done in this cell, is this work to be done in this cell, okay, let’s go next. We see that you are looking at the top A B CD, so I can say that this line is a, this line is b and you are seeing numbers written on the side. So I can do one thing, I can write this as one, I can write this as two, so that means this cell is made up of a and b and one and two, so what do we call a and b, what do we call a and b a column, what do we call a column, this is a, not a b, from now on we will not say that a is b or b is a line or c is a line, there is a column, we call a column, so from now on, what will we call a, column a, what will be the meaning of column, then this a As far as this is, the entire line of b means the entire line of b means the entire column of c means the entire column of c. The entire column of n. The entire column of What is completely there is called row, we do not call it line, we call it row. Okay, so now I can say that look, to make a cell, I need columns and if I need rows, then I can say what is needed to make a cell, column is needed, row is needed in plus. What are your columns? What are your alphabets, which you can see on the top and what are your daily lives, they are numbers. Okay, together with them, your cell is formed. Now suppose we will understand which cell is which cell? They understand that suppose I am on this cell, look, now not only the grid lines are off, that means the lines themselves are off, the cells are still being formed, so let’s do one thing. I ask here, here I explain to you how we understand the cell. Now this is a cell. You look above, the color of all the others is of the same type, one has become a little darker, that means this is the income column, this is the eye column, also look here, which one is this 90, so this 90, so what does it mean? This cell is made up of what is it made up of? Aa is made up of columns and 90 rows. Because now you have not understood that a cell is made up of what? It is made up of a column and a row. So what is this cell made up of? I is a column and a row is 990 so what is its name? The name of the cell itself is called aa 90 and look here i 90 that is why we call this box the name box. If you go to this , this is our name box, that’s why we call it name box because it tells us the name of the cell, so that’s your name box. Okay, why is the name box telling us because it is telling us the name of the cell? How will the name of the cell come? Now we will find the name of the cell. Look, we have come to this cell, quickly tell me which cell is this. Look, what is this cell? Look, what is darker from here is j and from here 67 That means j column consisting of 67 rows. This cell has been created and what is the name of the cell j 67 So here is your g67 Suppose I have to do the same thing here now so tell me what is its name its name is q So we will see our column from here 66 Your cry So what is the name of this cell q6 66 So you can see here it is coming by writing q66 Got it understood one or two more let’s see here Suppose I clicked here So what is the darkness here Look at the dark color here What is darker is v and from here darker is 65 that means v column 65th row and what is the name of our cell become v65 ok this is how we do our interface this is how we name our cell this is your name box now you have learned three to four things what have you learned look at all the alphabets written here all the alphabets written what are your columns and see all the numbers you have seen here You can see the numbers here , you can see the numbers, I am just telling you this, okay, these are your daily occurrences, okay, and here, this is a box which is made, we call it a cell, now you have Learned Name Box. Now suppose you write something inside a cell. Now I am telling you to write inside the cell and after that I am explaining the difference in it. This cell is yours and inside it you start writing anything, so if I am writing anything then it is visible above here. So, whatever you write inside a cell is written here also, that is why it is said that if suppose it comes outside the cell and I have to make some changes in it, then to make the changes, if I If I directly change from here and write the taan here then see it has taken the taan here also. If I have written the taan here then it has taken the taan here too. If you have not written anything in this cell then look above it is empty. If it has been written in this cell then see your writing has come in it. You have written something in some cell. Look and it is being written here and the other way around. If this cell is empty then this cell is empty. So in this way, whatever you write inside any cell is written here also. This is why we call it the formula bar. Later , when you will put the formula and write it inside the cell, you can edit it by looking here instead of looking inside the cell. So this is your formula bar where your formula will be shown because the value is shown inside the cell, so this is the formula bar. Gradually, I will explain it better. I will explain it better where we will learn to do data entry. Now I will be able to explain it well. I zoom it out and make you revise the whole thing for once. As you saw, you get exactly the initiative cross, after that you get this file, home new tab and all these, what are yours, these are your tabs, if I go to home, then if I ask you, clipboard, font, alignment , number, what are all these, these are your groups, inside the groups, what are all these available to you, these are your features available, this is yours, this is your name box, this is your formula bar. Your A B C D E F G H What are all these, your columns, all the numbers you have written, these are your days, all these things are made below, this is your sheet, with Plus, you can create more sheets from these, with which we go left, right or up and down, what are these called scroll bars, what are your views, the first one is the normal view, the second one is your page layout view and the third one is page break view and from here you can see it. If you can zoom, here we have completed our interface. Now let us read about our next topic, which is workbook and worksheet. Now we will understand workbook and worksheet, what is workbook, what is worksheet, let’s understand with an example. Okay, Raju is a student. Raju is a student. Okay, and he goes to school, he goes to school, he has four He studies subjects basically Hindi, English, Maths and Science. Okay, he studies four subjects. So now you tell me that if he makes a joint notebook of all four subjects in which he writes the homework of all and does all the work inside it, then will it be okay? Can he do all the work in one notebook? Tell me, can he do all the work in one notebook? The answer is no. He cannot do all this work in one notebook. What will he do? That Means will make one notebook for one subject, that means there are four subjects, so there it will make four notebooks for each subject, inside each notebook it will do its work, Hindi inside this, English inside this, Maths inside this and Science inside this, oh ok, in the same way Raju makes each notebook for each of his work, That Means makes a separate notebook for each of his different subjects, in the same way, when we work, we are different. They create files, what did they create, notebooks, what did they create, notebooks for their different works, but what do we create to do different works, what will we create, we will create notebooks, we are not studying in school right now, we will create workbooks, basically, inside Excel, when you create different files, we call them workbooks, you have seen so many of these things files here in the file tab, these are different files, right, that means these are my different workbooks, that is why. Here it is written Recover Unsaved Workbook More Workbook What is the meaning of workbook this blank workbook is ok so what is the meaning of workbook this is this file this is this file and there suppose now Raju has to work Raju has to work now let’s take another example he is making a Hindi notebook he is making a Hindi notebook and there are 10 chapters inside it how many chapters are there in 10 chapters okay so what will he do what will he do one Will take only one page and will write 10 chapters inside it. Isn’t it possible? And anyway, if a page ends at the top line, you still go to the next page because I have to start chapter two from a separate page, chapter three has to be started from a separate page, chapter four has to be started from a separate page, so we call it that we make separate pages, that is yours, what is called here. Now as if I have to explain it to you, I only know the basics of Excel but here I have created an interface for you in the first sheet, I have created a workbook for you in the second sheet, I have saved the file for you in the third sheet. In this way, whatever topic I will be teaching you, I have created it here so that it becomes easy for me, so in the same way, the pages in the notebooks are pre-defined. What does pre-defined mean that the notebook you buy? It depends on whether you have bought 200 pages, whether you have bought 300 pages or bought 500 pages. This happens in the sheets. You can insert as many sheets as you want here. You just keep clicking on the plus plus sign and you will get that many sheets. We here, the pages are already available, they are already given, we do not already have the sheets. If we have to do any other work, do a plus and create another sheet, so here are our pages, basically the pages inside the file where we will work, that is your worksheet, so now you understand, workbook is the whole file, workbook is the whole file, and inside the workbook there is a worksheet, inside the workbook there are worksheets, so now if your manager is telling you that Tarun, I have taken a random name like this, Taran, you send your worksheet. If you give, then you do not have to send the entire file, you have to send the sheet where the particular work has been done, they want the sheet and if they say send the entire file, that means if you have done let’s say five-seven tasks in it, then they have to see all the work of yours, so that is the main difference of workbook and worksheet, its use will be that now you will understand when there is a conversation, there is a conversation about Excel, now you know. What is workbook and what is worksheet and this example was just taken from me so that you can relate it to it. Now your topic has been completed here. If we talk about the interface, we have covered the maximum things, we have completed the interface. Now I am going to teach you the next thing. See the save file. When you work, it is obvious that you would like to save that work. Suppose my This is the file on which I am explaining different things to you. Obviously, I would like to provide you this file, so to provide this file, I have to save it, so we save it by going to the file here. After going to the file, you get the option of Save and Save As. So now let’s understand it a little bit. What is Save S and what is Save. Let me just zoom it on my screen first, so I have this here. I have zoomed in and here I have taken the pen, see there is an option save as and add a save. Save as means in which way do you want to save it. When you save for the first time, it gives you the option of save as, that is, it asks you at the initial level, in which way do you want to save it, do you want to save it in Excel file or want to save it in some other form, where do you want to save it, where in your laptop. Do you want to save it, under what name do you want to save it, he asks all these things at the initial level. Now suppose we will take today’s date, that is, today you have saved it on any date, now tomorrow you will open that file again, if you work beyond that, then you will not have to give it name and location again and again, you have done it on the first day, after that you have to save what you say in the subsequent subsequent times, now after that for the first time. After this, every time you save, you will save the same thing. If you have to change something, then you will do the save as again. You will go and save in the other wise. The shortcut key for both of them is Control A. If you are pressing Control A, then if it is a file for the first time, then automatic save as will come and if that file is already created, then it will automatically get saved. By saving this, you will get the idea that OK, fine now, save as. There is no option, it means that this file is already running and already saved. Okay, so in this way we would have two options. The first one is save as, the other one is save. For the first time, when you save, the save as comes. By pressing control s, we are able to save it. Now I have to press control s, control s, then this pass option comes. If suppose I do not press control s, then what kind of option would I have, it comes in this way. If I do save as, then basically I have to browse here. I have to tell me where I can save it. If you want to find a place in your laptop where you can save it, then you take the option of browse, you click on it, here you can check any location, where do I have to do it, I have to do it in my volume D, I have to do it in Accounts Expert and from here in Advanced Excel course, going to Sheets, what we are doing right now is that we are doing the basics of Excel, inside this we have to save it here and that too in what name to save it Part One Over Part One Interface Overview I want to search by its name, so I saved it here. If suppose you want to change any format, then here you get many formats, you can save it in that format, you can even save it in PDF, you can save it in CSA, you can do it in whatever you want, but now in which we will do it, we will do it in Excel workbook, so we clicked on it and here we saved it. After saving, now we have saved it, right? Now suppose I cross it out, I have crossed it out, okay, we have crossed it out, now we go to that folder of ours, go to the new volume D, go to Accounts Expert, go to Classes, sorry, no classes, this is your file youtube0, you click on it and it will open and you will get all the work that was yours as it is. Okay, now whenever I have to do some more work, I will not save it. Now suppose I write something else here that this is how we Save the files, then I write something else here, here I write what is the shortcut key or what is this, I write this is the shortcut key, I have written this, now suppose I want to write the shortcut key in my new file because earlier I had not saved it, now I have not saved it, I pressed control S, then see this is what happened back then, now I cross it out and after that go back to the folder and open it by double clicking from here. After opening, see this is automatic in my Now suppose I have written the shortcut key here, let me tell you here, suppose I have written the shortcut key , okay now I am not saving it directly, I am crossing it out and why am I asking this again because it is saying that you have not made any changes in it, have you made any changes in the previously saved one, now do you want to save it or not, now if I want to do it, I will have to tell him. Save because I was going to cross directly, if I wanted to do control s, then it would have been saved as it is. Now after this, whatever I keep doing any work, that is why if you are working in a big data, then you can do control less again and again so that it keeps getting saved. Okay, so here we learned how we save our file. Let us move a little further. How can we do movement inside Excel. What is movement, let’s say this. This is my cell and after that I have to go left, I have to go right, so whenever we learn anything here, where we have to learn shortcut keys and other things too, we will always work in two expectations. What are those two expectations going to be? The first expectation will be yours. Here, if we have to do any thing directly with the mouse, then how can we do it? The next one is the keyboard that I am telling you how to do anything with the keyboard. When we talk about the keyboard, then obviously our short tricks come to us that how can we use the short tricks and make it work directly. There are many such short tricks for many things, but I will tell you the main things, which if you think, this is my repetitive work, remember its shortcut keys, there is no need to remember them all, because if you remember so many, you will get loaded. End After that, you will not be able to remember everything, you cannot even remember everything, it is not practically possible to remember everything, that is why whatever repetitive work you do, those things are your shortcut keys. You can remember all that in that, so see, now we are going to start now the shortcut keys that we will do or the things that we will do that we will learn about what are we learning about the movement means to move here and there in Excel, so how can we go, if I talk about moving here and there in this cell, then wherever you click with the mouse, you can go there, second thing, if I want to go to other sheets, I can go to other sheets by clicking anywhere. The third thing is, if I want to go to another workbook, then suppose I open another workbook and this is I have opened one workbook and I have opened another workbook, this is one workbook, so in such a situation, if I want to go to another workbook, then I go here, I do not click, it will come automatically. In this way, I can go to each one, so it was like going with the mouse, but if it comes to the keyboard, then what do you have in the keyboard, first of all, your The only thing you need to go anywhere are your arrows. What are the arrows? What do you get in the arrows? You get to go to the right side, you get to go to the left side, you get to go up, you get to go down. You can go in any direction here through the arrows. Look, I am moving through the arrows, okay, this is what we are moving through the arrows, I understand, okay after that. The thing that you get, the arrows are also for now, what do you do later, as soon as you start working, you start practicing, your work starts increasing, then there you have more keys also, if I talk about going to the right side, where to go to the right side, then you can go to the right side, you can go to the right side by pressing tab, by pressing what, by pressing tab, now my cursor is near D, which means it is in the cell, now we are pressing tab, so we are going to the right side, if I have to go to the left side right there. If we have to go down then I will tell you what to do. For now we will understand what we will do if we have to go down and after that if we have to go up then what will we do. Basically when we have to go down then we press enter, then see it is taking us down by entering, then press enter. See, you have learned about right side and learned about down. As soon as we start doing its opposite, meaning the opposite of right is left and opposite of down is up, then our keys remain the same. Tab is just put shift in front of them then it will come shift shift tab and it comes shift enter what comes shift enter ok now suppose I want to go right side then obviously I will press tab ok now I want to go left side then I will hold shift and go while pressing tab then it will come here automatically. If suppose I want to go down then I will keep pressing enter and if I want to go up then I will keep holding shift and If I keep pressing enter, it will go up, so this was your move from one place to another cell within the sheet, then you can use it in this way. Now it comes to the point that suppose I have to go from one sheet to another. See, no matter when we read, in which direction do we read? In which direction do we move? In this direction means in the direction from left to right, we go right, so whatever we will read now. You read it in the same way, if you have to do movement inside the sheet, if you have to do movement inside the sheet, that means you have to go left to right, if you want to go left to right, that means you want to go in the forward direction, then what will you press: Control Page Up, Page Up, Page Up, Sorry, Page Down, that means you are going downwards, no, you are going downwards, so what will you press here, Control Page Down, down and right there, you are coming right to left, that means going upward. Well, it starts from here, I am going towards this side, so I am going page down. The beginning is here, so I have to go upwards. Basically, I have to go here. From left right, I am moving towards left left. So what we will do here is control the page up. Okay, this was the point when in the sheet, if I have to move within the workbook, that means I have to move from one workbook to another. If I want to move from one workbook to another workbook, then I press the control tab and automatically jump from one workbook to another. What did I do? You hold the control tab control, it is okay and go while pressing the tab, then you see, I have gone to another sheet also, so it is fine here like this. I understood that if anyone does not understand anything, then I keep saying this again and again that you You can tell in the comment section, I will reply to it directly and whatever doubts you have, keep writing along with them. Either keep telling together or make a note together. Lastly, you can tell it in the comment section. So here we have learned our movement. This is what I am doing with the scroll bar with the mouse. If you want to go up, which one can you go? Either you can use the arrows or you can press shift and enter. You can go up by Shift Enter, you will go down by Enter, you will go down by Shift, Tab, you will go left, Tab, you will go right. Okay, from Control Page Up, you will go to the interface overview workbook, from Down, you will come back here, so this is the way you work. Now suppose you have a very big data and you have to scroll down and go down, then it will take a lot of time to scroll down, so in such a situation, if we page up, then of course you will reach the top, just page up and page down. If we do this, then we can do fast movement down below. For fast movement, within the sheet, you can use page up and page down, so I write here. If you want to do fast movement within the sheet, you have to do fast movement with in the sheet, just because you are going to get this sheet, that is why I am giving you everything hand written, so that whenever you open it later and see, if you do not get everything, then write it for fast movement. So what have we done, when we have to go up, what do we use? Page Up, just press Page Up, OK, don’t press anything else, and if we have to go down, what do we press, Page Down, let’s go for a second, okay, till now we have done all the keys for our movement. Now what we are going to do next is to do data entry. So far, we have learned all the things, that is, how to move, what is anything, what can we say, now the work that has to be done has to be started. So now we will start our data entry shortcuts. Initially we will learn the shortcuts that how to write things inside a cell. Now see the data entry shortcuts that we are learning. Suppose you go to a cell and you obviously have to enter data. So either you go to the cell and start writing anything directly. Like I wrote my name, I started writing directly and pressed enter and what comes from enter comes down, so this came down if I was in the cell. And after writing, if you press tab, it goes to the right, hence these keys are used. Okay, you were here, you started writing anything directly, you wrote it. Now I understood that oh my God, what did I have to do, I had to make T of Tanu bigger and S of Single, now I have to make some changes inside it, so understand how the entry inside the cell is done. Now if I have to enter inside the cell, then either I will double tap, in which position I go. Here I am, I want t, I went here and double tapped, then my cursor came here, after that I put control t here, which means A from here, I will write it in capital, okay fine, one way was this, the other way, what is this, the second way is that suppose now I had to do it in small, I have written it wrong. The second way is, I can go to the formula bar and fix things directly, whatever I want to do, that is why the formula bar is there because of the cell. The same thing is written there, you press enter, then this is yours, okay, the third method and I will tell you because if you do not want to double tap, you do not need the help of mouse, if you want to go directly, then you can go inside the cell directly, you go inside your cell. Now suppose I had to do it in capital only, then you press the function f2 or press f2 directly, then your cursor will come at the very last, now you wanted a single or from the side arrow. You come to the side and make it S and you come to the side with the side arrow and you make it T and after that you enter, then your name will appear in this way, so what are the ways you have to enter any cell, basically what we were talking about here was about entering the cell, how to enter the cell, how to enter the cell, so if I talk with the mouse, then you can enter directly, there is no problem. If I talk about the keyboard, then what all you got in the keyboard, you can do it directly with the mouse and also for the formula bar, you will need a mouse, so I do the formula bar in the keyboard, you can either go to it and double tap or double tap and your cursor is there. It has gone inside or you can press f2 or in some laptops like HP laptops, this thing is also seen that you have to press f2 with the function, then go and enter f, then you will get a key on the side of the control, press f2 with the function, you will go inside that cell, in this way we enter inside the cell, in this way we write our data, now we will enter the complete data in actual. Now we will learn that if we have to write inside a cell, then how to write that also. Now let us move towards our entry. See, now what we are going to do is we are going to do data entry and for data entry, first of all we went to the first cell. Now whatever I want to write, I can start writing directly just because there is nothing inside that cell. So now I wrote the serial number. After that I wrote the party name. After that I came to the side and after that what I wrote here is cells. For now, we are directly creating a small data, so we have created a very small data, after that I wrote one here, here in the party, sorry, party name, I have given the name of some party, I have written my name, after that I come here, I have written any amount here, after that I will write two here and here I will write any other name. Now see how tiring it will be. I write any amount here. It is so tiring that again and again I have to be serialized. If you have to write numbers then what will you do to avoid having to write serial numbers like this again and again, then delete the second one, first write whatever you have written there and then look inside it, look here, now your cursor is like this plus and as soon as you go to it, another plus is formed. A small square is visible, so as soon as you go to it, click on it, hold it and just drag it down, so for now, what it did is it copied it. The same data which is written above has been written below because we had written one, so one has been written, so now click on this drop down on this box and choose fill series from here and after that it will fill the series and give you it, so you could drag as much as you wanted, you could drag it directly. Now if you want, you can write all the names here, you can write any name here, okay, you will keep writing any name and whatever is your data will be created here, I will quickly do something else. I write the name here, you can take the help of your shortcut keys, movement and all these and can use them only. Okay, so we did this and we will write some more names here like and here we write some amounts. Okay, so here you have created your data. Okay, in this way you write your data. Whatever you write in it, inside your sheet, in this way we enter our data. If you want to edit something, then you can double tap that cell. You can go in or you can go with f2 or you can correct it with the formula bar, so this was the way of entering your data, the way you have done it now, let us move ahead towards our selection, see how the selection is done, for this I have already taken a data, here now let me tell you a little bit why I am doing the selection, what is the need, what are you going to read, selection means that suppose you select something or something. If you want to apply for Pay then you will have to select it first. Let’s understand from an example. Suppose you are using your phone, okay, you are using your phone, you are using your phone, okay inside the phone, you will go to WhatsApp2 inbox and go there and paste it and whatever you had to copy there and after pasting it there, you will send it. Correct, you do the same thing, if suppose you are directly forwarding a message, there will be a forward arrow like this. If you are using this too, then this is also selected first, then you understand that no matter what the software is, when will you be able to apply any work, when will you be able to select that work first, the thing you select and the thing you apply will be applied only on the thing which has been selected, the message you select is forwarded, the same message is forwarded, the rest do not get done, to do the rest, you will have to select the rest as well, so here what is We are going to learn that selection, we are going to learn that when we work inside the data, we should know the selection , how can we do the selection, so look at the first expectation, so like I always tell that we study in two aspects, the first one is mouse and the other one is Keyboard, you can select the whole thing with the mouse. In this way, you click once and then hold it, do not leave it and take the selection till the selection you want to make. What can you do apart from this, apart from this you can learn with the help of the keyboard. Now with the help of the keyboard, the thing we are going to learn is the first thing we are going to learn, we will learn complete selection. What will we learn complete selection? Suppose, let me give you my data. If I want to select the data up to where the complete data is written, then I press Control A because I have made complete selection means all data selection, all data selection now all starts with All starts with A, so we have put Control A. Okay, now let’s do this selection, first of all we selected it and then came here and selected it. Click anywhere in the cell. Okay, press Control A there till the data is written. Selection will be done, OK, you click anywhere, after that you will use control A, then as far as the data is written, selection will be done, that is done, if we want to do complete selection, then how can we do it, after that comes single click selection, you can write this, these are some terms, we create them to understand ourselves, it is not that things will work on the basis of these terms, so what will we do now, single click selection, but there is one thing in it, you will be able to go till that point. Selection has to be done as far as the data is written. I give here as far as the data is written. The data is there or is there. Okay, so if you have to make a selection till then, what do you have to do? You have to hold the control shift and then use the arrow. Now the usage of the arrows is up to you whether you have to go up, go to the right, go to the left. It’s all up to you, so right now the data you have, suppose I tell you that you are on the reference number and you have to go till 10. If you want to select up to 15, then if you press control A then the entire data will be selected, but we do not have to select the entire data. We are here and we have to select up to 15, so we will hold the control shift, after that press the down arrow, then the entire selection will be done. In this way, we have to select till the data is written. Suppose I am on this entry and till this data is written . If I want to make a selection, then if I press control A, then the entire data will be selected. I hold the control shift and after that press the right side arrow, it will come till the data is written, suppose I write any values here also, write anything here, dozen matter, we have written this here, okay, after that I come here to five, hold the control shift and press the side arrow, so as far as the data is written, the selection is done, understand. Hey everyone, I hope you all have understood, but if you don’t understand, if you have any doubt for a second, then you can ask me in the comment section. So here we have understood that how we can select a single cell with a single click, how we can select till the data is written. Now comes the third thing. The third thing comes to you is that suppose you have to select a single cell, that means you have selected the entire cell in one go, right? If you want to select a single cell, then till now you were doing it by holding both control and shift. Now you have to hold only shift and then use arrows. Okay, then use arrows. So let’s do this and see what I am telling you. Look at the reference number. Suppose you are on the reference number and you have to select up to 10. Now if you assume that if you hold control and shift, the entire data will be selected, then this is also not required. After that, if you assume that you are on the reference number. If you go and use control shift down arrow then selection will be done up to 15. If you don’t want this then what will you do. Don’t even touch the control. You have to hold the shift and just tap it tap tap tap tap tap. You keep doing it. Down arrow will come to you and you will select one cell. What did you do by selecting one cell each? Okay, it is all up to you as to how you want to make the selection, so it was your selection that if you want to select a single cell. So you press shift and after that all your selection will be done. So the thing you learned here was that whenever we have to do any work in the data, how do we do the selection? You must remember that if you want to select the complete data, then control A will be used single. If you want to click selection then these controls will be used shift and arrows and single cell selection sorry in single click selection and if there is single self selection then we will use arrows by holding shift. Now let’s do our basic formatting just because we have data entry. Selection has come so let’s understand a few more things. Now let me explain to you. For adjustment adjustment, let ‘s take another sheet for once. We are on the selection, after the selection, we tapped and after that see rename it here. If the sheets do not have a name then we will not be able to do so, so we will right click and rename it. What will we do with the adjustment? So let’s move on to the next thing that we will learn. We will learn what to do with adjustment. Now let’s see what adjustment is to be done. Suppose I write my name here Tanu Singhal. Now you see what I have done here. The name is written, it is written in b2, but the name I can see is also visible inside c2. You are able to see, I can see it inside this cell too, so have I written something inside this cell c2 also? Look inside b2, Tanu Singer has been written. Nothing is written inside c2. Your formula bar can tell you this, so what is happening here, what is happening here is that all the cells of ours have a particular width. If you You write some data inside it which is bigger and we will have to do its width adjustment ourselves. Now its width will remain the same but now we can adjust it. Now how is the adjustment done. You pay attention to my cursor. For now, which way is the plus? This is the plus of this way. As soon as you know where you have to make the adjustment, where is the extra coming inside C? Is it coming inside C, right? If the space between B and C increases then your work will be done. You will go to the middle of C and see your plus has changed. You are seeing that your plus is changing. Correct, your cursor is changing. Cursor is changing. What does it mean? Now you can make a selection. You click on it, hold it and just drag it as much as you want to drag. You can do this much, you have to do this much, you have to do this much, you have to do this much or you have to do this much, it is your choice, I have dragged this much, so look at your cell. The width must have been increased. It is in between these two that you will have to select the complete column. You can do it in this way. Similarly, if you have to increase the height also, as you are going to this, your plus is getting changed. You can do it like this. Okay, you can do it in this way, but I was just telling you about the width, but what happens is that if we assume that I have done this with the mouse, we will not do everything with the mouse, we will also learn from the keyboard. For now, for the time being, you can do this directly with the mouse, but the thing is that right now Tanu single could have come in so many cells but I have done so much by dragging, so look, it is possible that I could have done this much by dragging by mistake or it would have remained like this again and again, doing it like this, like this, this looks right, this looks right, this seems right, doing this can be very tiring, so what would you do in such a situation, suppose you have selected the cell like this. So you will go between B and C, this plus has come, right, after this plus comes, you do not have to hold anything, do nothing, just double tap, this will automatically adjust it. Yes, yes, if suppose your cell was like this, it was not like this, nor was yours, you go between B and C, go here, just double tap it, so it has corrected it here, so this is the way you make this adjustment, so I have explained to you in a single cell, here in which way you have done it. You have made an adjustment by double tapping. Let’s take a data from here. Just give me a minute. Control A did control C did. I went to the cell with my adjustment and did the control here and after that we saw this data. Now look at this data, you are able to see this party name. This party name has been reduced because what I have brought is to keep the width of everyone’s cell correct. Now in the process of keeping the width of everyone’s cell equal, the rest of the things are not coming properly. Now what will we do? We will fix it, but first of all, let us tell you about what we learned from the mouse. What we learned from the mouse. From the mouse, we learned that either you take the cursor there, hold and drag, learned this one method, learned the second method, take the cursor there and just double tap it, we learned these two methods. Now we will come to the keyboard related things, that if we have to fix something from the keyboard, that is, with the help of shortcut keys, then see how to do it. So here
you have it, if you want, you can go here and fix it one by one, but do you have to do it like this, is it a very time consuming process, you don’t know how much to fix, how much to do, if not, then what will we do, we will use shortcut keys, we have to use it on the whole, it is not so, if we have to fix one thing, then how do we select the entire data in one go, you click anywhere and use Control A, if you press Control A, then you have pressed Control A. After this, you have to use shortcut keys which is Alt AO I, then by pressing Alt AO I, it automatically got whatever width it should have had. Now suppose your data was in this manner, at some places its length would also have been going on. In this manner, the data would have been there. Now you have learned how to correct the width. You have selected the data. You have selected the data, by pressing Alt AO A, its length will also be corrected. Correct, this length will also be correct, so you have two. Just learned the thing from me here, if I have to correct the width, there are two keys to correct the width, if I want to correct the width, then there is Alt H O, Alt H O I and one more is Alt O C A, this will work in some people, OK, what is it for height or what will be Alt AO A for length, so basically this is the difference between I and A. Last, the rest is the same, now you do not remember the keys, now you just listen to the keys. How to remember, I will teach you the whole memory technique so that you will say oh my God, it was so easy and I was so nervous, okay so don’t memorize the keys right now, you just learned the adjustment, the main adjustment was that we will double tap from here and adjust things, okay now we have entered the data, made the selection, made the adjustment, now we will move into our basic formatting that when we enter the data. If we do this, the data is created. What we are going to do is do our basic formatting, but before doing this, we should know a little theory. Whenever we talk about Excel at the initial level, we talk about two things, one is data and one is formatting. Now what is data, what is formatting, let us understand a little bit what is the meaning of data. Look at what you will be working on, that is, if you are working in Excel, then what is Excel for? You can do calculations, you can present it in a good way, you can make reports from it, you can make dashboards from it, then you can take decisions for yourself from it, you can take decisions for your business, so basically whatever work we do, we do it on data, but data means when you have seen the data, you have seen the data even in the past, there are many things like this inside that data, there are colors, there are borders, your figures may be different, their size may be different. Basically, when you present it, you do it in a slightly different way, don’t do it like this, see what I have written above, this is the entire data written, you will see the data in this way, what will you see in it, what will you not understand, you will not be able to understand, right, you will not understand in this, why will it not come because it is given in this format because only data is written here, there is no formatting done, if I speak in these lemon language. Decorating is basically when you decorate your data, you make it presentable. I have presented my data in such a way that now the person in front can understand it, that is your formatting. So the thing we had learned till now was that data entry was just taking a data and going into the cell and entering it, but now we have learned to make that data beautiful and also to make it presentable, now we have learned it inside it. You are going to learn to make a presentation. Like see, in this also I will make you remember many shortcut keys. Cut keys will be remembered by you. Trust. Now I will make you remember all the shortcut keys. It is clear that we will use only what we have learned till now. Now initially we know that we have to correct something or apply something, so first of all we have to select it and if we have to do this within the entire data, then what do we have to press to select the entire data? Just tell. I will have to click anywhere and press control e. We will have to press control e. By doing this, our entire data will be selected because whatever work we have to do, we have to do it on the entire page. Now we have to fix its width because you can see that some are bigger and some are smaller, so to fix the width we can press Alt OCA. Otherwise, if you press Alt AO, it will also be done. Now it looks a little better to me. Does it look worth seeing? Does it look worth seeing or not? It looks absolutely fine. Now let us correct our data. The first thing we have to correct inside the data is to correct the alignment. Now we will carefully see that all the text written here is written on the right side of the cell. Look, this is also written on the right side, this is also right. They are written on the side and only there you will notice the text, all of them are written on the left side, so suppose I select the entire data and look at the options here, either I do everything on the right side, it will look a bit strange in reading but it still looks better than the first one, but if I turn it to the left, then it looks right on the left, why is it looking right? Psychologically, you can apply a small logic in this, that is, we If I am reading Tanu Single, then I am going like this. Tanu Single Right, then we read anything like this. So to our eyes, if something is in left alignment, then it looks fine. It does not look a bit strange to our eyes, it does not look strange, that is why the left still looks fine to us, but which one is best for us? Which one is the best in the middle? Which one is this in the middle? Is this one in the middle okay? So, we have done the middle. Are you understanding everything right now? Is the text right? What is all the things? So this is what happens in our Alignment. What is Alignment? That means whatever we select, we can move it to the left or right or in the middle. Now I have made it in the middle. Now, what are these top three portions? You will see carefully, this is at the very top, this is in the middle and this is at the bottom. You will not understand the difference now, but now you will understand. Suppose right now it is celled in this manner, now I have selected it, or I can put it at the bottom. Do you want to keep it at the top or want to keep it at the top? See, for now, when your data is absolutely accurate, when the width of your data is absolutely accurate, then there is no difference between the top and bottom. It seems that you select the entire data and look at it from top to bottom. Not much difference will be visible. When does this difference become visible? Suppose at that time your data is shifted here and there, if your alignment is down or up, then it will be visible in this way. So, since you have done this in the middle of your data. If yes, then make it in the middle from here also. Now suppose even if your length increases, it will still remain in the middle. Okay, now you fix it by double tapping from here. You have fixed it, so you always have to keep the align ment, what is the align ment to keep, if you want to keep the center center, then what is the align ment to keep, if you want to keep the center, then I keep writing the points below that what have we done, so that we can remember that later, okay, this will be fine, we write the pay points here. What are we going to do? So first of all, what we are going to do is that we have done the right alignment. And what we have done right in the alignment is that we have done it in the center. Okay, we have done it in the center. Basically, we have done middle middle, so we can say that we have definitely brought it to the center. Even if I talk like this, I talk like this in the center. If I talk like this in the center, then also in the center, we have brought him to the center. Second thing, let us try and see. Second thing, what will we do? We have gone to our data now. Now what we will talk about is the heading, what can we do on the heading, so in general our heading which is the heading you will see, now we are seeing in the adjustment one, you are seeing that there is a color on the heading, it is slightly raised, then the data is looking good because it is emerging, it is understood that what is written above is the heading, the data below is written as normal data, so in the same way we will have to create this heading, now I will have to create my data from here till here. If we have to select from reference number to amount, then what do we have to select, what shortcut do we have to press ? As soon as we press control shift side arrow, control shift side arrow, we will have all this data selected and that too within a single click. Now it has been selected. Now if we want, look, go inside the home tab and here you will see the rest of the things which you have to do, so do them one by one. Let’s say you want to make it appear a little raised, you want to make it appear a little thick. Yes, right now the words are written thinly, so you can bold from here, so see it has come in this way, I will close it, see if you can see the difference, then you can see the difference that you have bolded. Given italic, it becomes a little tight. We do not want italics. Underline brings the underline below them. We do not want underline. If you want to change their font, you can do that too. Generally, we professionally use Caliber and Arial. Okay, so you can use them also. You have to use this, you have to use this, you have to use this, you have to use Arial black, whatever you want to use, you can do it normally. Used this and it looks very thin, so we use the normal caliber. Okay, after that you get the cell color and that means first we see the size. For once, here you get the size. You can write the size yourself and can also select from here. As you keep increasing the size, its size is increasing. As you keep decreasing, its size will decrease. 12 I think okay, what will we do after that? Just because you are seeing, now because of this heading again, it is not coming complete, so we will do control A, we will do control A anywhere in the data, we will do Alt OCA, then it has adjusted itself, now we have to color in it, so we will select it, now understand one thing, which is this, what you are seeing is this box, let me just take the pain fast, what you are seeing is this box, which means what we call a cell, inside the cell, if I have this If I filled it like this, then what color is there inside the cell? Red and on top of that, if I write something with white color, then what will we call that white colored thing or what is written as font? So what we write inside is our font and this is our cell, so the color shown here, this bucket, this bucket colors that cell, so suppose I color it yellow, then what to do, yellow bucket means I have colored the inside of every cell and there is a font inside it. Meaning, for now, suppose I make it red, then look, it has become red, but I don’t like red, I make it white, so it has become white, now I take this one, I color it green or I color it blue, this one is blue, then look, it has become of this color, so basically this bucket colors your cell and this is what is written, it colors your box, whatever you write and keep something inside the cell, it colors it, okay , I understood. Now we write everything here, what other things have we done, what things have we done? Pay attention, we will write some things here, we have bolded it, after that we have italicized it here, then what else we have done here, we have underlined it. Okay , after that, what have we done right now, we have not done anything else, just colored the colors and the font, no problem, now you will see that the data is visible fine but there is no error anywhere inside it. Oops oops, there is no border anywhere inside it, so now we will put a border on it, what will we do, we have to put a border on the entire data, we will select the entire data, after that we will go to the home tab, inside the font group in the home tab, here you see an option which we call border, if you go to this, then look, after writing here, thick outside border will also appear, you click on this drop down, after clicking on the drop down, you will have so many options. Are there options, ma’am, do you have to remember so many options? The answer is no, all these are for drawing a single line, you do not need to remember this, you have All Borders, so you take all these borders, if you click on All Borders, then a thin border will appear on everything. Now with All Borders, you have seen it in this way, but do you remember in your school, when you used to make drawings, you used to make sketches, You have made a sketch, filled the color inside, after that you are busy in darkening it, brother, we will make an outline on the outside, we will make all the thick outlines so that the sketch of yours can emerge, in the same way, we have to make our data beautiful, so what will happen by making it beautiful, you selected the entire data, after that you selected it and after that you used thick outside border, then you see, it has become thick on the outside, it has become normal on the inside, do you want it or not, ma’am? I have to put different types of borders, so don’t look anything else, I will tell you three to four, you see exactly that, after that you look straight and don’t look for anything in between. Come here, Thick More Borders, More Borders, Here you get the option, suppose you want to apply this thick, right now it is this thick, it would have been this thick or suppose you want to apply dotted, then I took this one. After you see where you have to put it, there is no need to put it one by one, here you can put it whether you want to put it on the outline or you want to put it on the inside or if you want to put it on both sides, then turn on both, here you can see the preview. I only wanted to put it on the outside, not on the inside, so I did nun here and then took the outline and did OK. So now see, it is on the outside and the rest have been removed. Okay, so in this way we put our borders, so what did we learn today? Meaning, for now what we learned is, look at what we put inside the borders, first of all we put all the borders, okay, all the borders, then what we put thick outside border, so we put thick outside border, we are writing this because later we are going to remember the shortcut keys of all of them, ma’am, so many shortcut keys, yes exactly so many shortcut keys, more borders and after that what we are going to do is what we are going to do, tell me one thing about all the ways. You have put a border but what can you say in English to remove the border, no border, we don’t need any border, so you have no border. Now, if I ask you to do all the work that you have done, but if I say this, you will have to do all this work with shortcut keys , then will you be able to do it? Let’s make this data exactly the same as before. See, what is the first thing you have to do. If you want to remember any key, then in your laptop, in your computer, press Alt. Press Alt. After doing this, look upwards, H is visible everywhere, all this is visible, no, whatever work we are doing, what kind of work we are doing, for once, I go here, now I press Alt, the work we are doing, what are we working in, in which tab we are working, we are working in home tab, no, home tab starts with what does it start with, read the spelling of home, H O M E, home starts with H, so here. Your H will appear. Look, H is written here, what does it mean? If I press H, then a key will appear on top of all the functions inside the home. Now we are going to talk further. Okay, first of all, I will scape it that I do not want this. Here you have understood the activation. If I talk about activation, what is it? Alt is activated. What is the key of home? What is the key of home? Whatever function we are working on, where is it present inside the formatting, all that is present in the home tab. Right, to reach the home tab home tab, we will have to press all touch. Now the thing is that how to do the align ment, then the align ment starts with a and we have to center it, so we will press a. So this is its shortcut key, understood. Let’s understand one or two more, then you will understand that all the borders are there, how to do all the borders. Suppose your What are the keys starting from Alt, then after that you are going to home, then after that you are applying border and which border are you applying. If you are applying alt border then your key will become Alt H BA. Remember one thing that the key is activated from Alt, from home to home we are doing all the work so h will go and after that b will come. If there is a thick outside border then from alt we activated it. From h we went to border home. From B we went to border and If there is a thick outside border, then thick starts with T, then it will come here. Okay, more borders. From old, we activated it. From H, we went to home. From B, we went to border and from here we applied more borders. So, in the same way, what will happen to no border? Alt HBA has nine borders. So see how easy it was. It is very easy to remember these shortcut keys. You just need to know your work and the system, how you are doing any work. Wherever you get that work, pick up its initials and you will easily remember it. Well, for bold, there is control one. If you try this, Alt H and here it comes by writing 1 2 3, so if you want, you can do Alt h1 23, that will also work in the other wise. Control and Bolt starts with B, then Control B. Italic starts with I, then Control I and Underline starts with Y, so this is your Control Ya, in this way we remember all the keys. One thing, I will tell you the bonus here, just give me a minute. Here we will take the red color. After taking the red color, I will tell you here, did you see the one with width and length , ma’am, width and length? Yes, you were doing it right now, no, what were you doing right, what were we pressing, I did not remember at that time, right? Alt AO I and Alt ho A Now I understand why these two things are taken because inside the home tab, you will get this feature, then press Alt H, look at O, where is the format, we take it here, okay, inside it, as you click, I have clicked that by mistake, Alt H O, and inside this, there is auto fit height and auto fit width, so I and A, so these keys of ours are made here, these are the keys, it is okay, so this is Alt AO I and Alt AO is A and in this way we do all the things. Okay, I hope you have remembered all the keys well. If you have any doubt anywhere then please ask me. Now let me try and tell you for once. Suppose we do the border, then first select the entire data with Control A. With Alt HB A, I have removed the borders from the entire data. I did Control A, did Alt ABA, then did border on everything Alt. If we have done HBT, then there is a border on the outside, in this way we can do whatever work we have to do quickly and very easily, so what we learned here was our basic formatting and we have done the entire basic formatting very well with all the shortcut keys. Okay, if you want to note down, you can note down other wise, so you will definitely remember it, still you are going to get this sheet as it is, so don’t worry about this. Now we have done the basic formatting, now we will understand a little bit about one more topic, which is insert and delete and after that we will move to the advanced topic, what is the meaning of insert, if we look at it in general sense, insert is insert any thing, that means they are adding any thing. Now suppose I saw this data and after seeing the data, I understood, oh no , I have not added any heading inside it, so now in such a case. What will we do, do I erase the entire data and after that go and see that oh my God, now I will go and write the heading and only after that I will make the entries, then it means that there is no problem at all, no, we will not do this at all, what will we do, we will add one more row for ourselves right here, if I add one row for myself right here, then how easy it will be for me, so what will I do, I selected it, look after selecting it, any. If you add something, then what is the plus sign? If you delete something, or if you delete anything, then what is the sign of minus? If you do a minus, then you have to press the plus sign with control, then it will automatically add a row. Now you can write a heading for yourself here, in the same way you had to add it somewhere else. Suppose you have to add here, you do control plus. Now, if I don’t want this thing, then what will I do, I will make the same selection and make it control minus. So, in the same way, now I have told you how to add a row or add and delete a column. Similarly, with Control Plus, you can add a column and delete a column. Now you have learned this thing that when you have to add a row and a column, now if you want to add a cell , you can do that too, but why do you have to add a cell? When we are adding a row column, then look, suppose you have a data written in such a way that a data is written above it. There is a data written below also, now what do you have to do or not to make any changes, that is, do you need another column in the above data, before the name of the party account, you had to write something else, okay, now suppose you select C and do control plus, then this is added below also because it adds the entire column whereas it is required in the data below, otherwise we cannot do this. This is what we have done wrong, so what will we do, as much portion as we want to add, we have added our portion. After selection, I did control plus, now it asks, okay, I have understood the selection you have made, you have to add so many cells, but tell me, what will I do with the remaining data, then what can you do in such a case, you will give command to it, Antays has nothing to do because if I had to antays, then why would I select the cells, if I could have directly selected the entire row and column and done control plus, then these two options would have been useful. Don’t even look, look at the two options above, it is asking where should I shift the remaining data. If I shift down and do OK, then for him it means that I have to make space for you. What are you telling him, I have given it by doing control plus, make space for me, I need space and after that he is asking OK fine, I will make space but tell me what should I do with the earlier data, then you say shift it down to me. I don’t know, make space for me, so he shifted that data down, but did we have to do this? No, we did not have to do this, so what did we have to do? Control Plus, now what am I saying, okay fine, do one thing, shift the earlier data a little to the side and then shift it to me, then the data that is shifted here will be shifted to the right and you do OK, then your data has been shifted to the right and as many sales as you wanted have come here for you and Even if your data below is not corrupted, then in this way we add our data to any row, column and cells inside the data, then here we write it, for one time, use the shortcut key so that you remember later that we have to add any thing, we have to add or insert, then what do we do and if we have to delete any thing or write substack, then what do we do, basically these two things are happening. In which sense it is happening whether it is row or column and whether your cells are dozen matter, you will do control plus to add or insert and control minus to remove it. Okay, so in this way we insert and delete any row column cells. Let’s move the cells inside our excel. Now let us move towards advanced formatting. See, what we are going to do now is to do advanced formatting. Those are the features of that as well as separately. There is no feature but we take it a little advance. See, now suppose we suddenly remember that the heading has not been written, then how can we do the heading? For now, let us keep from deleting the entire data. What we have learned now is that we will select it and do control plus, then we have one row, it will be inserted. We do not have to do that. Right click here, insert option comes, so it will be inserted in this way also. Now I want to write here in the middle, ABC Limited, I want to write the heading, ABC. Limited, so what should I do, tell me quickly, should I do it like this, okay fine, there are three here, there are three here, so I write in D, it will come in the middle, we can do it like this, no, what do we have to do, we write here A B C Limited Limited, okay, we have written this, now what do we want in the middle, neither where in the middle, so first of all, select which one we want in the middle, we want it in the middle, after that you go to the home tab, in the home tab, you are inside the Alignment group. You get only one option of Merge N Center, you click on the drop down of this Merge Center or click on the Merge Center, after clicking it will appear in this manner. Okay, our ribbon is now removed, so now what we will do from here is that if we click on it, it will come in this manner, so see it came in the middle, what did you do in it, merge all the cells we have selected and after that, align them, what do you do with them, center. If you do this then Merge and Center has come here. What did Merge and Center do? After that you can give any color. I give black color that would be better. You can make it bold, you can show it in some other color, you can do some font. In this way, now suppose you had to write this also just because this is a sales report, so you selected this also, Control Plus, Control Plus is not happening, it’s okay, you have inserted it from here, here is another one. You are still able to see that there are separate cells, it has become one cell because you have done the margin center. Now you will write the sales report here, okay and after that you will select this also and then you will click on the merge center and then you will give it a dark color too. In this way, now think about it that you have to do separate work for both of them, so this is not making the work a little easier, it is making it difficult, so when you have to If you have to do more work like this, if you select it and make it merge center, then it will tell you that the top most value which is written will come, if you do OK then only this will come, then don’t do this, what we will do is click on the drop down here and merge means merge in this way, click on merge across, then automatically it will come in this way, okay, this was your merge across, apart from this, suppose you want to unmerge them, you click on this. Click on unmerge cell, it will come like this, now I will do the merge across, so what have you learned here, what have you learned here, two things, what have you learned, three things, you have learned, the first one is merge and the center, you have learned this, the second one, what have you learned, you have learned, merge across, you learned this. And third, you have learned unmerge, okay now you know where all the three things are, we are working in the Alignment group of the home tab, so basically how to activate the home tab, that is, with the activation key, we go to the alt home tab, from H, what have you done after that, after that, you have merged and centered, then your shortcut key will come, merge and center, what have you done, you will activate it from old, go to home from H and here. Merge Across, Merge Across, you should not know the feature, what keys have to be used, the keys are created automatically , Alt H, Sorry, Alt H, now unmerge will happen only when merge is done, first if something is merged then only then it will be unmerged, then M and then you will use U, then in this way, these three shortcut keys of yours have also been prepared, you see, you have to memorize so many shortcut keys in such a short time and trust me, you will not forget once you have memorized it in this manner. Once you start practicing, you will not forget at all. Okay, so in this way, we have done a little more formatting here. One more part of the formatting is left, which is wrap text and one small thing which increases it, I will tell you in the next topic, which is wrap and shrink. See, when we did the interface, inside the interface, I had forgotten to tell you one thing. I am so sorry for that inside the interface, when you will see let me just. Zoom at my screen, you have zoomed this and after that you have come here, you will see here, look here, this is this mark, what is this mark for, see, you can also see here, what is this mark for, I write this mark here, we call it extension, what do we call extension, now what is this mark for, what is that, let’s go to our place and understand, there is no problem in that, okay, we will come to our place, what were we understanding? Wrap End I was thinking, let’s zoom it a little, okay, now it’s okay, so let’s see what it is for. Suppose you have a lot of features. I am saying that Excel has many, many, many, many features, so are there many more features related to fun, and there can be many more features related to alignment, and there can be more, so in such a case, is it possible to show all the features on the screen? Is the answer is no, is it not possible to show them all? So what do we do? There is a symbol of extension in the corner near the group. Look, this extension is not in every group. Look , it is not in Styles, it is not in Sales, it is not in Editing, it is not in Done, it is inside this one. Why is it there because wherever you have it in this way, you have some other options too, but here if they are not visible then the extension comes there. If you click on this extension, a window opens inside, then you have more options to explore here. You get to do another No, to fix the cell, I do not want the width of my cell to increase, I want to keep everyone equal, I do not want to increase it too much, so I want to increase the width of my cell, there is no problem if the length increases, but I do not want to increase the width at all, so what will I do in such a situation, I will click on this and I will wrap my name in the text here, wrap my data in such a way that it will be its width. Its width is neither increased nor increased, then in such a case I will click on the wrap text. Now it is here, now it does not mean that it has become like this forever, as if you are clicking on it, then you are seeing here that it is written ‘Tanu Single’, it means that it is written ‘Tanu Single’ and it is written like this, this is just because you have clicked on the wrap text and now the width of this cell cannot be increased, so this happened, now increase the width of the cell, this is fine. It will come, okay, so where you do not have to increase your width, you can increase your length, there you will use it in this way, in this comes the next one, suppose I write the stems single again and they are going out, now I am saying that I am imposing a restriction but now I am saying I am saying that the width is not increasing, it is fine, but the length should not increase, if the length also increases, then it will not work, so what can we do in such a case, it is obvious that the length should not be increased and if the width is not increased, then the obvious thing is that I will have to shorten the font, now if I try to shorten this function manually, then I will not be able to understand, okay, it looks fine in the ate, maybe in the ate ? If he is going out in the nines, then I will keep doing the same thing, otherwise what do I do in such a situation, I go to this extension and here it says shrink to fit, shrink my data to such an extent that it fits inside this cell, then you click on it and do OK, then it fits inside it, okay, it fits inside it very well, we call it shrink text, you can see it here in both the cases above. In both the cases, Tanu is written as single, but I actually want that no matter how much the width increases, how much length increases, but our data is that Tanu comes down by writing single, so what can you do in such a situation, if you write Tanu, if you move your cursor down, after pressing enter, the cursor will not come down, the cell comes down, your cursor is missing, you have come out of the cell, then how will it be written, see what you will do Tan and when you have to bring the cursor down, now you Do not press enter but press alt enter, your cursor will come down, now write, you enter single, then see here also in your formula bar, it has come written in this way. The formula bar shows the same thing which you write in the cell and the way you write correct, so now it has shown it tan single in this way. Look here, it was showing together, here I reduce the width, see it has come in this way, still it is showing it like this because We have written as it is here, we have written it as it is, so it is being displayed in this manner, so here we have completed our wrap and shrink text. This comes within the advanced formatting itself, so within this we have covered it, we have chunked a lot of the basic, so miscellaneous things also come inside it and along with it, the group with clipboard is also included, which means we are going to add some features in the group, so let’s do the work first. Let’s look at the Clipboard feature. Basically, what do we get inside the Clipboard? You can see that we get features like cut copy paste and so what is the meaning of copy? Here you data. Whenever you have read Excel, you have come reading two things inside Excel. I had initially talked about what are the things we are reading in Excel initially. We are reading the data and we are reading the formatting. Right, so when you copy any data completely, the copy is done. What does it mean, we do Control C or you can copy from there by right clicking, then when you copy, there is data in it, whether there is any formatting, no matter what kind of formula is there, all of them come up in that cell, that is your copy and wherever you have copied it, after that what do you have to press to paste, you have to press control v. Now let’s assume that this is where I bring this data, so first of all I am in advanced formatting. What will I do, I will select the entire data from Control A. After selecting Control A, after that I will do Control C. After Control C, you are seeing these dashes running on the side, that means its selection has been done, after selection, Control C has been done. Now I will go to Sheet Two here because I have not named it yet, it is right in front of you here. Let’s pay here. If I do Control V, then as it is data has come. Alt OCA. Do it as it is, the data has come, let me do it a little like this, as it is, your data has come, if you do this, copy this data and paste it on the side, it will come, that means there will be data here and here too, the data will be right, but if suppose you select the data and do not copy it, cut it, do that means control Basically, what is meant by cutting, data goes from there, what is your shortcut key to cut ? Control You should have selected the data, Alt OCA, done the data, okay, now suppose I want to copy the construction company from it, then I want to copy this, let’s do one way, so let me do this control C and keep controlling v here, control c control v control c control v, so how much tiering process is there, how much tiering process is there, no, I have to do it one by one, so we will not do this, so I deleted it, okay, but now what we will do is let’s see what else we do. You can do this for multiple selection, what can you do, hold the control where you are selecting, then wherever you are clicking, you see that it is being selected, it is being selected, okay, now you control it, it will not take, then it means that for multiple copies, this control one which does the selection method is also not working, then what does it do, what does it do, you open the clipboard in your home tab, keep clear all from here, it should become clear here. Select Control C, go on selecting anywhere, go on doing Control C, Control C, Control C, Control C, I am doing this but I am not holding anything, I am going there with Control C and wherever I feel like, you go to that cell and paste it wherever you feel like. You go to that cell and here there is an option of Paste All. If you click on it, then all these things are there, it has pasted here, all the things are pasted here and after that, clear all from here, then all your things are there. If you want to paste multiple copies here, then this is a shortcut method that if you want to paste multiple copies, then you can do it from here. I hope you have understood, I had to tell you only these things in the Clipboard group for now, there is one more thing I need to tell you. Suppose you want the same formatting for another table, then what will you do. Suppose you will copy from here, paste it and then delete the data. There is no need to do so much fuss, you select this data and here there is an option like brush. If you go to this, then its name comes Format Painter Painter, meaning are we the one who is going to paint, who should do the formatting, then if you want the same formatting, then click on it, see the selection is done here, wherever you leave it, this same bean will come after your formatting, so in this way, we use Format Pinter, now I should name this sheet, so I name it, I give it a name, Clipboard Clipboard Group, we have Here we have completed it, now let us move towards our miscellaneous topic. In the miscellaneous topic, the first thing I have taken is the clear sheet. What does the clear sheet tell you? The meaning of clear sheet is that if I want to delete the data then how can I do it? What can you do to delete it? Let me show you a data. Here we can see this data in the clipboard itself. Do you have this data? You selected this data and after that you deleted it. If you press the option of , then the data is gone but your formatting is not gone. If this problem arises, then here we are going to solve the same problem. You get this feature inside the home tab. Now we will remember its shortcut keys. Now we will remember what happens here for deletion. Firstly, we have called the content data here as content or you want to delete the formatting or you want to delete everything. Which is all, then this is fine. Three things come to you, now let me tell you just because it is in the home tab, so from old you will activate all the keys, you will go to home, from old you will activate all the keys, from old you will activate all the keys and you will go to home, what will come for content, clear, what are we doing, we are clearing all these things, we are clearing right, so for clear, the key it has taken is E, E is taken E. Now you don’t need to do anything, if you are clearing the content, then put ‘C’ to clear the formatting. Just put ‘f’. If you want to delete everything, then put ‘A’. Now let’s see it on our own. I would personally suggest you to delete the content, don’t do anything. After making the selection, you can directly press the delete option, that too will be easy for you, but for formatting and other things, you can do this like you can do with clipboard. Now you have this data and you have to delete it, so I directly pressed delete and it got deleted. Now suppose you have to delete the formatting, then suppose you selected this in the formatting and if you delete it, it will not get deleted. Because there is formatting, then you came to Alt H home, see from E, this is the option of clear, E is for clear and F for formatting, so see, it is completely cleared, if suppose the data and both of these have to be removed, you select the data, activated Alt H, E was for clear and if you have to do everything, then do A, then the entire data will be gone. Okay, in this way we do it, after that you have two more shortcut keys. What is Undo and Redo? What is the shortcut of undo and redo? Suppose you have done some work. Undo means suppose you have done some work but that work was not to be done, then you do undo and for any work that has to be brought back, you read it. For the work that has been done, you press control root that I want it back, meaning I have done it. After that, if I want to bring it back, then I press control w. Now suppose I have to delete what I am writing because I have done it. If I have written wrong, then I will keep pressing control, then by controlling j, all these steps which were mine have been removed. Now if I control yy, then look, all the things which were mine have come back. So this is how it works. Which is your undo and redo? Let’s go. Now let’s see what else comes to us next. Insert and Delete. What is there in insert and delete? Suppose, if you want to add any sheet, then from here you can insert from plus. You can do this and if you want to delete any sheet right there, then you click on it and if you delete it, this sheet will be deleted, so in this way we insert or delete, I right click here and write here that on right click you get these options. Till now I was giving name to the sheet, so to give any name, you have to right click. On right click, you get the option that you can name that sheet like this. If you want to rename, click on Rename then we can give this name. Okay, everyone understood in this way, we check the option for tab color as well. Here we get the option of tab color. If we want to give any color to our tab, then look, I want to give red color, so look, this red color of my clipboard has come. I want to give some other color to Miscellaneous, I took the tab, I want to give green color, so look, my green colored Miscellaneous tab has arrived. Okay, as soon as it is open, it will appear gradient, otherwise it will appear solid color, so in this way you can also give different colors to the tabs, so here we have covered the basic things which are very small things of Excel, now what we are going to do next is to do the basic formula. Further, we are going to start from the very basic. Let’s talk about the formula, so first understand a little theory. See, whenever you are talking about Excel, then Excel is more about the calculation that it makes your calculation part very easy, so whenever we do any calculation, how do we do it, we do the calculation only by taking the help of formula, so formula is a very important aspect of Excel, so all the formulas there are here, they will be taught to you in a very easy way. Now the point comes that ma’am. Formula is maths, I am afraid of maths anyway, so what should I do so that I don’t have to do formulas and it is going to be so typical, so how will I be able to do it, so see here you need a general understanding, a basic understanding, you need a basic understanding, if you have a basic understanding of maths then you will be able to do this work, you do not need many such tricky knots in this, you just need to know that you need to do it. What is your work, what do you need, what is the answer, if you know this then you can definitely apply any formula directly here. If there was a need for typical maths here, then why would we be doing Excel? We would not have done the maths on our own, but this makes our work easier, that is why we use the formula here. When any formula is started inside Excel, then what is the initiative? Equals to It happens that first of all we have to apply equals to and then we have to work. Now you will say ma’am if you don’t understand then you will understand easily. Keep a little patience. You just remember each topic which we have done till now. Name of the cell, what makes up a cell. You just tell me that our cell is made up of one column plus row. If I tell you this is a cell and the name of that cell is a1 then what is the meaning of a1 a is the column one is the row. Just keep this thing in mind, after that I I will explain all the things automatically to you. Let’s take a scenario and after that let’s understand it in a better way. You will understand better here. Here you can see that I have taken a data here. What is the data? Let me tell you, first of all you are given the serial number, after that the student name is given, after that the marks of Hindi, English Maths and Science are given. Now if you want to find the total, then if you want to find the total, then basically what to do is to sum. Now do the sum. In which do you need even, which cell is g3 in it, it is okay, you keep looking carefully, which cell is this, g3, please understand this thing carefully, because if you miss this topic even a little, then there can be problem in the future topics, this is your g3, what answer do you need inside g3, do you need total, whose total do you need, one is needed of c3, one is needed of d3, one is needed of e3 and one is needed of f3, okay then basically you You know g3 = c3 + d3 + e3 + f3 ok now let me say suppose you are here you are here which is your g10 which is your g10 so if you come to g10 then what you need is obviously c10 d10 e10 f10 so you understand one thing as this is your g4 this will be g5 this will be g6 this will be g7 in the same way this will also be c4 this will be c5 c6 will be c7, d4 will be d5, d6 will be d7, so it will keep increasing in this manner, okay, you have understood one thing, we are talking about cells here, now let’s apply formula to it and see, we will learn to do sums in different ways. See, this is a very basic thing, when you do maths, you used to study maths in school too , then the thing that was taught to you at the initial level is when it comes to the calculation part. So that was your even, so here also we are going to even, we will spend full time in even, the rest will not take time, okay let me just remove it, first we remove it and after that we do further work, now what do we have to do, have you understood that the answer we want in g3 g3 is c3 + d3 e3 f3, so what we have to do is we just have to write, when we start any formula, what do we start with? Let’s start from equals two, so equals two, now what did I tell you, what is needed here, c3, so I went to c3, what to do plus, then what is needed, d3, then what to do, plus, then what is needed, e3, then what to do, plus, then what is needed, f3, then what to do, if you don’t want to do anything, then go till f3, you have to do plus, press enter, then this answer will come to you, now you can drag it, so see this is yours. The answer has come, what is the answer, you can check here, this is g4, then yours here is c4 d4 e4 f4, suppose you are here, which is your g9, then here you can give the formula, c9 d9 e9 f9, suppose you are here, which is g12 c12 d12 e12 e f12, so basic, we drag and bring the rest of the formulas ourselves. Initial formula. We have to put it in ourselves, so one way was this, you had another way and take it out, okay, later we will fix its formatting, okay, I will do it like this by going to the home, giving the format to the printer, okay, for now, let me assume that I have told them to sell, if I had done something directly, then equals to 90 + 27 plus 10 PS 47 174. Now should I drag it, what will happen to everyone when I drag it? The answer is 174. Why did this happen? Look, it is a very simple thing. We give three things in the formula. Three things consist inside the formula. I am telling you this very basic idea. There are three things in the formula, one is a cell, one is a number and one is a text cell. It gets changed by dragging, it gets changed by dragging and the main thing is that if you want to fix it then you can do it manually. What can be fixed can be fixed manually, we will have to apply some formula by ourselves, which fixation will also be learned later on. Numbers: If you are writing a direct number, if you are writing a number then it is always fixed, it will never change and in the same way, if you are writing any text, it is always fixed. The second thing is that the number is written directly, the text is written inside the double ted comma, okay now these things are now. You must be feeling that it is very confusing, you have to read it just once to understand, so read it, you have to understand it, understand it, very good, it did not come, there is no need to worry, because now when we will do this with the example, then you will automatically understand something. If you do not understand the theory, then hold on. Because that thing will be understood in practice, not everyone understands everything in theory, not everyone understands everything in practice, so here I have covered both the expectations, okay now we have come here, now tell me one thing, what happened here, just give me a minute, okay, this is not erasing, what happened here, I had given them the value by taking 90 plus 27, plus 10, let me make it 47, now the numbers are If there is no change then here too the formula remains the same. Here also the formula remains the same everywhere. If the formula remains the same everywhere then the answer will be 174 everywhere. What is the second thing? Now suppose I did 20 here then it will change because when we give cell in the formula then we tell them that look, add c3 plus d3, add e3 plus f3, now the formula does not make any difference inside c3. Whether you write 10 or 100, what it means is that he has understood that whatever happens inside c3, I just have to total it and now write 1000 inside c3, even if I come here and here and write 1000, the answer has changed because it does not care what you have written, it just means that he just takes the command in this way in which you told him to add c3 to plus d3. Make a plus on e3, make a plus on f3, then he has just taken the cell. Now whatever you write in the cell, he will do a plus, but what you have done here is that you have told the values yourself, turn 90 into a plus by 27, turn the plus into a 10, turn the plus into a 47. You have already given the values here, so that is why it has not changed it. Okay, and later also when we drag the cells, they drag. If there are any, then they get changed, like here there was c3 + d3 + e3 and f3, here the same thing happened c4 d4 e4 f4, those cells change automatically but here you have given the value, the value never changes, it remains as it is, so this is the problem with us, if we apply the formula in this way, then we will get the wrong answer. Now the next thing comes, I will take one more for once. Okay, I am here and I have selected it and controlled it. Okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. Okay, let’s go. Now we are going to learn another kind of total. Now see how much tiering it will be if I go to each cell and do plus plus plus. So let’s say there were four values. If I have more values, then what will be my benefit? If I do it in the calculator, then in such a case, we will apply the formula to add. What do we call sum? If we say equals to sum then we will put equals to sum and tab and always remember one thing, never listen to any person in the formula, you always have to listen to the formula, you have to do what the formula is saying, what is the formula saying number one comma number two comma number three comma number four comma and so on it has come then we will do number one comma number two comma number three comma number four and turn off the parentheses and hit enter. If you give it, your answer will come. Now drag it to you and see the correct answer will appear. You can check whether you have written Equals to Sum. Pressed Tab. By pressing Tab, the sum will automatically be in capital letters and will open your bracket. Whatever things are written inside your formula, keep writing them. It was written there, number one, comma, number two, comma, number three and so on. So, we gave him this formula, so how easy it was now. Our formula has become automatic. If we change anything, there will be changes inside the formula. Now comes one more thing , control c control v. Now comes the thing that see what it has taken here d3 e3 f3 and along with it g3 because it has understood it as further, so we delete it. Okay cell, when we write neither, they move, that is why our answer keeps getting auto updated. Now tell me one thing, you have applied the formula. Sum is written there too, you have to select each cell and put a comma. Is it easier than this? I will use a calculator, so to make the work easier, look at what we do, when we know that we have to add something continuously, then we write it in a different way, like suppose you have now understood what Equals to Sum is, equals to sum and numbers have to be given inside a1 a2 a3 a4 a5, okay five. The numbers were one way, so this is the second way, if I say now what does it mean, add a1 to a2, then plus th, then plus four, plus fv, I can also write it like this, from a1 to a5, when you have consecutive numbers, there is this colon in between. What does this colon say? What does this colon say? It says from to means this is a range, what is a range, we have You have selected a range that is from a1 to a5, if someday you make it even like this, a1 a5 means what is written in a1 and what is written in a5, add both of them, add both of them, then only two numbers will be added in it and here where you have given the range, it means from a1 to a5, if there are five numbers inside it, then all five of them will be added. Now how does this come, let me tell you first. Funda told you here we will apply the formula of sum, equals to sum tab, after that number one number to number three, don’t do it now. Consecutive numbers are going to come, so you select it, there were consecutive numbers in the same heavy, they were together, then you selected it, now comes c3 colon cf3, sum from c3 to f3, enter and now double tap, it will appear everywhere from d4 to c4 to f4, see this, from c6 to f6 everywhere. Now suppose I will tell you another way, if you had done it like this, I delete it, I would have done it like this, here you would have done equals to sum tab and you would have done c3 f3 and enter, then look, it has given you the wrong answer because it will give wrong answer to all the others because for that you have put a comma, meaning now it is totaling which ones, it is only totaling c3 and f3 and not totaling anything else but us. What was actually needed was that I color all the wrong ones red and here we go red and this one we will give light to this one. All the wrong ones we have colored them in this way and this one is fine. Okay, still I say that I have understood one way how to do it. Well, let me tell you the one which is even. You total it like this. Do it like this. Its total is 184 na ya see below the average count. And all these three come in writing but this is only for reading, that is why we have to learn the formula because we want to write it in actual. Now tell me one thing, now we are doing the sum but how much time is it taking, no, it is not taking time, so now I am going to teach you the best one which is the best. The easiest way is that wherever you want the sum, you go to the cell and keep a condition along with it that there should not be any gap in between and then After that, if you press Alt Equal Two together then the formula appears to be the same. The formula for sum is from c3 to f3, you want the sum, but the thing is that we have not set it, it has become automatic. Now you enter it and obviously you double tap it, now you will get all the answers in the same way. Suppose you wanted the total here, what would you have done if you press Alt Equal Two and enter, then see this sum. It’s ok, we don’t need it right now, so I erased it. I want to fix this formatting, so what can I do? I selected it. Alt HMC Alt HMC. We had just learned this. We have corrected this. I have to fix its width. Do Control A. Do Alt OCA. Use this. Look, my table has been corrected. Here, we have corrected all the formulas. We have shown the total in different ways in which we can sum in different ways. What do cells mean? What do numbers mean? How do they behave ? How do we drag? So here we learned the basics of the formula. In plus we learned the formula for sum. Now let us move on to the formula. Now suppose you have the same, I am giving an example of a basic formula. You have the same data. You have marks and also the total. Now if you want to know or any student can do it by himself. Want to know ma’am, I had total four subjects, how many subjects were there, let us understand a little theory that what we want to find out, then the total subjects we have are four subjects, here there are four subjects, each subject is of your 100 marks, so your total marks become yours, your total marks become 400, your total marks become your 400, now the marks of any student are 300 is the first student, the marks he has got are 300 marks, so obviously how much is the remaining, it is 400 – 300, if I say, he has got 100 marks less, then this is the thing we have to find out, we have to substack there, now the thing is understood here, I have done this calculation for the first student, that means marks for the second student, let’s say 200. So how should I calculate the remaining portion for him? I will calculate the remaining portion for him in the same way – 400 – 200 and after that my answer will be 200. Now suppose a There is another student, now suppose we have another student, the third student, his marks are only 100. Now I have to calculate his remaining marks, so how do I calculate his remaining marks? His remaining marks will also be calculated in the same way. 400 – 100 = 300. So, you must have found one thing common in all the three scenarios and that common is that when you are applying the formula. Minus will always have to be done from 400, 400 or 400. No matter how many marks you have got, whatever marks you have got are secondary, you are putting them here right but right now what is fixed is 400, so just here we have this funda. I wanted to make it clear to you that here, when we apply the formula, 400 is our fix, so 400, we will write something in the number when we have to fix it. The number is always fixed, so we can write that number directly, the cell keeps changing, we fix the cell in a different way, we fix it manually, but if we write the number, it always remains fixed, so we will write the number here, what to do is to subtract it from 400. Now see – 174 has to be subtracted here, then 150 has to be reduced to 108. This is a thing that keeps changing, that is why we are here. But instead of taking the number, we will take the sale of the sale lane because the marks are written here itself, who knows, if any number is changed later, the total will be changed here, it will be automatically reflected here, so you can enter it and after that you will draw it. Look here, out of your 400, g23 should have been laced, g23 is laced. Suppose you are here, which is your h27, then it is in 400. Cess g27 should have been minus, the same thing is happening, so it means that you have found the correct answer, everyone has understood it, if you feel that you have any doubt or are not understanding any formula, then you can tell me in the comment section. I was telling you earlier also that write all the doubts together so that you can convey me and at the same time, I would definitely like to tell you that look very much now, generally we have 40 50 There is time as much as hours or there is a minimum time of 40 hours. One is that time and one is this time within which we have to cover all the things in a limited time, so there is definitely a little time constant which is not there in live. In live, no matter how much we stretch, in how much detail we read our things, there is a slight difference, but I will try my best to make you understand all the things that I teach. Okay, here we are on Substack. Learned to do, now let’s move on to our next formula. Now our next formula that comes is this, we are going with the basic fundamentals. I also did plus, minus, if we multiply, then it is basic. Here, just like a sheet of sales is made, it is just like there are party names, there is quantity, there is rate, so you need the amount. How is the quantity and rate amount arrived at, that is, we multiply the quantity. Obviously we get the amount from the rate, so we will equalize to that we need the quantity , basically we will give it, we cannot fix it here, you cannot write this, 442 * 985, if it changes later and you have to put it for everyone too, then you will not write this, what will you do, you will give a cell, then you have given c46, you have to multiply it, for multiplying, you will get a star above the eight, you can use that star. Do this and after that give this cell that this d is to be multiplied by 46, enter it and in this way your answer will come. Double tap it and you will get all the answers. Now suppose you are on e48, then on e48 what do you want that is c48 * d48 then you can see your answer that it is c48 to d48 so in this way we multiply. I have also taken the divide in the same way. This is a little bit of its opposite, suppose you have the amount given, the rate given and now you have to know the quantity, how much has been sold, this is the normal way in which we used to do maths, this is not normal maths, okay, there is not much hard and fast rule, so what will we do inside this, see, let me explain to you a little math inside this so that you do not face any difficulty, so here is what we did initially, what we did initially and what we are going to do now, I will tell you that. Let me tell you both the scenarios . In the beginning, we have multiplied the quantity with the rate and the amount has come. Now what is the amount? We have given quantity, our quantity is x, for example rate is given to us, 10 is given to us, amount is given to us 100 and quantity is given to us, that is, it is not given yet, so what do we do to find out x. 100 / 10 because This is in multiplication, so what will it become in division, then we come to know that our answer is 10 because we cut it from this, so the value of Basically you will go to your place, if you want to calculate the quantity, then what was equal to the amount? You will take the cell with the amount, for divide you will use slash and after that you will enter the rate and after that you double tap, your answer has come correct, okay in this way you can get this c67, in up, this is d67, this is c70, then d70, this is c75, then d75, that means your correct. I hope you have understood all these things, we have done the arithmetic formulas here, we had to do these basic formulas at the initial level, now I will move ahead where I will tell you about the features, when it comes to statistics, Average Maximum Minimum Count Count, this is the thing, we do one feature, after that we will continue or we are going to explore another new feature. Which is a number group, then inside this we will number. Formatters are going to do format work with a very basic understanding. Let’s go through the theory. Okay, so I do one thing, I turn off the grade
lines. So, I turned off the grade lines. All the lines that you see, we call them grid lines. Now, what I am going to tell you is what formats are actually available to us, what do we write inside Excel, so what do we write if we look inside Excel. Normally, if we talk in normal language, if we talk in a normal scenario, then either we write numbers as you have seen, we are writing our cell, we are writing marks, if there is anything, we are writing numbers or what are we writing, we are writing text that means we have written the name of a party, we have written the name of a student, till now we had understood only these two things, now many things come inside these numbers like That number one is also 23 and number one is also 23 and number one is also 23 and if seen then number one is also on 23, okay so all these are numbers but in a different way this is a normal number, we can say that in accounting we take care of points points also, we take care of so many money too, so in that way it is written in decimal, we can say that currency is attached with it, this is for accounting. Inside we also put money, so here we have put currency, it is written in percentage, so in this way we have only numbers, but we can also show the numbers in different ways, so in the same way, we are going to read about many number formats here, now here comes another thing, whenever I explain anything to you, I also explain even formatting, so I have always said one thing that first you have to select something and then after the selection, you Do you apply anything beyond that? For example, I have given you WhatsApp2, so first we will select somewhere, after that we will apply this thing on that thing, so now let us see by formatting the number in actual, like first I will come to you here, after that we are also going to read the theory of number format here, okay, I did this by mistake in the third portion, no problem, in the third portion, we do it here and here we have drawn our grid lines. Suppose I write one of my numbers here : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. So we have written a number. Now when you click on this number and go to the home tab and see here, journal is written. So the way we write the journal number, it has become your journal. If I change the format of this thing and put it in number format, then it has brought it in decimal. The thing which I explained to you here is that 23 can also be written like this and can also be written like this. It’s totally up to you as to how to show it. If you think that later on in my data, things can come in points, things can come in decimal and I want to show it in decimal, then you can go for this format. After that, if I take, let’s say, another number, let’s say I have taken the same number down here and if I want to put currency on it, then what can I do? I am doing this by clicking on this drop down and when I click on currency, then ready currency is also shown on it. Currency comes, if suppose you want to put something else on it, like ₹ 5 is 45, you want to put currency on it but want to put Indian Rupee, then you click here, you will get English India here, for now we do not have it here, it is added, we will learn this later, we have to change this thing from the setting of the computer, but for now, we have dollars, so we will click on dollar here and in this way we will add our currency, now suppose. In any other way, you write a number here, write 45 6 9, and you want that decimals should also be included in it. If all the things like currency come automatically, then you can directly choose accounting. Because accounting is like this, see, comma has also been placed here, along with it, other things have also come along with it. Okay, accounting has been written here too, this is also in the format of accounting, this is also in accounting, comma has been placed, decimal has also been placed along with it. At the same time, if you put dollars then this is the format of your accounting. See, there is no need to open it again and again, you can do it directly from here. Suppose I wrote a number here and you want to put comma in it directly, then you click on the comma, then it will come. If you click on currency, then it will come. So, it is totally up to you whether you want to do it directly in accounting or you can do it from here. Next comes suppose I am writing something here. 10 20 And right now I have to write 30 but if I have to write the percentage then I have to do it manually like this 40 but if I have to do it in this way then now you do not need to achieve so much, you select it, click on the percentage here, now whenever you write something in this area, the percentage will appear automatically so that is your a custom format like you would have seen at many places, for example, do you have a steel business and In that you have to write the quantity, you have to put ton behind each quantity, so what you did was to set the format in it in such a way that as soon as you write the numbers, turn will be written automatically. You do not need to write ton again and again. If you are writing turn again and again, then where is our work easy? It is hard, isn’t it? It is done in this way. Suppose now I write a value, this is the value I have written, then if I want this and that in that. To show it, I have zoomed it and dragged it like this, otherwise if I keep reducing it, it will show me less decimals. For now, I have shown all the decimals. If I want to increase or decrease my decimals, then I have both these options available. Either I can decrease or I can do more. As soon as you leave it, like this is three three, then it will remain three. As soon as you press it, it gets automatically rounded off. Okay, you can do this by clicking here. See 5 6 9 OK and I take this and I reduce it, then see it automatically reduced it to 65, which was 65, yours was 6596, so it automatically reduced it to 66, that is, it rounded off, so it automatically rounds off yours, so these were your number formats. If you click on the extension of number format, then you get a lot of options. I will make you explore more options. There is also a text inside it, if the value is Take any date you have written, like I have written this date and which is in slash, this short date is written, how 2 24 25 is written like this, then it is short date, you can do short date like this, if you want to do this same date in long format, go to this drop down, click on long format, this hashtag error comes when your width is less, then in this way your long date will come fine. And in that you get the percentage. If you want to do something in the fraction, you did it like this and by selecting here you did the fraction. Now you write here 2/3 and 2 s 3, that is, write 2.5 like this, then it will come by writing 2 1 a 1/2. If you write 5.3, then it will come by writing 5 2 and 7. So in this way you can also bring in your fraction whatever you want, any scientific number. I need it, if you write too many numbers then it gets converted into scientific number but it is a small number and you have to change it to scientific, then you can go and click on scientific from here, then it gets converted into scientific number, in this way you get the option of text in the last, if suppose you have written any number which is more than 15 digits, then I teach you a third step here which tells you that if any number is 15 Dialog if it is more than 15 digits The last digit will not come in the box, Excel will convert it to zero, so what can you do in such a case, when you have a scenario like this in which it says 15 digits and if yours is more than 15 digits, then it converts it to zero, so in such a situation, what will you do, you will convert your number into text, what will you do, you will convert its format into text, then with this it will take the number fine. Let’s remove the ink for once and go there and see this thing. Let’s go here and suppose I write a number. Just give me a minute. Here I wrote 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. So see, it did it in this way in the end. If suppose I go to home and go here and convert it into text right now 11 11 Digits 15 Digits Yes, so now look, it has taken the text, now it is in the text format, it has taken it, above 15, it comes in scientific, above 11, you can convert it into text, in this way it will be converted into text, now no, what I have to explain, you have to explain less because of the custom format, this is the most important, the rest of the things can also be applied directly, so let’s go now. Let’s move towards our custom format. If we are going to do custom formatting, then in custom formatting, the things that I will teach you are according to the date format. What is the date format? First of all, let me tell you a little bit about how we are going to read about the date format. You have any date, let’s take any date like today is 2402 2025. Okay, this is the date and for now, for once, I will move the cell to the side. Okay, now what is the date consisted of, first of all you have day, what is today’s day, then after that comes month, generally what we write is month and after that comes year, what comes year, so now look at their initials, to write day, d is needed, to write month, m is needed and to write year, y is the same thing. If suppose, in what other way can you write them, I just want to explain that to you now. In what other way can you write these? Can you write in this way that NN is Sunday, February and 2025, so instead of writing 2025 like this, I can write 25, it is 25, can I write this date like this? Yes, and what kind of date is written on this date, will it be in short form, we can say that it is in short form, it is a short date or can I write like this, Sunday February 2025, so can I? I can call this date a long format date. Yes, of course I can call it a long format date. Okay, so now I have told you the result of how the general result is done, how your short date is written and how your long date is written, but now let’s convert it into the format. Whenever you are seeing this format, if you have to write this, then we define the day with D, then D will be written, then there is a slash, month. If we define Ko with M then it will be written as m and year we define it with Va and this year is written in full 20 25 So when we have to write anything in complete then we write four times so it will come like this Look, if you want to write any thing in short then write it twice then here DD because Sunday is in short MM because Fab is in short but 25 is also in short so YY Now look here Sunday is written in full so D D D D D February is completely written as M M M M and Yer is completely written as y Wa Wa Wa. So remember the basic. If you want it in short then you have to write it single time. If you want it in short and in text then you have to write it two times and in other wise it has to be written four times. This is a fact because you will check. You can check your month even in the month. You can write June, write April. Everything is in three letters. You can check your days whether it is Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, check anything, all of them are of three letters only, so it is pre-defined that if you write two times, that means you want this type of answer, if you write four times, then you want this type of answer. Now let’s proof it a little and see, let’s say I write a date here, what is the control, I wrote this date with semi colon here. There is a slash, now I don’t want a slash, I want semicalculus, I will go to home, click on this extension, then click on custom and you can see here, why is there MGM, so the short is two. It means m is given a month ago just because m is here, if I had written d here first and then did DM and then OK, then look this date has changed, 24th February, now it has come like this, I have understood what is the meaning of this format, I have gone to custom, now d is also written single time, m is also written single time, hence single single date has come and y is 2025, that means complete, so it is written like this, neither is it four times, if I If you would have made it two times and I would have given it OK, then look, it is written as 20, 25, it is okay, it will always be written as two times or four times, it cannot be written as single time, OK, if now I have to write the same date in dash, then how will it be? I clicked on this, clicked on extension here, went to custom and as soon as there is a dash here, there is a slash, here we will put a hyphen, say hyphen, say dash, put a hyphen, then we will do OK. It will be converted into hyphen. It’s all up to us as to how we want this thing. It is very important to know the formatting. If these date formats are not available, then you will not be able to know many other formulas too. So, it is very important to have these formulas. Let’s take one more date. Let’s take one more date. Let ‘s say I want a little more of this in the anchor version. So I clicked here, went to custom and here now we will write as per our wish DD D AM D. Wawa y wa four times it was written that 2025 is written in full, so look, in this way your complete date has come. Whereas if suppose we want it in the langar version, then we clicked on it. Come here, we will go to the customs. After going to the customs, D D D D D M is kept small. Let’s keep M M W A Y Y Y OK. So see, Monday has come in full writing, just because I had kept the month short, I had kept it in MA only. Two came and 20 25 I had kept complete, so it came complete, let’s take another date, you will understand that this date was taken, after that went to extension, after going to extension, went to custom and here we write D D D D D M M M M WA Y Y Y and we did OK, so look, it has come to us with complete date written, so this is your custom format of one date, I have explained to you very well which In many ways, you can format your dates yourself. Whenever you make a sheet, you need dates in many ways. So now you do not have to worry about making dates. You can make dates as per your wish. We do this in our life just because they are not used that much right now. This marathon is based on usage, the number of things you use are taught in great detail, here is a For the bar, you can go through the theory that let’s say T is the rate, what does it do for you? It is a place holder. You wrote some text, you wrote it forever and after that you put T the rate, then if you write any text later, this thing will keep coming in front of it. Now what is this ma’am, let’s try it, let’s say okay, we take it here. Let’s say I took this space and I went to the custom, after going to the custom, I took it here and first of all I took the T in the journal. We put the rate, then we opened the double inverted comma, gave a space, wrote tons and then closed it in the double inverted comma and we wrote OK. Now I write 20 here, 30 here, 40 here, 50 here, then the automatic has come with turns in front of it. Why, because what is T the rate tells you that where you are writing T the rate, you can write anything as per your wish. You can, but you have fixed what has to be written behind it. What have you fixed that you told him because I always tell you that whenever we talk about any text, the text is always written inside double inverted commas, so you gave space first, that is why there is space in it too. If suppose you do not give space here, you deleted the space here and you did OK, then see, the space will be gone from here also and see, I had not selected the one here, so in this. If there is space then we can do our format in this way. Now if you want then just ignore the error and your data will come like normal data. There is no problem then in this way you can find your sum. Okay, after that if you want, you can read the star from here that it pats the character, other things are not so important, the date one is the most important, so we covered it in detail, so here we have explained our number format. complete it Now let’s move towards our conditional formatting. They will do conditional formatting. Now what is conditional formatting? Let’s take a small third portion for once and understand what is the meaning of conditional formatting. As is its name, so is its work. What is the name of conditional formatting? Whenever we talked about formatting, when we did the initial formatting, what all did we talk about whether we We talked about the alignment, then we talked about the font, then the font color, the font became the color, after that we saw the fill option, then we saw any kind of color, border, we had done these types of things in the formatting, so now we have to format our data, so it was understood that we are going to decorate it in this way, but there is a condition in decorating too, we will give it a condition that if anything like this happens then this Do it otherwise don’t do it. For example, you made a list of students in which there were marks of the students. Now inside that marks you wrote that if any student has got more than 33 marks, if he has got more than 33 marks, then you make him in red color, otherwise you make him in green color or put the opposite, then wherever there is red, you will understand how many marks he has and wherever there is green, you will understand how many marks he has, so basically. You gave him a condition, let’s take another example, suppose there is a report of sales and you are writing that whoever has sales more than ₹ 10 lakh, we have sold to whomever has entry above ₹ 10 lakh, make it in green color, then wherever the amount is more than ₹ 10 lakh in the entire sheet, there will be green color automatically and by doing this, you will directly know to which party you have sold more than ₹ 10 lakh. This is the condition for matting that there will be a color, there will be a border, whatever you want to do, everything will happen but with one condition. If we talk about the condition, here it was at 33. If we talk about the condition here, it was 10 lakhs or should be above 10 lakhs. So that is your conditional formatting. Now let’s explore their options. Conditional formatting is available to you inside the home tab. You will go to the home tab called conditional. You will get the option of formatting here. Now it comes to the matter, as I always say, if you want to apply anything, first its selection is very important, so here is the selection I am taking. First of all, I want to know the maximum rate to whom I have sold. If I want to know the maximum rate to whom I have sold, then I select this data. I go to conditional formatting. I have clicked here, I have not clicked, I am just coming, so the option has opened automatically, after this you will go to Greater Dan and write here, I want to know, all those above 650 or 700, color them or those above 750, you color them, I have to do it in red color, different colors are available here, I have to do it in red, I want to do it in yellow, I have to do it in green, let’s say I want to do it in green and I did OK. So, whoever was above 700, you will be able to see the color here, whether the color has come automatically here, what we have applied on one data, can we apply something again on that data, the answer is yes, just do not over rule, if you over rule, then the next one which you apply now will take it and will make the first one null and void, so basically now suppose you want to do the same in this only by going to the highlight cell role. Less than means now you have to know more, now you have to know less than 600, if you want then color it red, you did ok, then you realized that Less than 600 have come to you in red color and More than 750 have come to you in green color, so now you will understand just by looking at which color defines what, okay, after that let us assume that we want to see in quantity, we have selected a range. We will go to the condition formatting and we said between, we want to check the quantity between 300 and 400, I want to check who I have sold between 400 and 500, let me know that and all that mine comes in yellow color, then I did ok and it told me, to whom I have sold the quantity between 300 to 400, then I came to know, now I am also able to know from here that the load should be seen twice, urban. I have sold these in medium quantity to Binds and Ekta Creation but at low prices and here I have sold both of them at high prices, so in this way you can get a lot for yourself by applying different colors. You can take all the decisions, you can check the decisions of many, you can check all the things, now this was that normally you have got greater than, less than, you have got between, like we do in our maths too, now comes the next option, what do you get, equals to, suppose you know the exact amount and that exact amount, you want to capture where that exact amount is. It is written for example, I have selected everything and I want to capture the exact amount 376. Where is it written, so I selected it, went to Highlight Cell, went to Equals 2 where I have to go, where 376 is written and after that I want to give a different color of my own which is already pre-defined, if she does not want to give it, then come here to Custom Format, see, the same dialog box opens inside Custom Format, First of all, by opening the extension of Alignment font, it opens and the same key appears, so with more options, you will not feel that oh my God, I don’t know this option, you know, okay, we give purple color here, go to the font, we make the font white, bold and bold, do OK and then OK, then it told me that in the entire data, the amount of data I had selected, if seen inside it, there are 376 here. If it is written, then in this way we can check where something is written, if you know the exact amount, whereas till now all the things we were doing were related to the number, now whatever comes, comes related to your text, like your next comes the text that content, suppose look at the text, if you want to check the text, then there should be data of the text only. I checked this, now I just did not remember much or the name of the party, I just remembered that. Behind that party, it comes with no solutions, so I clicked on the solutions here and said, brother, color the solution written there, so that I can see it and then I will know it, fine, I had talked about it, so now I did OK, then it told me OK, these two entries come to me in the name of solutions, okay, so if you have a chunk of some text and remember the same and you want to find the complete text from it. You can also do this by highlighting the text with that content. Next comes the date ring. Suppose you have selected the date just because. If you want to do the formatting of a number then the number should be selected. If your selection is correct then you will get the answer also correct. If you select the number then you will get the number. If you get the selection of text then you will have to apply conditional formatting related to the text. Now Next. The option which is going to be related to our date, so we have chosen the date, you go to the condition formatting, go to the highlight cell rule and after that you go to the date array, after going to the date array, you get the options here that you say yesterday just because today is 24th of February, so here is yesterday, if I do it today, then today is coming, tomorrow is coming. I have to highlight yesterday, I have to do it with green, so I made it green and I did OK, so you can see this here, you can also check the date, our date today is 24 Feb 2025, so the date we see here which has been highlighted is 2025, sorry, 25 Feb 2025. Okay, if you want, you can highlight yesterday also in the same way and inside this you will get more information. You get a lot of options, which is like last week and this week, next week, last month, this month, next month, you get a lot of options, you can explore it here, the main thing is that you should know what are you going to do in conditional formatting, what is our use case, what do we want to know, whatever you want to know, you can explore it here and different different. You can see by applying options in it, here then you are left with the duplicate values, that is, if there are duplicate values anywhere in the entire data, then remove them, but before doing this, look, we have made it so colorful, so first of all, find out that if I want to remove all this, then how can I do it? So, when you go to the very bottom in Kandi formatting, you get clear rules, then here you get two options, one is clear rule. From the selected cells that I select a cell and remove the condition formatting from it or I call it clear rule from the end there might be chances right now it is very small data It has been taken that there is huge data, there is a lot of condition formatting, you are not even able to understand where it is included and where it is not included, then what will you do in such a case. In such a case, you will clear the roles from the entire sheet, but before clearing it, I will teach you the management once, after that, clear because I have just cleared it, then how will you learn the management? So let’s see the management now, maybe you have some I did the conditional formatting and later suddenly it came to my mind that this purple looks a bit strange, it has become too dark, all the other light colors are there, so we have to change this color, so what you have to do is go to the conditional formatting, you will come down here, in Manage Rules, after coming to Manage Rules, you are not able to see anything because you have not made any selection, you have directly reached the conditional formatting that I So if you want to change then look above, you are seeing the show formatting rules for whom, then you show this worksheet from here, then all the conditional formatting done on this worksheet will be shown to you here. Okay, you have to change this one, you select it and look above here, there are options like this: New Rule, Edit Rule, Delete Rule. What you have to do is you have to edit, you go to edit and after that you Obviously you want to change the formatting, then you go to the format, from here you choose any other color, I take blue from here, okay and we have done okay, now we can apply it, you can also do okay, so look at this, it has been applied in this way, I like it much better than before, so in this way you can make changes. Now suppose I select this cell and after that go to condition formatting and clear rules. If I go to the selected cells and from here, I go from here only , I go from here but I don’t go anywhere there and I go to Clear Rules and want to remove it from the entire sheet, then your conditional formatting will be removed from the entire sheet. Now let’s do what we wanted to explore. Next, let’s explore the one with duplicate values. Suppose I want to know whether there are any duplicate values in the entire data. Not checking in dates, so I selected this and it is talking about values, so text will not work, so we took this, let’s consider text also, so we took this, after that we went here, came to duplicate values and whether to take duplicate or take unique, it is totally up to you that you have to color the unique or whatever is not repeating, so obviously it is the complete data which is not repeating. If you want to duplicate it, then how to color it, you can do it here. Now suppose I make it 521 here too, then it will also be colored. Now suppose I make it 314, then it will also be colored because it is a duplicate. Suppose I make it a color, then it will also be colored. It also works on text, so because it is a duplicate, okay, so in this way all your things work if there are duplicates everywhere. If you want to check, then you can check in this way. Okay, next you get this. What does Top Bottom Rules do? First of all, we have to select the item in which we want to check. Suppose I have selected this and after that I want to know what are my top 10 items. Only two items are 13, so knowing the top 10 is a bit weird, but you see, top 10. If you want to know less, you have to know the top five. So you can also do the top five and from here you can color them, I gave yellow and gave OK, then it measured all of them and colored the top five out of them. Similarly, if you want to know the bottom 10 also, then you select it. Go to the conditional formatting and take the bottom 10 items from here and if let’s say you want to get the red color in it, then you did OK, then the remaining ones are in the bottom 10. Oops, we have 10 should not have been taken because in bottom 10, obviously it will take the rest of the data also, we come to the bottom 3. Okay and did OK, then it told me that your data comes from bottom 3. Now it was normal and directly wrote to you that bottom 10 is needed, bottom 3 is needed, top 2 is needed, top 3 is needed, top 5 is needed and color has come. Now more options come in it, on top 10, on top 5, on bottom 10. But what is it at the bottom 5? Basically if you suppose the whole is summed up and how much comes out at 10, off the total output at 10 will tell you. If you have conditioner formatting then go to the top bottom rules and if you want to color the top 10 para in red color then it will appear on your top 10, there can be more than two values at the bottom, there may be more than one value, your top 10 para is falling on it, there might be chances that it is falling on it too much. Well, you can also change the percentages from here. If you want, then you can make the bottom at 20. But you have to know about 20 and you have to fill green color in it. Look, in this way you can fill more than one value can fall, even one value can fall, so in this way you will get the values, so this is what you have learned now, learned the highlight cell rule, learned the top bottom rule, after that you are going to learn the data base color scales and icon set which is very simple but for that, first I clear this data, so I have just selected. And now I can also do selected cells. Now suppose you want here that the one which has higher rate means the color should be filled inside our cell in such a way that the higher date can be understood. If the one with higher rate can be understood, then you will go to the data bars. Here you get two options. The first one is gradient and the other one is solid. What is gradient? It is the one which keeps the shadow like shadow. Look, whatever color you are doing. If yes, then see the shadow is coming in the last, it is becoming a little light in the last and what is the gradient? What is the gradient? What is solid, sorry, solid is not a solid color, it will look exactly like this, okay, if you want, the gradient is solid, you get the same result, you can click on it, which is more, then that cell will be filled. Now what is it, I can tell by looking at this cell completely, 932 is the highest because the whole cell is After that I can tell that this is 9907 which is the second highest because it is just a little bit left after that, it seems to be 855 or you can say it is 876 or you can say this. In this way you can judge by looking at these colors which one is more and which one is less. It is totally up to you whether you want to show it or not, whether you want to show it with gradient color or with solid color. It is totally up to you. To you, you can show as you want, okay , let’s go next, let’s say I want to show something in quantity, then what do the color sets also do? What is there now? In the data bars, there was only one and it was showing you in the form of bars. What is there in this? Shade shading is like, you will get different shades like middle, so it means the one which is least is dark, then it will be less than that, then in this way you will get less than that. It will be visible in the form also and just like this shading is happening, you can also put the icon in the same way. If you want to put any icon, it works exactly the same way, the lowest number is red, the normal number is yellow and the best number is green, like our traffic light thing, so look, if you put this icon, it came in the icon in this manner, then it was 932 highest, so see green is visible, after that 856 green is visible. After that 855 green is visible, okay, so in this way you get these highlighted and this was your conditional formatting. In conditional formatting, let me tell you one more thing, these are the clear rules, we talked about manage rules, let’s talk about the new rule. Inside the new rule, you get to explore all the same options which you have explored on the outside. If you want to read it in detail like Format All Cells. Based on the values, we just did the format cells that cells that content, so we did the values that contain , format only top and bottom ranked values, we did the top 10, take a look, it is also written in this, you can turn on top 10 or percentage or format and only values that are above and below average, so above and below average, you get it here, let me show it to you. Click below you get to know the average 2499 28 And if you want to color then you can go to this and you can color the above average in one color, if you want to color the above average in red color, if you want to color the below average also, then from here you can give a yellow color to the below average and in this way you can color the below average also, you can get this directly here too, it is ok format only. Unique and Duplicate Values We have tried this now, this is one option which you do not get directly, whenever you want to explore, you will have to come here, that is Use a Formula to Determine Which Cells to Format, meaning formatting has to be done here using a formula. Now till you have Unless you learn the formula, you cannot do it here and even after learning the formula, you do not have to do anything here, just like you write a formula somewhere outside, you just have to come here and write it and after that, if you are satisfied with the formula, then you can get that color done here. We can look into it further, but here we have covered all the other things which were there in the conditional formatting and that too very good. If you have any doubt anywhere, please let me know in the comment section, I will definitely help you and I am constantly saying that you go while writing your doubts and if you feel that I want to learn better in this thing and want to do it, then you can definitely come to the live course also, all the things will be found in the description and what happens is that in live, you can discuss with me which is the best. The most main benefit is and the other thing, now you will get this sheet also, so daily when you get the sheet, do you practice something daily, either you do it in one sitting, then there are more chances of forgetting it, or slowly and gradually, if you start absorbing it in your habit, then we start getting comfortable, so that is the main purpose of life that there are many people who have already excelled and are still doing it. There is only one major area, no, it is that normally, what do you do, what do you learn and then the end of that, yes, we have learned this, the certificate has come and when you do it live, you practice it, now somewhere when you listen to something daily, you understand more, so that’s all, so here we have completed the condition formatting, now we move ahead, see inside the home tab, we People have done the number condition formatting. Now we complete the table cells style and the rest of the things. The remaining chunks are completed and after that we will move towards our remaining basic formulas. Data entry and the other thing is table creation. In normal data entry, you do not have to do things manually, whereas in table creation, you do not have to do things manually and it keeps running automatically. Your data is basically a dynamic one. This is done in the form which is updated automatically, that is why table creation is a better option. In comparison to the data entry and when it comes to the formula, neither is the formula. The bigger the formula, then obviously ranges are given in it. Initially, when I had explained the formula of sum to you, I had explained that brother, we will give the range, then your formula is applied on the same range, so what is a range here? Suppose you have given a range somewhere from a1 to a1, but later you have written the data in a101 and now your data is written in a200, then later when you have written normal data, what will you have to do? You will have to update your formula there. You will have to give the range from a1 to a200 because now your range has increased, now you have entered more data in it because of daily new. The data is being entered but when it comes to the table, initially when you give a range in it, it does not take even a 200 or 100 and will write it like this. The table will write the range in such a way that later whether you enter 200 or even 2000, it will automatically give their sum, it will automatically update your answers, so this is the biggest and most effective use of our table. Mainly, this is very useful in the formula. Now if we have to talk so much then it is important to see how the table will be made. So look, first of all we have to make the table. Let me tell you one thing, whatever heading is there on the table, we call it a header. What do you call header? You select your data. Oops, I am so sorry. You took this, you select your data. Now you have two options, either you go to the Insert tab and here you select the table. There is an option, click on it or what you can do is you can press control t. Table starts with t tab. So if you press t with control, then you will have this type of OK, my keys are not working. It’s okay. If you go here and click on the table, then you will have an option like this. Now what is it saying, My table has headers. If you turn it off then it thinks that the data that you have It is given in the first row in the first column that dates are written party name quantity rate amount is this also your data is it your data no which is at the top It is written that it is a header, it is possible that sometimes you have data in such a way that there is no heading above it, then you should not turn it on. Now it is necessary to turn it on. My table has headers and if you do OK then now your table has been converted into a table with a header. Always remember one thing in Excel. When we insert something separately in Excel, then if we have to make any changes in that inserted thing, then a separate tab is automatically created. Otherwise, you have as many tabs as you have , but it comes as a separate tab. Now like I have inserted this table, in a way, I have converted my data into it, in a way, I have inserted the table, so whenever I click here, I get the above format of a table design. Look, click somewhere outside, it will go, click on this, it will come, isn’t it coming because it thinks that I have inserted a table, now whatever. If you have inserted, then whatever changes we want to make in it, we will do it through a new tab. First of all, whatever work you should do, what work should you do? Even if you are doing any work in your real life, you are creating a lot of tables inside it, if you are doing a lot of work, then I would call it mandatory, so that you can make the work easier and make it better. What should you do for that? After creating the table, you should name the table here on the very left side of the table design. And here you don’t have to give space. If you give space then the name will not be taken. Okay, so don’t give it space. Name it anything. I have given the name of Sales to Sales, so what will happen in the future, whenever you have many tables, suppose you have a lot of tables, some are Purchase tables, some are Sales tables, some are tables of employees’ details, there are many tables and you have to go somewhere and apply a collective formula. If you have formulas somewhere, then this is yours. There is no table one, table two, table three, what did I just explain to you? Look, normally, what happens is that a1a 200 is done in this way, but in the table, he takes the range of the table and writes the table range, so now table one range would be written there, then you will go around wondering what is this table one, now go and check whose table one was, table two whose it was, table three, so if you name it that is the sales table or the purchases table, then now. Even when you apply the formula, it will come by writing ‘Sale’ or ‘Purchase’, it will not come by writing ‘Table 1, Table 2’. Table 1, Table 2 was coming only when you had given that name to it. Along with this, you can see above that these filters come. We will learn later how to use the filters. This comes by default in it. You can go to the table design and change any color from here. If you want any color and type of table, then you can convert it into that. It is totally up to you that how do you want your table, I want it in this way, I want it in this way, I can keep it like that and inside the table design, what are the options you get? Header, we want total, we want total in this row, below is the total. If you don’t want, then you can turn it off and in this way you get other things. If you want to remove duplicates from it, then you can remove them directly. Have you removed the duplicates? Yes, check among these. Is and after that you can check in it, if nothing happens then it will not be deleted. Now we have learned about the normal things about the table. Now it is very important to understand the difference between main data and table. It is okay to have made the table but it is also very important to know what is the difference. So, let’s do one thing, take one data and after that we will know easily. So, I copy only this from here and enter control alt vv. Now why did I do this, I will tell you this slowly later on. I will explain it to you there, you will get better clarity. Now if I sit to explain, you will not be able to understand and I will not be able to explain because you have not got that understanding yet. Let me format this data for once. As you can see, these are numbers whereas they should come in dates. So what will I do? Now, I had explained to you the number format, I will go to the number format and convert it into short dates. If I want to select this data, then control a. I can select this data with Alt AB A, I put borders inside it, with Alt ABT I put borders outside it, and just because for now, I have converted it to normal values, so this is not our formula, so we will apply a formula, quickly equals to this multiply by this enter, so like this Now double tap on it, you will have these formulas. Now we will start understanding the difference. How can the difference be understood? Suppose, now I have to make a new entry here. Let’s enter from today’s date. So I entered today’s date. Here I name anything. Stella Stella Rojo. I named something like this and look here, automatic zero has come, that means it has automatically updated your formula here, do not wait. Here it is 2000, here I have given 100, so see, it has updated automatically, so does it do the same thing here, it will do the same here too, but why does it do it, I will definitely tell you the difference, here I write Stella Roger and then here also I write 2000 ok here also I write 100 and here also we are getting the answer, so ma’am you were saying that all the things in the table get updated automatically. But it is not happening here, it is happening here, look why this is happening now, let me tell you the reason. Now as you can see, here it has automatically applied the thick border that I had applied here, it has taken it automatically in the correct manner, so you can see that here it is not in the correct manner, one thing, so you see this, the second thing, I had shown you here already zero, it has automatically updated your formula, that is not the thing here. I was waiting to see if any value came. Is this happening? Why is this happening? Due to a setting in your Ekal, there is a setting inside Ekal that if you make three-four entries in the same pattern and after that you keep writing something, then it automatically considers it as a pattern and starts answering. Now where is that setting, like you will go to the file, you will go to Options and from here you will go to Advanced, then you are seeing that you are allowed editing directly in the cells. Extend data range from the formats and formula, you do one thing, turn it all off for once, turn it off, after that you do OK, now I will make an entry here and after that you will see, now we are going to make an entry again with today’s date and now I would have written here robot robot robot chucks, after doing this I have written anything, I have seen random 500, this zero comes already, this is a great thing. Okay, so I have come to this, now I do the same thing with robot text and now look, it did not even take this, it did not even correct the alignment, earlier it was correcting the alignment, 500 150, and no answer, why because you have turned off a setting of your Excel, then there is a setting due to which your data keeps getting auto updated, otherwise it does not get auto updated in the normal data, now suppose I turn it on and go to the options. After going to the options, I go to the advanced and turn them on. We turned on all the settings that were there and from here also turn on the automatic search. Now when you do it, it will take it automatically, then we delete it, do it again. Here we will take robotics. There may be chances that he may or may not take it because we have already entered once, now he has taken it because now he has followed the pattern and we have turned on that setting. That the pattern which is written above should be extended below also and take it in that way. Okay, so this is what we have, how to make entries inside our data, what difference do we see in the table . Now one more main chunk, I am going to tell you about the table creation, I am going to tell you one advantage, which is the slicer. Let us now look at the slicers of the table. See, we get the slicer inside the table. Now what is the function of this slicer? It allows us to easily access our data. For example, suppose one, these are filters so that if I want to see anything, just want to see something of Aqua Pure Solution, then it has shown me the data, so in this way we can see from the filter, but how big is the process of filter, you will go to this filter, select it, after that, you will check, it seems quite time consuming, it seems to be a big process, so what can you do in such a case, you can insert a slicer, now you can insert something. If you want to do this and that too is related to the table, then you will have to go inside the table, then click somewhere on the table and go to table design and here you will see the option of insert slicer. It is asking you whose slicer you want to insert, meaning for which thing do you want a date slicer, whether you want to filter your data according to the date, whether you want to filter it according to your party names or according to the quantity, rate and amount. So I take the party names, I do OK, now I adjust it here, anywhere else, for once, I adjust it here, clicked on Aqua Pure, Bharat Craft has come, Ekta Kapoor, Sorry, Ekta Creations, what has come on Green Leaf, Organics, what has come on Innovative Solutions, if you want to do multiple things, then if you want one, then turn off the filter, this crossing means filter. Only off, if you want multiple, then you turn it on, it is on, Aqua Pure Ekta Heritage Mastek, now everything is selected, no, remove it, I want these, so this has given me the answer to these, in this way you can do this, you have also inserted this slicer, if you click on it, there is a separate tap for the slicer also, see, I always say that if you insert anything in Excel, then there is nothing in that inserted thing. If you want to make changes, then you get a separate tab for that and you should make changes within the same. Changes can be made from within the same. If you want, you can also keep your slicer related to this, so that is a beautiful one, it will show you that, you cross it, the complete data will come, you can also adjust it, you can make it smaller or bigger in this way, now I delete it, you can show the slicer in this way or else I can control it here. I do plus plus so that we have a little space and I select it and do Alt AE A so that it gets deleted and I place my slicer here. In this way, the slicer is automatically placed. I can make the color a little better, so I take green. It looks a little better on the screen. So, in this way, we create our data. In this way, your table creation is done in this way, all the things are done. I hope you understood it completely. If there is any doubt anywhere then please let me know in the comment section. Let’s move ahead a little. The other thing is cell style. What does cell style do to you ? Like suppose you have taken this data, you have taken this data and copied it. I just create another sheet, rename it with cell style, do end ok and here I enter control alt vv so that my data comes in. Okay, exactly the same way as I had fixed its formatting earlier . Similarly, if its formatting needs to be corrected, then I will quickly correct its formatting. When you do this work again and again and you see it being done again and again, give it all. I also had the option that I can prepare everything in advance, but this thing is known to you, what happens, we will not show you the process right now and will tell you all the things directly, then how will you be able to relate because in your life, you will also have to correct similar things, so that is why we do it in this way. So see what the cell style does to you or does it help you directly ? Now I do one thing to do any kind of formatting. Now I do one thing to make it normal. Now what I do is select the entire data, take control A and after that I go to the cell style and select anything. Here, I can directly do the formatting of the table in the way I want, it will give it to me directly, after that if I want to make any changes then you can do like That now it seems a little light to me, so I made it dark, I want to make it black, I want to make all this black, so it has come in black, I like it better, now I want to give it any color, so I can color it, so in this way you can change it later, it seemed beautiful to me, so I made it in this way, so this was your cell style. Colors are pre-defined inside the cell style. If you want, you can change the themes of these colors as well. Right now you are seeing one set of colors here. If you want that this set of colors should not be visible , if you want to see some other set of colors, then you will go to the page layout. Here you will go to the theme. Inside the theme, here inside the colors, you get many different types of palettes. Suppose you have taken this palette, now you will see in the cell style according to that palette, then the color has changed here. Now you are seeing the colors. Look in this way, I have seen this cell. Selected and went to sell style and I took this color, it looks so beautiful. One of my favorite color. Okay, so this looks so perfect. If you wanted any other palette, then you can take another palette in the same color from here. See, whenever you change the palette anywhere, overall because you have done this work using a single palette, then overall the entire theme of the system gets changed. Now you will go to the home and look here, you will see that the theme of colors has changed, there will be some other colors first, you are not able to understand. Once you remember these colors well, what kind of colors are there, okay now I go to the page layout, go to colors and here. So now you go to your home and see the colors here, the theme of the colors has changed, earlier it was in a slightly reddish reddish color, now look, it has come in this way, so with this, the colors can be changed not only in the cell style, but also in the cell style, which seemed to me one of the beautiful, one of my favorite seemed to be not here because I changed the theme from there, so it does not change only here, it also changes there in our home font. If it is changed then it is a cell style so that you can do any formatting directly, you do not have to do much hard work, this was one thing, the second thing is that I would like to tell you about a shortcut, let’s say do Control C and enter Control Alt v v here, now you just change its format and nothing else to do, you did the short date, did Control A, did Alt and C A, did your data, now suppose you want to do any formatting directly, you should do it in this. If you don’t want to do any hard work, then what you have to do is, you have to select this data, after selecting the data, you have to press Alt O A, then after this a window like this will open in front of you. What can you do from this window, whichever way you want to format, you can do a lot of formatting inside it. Suppose I like it, I have given OK, then this formatting has been automatically converted into it. If you want to do any formatting directly then this is the direct formatting. You can also do this in this way, what have I pressed, I write the shortcut key here, which is Alt OA, okay, your shortcut key, I have written here Alt OA, so in this way we work in our A cell style, now let’s move ahead, so look, till now we have completed our cell style, after that if you see any feature, then those features are visible here for insert, so we have already made you know where you know how to insert the cell. How you have to insert a row, how you have to insert a column, we have learned its shortcut keys, after that comes the delete key, we have also learned how to delete something, after that comes the format. Inside the format, we have learned the row height, the column height, it has to be auto-fit, all this, now comes the turn of hide and unhide, if suppose you want to hide something, suppose till now. You have done this work and now you have to hide this cell, if you want to hide this column, then you can hide it from here also by right clicking or you have this option inside the format also, so why do you have to go so far, you have to right click from here and then click on the hide option . Here something is hidden, if you right click and unhide it, it will be unhided, so in this way we hide or unhide something, in the same way, if we want, we can hide or unhide any sheet too, like I have hidden it and if suppose later I want to unhide it, then I will click here only and unhide it here and it will tell me that I need to unhide this file. If there is more than one file, then you will see it here. If you do OK, then your file will come back here, that is, your sheet will come back. So in this way, if we want, we can hide or unhide our daily columns or our sheet. You get this option here also, but there is no need to go there and do such a long process. You can get this option by directly right clicking. This option is there in almost all the formats. If you get it by right clicking, then I like the right click option better like now you have the next option, take rename, take tab color, take protect sheet or take mover copy, take hide and unhide, then here you can check hide and unhide rename sheet. Move Copy Sheet Tab Color Protect Sheet Lock Cell So almost all the options we get by right clicking, you get the same options here too. Now let us move a little further in this Rename Sheet You know this thing how it is done, you click on any cell, any sheet and rename it here and you can rename it, okay, we have given that cell, after that suppose you want to color, then you right click and tab. Press on the color and you can do whatever color you want. I had made it purple, so we will keep it purple. When you are on that sheet, then that gradient fill will be visible on the sheet. As soon as you come out of that sheet, if you are on any other sheet, then you will see that solid color. Okay, after that, the most important thing is that there are two things here, the first one is mover copy sheet and the other one is protect sheet, so I am giving you both of these. Here, I am going to teach you, first of all, what we will learn is mover copy sheet. Suppose now you need another sheet which is exactly the same as whatever work has been done on this sheet . In this workbook, I am explaining to you by taking three scenarios. For now, I want a copy but in this workbook. Now either, what is the first method I have that I select the entire data and do control C and then create another sheet and do control V in it, then it is a time consuming process. How can we do this work directly? What do you do to make it exactly the same? You are on this sheet of yours, after that go to the format, click on move and copy sheet here, understand a little what it is asking you, first of all, the names of all your sheets are coming here like number format is theory, number format is theory, so in all the sheets, whatever number of sheets you have, that is, whatever number of sheets are created in the workbook, that name is coming here, The Other. The thing is that what do you need, whom do you want to copy, now suppose I have to get the cell style done, so I clicked on the cell style, OK fine, after that what do you have to do, create a copy or not, yes, you will have to create a copy, okay, I did it, the cell style has come here, look, the cell style is the same, you will not even be able to tell the difference, it will come in the name of Tatu, but you say no, we don’t want, we need it in some other file. Meaning, this file should remain here and should also be moved to another file. Okay fine, if we do this then what will we do, we will send it to cell style two, we will do the work, then we will go to format, move and go to copy, select cell style two. Now we are saying that the copy of the sheet that we will send there should also remain here, meaning that sheet should remain here and in the one in which we will send it to the new one, so here we will turn on create copy, now you have to send it somewhere else, that’s it, right? If you want to send it somewhere else then now you will have to choose another file, first you have to select the place where your file is, then as soon as you click on the place where you want to send it, you will see all the files which are open in your Excel, you have to keep them open in whichever workbook you want to send it or the other way is that if you want to create a new workbook, then New Book is also written here, so suppose I want to send it in Book One and OK. So here I had another Book One open and Cell Style Two has arrived here in exactly the same way. Okay, in exactly the same way your Cell Two has arrived here. Okay, suppose we come to this only and Cell Style Two. Now we will send it again but will send it in a new book and now we want it to go from here, it should go from here, it should not be here because what will we do with two sheets of paper here, then we will go to Cell Style. Now we will not click on create a copy because in such a situation it copies it. Now we will directly click on the new book that we want in the new book and do OK. So see, a new book has been created. Look, now you will say that it is not the same as Book One. Look somewhere in Book One, there are Sheet One, Sheet Two and other things. This is a sheet in itself and another sheet has been created with the name of Book Two and has come to you, so in this way you can get it very easy in Excel. You can move your data here and there, you do not have to select the entire data again and again by using Control C Control v. For example, suppose you are seeing the data till here, now here below, there is some data written at the very bottom, it will not be copied but it will remain because you have not seen that data, so when we copy and paste manually. So there might be chances that we make a mistake or leave some data but in this way your sheet is exactly moved there and also copied, whatever you want to do is done directly, so this was the way we have to move and copy, now it comes to you that you want to protect your sheet, meaning if suppose you have done some work, now you have to go for a break or an important call has come and now you Do you want to say, hey, I will go, if someone does something in this time, my work will get ruined, so we have to protect our work, we basically want to protect our work, we want to keep some kind of protection in it inside our system, then what can you do, you will go to format control, that is, you will go to format A, from here, click on protect sheet, make sure that these three arrows are selected, basically let them be locked and unlocked. The type of cells can be either locked cell or unlocked cell. Now if you select both then it means that all the cells will be locked. Okay and after that you can give any password here. For now I am giving 1 2 3 password and it will ask us to reenter 1 2 3. We gave it and we will do OK, so in this way now this password has been protected. Now how will you know whether the password is protected anywhere, you can do anything. If you try to write, it will not let you write. The cell and chart you are trying to change is on a protected sheet. To make a change, unprotect the sheet, you might be requested to enter a password. OK, so what will you do? You can do it from here again, you can do it on the sheet as well, it is the same thing, you will go to the unprotected sheet and enter your password here. 1 2 3 And OK, if you do it, look here, now you can enter your password. If you want to write anything, you are able to write, it is allowing you to enter. Okay, if you want to do this temporarily or not, I have to do this thing, put the password again and we are going out, you can go for a break, no one can write anything, we are trying to write something, it is not allowing us to write. Okay, so in this way you can protect your sheet. This option is also available here in the format. Look at the home tab, which is a summary. Most of the features are inside the Home tab of the entire Excel and there are some features in the Home tab which are for the overview, you will get those features later too, like here I unprotect it for once, like you saw the Protect here in the Review tab, when you go inside the Review tab, you get the option of Protect Sheet and Protect Workbook here, but if you do not remember there, then you will get it here under the Format too, if it is not there then also. If you right click, here also you get the option of Protect Sheet. Basically, you are protecting the particular sheet. Okay, so in this way you can put the password here. Now we have completed this which is our format, after that what comes to you is Autos. You have already done the rest of the things. These are the functions, we will do them only when we do the statistics, after that I want to teach you this series. So, we will start very basic. If we start from basic, then first of all I will give it a name. Okay, here we have
different different things. For once, I will also give it some color. Now, when we are giving color to all the things, then it is not this, which color should we give? Give us blue, what about blue, okay, see what it does basically. The first thing I will tell you is that you have to fill any thing, see what is this option, this is the option that you will get. It is visible that this is the option of fill, and what is the spelling of fill, it is FI, so remember that what is this option, it is the option of fill, what will be the spelling inside it, it will be FI, so now if you have to do anything inside the option of fill, then see how its shortcut key will be made. Let’s draw once for the shortcut key and just give me a minute, we will adjust it and We have come to the draw page and see what our activation is, what does it mean from alt to home page, where do we go from alt to home page, what is the spelling of fill better than H, F I, so remember now, whatever work we will do in this entire sheet, it will remain as Alt H F I, next to this, that thing will keep changing, after this, whatever you have to fill, the name will keep coming according to that. Everyone must have understood very well that what is Alt, what is H, what is F a. What is ok, now let us work in actual, see what is the first option that comes, suppose I write here Tanu Single, I have written this name, ok, I auto adjust it with double tap, fill some color inside it, like I wanted to fill a good color, this color is good and we have filled this color, given a border in it, in a way it looks quite good, ok, if I want the same content at the bottom, that means exactly. We want that thing in the cell below, so basically what we want is that the shortcut key to fill down fill down is Control D. I am telling you exactly the shortcut key. If you want to go directly from here, you can go from here too, but I will also tell you the way to go from here, but remember this one, Control D and if you want it on the right side, then Control r. Now let me tell you one thing, what does it do? Basically exactly the same if there is any other color here. If there was a different color font here, then it would also have chosen a different color font. If there was a different size font here, then a different size font would have come here too. Exactly copy paste does exactly copy paste. So to know us about fill down, I write here, what we did for fill down, what is our shortcut key for fill down, fill down and fill down, control D and this is what we did, fill right and What is the shortcut key we have for fill right? Control R is fine and at the same time if I want to go according to the home keys because you get this option in the home tab then Alt HFI and it is found D and right is called R. So if you want, now you have two shortcut keys meaning one more thing, meaning the easy one, if you do not remember this then what shortcut key can you use because now you have generated the shortcut keys from the home tab also . Alt H means Home F I Fill and after that it is D, it is D, neither is it D, and here Alt A A I D D will not come, what will come, this is right, otherwise r will come, okay, this thing which I have just told you has been done for down and right, if I talk about the same thing for once, I copy it and paste it here, if I have to do this thing in the upward direction or if I want to do it in the left direction, then I have There is no shortcut key. We don’t reverse anything anyway, we don’t go up, so that’s why the main thing is used only. If you have to do something on the left, then you will go to the left cell and after that you will click on the left, then it will be filled in the left. If you have to go to the up position, then go to the up position and then go up. Okay, we can do this directly, they do not have any shortcut key. Okay, I understood, generally we either We move towards this or move like this, that is why their shortcut keys are available with us. Okay, everyone understood, so what did we learn here? We learned these four types of fill: Down, Right, Up, Left. After this, what we are going to fill is a series of fills. Which is the most important thing, so let’s listen to how the serious feel is. First of all, let me look at you in the serious feel, first I will give you the complete feature, and then one last one. I will also write a formula, okay, let’s write a series, first of all, let me tell you the normal series. If I want to write a normal series, then I wrote one and I can drag, one way, I have this and I can do the fill series, one way, I have this, I take it a little to 10, it is okay, the second way, what do you have , the second way, you have this, you write the initial number here, one and go to that initial number and here in the series. Go, after clicking on the series, a window like this comes to you, now what does this window say that what you have to fill, you have to fill it daily, you will come to fill it daily, otherwise it will go like this, it will go like this, I will do it one by one, let me tell you how the daily works, keep it in daily like this, linear means what is linear used for, plus is used for minus, so plus minus means we are adding one number one by one, isn’t it technically you? When you see the series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, if you check it technically, then what are you doing? You are doing the same thing, then here you write one in the step value and assume 10 in the stop value, because you have to write till 10, then if you have given OK, then it will write it in this way and give it to you. It is okay, but you did not want to write the column in this way. That’s why we choose columns instead of rows, we have taken columns, we have taken linear, only one plus has to be done and here if it stops at 10 or 10, then till here your value will come directly. Now you will say that ma’am, we can do this by stretching, that is, we can do it by dragging, why should we achieve so much, these were also 10 numbers, so that is why you are feeling that I can do it by dragging, but if this is the same thing I can do to you. Say, if you want to do it for 1 lakh entries, then till 1 lakh you will keep dragging and here you have to write the amount by just one go, so you will write it directly. Okay, so this is what we do, this is our series. Now let me tell you another way. Suppose you have to write some pattern. You have to write the pattern. 2 4 6 8 10 If you have to write the pattern by doing something like this, then what is happening in this pattern. What is happening in this pattern that I have started from 2 . Starting with that, we write the numbers, OK, then what is happening + 2 4 + 2 6 + 28 8 + 2 10, so basically two are being added, so in this way, if we have to write any pattern, then we will go to this, we will go here, meaning we will go to our fill, we will go in series and what do we have to fill in, first of all, why do we have to do it in the column, now you have understood because every day, he will give us all the answers like this . If you want an answer, then this is your column. The second thing is that you have to keep it in linear. Whenever you have to do plus or minus, if you keep it in linear, then you have to do plus or minus. You have to do plus. Well, how much plus has to be done. Step value means, how much has to be done, then you have to do two and when to stop, what answer should come, stop when you reach 100, stop where the last 100 comes, then stop . If you do OK then 2 4 6 8 10 12 14, see, you keep going on till 50 values till 100 is reached. Everyone has understood the guess. If you don’t understand then you can do the same thing. Let me show you in some other pattern. Let me show you in some other pattern too. Let’s say I is 100. Keep subtracting F from it until the answer is zero or till the answer is one. Okay fine 100 is written in the series, now what do you have to do in the column but now you have to do minus F because now you have to do minus and for how long when the answer F does not come, for Apple you have to do it till the answer F comes OK then 100 95 90 will keep decreasing and it will keep going till the answer F comes in the last, okay so it is up to you how you can implement any feature. When you use your features, you get to do it in this way, whatever is linear is for plus minus, just remember this, I will write these things to you, what we have done first and what we have done for linear, what we have done first and what we have done for linear and use for plus minus. Okay, so those who use linear, they use for plus minus. If you have a basic understanding of how the pattern is being filled, then you will understand these things. Now let me do one thing here and delete it so that we can talk about the second series below. Second, what do you see here, if you go to the series, then next comes to you, growth growth, which is growth, which deals in multiply and divide. Second, the one that comes to you, comes to you, growth and growth deals in what , deals in both of these, in multiply and divide, you will say that this See what kind of pattern it is, suppose you have written two, till now what was there was that you wrote 2 + 2 4 4 + 2 6 6 + 2 8 8 + 2 10, it was going on like this but now when you use growth, it will be 2 * 2, then it will be 4, but 4 * 2 will be 8, 8 * 2 will be 16, 16 * 2 will be 32, 32 2 * 2 will be 64, that is this. If it will grow in the same way then you go to the series and select the column. Now to take growth, what do you do here? Write 2 here and stop value 100. Then stop till 100 is reached. Do OK then 2 * 2 4 * 2 8 8 * 2 16 16 * 2 32 32 * 2 64. Now 64 * 2 becomes 128. 128 is greater than 100 and you had given the stop value as 100, so beyond that it did not give the answer. Okay, in the same way, if you want, you can divide it. Now like you have written 100 and after 100, you have gone to the filter, that is, you have gone to the fill, gone to the series, gone to the column, gone to growth and now you have to change the step value to 0.5, keep deleting by half the number and till the answer. If you don’t get five then ok let’s try 100 Did Ba 2 50 / Ba 2 25 25 / Ba 2 12.5 12 Did Ba 2 A 6.25 makes half of that, it has come, you just have to be a little careful that what values should I put in it so that I get exactly the answer I want, then putting those values is your main here. The work is going to be done, if you have put those values properly, then all these things will come to you in the correct manner, so that is your growth and linear, you have also done the growth, now the main one comes, the end date of the day comes, this part of the date is used the most. Within the date, I have already told you in number format but still let me tell you what does date date mean today? You can see the date of 25th Feb 25, this is today’s date, so what is inside it, day, month, year, okay, so one way can be that I keep increasing every day from today, one way can be, I can show month wise and one way can be, I can show year wise, right now I am not able to understand it, it’s okay, now we will understand, okay if you see the example, you will understand, suppose I have taken today’s date. I took the date and after that I want to drag it, then it will get dragged, either I can drag directly, we do it when we have small data, we have to drag for some time, like for a second or two seconds, within three seconds we can do that thing by dragging, so we obviously do the drag thing but when it is taking more time than this, then do not drag, after that what do you do this Take the date and suppose you want to write from 25th to 26th, then you will go by dragging for a time, then you will have to pay attention that when 26th 25th February 2026 comes and then you will have to stop and there is one way – go to home page, go to the series, go to the column, why are you going to the column. You know this thing, go to the date and there are two things in a day, one day comes that is a normal day, the way other things are coming and so on. If a week day comes, it will automatically remove your Saturday Sunday, that is, you don’t need Saturday Sunday at all, if your days come without that, then this is also a liberty in it and the good thing is that if suppose you have to write only working days in this way and want to remove Saturday Sunday, then it will write it to you. Now suppose you want to write it only till the third March, then three three just because will remain till here, so okay, look here. Now suppose it has come, now you have seen that the step value is also written there. Now if you wanted to write a date in which if two days are lost, then you will go to the column, here you will write two in the step value and after that you will write 03 03 2025. Okay, so look, 25 has come, 26 has been left, 27 has arrived, 28 has been left, 20 first of match has arrived, second has been left, third. It has come because you have given two values so that by adding two plus it comes in it, then in this way, if you want to fill any pattern, then you can fill the pattern, you check your step value, it will come only by adding or minus to the step value. If you want to reverse it, then put a minus, like suppose if I write 03 03 2025 here and then go to fill, go to series, go to column, go to date. I do -2 and I say keep writing till 25th January or 25th February comes, then see 3 1 27 25 You can also do this in reverse, what have you written this time, if you have written -2 there, then it happens in this way, now I will tell you the week day thing about the same thing, if you have to write the week day, then on the week day, first of all we will do this thing, then we will do this, then we will do this, so that you understand the difference, okay for the week day, you will do the same thing. First take today’s date, after that you go in the series from here, leave one in the column and from here take the week day and take it as 03 03 20 25 and ok so this came to you 25 26 27 28 and one and two he has removed it May be one and two Your Saturday is falling so one and two he has removed it Directly three has come Now the same work if we have someone in it If we want to do addition then we can do that too. We have this value. After the value, what are we doing? What should we do in the gap of two days? After that, we went to the series. After going to the series, we took the column, here we put two and this time we took the week day and the stop value, we took the same 3 3 20 25 and did OK, so see 25 26 is gone, 26 is gone because we called it two step value. If it was then it will give according to two values and after that 28 is also gone because 28 will not come, the next one was supposed to come from that, why did the next one not come because it was within the week day, two did not come, so these three dates are left, like this we can do the reverse also 03 03 2025 And here we went to the fill series, after going to the series, went to the column and after that we went to the week day and here is the pay step value which we have Given -2 and the value that should be stopped here is 25 2 2025 and Okay, so we have these three dates. Okay, last thing, what is left with you for the month? Suppose, if you do this three times and you want only the month to be dragged, then what will you do? After going to the series, we will go to the date in the left column and will do the month. Now till how much do you have to write, suppose you have to write till 25 12 2025, then see 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 These middle ones are increasing. Which is your month? Okay, if you want to do the same thing for the year, then write down today’s date and after that you go to the series. After going to the series, you take the date from here and go to the year. Whether to increase by one year or by two years, it is your choice. I am trying to increase it by two years. I have shown this and after that, I am trying to reach where I have written 25 to end, okay two dashes. It took 20 15 ok then 25 27 29 see the date in between is not changing, only the year is changing and it has come to 49. In this way you can write the date of whatever pattern you want, you can write series which is fill series, it is mostly used for date, it is mostly used for date, now it complements the series itself, if you believe that then this is the feature. If you do not want to use this, then you can use a formula. Which is equal to sequence? What does the sequence do? Tap on it, write as many numbers as you want, directly want up to 1000 or only up to 10, you write this, enter it, see, a series up to 10 will appear, this is your formula, ok, date is needed, something has to be done for the date, Equals to sequence tab, sorry search, the tab has come, right? How many are required daily, let’s say 10 days are required and 10 dates are to be written, how many columns do you need, that is, how many columns are to be written, suppose I have to be written in two columns, then two OK, where to start, if it starts from today’s date, then you can write today’s date or you can apply today’s formula, let’s do this thing further, just because right now you will not know the today formula because we have not made those formulas, so normally you can understand. That we can do this even by applying the sequence formula, but it is better if we do not apply the formula because the references come from the formula, we can mess it up later, if you remove anything in between, it will create a mess, so that is why we should do it in this way by using this option, rather than you use any formula, we will learn the complete formula for this later, but for now, we have learned this much. If you have any doubt then you can tell me in the comment section. I say this again and again that all of you either tell me your doubts one by one or keep writing those doubts as you are reading because it is difficult to cover the whole thing in one go, so your doubts will come continuously. Slowly, slowly, slowly, you will get the answer and solve it and if you think, I will see everything in one go and After that, if I ask all the doubts in one go, then it is totally up to you. If you want to ask like this, you can ask like this. Okay, here we have completed the series. After the series, we get a clear all which we have done. After that, we get the filter. Filtering is very important. Filter and Sorting is one of the most important topics of Excel. The best feature is the single which helps us in many things, which also helps us in a lot of reporting, it helps us a lot in understanding something after seeing it, especially with the data, so now we will do sort and filter filter and sorting. What is if I talk about filters, then let us understand a little bit three times and after that we will get a little better clarity about it. So just give me a minute, so see us here, I will make a filter, just ignore my drawing. Okay, so we made a filter, okay, how does a filter generally work, for example, if you put 200 liters of water inside it, okay, 200 liters, you put water inside it and what is coming out is 185 liters, that means, what are the impurities in 15 liters, the 15 liters of water that was impure has been removed and 150-185 pure water has come, okay, so what is the effect of applying a filter? It happens that you separate the things, whatever you had to separate into pure and pure, the filter has done it, so in the same way, suppose there are many things written inside a data, like you can see the data, here date is written, name is written, category is written, product is written, state is written, there are many things if you want in your mind. It came like this, okay fine, many states are written here, I want to know how many sales we have done within Assam, do you want to know how many sales have we done within Assam, you just want to know, now if you sit down to search on your own, how much time will it take, it is a very time consuming process, so in such a situation, you will filter out, what will you do to filter it out, okay, let me tell you how the filters are applied, whenever you have to apply filters, you will go to the heading of your data. You will go to any heading. There is no mandatory whether it should be the first heading or the last heading. You go to any heading and click on it. What will you do after clicking? In the home tab, I will tell you the direct feature once, after that I will tell you about the shortcut key. Okay, so what will be the direct feature you will have. Look here, this filter which I made and told you about, you can see the same shape now, so you will click on it and there is an option of end filter, its shortcut key is also written next to it. Which is Control Shift L, then you click on it, your filters will be applied, drop downs like this will be applied, the way to remove them is also that if you go to this and click on the filters, then they are removed. Now I have to apply filters anywhere, obviously filters will be applied on headings, so if I click on any heading, I will press Control Shift L, then my filters will be applied. Now we were talking about how filters are used for. Example, if I want to see, now I have different categories, electronic, decker, fashion, etc. If I want to know how much electronic I have sold, then it will consume a lot of time to check it myself. I will click on this drop down. Just give me a minute. I will click on this drop down. After clicking on this, I will get a window like this. Whatever data you have, write here all the unique values in that column. Now you have to see only electronic data, so this select all is already selected, remove it and after that select electronic and after that you do OK from here, by doing this only electronic data has come on your screen, rest of the data is gone, you are able to see, you have only electronic data, I will show you from here, see only and only you have electronic data, then in this way you can filter out, now you have filtered but if you want to go back. If you want, then there are two ways, either you directly press control shift L, then the filter is removed, removing the filter means that the entire data as it is will appear in front of you, the second method is that you will click here and it is written here, clear filter from the category, you will do this like this, the filter which was applied from the category will go away. Okay, the next question of yours is that ma’am, can we apply more than one filter inside one data? Yes, absolutely it is. We can take an example and let’s go with the same, suppose I wanted to know how much electronic has sold in the category, then I did how much electronic has sold, how much electronic has been sold, it came, after that you know that electronic is fine but I want to know further that how many laptops I have sold, so we did electronic, inside electronic, we had to know how much we have sold laptop, so we got laptop, then you say, ok, about laptop too, but I want to know how much the females bought and how much the male bought, I said ok. Then we will impose fine on gender, how much did the mails buy, okay, but I want to know how much was sold in Rajasthan, so you will select it and remove it, we will keep checking below, Rajasthan starts with R, so here Rajasthan is and after doing okay, we have only these four entries in Rajasthan and this much has been sold, so it has come to us, so look everywhere, there is a symbol like this above the category, there is a symbol like this on the product name, there is a symbol like this on the state too. There is a symbol like this on the gender too. Having this symbol means that there is a filter on it. Now suppose you suddenly remember that no, I don’t want to remove it on the product name, it means I don’t want to put a filter on the product name, I had to put it on the rest, so now either you will control it, then the whole work will be removed, so in such a situation, what will we do, we will click on whatever has to be removed and here comes Clear from the product name. If you click on it, then look away from here. there is space left You applied the rest later on like state, gender but still they are there. Okay, so in this way you can remove your filter even from an individual and you can automatically filter out your data and see it. So in this way, our filters work for us and help us a lot. Now suppose I want all the data back. So what to delete after going to each one. Directly press control shift l and control shift l and the drop down will come back. Okay, in this way you Let me tell you one more thing, if you click on the filter, you will see some options above here, Sort A & G. If you click here, then the options you see are Small to Largest. If you click here, you will see Oldest and Newest. So what does this mean? Look, one thing is very simple. Let us understand that if you want to filter out anything, then filter it out in the same data. Now let’s talk about the text. If we talk about the text, then if the text has to be arranged, what has to be done, if the text has to be arranged, then how can it be arranged? How can it be arranged? So how obvious is it that for its arrangement you have to do A, either A to 2, I don’t know why it is not working, A to 2, you can do J to A, right, these are the two arrangements that can be made. In what other ways can you arrange the alphabets? You will put it in the same way. If there is any customization, if you want to put it in a different way, then it is a different matter, then we will look at the custom, but the general thing is that whether it will be A to 2 or Z to A. If I talk about numbers, is it possible in the arrangement in numbers ? If we can put smollet, then it is possible for the date in the same way. Is it possible to make the smollet largest or not from A to Z? Will it be oldest to newest or oldest to newest or new to old, should the oldest one be placed first or the newest one should be placed first, then this arrangement will be done in this way, otherwise it is possible in the same way as our arrangement, that is why the features that you see here are those on the text, if there is any filter somewhere. If you are looking here then you see A to two and J to A. If any filter is being applied on some number, then what you see is small to largest and largest to small and if you check on the date, then on the date you see oldest to new and newest to oldest. Okay, there I will make you check one more thing. As soon as you go to any text, you see text filters here. If you go to a number, then you will see number filters here and if you go to a date, you will see date filters here. Okay, now you have understood why something is written there, you have got the answer to the question, okay, there is a green color here, okay , I have to find that, so how do I do that? Suppose, sometimes what happens in the data is that we apply some color to highlight it, then you can sort that too, you click on it here. And here after writing ‘Filter by Color’, the color comes, now I am saying that somewhere it has got green color by mistake, so it has happened here, now I can change it by going to the home, suppose I have done this, I have made it charcoal grey. Now look, it has come in the text filter, it is fine, but I made it white just because it was done by mistake, okay, I had to do it here, I made it white, okay, now for you, I will tell you the data once in this way. How to color Control Shift L Control Shift L No problem, it is not working for us. Okay, let’s color one place at a time. By holding any control, I have selected this data and I am going to color at various places. Okay, and I will color it here. This one is fine, I have colored it at various places. Now I have to sort it, so what can you do. Okay, I will take another color, single color, so you know, so I have colored it here. But I have selected anything from here, you are not even able to see it, I can’t even see it, and we have selected such a small, small, small one , and here we have red, see how many yellows, okay, now I have zoomed it, just for once, I had to do it, now suppose if you have more than one color fill at some place, then you can filter it out, you will go to this, fill by color and here you will see all the colors, you want yellow first. Look, yellow has come, all the yellow ones have come, okay, so this is definitely a way, when you can filter any of your data according to the color, if you removed it , then this data of yours has been removed. Okay, now I tell you, if I ask you, do you know all these text filters etc., text filters and so many filters that are shown to you, you will say, ma’am, I am learning new things and you are asking me whether I know it or not. You don’t know, you know all of them, now how to see that. What you just learned from me was that you had learned conditional formatting, so now let’s move on to it by meditating a little and relating it a little and we will also understand a little what conditional formatting does, see, for once let’s talk about what does conditional formatting do and what does a filter do, okay if I talk about conditional formatting and on one hand what I talk about, I talk about filters. If it is ok, then what is conditional formatting doing? If you give any condition, if you give any condition, then I will do the formatting instead of that. I told you some condition that if it is so, then do this, then only that data is there in it, let’s say this data is of 1000 entries, the data of 1000 entries is okay and inside this you have to highlight the duplicate values and 50 There are duplicate values, for one time, it will color it in 50, it will change the border in 50, it will do something or the other in 50, but here the data that you will see will be of how many entries, only 1000 entries will be visible, only that much is visible, wherever we want to highlight people, there is a color there, then what happens inside the filter, no entries, only 50 will appear, the answer is the same. Will come but the method of representation changes. How does the method change? Now when you apply filters, 1000 entries will not come, only 50 entries will be shown, no color, nothing, only 50 entries will be shown, so it is up to you as to how you want to keep the representation. Features are all the same, you will see that if you go to text from here, if you go to text filters from here, Equals to does not equal to begin with and. With does not contain condition was done in formatting and not written in solution then tell me if anything is written then tell me then all these are the same as if you go to custom also then you have the same, you have the same, greater than equal to whatever you had read, when you go to number format, you will go to number filters, equal does not equal greater than greater than equal to less than top 10 Top 10 Below Average Above Average All these things are the same, isn’t this the same, you can check in the date, when I told you about a date in the date, I did not tell in it, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Last Week, everything and that is the same, okay, so in this way you can do the same work here in the conditional formatting, here you can do the same work in the filter, what is the difference in the conditional formatting, 1000 If there are entries of 1000 then 1000 remain but what comes in color but what is in the filter comes out after being filtered, the rest of the data goes away, whatever is asked for as it is remains the same. Okay, so you know all these filters, definitely practice. If you have any doubt on any of these, please let me know in the comment section. I will definitely tell you but there is no point in repeating it here. Because we have done that, we know it already, we will not waste time there. Now whatever we can learn, we can learn sorting. So, now we will learn sorting manually. The thing that we know is sorting which I just told you about the arrangement. So the arrangement itself is called sorting. We have to sort. Suppose now you can see that the names are written in different types. There is no such thing as A, A, T, Z, Z to A. If it is written then you can do that thing, you click on it and from here you click on A to Z, then see that in this way your data has been sorted in it. Okay, suppose you want to do something else, you want to do according to the number, then you can go to the number. If you want to do the largest to smallest, you click on it and see, a sorting icon has also appeared on it. Let me just show it to you, then see a sorting icon has appeared on it. And look, the number which will be on the top will be the highest and accordingly the entire data has been changed here. Let me tell you that earlier the data which was there was Harijan Wellness and later when we made it from largest to smallest, now it is Bright Harijan Venture. Okay, earlier we had done the price, so that is something. And it was showing that here we had done the price from largest to smallest, so here it was Radiant Health Club, so in this way we can sort the entire data is about the same thing, if suppose I want to arrange the data according to the date, from newest to oldest, then the new largest data which is written is written according to that, the entire data is arranged here, Zenith has come here. Now okay, one thing is that when you do the sorting, then you can undo the sorting. It doesn’t happen. We have done it hand to hand for now. If you think that sorting is left, then I have left it. Later, I will do the same data again, then that thing does not happen. Now, what I will teach you will make you aware of sorting also. As soon as you have your data here, after that, you can go to Sort and Filter here and click on Custom Sorting. On Custom Sorting, first of all you can see all the headings inside all the data that you have. This means that it is asking you that the custom sorting you have to do should be done according to what. For example, if we have to do it according to the name, then we have done the name. After that it asks you according to what we have to do, according to the cell values. We have to do it according to the cell color. We have to do it according to the font color or there is some condition formatting icon. So let’s say, from here I take the color only. When I took the cell color, I took the cell color and now as soon as I took the cell color, my options have changed here, now it is asking me which sorting to do, for example, I want to take yellow, but there by default yellow was coming, which was yellow by default, it was only bringing and giving yellow, now this is sorting, not a filter, it is sorting, so what will happen in the filter, it will bring and give only the yellow color, the rest of the data will go, sorting is not done like this. It keeps that data as it is, it just arranges whatever arrangement you want to do, now as I want it to come on the bottom, that means all the yellow data should go at the bottom of the data, I have done OK. Now look, go to the very bottom and whatever data you had, see the data is getting finished. Here, that entire yellow part has come down, that portion is fine, so in this way, if you want, you can do custom sorting. Okay, everyone understood, here you will get custom. The option of sorting is available here, it is completely up to you as to what you have to do and what not to do. If you want to delete any level, then you delete it. If you do OK, then your sorting has been deleted from here. Those who will be sorting from here, look from here for a second. All the sorting which you had done is gone and your yellows have again come from scattered places. So the custom sorting which is done from there is done by you. You can also delete from there itself. So here we learned to do normal sorting. If we want to do text then it can be A to 2J to A. If we want to do with numbers then it can be small to largest and largest to small. And if we want to do date then it can be L to newest to oldest. We also learned custom sorting that how we can go there and do our according sorting. Let’s do filters here. And we have completed the topic of sorting, now we move ahead, the next topic comes to you , Go To Special, how to use Go To Special, for what, first of all we have to know that and what is the meaning of Go To, why is Go To Special being used, when we know this, then we will be able to apply it easily. See, Go To means to jump directly over any cell. Now this thing is asked many times in your interviews also, if you agree, then we will be able to apply it easily. Let me say this, we have come here on this side and I tell you that I do not want to go to Rs 1 lakh. If I want to reach Rs 1 lakh, then what will you do by scrolling, will you go scrolling like this or will you go down using your keyboard, use the page down, then how much tiring will it be if you have to reach Rs 1 lakh, then better than this you can use Gotu. Now there are two ways for you to use Gotu, one way is where you directly. You can use the shortcut key and one way is known to you that we will explore the feature directly, so what you have to do is, first of all you will go to Find and Select on the Home tab. After going here, you will click on it, then here you get the first option of Go To. If you click on it, then you will get a window like this. After this type of window comes, here you will have to write the reference where you had to go. a100, you had to go to a1 lakh, after that you press OK, then it has taken you above a1 lakh, you can see that this is our sale, it is above a1 lakh, but I would not personally suggest you to use it, for once, I will definitely tell you its shortcut key, go to starts with the g, so what happened to its shortcut key, what am I saying that go to starts with what is go to. Starts with the G. Hence, its shortcut key is Control G. Okay, now Control G. If you press Control G anywhere inside your sheet, then this window opens to you and you can write directly here, but I say this is also a big way, we will not do it in this way also. If in any case, if you are told that I have to reach K 3965 3, then where will you do what, you go directly to your name box and write here k. 3969 8 You had to reach here, just enter, then see it has taken you to 3969 8 and from here you can see that it has brought you to the place of that sale by jumping directly, so instead of using Go To, use the name box. Go To adds more features in itself. There are many features which are very useful, so we will do that, but here my job is not just to tell you the features, my job is to tell you in this way. Let me tell you the features that should be so effective so that you can do your work better and use the name box to do better. It will give you better results. Well, what is he doing here on the side by jumping directly to the cell? Now suppose your interviewer told you that you have to select the entire area till 1963, so in such a situation, you will do the same work, you will write in the name box : 9 63 5 2. 8 You can write anything till the selection and after that now you will not directly press enter, if you press shift enter then here it has given the entire selection till the point where you have written here 963 U which is your number, not sorry 3969 8 So it has given till here yours is ok so we can do the selection in this way, suppose I am here and from here till how much do I have to select. If you want to reach m10, then I wrote m10, after that I pressed shift enter, then put the first cursor till m10 and after that, write jump on the cell where you want to reach and after that press shift enter, then the entire selection till there will be automatic. Why do we learn selection? I have always told you in Excel that whatever work you do, first you have to make a selection and only after that you can apply something beyond that. Yes, right, that’s why we are doing selection here, so that first we get to know different types of dynamic selections, after that we can do anything. Till now, if I talk about what you had learned in the selection, then you had learned the basic selection. Now what was that basic selection? The basic selection was this. If I told you to do a complete selection, select the entire data in one go, then what would you do ? If you used control A, then the entire data would be selected, then I used to say, brother, do the selection with a single click, how was the selection done with a single click, it was done with control shift, then you used control shift arrows and the entire selection was done, after that it came to you that you have to select a single cell, then the single cell was also selected, you held the shift and after that used the arrows and here a single selection was done, but I am saying . Yes, this is the way to select the data. I gave you the data and said in the data, select all the blank cells. Then brother, how will this happen because neither can you select the entire data. How much pressure have you put in it that select all the blank cells. Well, I tell you to select all the text written inside the entire data. Now look here, there is text written in between the values too, they should also be selected, so you will keep watching like this. For this type of dynamic selection, we use Go to Special. As soon as you press Control G, you get a special option below. Click on it. You will get a window like this in which there are many options. If you do not want to explore it from here, then you can also explore it from the Home tab . Go to the Home tab, go to Find Select, here also you will get Go to Special. Where does it go? Now we have to see what options are available inside it and how can we use it. So see, we will control A so that our data gets selected, after that we will control G so that we have this option, after that we will go to special. I would personally suggest you that whenever you go, control G and then go to special. First of all, let me tell you that it is very small here, so you may not be able to see B, so below each word. There is an underline, there is an alphabet inside every word and there is an underline below the alphabet, then that alphabet is its key. In the same way as home, when we press alt , one key does not come, similarly, there is no key here, the one under which there is an underline, that is its key. Okay, the other thing, the first one is notes. Let’s say I put notes here at different places with shift A2. I put some random notes here at different places with shift f2, okay. And now you want to select wherever these notes are present. Suppose you have a huge data and now you have to highlight wherever there are notes, so that you can see where there are notes in the entire data. So before applying anything, we need a selection, so we will do Control A, Control G, we will go to Special, we will select the notes and we will do OK, so see where the notes are present, that selection. It is done, now I have colored it in this way, so now I will always see in my data that OK fine, there are notes here and there, OK, now suppose you want to remove this color again, then you will do Control A, Control G, after that you will go to Special, after that you will select the notes and you will do OK. Now if you want, you can remove their color, I have made it white and look, all these selections have been removed, so in this way you select the notes, after that you can see. Do Control A, Control G, go to Special and you get the option of Constant and Formula. You will have to understand it in a little detail but before understanding it, let us know one thing. See, when you click on the Constant, these four options are active, the first one is number, the other one is text, the other one is logical and then the error and even when you click on the formula, these four remain active, so are these four for both? Yes, can you explore them together, that is, you can choose which constant and formula together. The answer is no. When you do it for a constant, it will be a constant thing. When you do it for a formula, it will be a formula thing. These are their common options which you can use. Now you need to understand what is a constant and what is a formula. In this entire table, the most useful ones that you will find are these two options. You will get constant and formula, that is why it is very important to understand the difference between these two. If you do not understand the difference between these two, then understanding the whole go to special will be useless, so let us understand it a little carefully. See, here you get two words, the first one is constant , the other one is formula. Suppose from a1 to a1, some 10 10 digits were written like this 10 10 10 10 On one side I wrote I give, this cell is mine and here I write 100 and on one side here is the cell of mine, I write the sum a1 a10 then the answer is this is my formula will be visible in the bar but the answer is mine what will be visible is 100 so here which is only value there is no formula so what has become constant and here the value is there but is this value constant is it just value no check the formula b what? There is some formula attached to it. Yes, so suppose this is your formula. Okay, so the first thing we understood is the constant and formula. Let me give you one more example. Suppose you had written some ‘A’ and ‘Your’ marks here. Okay, now you have written directly inside the cell according to the marks, if someone’s no came at 30-40, then if he passed, then you wrote ‘pass’ after seeing and on one side, what did you do here, if you put the formula that if. If it happens then do this or else do this and then after that means you applied some formula here, you calculated pass from that formula and if you failed then the answer will come here then you will see pass but inside that when you checked in the formula bar, the formula was written there, so this is your constant and this is your formula, so now you have understood this at the initial level, what? Is it a constant and what is the formula? Now see, when you write a value, we call the value a number. Here also the answer is your value. If your answer is 100, then this is also a number. So this number is the number of a constant, meaning that number is the number of a constant. And this number that has come has come after being extracted, what has happened, has it come after being extracted, that is why it is the number of the formula. Now you see here, when I control you and tell you, go to the special, see, a constant also has a number option and a formula also has a number option, but there is a difference between these two, what is the difference, now you understand what is the difference, one will be the number of a constant and one will be the number of your formula, in the same way, if I talk in the way we have talked about numbers, in the same way, if I talk, it is of text. This is about the text, is there any formula written here or did you write the pass directly? If you write the party name, then what are they directly? Some generate it from some formula and do not come up with it. You normally fill the name directly yourself, do some data entry, so that is your text. What kind of text is the text of the constant? And here you have applied some formula to find out whether the student has passed or failed. If you have done anything like that then it is by applying a formula. If you did not understand then that is the text of your formula. If you understood then now you have understood two things – the number of the constant, the number of the formula and the text of the constant and the text of the formula. After that you have two more options. What are the other two options that come to you? Here we will explore both the options which is logical and after that what is an error logical? Anything written as true is false. What will be the logic, either this or that is logical , then what is written is true and false, that is logical and error, you must have seen that in the formula there is such a value error, by putting a hashtag, such an error comes, a name error # a # spill # divide, you have errors in many ways, then you have got these errors, so if we assume that there is an error in a constant, then it means that an error occurs when a formula is applied. If the formula’s error and other wise are written directly, then directly the error is the error of the constant. If you apply any formula and the true false answer comes, then the logical of the formula and not come means it is normal. Directly, we ourselves have written true false as per our own wish. That is your constant. Now even if you did not understand it so well, then it is okay because now we have explained it in great detail here. Let’s see it practically, this is our data, okay, inside this data, let’s say, let me tell you, you will constantly keep looking at the formula bar here, like I zoom it a little here, we clicked on the date, the date is coming, that means there is no formula, clicked on the name, the names are coming, there is no formula and look at the product name, state, gender, quantity, the value is coming in the quantity, there is no formula, cost, price, no, no, this price is coming. The value is directly written in it but when it comes to the purchase cost then look at the formula written here, the value is visible but the formula is there, click here, the formula is visible here, the value is visible here, click here, the formula is visible here, the value is visible, click this, the formula is visible, but the text is visible, click this, the formula is visible, but it is visible. Okay, so here you are given two things. You can select the formula numbers and text and all the things, so now accept that I tell you, tell me the number of the constant, then select the number of the constant and tell me, then I will do control A, I will do control G, after that you will go to the special, from here you will select the constant and here, leave only the numbers selected and OK, so see, the constant date is always counted inside the number. Let me tell you this thing, the date is always counted in the number. So, here, these numbers are there as well as the quantity because there was no formula in it. I just showed you that it was not included in the cost, it was not included in the price also, but when it comes to the purchase cost, sale cost, sorry, sale price profit, so your formulas were included inside it, so it did not select which one , which one was selected which were just constant numbers. Now if you want, you can do anything with it separately. Can you give them some color so that I can color them and highlight something like this? What I have to do is tell you what you can do. My main job is to explain how the selection will be done. Okay, so here we did the go to special thing. Okay, next here we did the constant number. Now the same thing, if we had to do the formula number, then we will control A, we will do control G, we will go to special, we will go to the formula, we will select the numbers and do OK. So see, the numbers have been selected from here, but you see carefully, this is zero, this is a, this is the value, this is this. There must be some digit written directly in B, so it has not selected it , you go down here and check if there are any other errors, see because the value in itself is an error, it is a text in itself, it is a constant text, so here we had told him to select the formula number and then he is so pressed that he has not taken those things from the middle which are not your formula number, which is the formula number, he has taken that, okay let’s go. Next we will see Control A will do Control G will do the same goes with the text, if you want to take the text of a constant then how will you take it, all these names and names written are your text, these are constants, you have written them yourself, not generated from the formula from somewhere, but right there, by doing Control A, Control G, if I go to special and if I take the text of the formula and do OK, then it gives me the text here, now you will say that Ma’am False True False This is also a text, yes text is datchi, so what does he consider as true false? He always considers logical true false, he will not show it as a text here, a thing can be one thing, it can be either text or logical or it can be an error. Now if there is an error then the value is also written. If the value is text in itself, then is it in the text? If he will not count it, he will count it in error and one thing cannot be counted in two things, he will have to count only one thing, Hans, what is written here, the value, is your error, True False, what is written, is your logical, that is why all the texts were there, he has given even, here you will believe it or not, here ok, you will believe it, yes, we had taken the text with formula, neither have you taken this one, now I have taken the one with constant. You had to tell me more in the text, control ji will do special and I wanted to check one more time with the constant one, I wanted to check it once more, you see, from here, he has selected this, so we saw it, you look here, see, for one second, we came to the side that yes, look here, he has written the text here, neither has this also been selected, he has not left that data, if you have told him the constant text, then he has selected this also, I had to show you this, we had gone to the data on the side. By mistake, here we have done two completes, which is the first one is number and the other one is text, after that if we talk about control, we have done it directly, no problem, we have come to special, after that we will go to the constant and we want to check the logicals, will we get the logical in the constant here, tell me from which, the answer is no from my side, if yes from your side, then you are facing some difficulty in understanding and we will explain it well, see, okay. So look here, we had not selected the data anywhere, so it checked here in the blue one, this is the heading, I had to check here in this one, Control A, do Control G, do special, and here, go to the constant, and here I have to take the logical, and do OK, so there is no logical here, saying no cells and found, why because what is logical here, what is true false, is that true false, from whom did this true false come, see from whom did this true false come, look above. The formula is attached, it has come from the formula, so if I do the formula one, control a does control g does special and after taking the formula and then taking logical in it then it comes again see then it has made the selection but here it was not in the constant na look for the constant, I have created a separate data so that you can practice control a did control g did special and here you took the constant so here you can do OK with it so look here this Why did you make the selection? Look at the selection here. Click on it. Check your formula bar at the top. Is there any formula written there? No, all the text is written, so the text is written and true. If false is written, then what happened to you, it became logical, which constant one is it ? Similarly, if I talk about the error, then look at the control a, the errors are written here, the error is written by itself, here the error is not coming from any formula, okay, then you will control a, control g will go to special and from here you will take the constant, from here you will take the error, okay, then look, it has selected all these errors, okay there. If I talk about the formula, then see these are the errors. For the formula with red heading, see this, we have applied the formula and after that, if any error has come, now you control a, control g. If you go to special, go to constants and take an error here, then it will say no cells found yes because all the errors here have actually come by applying the formula, so you have to control g special. We have to go to and select the formula from here and select the error from here and click OK, then it will select all the errors, so here we have completed all the options which are the main options of Gotu Special, in which we have seen all the four options inside the constant and we have seen all the four options very well inside the formula also, now next is our We will see what comes close, we will do control A, we will do control G, after that we will go to the special, the most important comes blank one of the important. Suppose and this is also asked many times in the interview, that is why I am going to create this data in front of you, we had created this data earlier and here we do one thing, why did it happen like this for a few seconds, yes brother, it is okay, I am making a selection by holding the control, because I have to do multiple selection, hey, I used the control. Don’t hold it, I will make the selection from here, okay and here I have made the delete option and now look, you have this data, now there are many blanks inside it, if I tell you that you have to delete all these blanks, then are you going to sit there and delete them one by one? Otherwise, if you start doing it one by one, then it will be a very time consuming process. Now, if I have to delete all these blanks, then to delete them, I have to do the selection first. And what do we use for selection? If we do Control A, then sorry, we do Control G. Now can I select the entire data with Control A? Try it, it will not happen because there is space in between, hence we will have to do the complete selection from here in this way. You have made the selection, I have made the selection with Control Shift Down Arrow, after that I press Control G, I go to Special, select the blanks and do OK, what is it now, right? In these blanks, we can directly do control minus. What happens with control minus, our sales get deleted. We will delete the sales here. We will not delete the entire raw because there may be some data in the surrounding as well on our side, so we do not want to spoil our data. We do not want to spoil the whole sheet, so we will do control minus. We will delete the sales. Do control minus. We do not want to antagonize. Now we will think that we have to do ba sales. I have already explained to you how to delete cells. But understand it a little more carefully , what do you have to do with the assisting data. Do you want to move the assisting data to the left? Do you not move it to the left? You will bring your remaining data upwards only. If the cell in the middle is empty, then delete the cell and shift the remaining data to the top. If this is what you want, then shift the cell up and do OK. So in this way your data will be completely shifted, now there are no blanks inside it, okay in this way there are no blanks, the first thing you learned is this, the second thing I teach you is that suppose what you do is that you have a blank, there are a few blanks at some places, there are a few blanks in the whole data, now here there are a lot of them but there are a few blanks, okay now inside those blacks all the same values are going to go and you in that You do not want to fill one by one, you want me to write something so that it fills all the blanks in one go, then how can you do it in such a case, suppose the first thing you have to do is select the data because you will select the blanks, only then you will be able to do something, so first of all you have to select your data. Select it, OK, after that use control G, after that go to special, after that select the blank from here and do OK, then all the blanks you had will be selected. Now you have to write anything that you want in all the cells together. For example, I write my name here, single for once or write any value or write anything, I write 1000, so I I have written 1000. Okay, now I want it to appear in all of them, so if I press enter, what will happen? What happens after entering? We enter in the next cell and the entire selection will be off, so we did not do this. Now you can do one thing, instead of enter, press control enter, then that 1000 will be written at every place, here if you are thinking that ma’am, you have written 1000. Why did this format come? It is date based, that is why it came in the other wise. You will write the same value everywhere. Okay, I understood what you have to do. You just have to make a selection and start writing directly. It is not like you are clicking in a cell. As soon as you click, the entire selection gets lost. So do not click. Start writing directly. After that, control has to be entered because the selection is already done. If we click once more in the selection, then The selection gets turned off. We don’t have to turn off the selection. You directly enter control and your data will go everywhere. Okay, now I do control Pressed k, pressed enter and you have got this selection, do control minus, we will do shift cell up and do OK, so in this way our data will be fixed, okay, we have learned this here, after that I will tell you one or two more options, before that , first of all, I will cover all the important things which are important and after that I will make you explore them normally. Okay, after that you will have the information which is important. Option comes , that comes, let me tell you first option control g special and inside it there are two options, row difference and column difference and these are very useful, they are very useful, that is why I am telling you this, see how it is, raw difference and column difference, like suppose you have a small scenario and the real life scenario is that you suppose you do data entry, okay, your business is there, 99 invoices are made in it for January March. It is okay that 99 were made in the month, you put 1000 invoices in LI and in your Excel there were 99 or it could be its opposite or there is a difference in some value, that is, you have written all the details here, here you have written in Excel and first of all, when the recount comes, first of all we check the values, suppose there is a difference of 5000 in both your data, then first of all you will see this and not directly I can find this out. Where is the difference in the values, then if suppose you ever want to check the difference in two values, you have two days here and you want to check the difference in them, then you can use this trick. Basically, what you have to do is to select the data, selected the data, did control G, went to special and took the raw difference and did OK, then in this way, wherever the values were different, the rest are the same. Look, this one is different, this one is different, this one is different. This one is different, just color it, you will come to know, yes, it is different, everything else is the same, so in this way you can find out, it also has a shortcut key, now we have gone to Control G, its shortcut key is Control and forward slash, control and here your forward slash will come, so you can do this work by using it too, how did I do it, let me tell you back, why did I take it, why ok fine just give me. Minute OK, I selected it, went to home and made it white from here, OK, what did I do now, control selected it and pressed forward slash with control, did control forward slash OK, that works, sometimes my key of my laptop, the key of my system is not working, but you try using this, your work will be done, you can also do this, control A did OK, control A did control G did and went to special And from here you took the row difference and you did OK, then it will come in this way Control A control data select control G special row difference OK and just color it OK, similarly if suppose your data is in this format then you do the column difference, check the columns, there is not much difference, it is just the same thing, so you selected the entire data with control
shift side arrow, after that control G made it special, after that you did the column difference and then OK. Wherever there were differences, they have come, now you can color them, so here were the differences here and you have these differences, okay, so these were the major two options which are very used, when you recalculate any two values, then you can do it directly in this way, after that if I show you the option in special, then here we will not do the current region and array, right now we will do the object, we will understand the object also but here But before that, we can see President and Dependents, what do we mean by these, so let’s see, we write a simple formula, here I write 10 * 2 = t this multiply by this enter so basically 10 * 2 * 20 if I convert 10 into 20 then 200 this is working, suppose I took this data and controlled g, then went to special and after that If I did presse dents and direct only or all levels then did direct only and ok then it told me after doing 10 * 20 this is 200. What is president basically you have it here just give me a minute look at this way you can see like suppose you are here then what is president where is this particular 200 from where did it come from? Multiplied 10 by 20. If you want to remove 200 aya then you can remove it from here. If you want to see the reverse of it then say let’s say where these 20 are being used. If you want to check on what it is dependent on then it is dependent on this. If let’s say you want to see the same thing for 10 then you can do it from here. So in the same way when you have to make a selection then you can also do the selection by controlling g, you will do special, you will do presidents and end. If you do OK, then it has selected both of them. Now suppose here I write 50 here and here I write yours equals to this cell multiply by this cell. So now tell me once that the dependency it has is here also. If I make it 20 here, then see everything will also change, so we have created a dependency. So if I click on sorry dependents from here, then it is dependent on here, okay. If I remove array this President, I go here and click on it, then it is dependent on these. If you are understanding it, then it is okay because we will do it in detail later also, so here what we have to do is remove the arrow once and after that make this selection, then control G, after that go to special and we took President and did it at all level and did OK, then it told me all the dependents. Similarly, if I want to see its opposite, then I did a special control and here I came to the dependents and if I want to check at another level, then the dependents are there, these two values are dependent on some or the other, then it has come to you, so basically whenever you want to see the formation of the formula, where has this particular value come from, from which values has this value come, then you check this. You can do it, okay or here you can also say that we have covered this topic a little bit, which is Trace President and Trace Dependent, if we explore it further then we will do it but it is not so useful, just whenever you want to check, you can also check directly by going to the formula bar, but if you are not able to understand, you have to check that movement, then you can check that movement from here, okay after that you have. Another option comes which is your special, go to you, last sale comes to you, sometimes you do not know where in this whole sheet something is written last, so what can you do, you will do last sale and ok, then here you have this is your last sale, because you must have some entry here, then it told me, this is my last sale, okay , you can jump directly to the last sale, after that you will get more options . You have just done the conditional formatting and data validation. Conditional formatting has not been done. Suppose you have applied some conditional formatting here. I have this data. Let’s apply conditional formatting for once. Here I do control A, after that I go to home, here I take conditional formatting here, here we take the text that content and here we come inside the decker, where it is written decker, it gets filled in red color, then this is what I do now, control A, I do control G. I go to special and I say, do you want to know the conditional format, do you want to know all or do you want to know only, I have done all, that is, if the same is of the same kind, then it will make the selection, do all, then look, it has selected it and given it, where is it applied conditional formatting, then we have it in the whole, when you have applied the condition formatting, then it is in the whole, now the decor is in the whole, now tell me one thing, I will write the decor here, please write the decor. Okay, I have written this wrong, haven’t you written decker, so it is coloring it too, it is not a big deal because we did it with a little selection, we had selected the entire data, so it has given us the selection of the entire data, after that the option you see is data validation, which we have not done yet, so we will do that. And there is also an option for the objects objects. As soon as we insert, there is also an option for the object. If you tab, the pay will be covered there. Okay , so here we have completed our go to and go to special, that too in full detail. Now let us move towards our pay special. So now the topic that comes to you is what is the pay special of pay special. So what is normal special and normal. What is paste? So basically whenever we have taken any data here, we will select it, after that we will control it and if we go anywhere else, we will control it. v If you want to do this then that will also be done and or if you want to press paste directly then that too is done then normal copy paste all two, you have already learned that I have taught that they pick up all the content and bring it to you as it is ditto but now you do not want as it is, do not want normal work, you have to do something different, you just have to bring the formats, you just have to bring the formulas, you just have to bring the notes, you just have to do some more work. In such a case, you can use Pay Special. Well, here as soon as you click on paste and many icons visible here are all Pay Special ones but it is very difficult to understand directly from the icon, hence if you click on Pay Special here, you will get a window like this. Now look at this window, Pay Special is used a lot, so either you go directly from this window. If you do not remember the shortcut, but if you want to remember the shortcut, then control like you used to paste normally. Inside this, you just have to add Alt, then hold Control Alt and just press V, then this special window will come to you, then after that you can do whatever selection you want, so here for once, I will delete it, I do Alt AE A, it is deleted and after that, now we will explore it one by one, what are the options available inside it, I first took some data here, like this is what I did. I have taken control c of the data, I will come here and do control alt v and after that look, first of all, see the above options, no, we will not explore all the options, we will explore only the most important ones, so that is the rest of the things, we will explore. Like, I will tell you what is happening in this thing, but mainly we will see the examples, as many of your important ones are there. First of all, we will see the above options, which is paste the first one. It is all as it is, it should come as it is, which is also being done by control c and control v. So if I have to do the same then why would I waste my time by coming here, I will not directly control c and control v, so there is no use of all here. Okay, so here you do not have to do anything with it. Next formula. Suppose you have a formula inside the data and you want to take it as it is and take it somewhere. There is no formula here right now. It is already there, but can we apply it here? Can we apply it at all? For once, we apply the formula here. If you enter Equals to this Multiply by this amount, then this formula has been applied. Double tap it. Okay, now let’s say you have applied it. A, let’s take it here, copy it and paste it here, so do n’t you get the amount? You have copied and pasted it. Now here you do p special and try control lt vv, sorry v, I didn’t want to do the formula. Okay, I did it. So here you have the formula n3 * o3 o3 * p3 o3 * p3. So see, look at the formula. Here, he has dragged it like n3 * n3 * o3. Here too, he has dragged it in the same way. Formula has brought only the formula, it has not brought the rest of the content. What did you say in it, just bring me the formula, so it has brought the formula but has not brought the rest of the content. What it does here is it brings all the content, there must be some formatting in it, there must be some color in it, anything can happen, it brings everything. Whatever you want to choose, if you want exactly the same thing, you can bring it from there, okay, I select it here. I remove it from Alt HEA. Let’s see next. Next, what do we get? I copy anything for once. After that I go here and do control alt v. Next tells you the value. What does the value say? Suppose, you will learn the random formula in future and you will learn other types of formulas, then what happens in such a case. You can say, assume this is this thing, this is the amount, as soon as I copied the amount. And when I come here and paste it, obviously all the values have changed but I say no, I have to put this amount somewhere in the report or I need this amount somewhere, so what will you do in such a case, you take it as Control C and go to any place where you want to take these values, put Control LT v, then it will convert it into values. See, the values which are there now are extracted from your formula. If it has been extracted from the formula, then that is the formula, you will see in the formula bar, that is the formula, you can see the answer of the formula, so basically, that is the formula, if you convert it into value, whatever you are pasting here, do it in the form of value, if you do OK, then all your values will come, now will it not change, okay, so in this way, whenever you have any data which You want to see that this data never changes because the formula is based on the reference and the reference can change. If any reference changes, your formula will change. So in any case, if you think that you do not want to change your formula, then what you can do is simply convert all your formulas into values. To convert them into values, you can We will select control C, go anywhere here and do control alt v. Like I told you in Got Special also, the alphabet under which there is underline is its key, so its key is v. Values value starts with the v and you press enter, then your values will come here. It is used a lot, that is why I also remember its shortcut key. Personally, you can also remember its shortcut key. Its usage is very high if you correct. You have learned how to use it, look at the features, the features are the same, it is just that how can you apply it on which situation, it is totally up to you. If you have learned that thing, then the work is sorted, then you must remember this thing because it is very useful. Okay, we learned about values. Next, let’s see what we have. We did control C, we did control alt v here, after that comes the format. Suppose I have this same table somewhere else. I want but only want the format, then you can do it, choose the format from here, do OK, then look, the same table has been created here, now I go to scape here, do Alt AE A and remove them, just I wanted to tell you that in this way you can format, there is another way to take the formatting there, if I had to take the formatting somewhere else, don’t trust me, I do not use pace pressure because we have another one. There is an option which is control a and format printer, I would have taken it and just clicked, then this thing would have happened here, okay, so this is it, look at us, there are many ways to do the same work inside Excel, it is up to you which method you remember at that time and which method seems suitable to you, okay, let’s see next, you selected it, did control c, did control alt v, after that comes you Comments and Notes Comments and Notes I’ll leave a comment or two for this Now suppose you have selected all this data and after that you have done control C and after coming here you have done control alt v and you have selected only comments and notes and OK, so wherever there are comments and notes, that selection has come and exactly your comments have also come. Exactly your comments have also come. Now you Wouldn’t you think that all my data should come because you have selected that comment, it takes up a lot of size, as if only the formula had come in the formula, its formatting had not come. If you have selected the comment and notes here, then only those will come. Okay, here you can delete it. Which is Alt A and A. Okay, now I have to delete both of them, so what do I have to do? Obviously, by selecting it and using control g, we can go to special. From here, we can select the notes and do OK, both will be selected , we can press Alt HEA, both will be deleted, then you can use this method effectively, like I just realized that why am I deleting one by one, I can do it together, so I used it and if I did not remember that, then I too would have been deleting one by one, this is what we call. We can use it effectively. Okay, let’s go next. Let us learn that we selected this data, did control C, went here and did control alt v, after that you have validation validation. You have not learned it yet. When we were talking about control G also, data validation came in it also which is go to special. What is data validation? Let me give you a little overview so that you have clarity so that you do not get confused like this. Data validation is not done there either. Data validation is a type of drop down which we create. It is available to us inside the data tab. We will learn to create it. Okay, we will learn it in detail but for now we leave this option. Later you can see. All using source means same, almost same data comes. All accept border means complete data comes but borders do not come. Column width column width. A. Like once I make you click ‘All Accept Border’, OK, everything is there but the borders are not there, you can check it, ‘A. Control Jd. Suppose, you want to make the column width, then you did control alt v, after that, you made the column width. What is the column width? Suppose, sometimes we have data where we have adjusted the columns by stretching them one by one, so now we want that next whenever we create the data, the width of our column. If the width is the same then you have done OK, then see here the party names extra is coming, here also the party names extra is coming and rest of the space you can see is the same, the rate is coming small, so here also the space is small, so in this way you can control the column width, lt v will do next, you have formula and number format, now only formula was going from there, number format will also come, values of number format all. Merging condition formats, as per your requirement, you can use these combinations. This is completely situational. If your situation is like this then you can use it. Next, let us move towards our operations, which is very very very important which will help you a lot in doing any work effectively. Suppose I have all these digits. Okay, now I am not 500 in these digits. To add, these are old, wrong digits are written. 500 is written less or 1000 is written less. If I want to increase it, should I increase it one by one? Should I not increase it one by one? What do you have to do? You have to write 1000 somewhere, okay, you copy it. You can paste this copy here anywhere, so I want to increase all of them or select the one you want to increase. Suppose you have to increase this, this has to be increased, this has to be increased, this has to be increased, this has to be increased, okay, then you do control alt and now you see in the operation, what you have to do is to add, multiply, subcut, divide, divide, you have to add, okay, you do OK, look, this has been added to your values and this is not a formula, this is also the most sorted thing that this is not a formula, so you can immediately It will be sorted and there will be no change. You can delete it later. Yes, there will be no change. Your data will also be updated. Suppose you have to do the same thing here. I have to do 1000 laces, try doing 1000 laces, try control C, in this I selected the entire data, did control alt v, from here I took the substack and after that I did OK, then look, the value has been substacked, I selected it, put it here with the format printer and delete it, what difference does it make? Similarly, now in the multiply one, I can take another example like suppose you have the complete cells. Like I will draw here and tell you, this is the sheet of the entire sale. Okay , now the empty cell will not be written in the sale. The sales return will also be written. Now here the amount of one sale is written. The amount of one return is written. Now here you have to calculate the net sale. Now tell me one thing about the net sale. There will be cell minus one SR. And your sheet here is the sheet. It may be of first second, third entry sale, fourth entry may be of SR, fifth six. But there is a difference that in front of the sale, something is written as ‘SAIL’ and ‘SR’ is written in front of it, ‘SR’ is written in front of it, so now in such a case, how do you mean that you have calculated the net sale here? In such a case, suppose I leave the pay sale positive here and put a minus in front of every sale return, then it is automatically plus minus minus, it will become minus when the final calculation is done. If you understand what I am saying then that is the last calculation. If you have to convert something into minus, then how do you do it? This is just one scenario. In any scenario, if you suppose you have to convert something into minus, then how to do it. Now let’s see what you have to do. Do you know that plus minus is minus and if you multiply any number by one, then only one will come, that is, sorry, only that number will come. So you write -1 somewhere. Okay, after that you copy the entire data. Select control alt v do v do sorry v don’t do this I have got into a bad habit this is good multiply ok do it then see all these numbers multiply these will be in minus. How did all the numbers become in minus? Now you have this, you can also delete -1. Similarly, if you have to divide something then you can also divide. Suppose you want to divide all these by 10 or by 100 . So what you will do is control C, select control TV and from here select divide and do OK, so in this way these are your numbers, okay I selected it, did Alt H app and selected here, okay why did I do Alt H f p, you should know this, I am not telling you right now, you should know okay, so here we have completed it, even after this we have one or two options left like you have this data. In what format is the data? If you are seeing headings inside each column, then this is the data. I can say that it is in vertical format. In which format, if you wanted to make this same data in horizontal format, then in what way could you have made it. So see what you will do, you will select this data, you will do Control C, you will go anywhere and do Control Alt v. One, if you have to work on all the data, then All and what you have to do is Transpose Pose, which means the data. It will be in a different format than the one in which it is, like if it is vertical, it will become horizontal. If it is horizontal, it will become vertical. So, if you did the transpose ok, then look, now the data is the same, y 269 591 -11 28 is the same, it is 1479, it is the same, it was in the vertical format, it came in the horizontal format, okay, so this was yours, I will get your transpose option . Let us write 1000 and 365 963 853 963 1000. Okay, suppose you have some data which has some blanks inside it and what will come inside those blanks is written in a separate data. Suppose it is written here 635 965 and 523. Now you want that these values should come inside these blanks, then how will you do it, you do not have to do anything. Selection has to be done here because like this then it will take time. If someone starts writing here manually or by applying formula, something will have to be done, then something or the other will have to be done in it to fix it, so in such a situation, what can you do, you do one thing, select this data, whatever data is equal to it, select all the data, select control C, now come here do control alt v and after that do skip balance and do OK, then see 635 has come here. 965 is here, 523 is here, now delete these values if you want. Your data has been completely updated. Blanks of skip balance means that the blanks have been filled as per the data given by you, but remember that your data should be next to those blanks, only then the cell will understand that wherever there are blanks, I have left them and I will fill the rest of the data here. So, suppose you have written 635 here, then it will clash from here, then if it will not be able to do it, then this is a little. There is definitely a bit of a draw back but yes when such a situation comes then you can use it. Now let me tell you one more most effective thing. Okay, I create a little space here, just give me a minute. We have to create space here, so control plus shift right does not work. I take it, do control C and control v below here. Exactly the data has come. Now suppose you want some data where the data at the second place and the data at the first place change. If I do this, if the data gets changed at another place also, then we can do this work directly without any formula, so what will you do, like suppose I have taken this data, I did control C, here now I will do control alt and not, and here below there is an option of paste link, you do it, now not only data comes inside it, formatting is not available, what can you do for formatting, select it, click on format printer and it comes from here now. Suppose I have made it 100, then see it has become 100. Here, suppose I have written Tanu single. Tanu is here. I am writing anything. No, see, changes are happening here. I have deleted them here, so see here, they have become zero. Here I set the control, so the value has come here too. So basically, the changes that are in our first will be in the second. Will the changes that we do in the second be in the first or not? Because this data has come from data one to data two. Data two has come from data one, so the changes that happen inside it will reflect the same changes here but the changes here will not reflect here. Okay, so you have to be a little careful and in this way you can do this thing. So here we have completed, we have completed all the features on the special, now let us move ahead. Next topic comes to you, find. And replace has the same function as its name suggests. First of all, where is it found? Find and replace is found by going to the Home tab or Find and select. Now you can see that there is an underline under F in front of Find, so we can also find with control f. The second thing, let me tell you, first of all, this feature and the next thing is that there is a formula for find and there is also a formula for replace. Okay, so what we are going to do here is that we are going to feature. We are not going to do formulas here. Okay, what is find? Basically, if you want to find something inside the entire worksheet, then he can do it, or if you want to find something inside the entire workbook, then he can do it. The second thing is that you have to decide, see, first of all, what to do, either you do journalize control, then it will be done in everything or if you want to find something inside the particular data, then select that data and after that, like I did, select this data. I have done control f and after that look, this find and replace are together, so if you do not remember the two shortcuts, because the shortcut key for replace is not control r, because with control r, then we fill right, it is control h which is our replace, so if you remember control f also, then it is fine, then you can go to replace here. Okay, what is the find in find, for example, you have to find. Where to write crafts, so where to write crafts, so I have written C is big, craft is written, okay, window is going to remain the same, so we will keep the window as it is, after that see what option do you have now, we will not do any formatting right now, we are trying to do normal work, first thing with in means where to search, do we want to search in this entire sheet or in this workbook, we want to search in the sheet, we took the sheet, search by everyday, go to everyday. Look, go to the column column and see, so we are fine in the daily routine, we have to check in the formula, we have to check in the values, there is nothing like this in the notes, let it be as it is, match case, what is the meaning of match case, the case which I have written means C must be big, r must be small, A must be small, in this way match case has to be done. What does not match the entire cell content like suppose now if I put any color in it then it should be exactly the same as it is? I want to do the normal one for now so I did find all then it told me that in the more basic feature in the sheet with find and replace, Bharat Craft is written inside this cell, so look you can see here, this is the Bharat Craft, it has also brought the cell here, if suppose I write crafts here. Even if I give and then do find all, it is finding because we have not turned on match case here. Now I turn on match case, now I do find all. What is saying is we can’t find what you are looking for because here you can see all the numbers are in small letters but we have made them in capital letters here. Now I remove it and then I do find all. So look, it is fetching me if let’s say I am a workbook. And after that I do Find All, then he told me at different places where this is written, so look, P is also written here, it is also written in the condition formatting section, so wherever this is written, he told me all of them. Okay, if I had done match case and did Find All, then it is saying that it is not there anywhere. Suppose I am here, you understand its meaning, right? I do this and did control A, did control F, and after that now I search. When I do Find All, then look, it has searched and told me because now this graft is in capital letters, okay, so in this way you can find out anything, you can find out anything, it means if you are not able to find something, there is a number, there is a name, you have found out and now you have to find that thing, then what will you do, you can use control F and find any thing inside your data, after that you get the thing that let’s say you have this. Is it Craft? You have to write something else in its place or Creations have to be written instead of Creations. Ok, if you want to change anything then first either find it and then change it or you can directly replace it. You do the same thing, you press Control H and it opens directly to the replaceable one. In the other wise, you can also go to Replace with Control F. The thing is the same, okay, first of all we need to find Craft, that is, Find Vt means in whose place you have to go. I have to make changes. I have to change the logistics solution of the bytes. I have written the solution here. OK, my caps luck was on. The solution is fine. Match case is also fine. I have done that, remove whatever case or match case, remove the match case. If you feel like I do, something is written differently everywhere, then you can turn on the match case, otherwise you can remove it. Now I have to replace it. From the solution, I have done the solution and if I want, look here, find all, where are they, because it was a workbook, I should have done the sheet, and when I came here and find all, then these two solutions are written, and now I want to replace all, then it is saying that two replacements have been done, and look, now these are the solutions here, earlier there were solutions here, okay, so in this way you can also do the replacement. It is very easy, first inside Find What, write what to change, which word to change, and inside replace with, write what you want to change. Okay, ok, let’s do one more thing. Suppose, I take some random data like this and inside it, I gave any color like this, gave it yellow color. Now suppose I am not liking it, I am not liking this yellow color, so I selected this data, did control H and then After I replace, first erase these, erase them because then they will cause problem. Format set means we can also search the formatting. If suppose I will search and tell the formatting first, after that I will replace and tell. Suppose I just want to know where my data is written in yellow. So what will you do? You will go here to format and from here go to fill, choose yellow color and do OK and find. All sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, find all, so it told me where all my data is in yellow, you can see, it has made a selection here and told about all of them, okay, I accidentally replaced all of them with only the empty one, so I do it again, it got clicked by mistake, after that let’s control A, like suppose I had accidentally replaced it and this replaced one was empty here and here. There was no format on it, so that’s why he left those cells empty. Okay, so you can understand how effectively it works. Now suppose wherever there is yellow color, what have I given in the Find What? Now I have to replace it with something, so I can replace it. I checked the change here. Let’s take the green color and go to the font and make it bold. Make it white. Then the preview will also come and it will look like this. If you do replace all then see that your entire data has been replaced, wherever it was in your yellow color, it has made changes there. You do not have to do anything, you go to control A and see, if you write something, it will appear here that you want to make a change, then do it here, but if you want to change some formatting, then do it here. Now see, whatever is written is also visible first, now it is already visible here, now what do I have to do from here first, in clear format, this is green. If I want to change this too then I took it here fill green font bold and I have to change this thing ok and what to change inside the format I just have to change the fill color to red ok rest is ok so I did replace all, now I am not able to find it out because even I have not understood what is formatting so I chose format from the cell, I took it from inside this cell ok replace all then it did six replacements. Now we know why it has done six replacements because there is date format inside it, we had told it what is this format, it is journal color, not only colors are formatted, your numbers are also formatted, now like here it is, it is a number format in itself, it is a different format, so it did not change, here it was text, here there were formats, it changed it, okay, so here it should have changed these also, we converted them into values. Okay, so in this way you can use Find and Replace very effectively. You can change anything anywhere, whether it is your value text or any kind of formatting. So here we have completed our Find and Replace and Find and Replace. As soon as I complete the Find and Replace, I can say that the major thing which is our home tab, we have almost completed the home tab. Now we We will move towards our basic formula because it is very important to do that. As soon as we get the formula, our grip in Excel will get stronger, so now let us do our formula. We are going to start the formula from the statistic formula. First of all, you get the sum. You have already done it. I told you about its shortcut key, so you will enter Alt equal to two here, then you will see that your sum has come and just double tap. You can drag it from here and just double tap it, then you will see your answers. Now let’s talk about the average. What is the average? First of all, I will tell you another way to calculate the sum. Like we did it like this, here we get the sum, here we also get the average and we also get the count and this is the formula we are going to apply. Secondly, all these formulas are going to be applied in the same way as the sum is calculated, only your calculation will change. What is the average? As you might have heard, now let’s see, RF Sharma has 90 in one. He is very good but in English he has 27, in Maths he has only 10 and in Science he has 47, so on an average, how many marks does A R V Sharma have? It is very normal. Let me give you an example, like if you watch cricket, if you watch this sport, then you know that there are six balls in one over, now it can happen. On some balls he may have hit a six and on some balls he may not have done anything, then after that an average comes that how many runs we have scored in a particular over, so that is the average which we are going to calculate here. If you want to calculate the average, you will apply the formula Equals to Average tab, after that number one, number two is coming in the same way as it comes in the formula of even, that is why now we will give the range here. No, the reason is because we have already done the sum, so why are we giving the range here, you enter it, after that you can double tap from here, you will get all the answers, you can check whether this is the correct answer or not, you take your number here, see how much is its average, see, this is the answer here, after that you get the maximum minimum, maximum minimum means this. Suppose you have these four subjects of RO Sharma There are marks and now you want to know how many maximum marks he got and how many minimum marks he got. The method of applying them is exactly the same, just what you have to do is to write the sum directly, what is there in the average, what is there in the average, you have to write the average directly, but in maximum and minimum you have to remember one small thing that what we call maximum in short is max, then whatever formula is given will be called max and what we call minimum in short. If there is Min, then the formula used here will be Min formula, so here we will tap equals to max, this is also saying the same thing, number one, number two, number one, number two, means we have to give the range, enter it, it will give it, it will tell what is the maximum, see, if you do not give the correct range then no matter how correct the formula is, the formula will be called wrong, if the range itself is wrong then you will get wrong answers too, hence you have to give the range carefully. Ok, let’s set the minimum, tap as per your wish, after that, take all the numbers and enter, then your minimum will also come from here and just double tap it, then you will get the answer from here, you can check, like suppose I check in this only, then which number is your biggest inside this, 74 68 27 32 74, then your answer is 74 and which is the smallest, which is 27, so come here. Gaya Your 27 Okay, so here we have done four formulas, what is the sum average, maximum and minimum, let’s move forward to the count, we will have to learn things inside the count, a little bit, so we take a sheet of three here and call it statistics here, okay, we delete it, here we come with the three, so we bring it here, so that’s what we have with the three, let’s go now, what are we going to understand in the three. We are going to understand the three formulas and how they work, we are also going to understand which formulas are we going to do here, are we going to do the count formula, what is the count basically, we are telling you by counting, we are telling you by counting, so look at the data you have in the count, what are the things you have inside the data entry, either you have numbers or you have text or characters, I can speak text or characters, okay so. What all do you get inside the numbers? Some values come , whatever the values are, or you get the date, or your percentage, or your time, that too is written in the format of numbers or I have already written your date. Okay fine, so we count all these things inside the number. Whatever is left inside the text goes inside the text. Also, I can write this, the non-MT cell which is empty is empty inside it. So if there is nothing, then we can say non MT cell or text or character, it goes, so suppose you have some data here, there is some data, there is a list and inside it, number, text, number, text, some empty text is also given, now you have to check how many numbers are there inside it, then you can apply count formula, if you want to know only the numbers, then what does Count A do? Count A also counts the things with count and also counts the things with text, like I will tell you a small one. Let me tell you this in tabular form. See, if I talk about count, I talk about count a and then I talk about count blank. These are the three formulas that I am going to give you here. Okay, see what count does for you. Count only counts numbers. Date percentage time counts these. Count a counts whom. It counts all the things that count, what count formula does, apart from that and text. Character or I can say non MT cell but at the same time count black like its name is how many blanks are there so call it blank cell or call it force or call it MT cell it counts it okay so now see we will see it according to the formula meaning we will see it by applying a practical formula so that there is better clarity Now I want to know what to know here how many if we assume this is the marksheet of my marks if I have to just count the numbers if I am here I will count the number and here it comes, four is four numbers are written, that means I have done all the entries, right, if I have written three, then that means either there will be some text there or it will be MT, only then it is showing three, it means we need to check, so in this way, you can apply it in any situation, we have tabbed the count, inside it, just did not write the number and wrote the value. The method of applying is exactly the same, you have to give the range, you have to enter, three numbers are written, now double tap it, now where it is two, you have understood that the person in front has given only two papers, that is why all the marks obtained in the exam are written, the rest are not written, whereas when it comes to count A, see here you have understood, we have to check only the numbers, when it comes to count A, now count A will also count the numbers and It will count the text also. Suppose someone is absent, if he has written absent, then if he has written that text, then he will count that too. In such a case, what result did you get? Did you get the result that I will come to know that I have not entered by mistake? If I have entered, whether marks have been written or absent, I have entered but if I have not entered somewhere, then I will know, that is why we have the formula of Count A. We will put it here, we will give range to him and he will enter, then here he told me that there are four entries, so now I know as soon as I see three entries here, that there is no entry here, seeing three entries here, I realize that there is no entry here, as soon as I see three entries, I realize that there is no entry here, why is it not because, either see, I must have written the number, if any student has come, his marks must have been written, if someone has not come, then I must have written absent for him, but in some case, I If nothing is written then that is my default and this count is one which is telling me the numbers as well and is also telling me the text. The count is only telling me the numbers. Now the count is blank, it will tell you the blanks, tab it, hit enter, then here it has told you that wherever there were blanks, it has told you that only these three will be blanks. So looking at this from here, you get a lot of things. See what the count blank means. Zero is blank, four is blank, that is, all the entries are there, out of which three are numbers, one is your text, see, there is no blank here, four entries have been made and all four are numbers, here one of yours is blank, three entries have been made and all three are numbers, here you have one blank , three entries are made and all three are numbers, even after looking at this, I have not even seen it, trust me, I told you just by looking at this, what is here You must have kept the entries because whatever formula you apply, the result comes out in the same way. You can find out all these things from that result, that is why we apply any formula, so here we completed our four formulas, these were Sum Average, Maximum and Minimum and the other one which we completed, which is count, count A and count blank. After this, we move ahead with our cell referencing. Cell Referencing: What is cell referencing? Basically, till now, whenever I had taught you the formulas, I had explained one thing in the formula, what I had explained was that the formulas which start with equal to two, how do we write them, so for once, let us repeat that thing once so that you can remember the thing and understand why we learn cell referencing. Here we are basically looking at the answer to why we are doing this. We are going to talk about the topic, why are we doing cell referencing? Okay, so see, whenever we write a formula, we write three things inside the formula. We will write three things inside the formula. One is where we write the cells, one is where we write the numbers and one is when we write the text. The cells which are there are always keep changing. Now what is the meaning of keep changing? It will keep changing as we drag, as if something like a1 is written above and When I drag, it will be a2 a3 a4 a5. What are the numbers? What are the numbers? They are fixed. If you write a number, like we learned in Total, if you write a number, then that number remains as it is and the text also remains fixed. Whatever you have written manually, how will you write the number and text manually? If you write by giving a cell, then it will go into keep changing, that is the cell. If you manually write any number and text, then they are always fixed. Okay, one more thing is added to the text. Whenever you write in a formula, you write it inside a double inverted comma. You do not write it directly. Whenever you write a text inside a formula, you write it in a double inverted comma. Now tell me one thing, the number is fixed, the text is fixed, it is keep changing, so suppose I have any such reports etc. She has to make a place If I have applied the formula, will I keep applying the formula everywhere because sales are ever changing and suppose I ever have to fix it, if there is such a situation, then we have to fix it, then we can fix it, but we can fix it manually, we will have to fix it separately, when to fix it, when not to fix it, what is the need to fix it, this is the learning we call sale referencing that we do in this way. We will learn when we have to fix our cell, when not to do it, why we have to do it and how to do it. We learn all these things inside cell referencing. So now you have understood that we will learn in cell referencing. In cell referencing we are learning that when we have to fix our cell and when we have to keep it in keep changing. Okay, now let us take the topic of referencing a little further. Cell referencing. Okay, let’s talk about cell referencing. How many types of cell referencing do you have? There is no need to remember it but as a la for general knowledge or if you understand these few topics then you will understand things in a little detail. Just for that there are three types of reference. The first one is relative reference, the second one is absolute reference and the third one is mixed reference. Okay now what is relative reference ? What you are talking about till now in reference is relative reference, meaning keep changing. Whatever I will talk about here, I will talk about sales, I will not talk about numbers and taxes about anything else, I will talk about sales because whatever work we are doing, we are doing it for sales, so what comes under relative reference, keep changing, it will keep changing. What is there in absolute, fix everything, fix everything. This is what we were going to talk about in referencing, what to fix and when to keep changing, then in relative, always keep changing, in absolute, everything has to be fixed, now what is mixed, what is mixed and mixed means it does relative plus absolute, now both are fighting among themselves, change everything, no, fix everything, no, change everything, fix everything, so now me. Tell me the solution to this. If there is a fight between these two, then what will be the solution? Tell me, if one person is saying everything, I just want to explain, one person is saying change everything and another person is saying fix everything, then in such a situation, if you have to give a solution, what will you give? Fix half of the solution and keep half of it changing, otherwise what, do 50 50 brother, half of you agreed. Half of yours, assuming the work of both is done, then we call such a reference a mixed reference. Lad, this is a part of the theory. You may be wondering why we are reading all this but it is very important. Now, as soon as we do the practical, you will say that it has come out so lightly and it is very important to learn it. You will understand why it is so important now. Let’s do one more topic. After that, we will move towards the practical. What is the small topic and what is the topic? It comes that you just have to remember one thing, this is a cell, this is a sieve cell, so C is the column and one is the raw and what does a cell get? It is formed by R in the column plus and when we give a cell inside a formula, we give a cell inside the formula, then the names of the complete cells come, you will see that if you apply the formula of sum, then a1 to a10, then those are the names of the complete cells, you just had to keep this in mind, now let’s move towards the formula. After that, you will understand all these things. We come inside the cell reference. The first thing that comes to us is the relative reference. What does the relative reference say? Look, I have to put the sum here. Tell me the way to put the sum. Here, how can I put the sum? I can put it by doing Alt equal to two, I can enter and double tap it. The answer will come. Till now we have not put so much mind into it, now we will put a little bit of mind into it so that we can understand what is happening and what should we do. Have understood this thing, what had to be done till now has been done, but the thing has been understood, which cell is your h3, what is your h3, what is the even you want inside h3, what is the even you want, what is the even, you want from d3 till g3 here, okay what is this h4, what is the even inside h4, what is the need from d4 to g4, then what will come, h5 will come, then what will be the even, from d5 to g5 and so on. Suppose I reach h100, then what will I want, what will be the even, what will be the d. 100 to g100, tell me one thing, the h3 here is also changing, h3 h4 h5 h and along with that, the simal new, along with that, you are seeing that d3 d4 means along with that, these are also increasing, so what is this whole scenario? So when the whole scenario is changing, we have to change, so we don’t need to fix anything, that’s why what we were doing here was taking the formula and double tapping and my formula was being applied all over the place, you see d3 to g3, if suppose you are on h9, then this is d9 g9, if you suppose you are on h16, then d16 and g16, so there was no need here, now we will do one more. Let’s take an example, which is going to be our absolute reference, so see, we are going to calculate the percentage of these marks within the absolute reference, so here you learn two things at the same time and also calculating the percentage, but my main focus will be to teach you cell referencing, along with that, learning the percentage will become automatic, okay, so let’s first understand how to calculate the percentage, okay and then Later we will understand this scenario a little with the study of A. Suppose there are students here, let me make five students, this is your A student, this is your B student, this is your C student, this is your D student and this is your E student, okay now here the marks of A student are 200, marks of B student are 300 marks of C student are Marks of 350 students came to 250 and end marks came to 275. Okay, these marks have come. Now suppose you have to find out the percentage of all these students and how many subjects they study. If they study four subjects, then how do you have to find out the marks. What is the formula of percentage? What does Total Marks Obtain mean? The number of marks obtained, so let us put the number on the right and upon. There is an exam of total marks, we will keep it below, now tell me one thing, how many are going to be below the total marks A, 400 because there are four subjects, one subject is of 100 marks, then you will have to see the marks above 400. If suppose I calculate this percentage of A for A, then how will I calculate it, then how do I calculate the percentage for A, 200 / 400 * 100, so here is my Now here we are in Excel, so even if we do not put 100, it will be fine because we have applied the format of percentage. If I calculate the total percentage for b then how will it be 300 / 400. If I calculate for c then how will it be 350 / 400. If I calculate for d then how will it be 250 / 400 and if we calculate here for e then what will come out is 275. / 400 So tell me one thing for everyone, we have calculated the percentage in this way and you have come to know how to calculate this percentage, now we will travel a little, whatever we do, we should do a little traveling in it, we will understand the things, let’s travel, let’s travel for a second, so first of all, what did you take, first of all, what do you have to take, the number of any individual, then it means you took the marks, okay and the marks were taken for a, tell me one thing. So there is a different mark for B. There is a different mark for C. There is a different mark for D. There is a different mark for E. So what are the marks? Keep changing and keep changing is happening again and again. What is the keep changing thing? Cell number text. You can write these three things in your formula. What is the keep changing? If it is in the cell, then it means to choose the cell. Here, OK for divide divide. We have put slash below we need total marks total marks how many are there 400 here how many are 400 here how many are 400 here how many are 400 here and how many are 400 here so that means is a fixed thing now tell me one thing we can write three things in the formula we can write cell we can write number and we can write text 400 text is there otherwise this one gets cut off now let’s talk about these two The number is always fixed. The number is always fixed, so either we write the number directly or we write a cell which we have to fix manually. In both the scenarios, our answers will come because what we need is to fix that number below, that’s why we can write the number below or we can also give a cell. Okay, so now we will apply our formula in both these scenarios and find out our answer. Let’s do it here. First of all, I take the total, Alt equal to enter and after that I double tap here, so here our totals are here, now it comes to the percentage, first of all we will do it, which is the easy way, whatever we know is fixed, we will write the number, it is always fixed, so we do the same, so equals to, first of all, we will have to take the marks because we knew the thing. The marks are being changed, we have taken the comma, sorry slash, after that what will we write, we will write our 400 and enter, then see you have got the percentage, just double tap it, see, double tap, we are able to do h32, for here obviously we need h33, so we will do h33 because it is in the keep changing, now you know but suppose I say that we have this cell, marks are written inside it and now we We are going to calculate this percentage through cell, that is, I put equals to total here and slash it and after that I give this cell and hit enter, still my percentage is correct, now I double tap, so do we have all the percentage here? No, why is it not there because if I double tap the number g30 in the divide, then it will go to the key changing. Now after g30. Is it g31 ? Is it science? If you divide it by science then only the value will come. Do you divide it by 34? Will you divide it by 37 47 93? See, the values will come in the same way because it is keep changing. Look, after g31, it becomes g31, g32 becomes 33, then tell us one thing that you should not do this. Even if your answer is here, whatever you have to write, take it as h. You have to write h32 diva ba g30, you are here, suppose this is your h36, still divided by g30 is required, you assume this here, suppose your h is 42, still divided by g30 is required, then g30 is g30 g30, below everyone else is g30, you know this thing, everyone needs 400 below, so what will you do in such a situation, you will fix g30, now let’s learn how to fix it, this small thing. The concept is that we will learn how to fix any thing, here we come to our third part and from here we will learn how we fix. Suppose you have to fix any thing, any thing has to be fixed, we are learning to fix the cell. Inside the cell, let me assume there is a cell, then I will tell you how to fix these two. Look, the symbol used for fixing is dollar, now dollar is also above the fourth key, so Do not put dollar manually with shift, you have to press press f4 and there are some systems in which f4 will not work. If f4 is not working in your system, then hold the function, press and hold the function and then press f4, then it will be okay. a is also fixed and one is also fixed that means column is also fixed raw is also fixed the thing which has dollar in front of it is fixed like suppose if I write dollar a1 then here what you fixed fixed this column now when you drag it what will come # a2 is sorry # I am saying dollar a3 dollar a4 a will remain fixed if suppose I write a one then now when this would happen when now this What would have come if we had dragged? If we had dragged, what would have come? If suppose I am dragging it from this side, then it would have come ‘Bud 1 S Dove D Dove’. Why because I have not fixed ‘A’ then ‘A’ will keep changing but if I have fixed ‘One’ then it will remain ‘One As It Is’ so basically the thing which has a dollar in front of it becomes that thing. Okay, so here you don’t memorize it. What do people do, they memorize it so many times? If you press f4 then just dollars should come here. Hey why should they come and why should it be fixed? We have to learn this. Now we will apply the formula again inside the cell reference. See equals two, we will take our marks and divide. Now we need g30. Tell me one thing in g30 whether I have to fix g or fix 30 or fix both. Let’s see, you press f4, you tell me one thing, g30 was required completely no matter which cell. Go in, you wanted divided by g30, then g has to be fixed and 30 also has to be fixed, so I took the cell, pressed F4, dollars appeared in front of both, that means both are fixed, just double tap it and in this way your answer will come, okay, in this way we can fix our cells, it is very important not to memorize at all , if there is any data doubt anywhere, please let me know in the comment section, it is okay Let us now move towards the third reference, now you have come to relative, absolute has come, then mix has come, okay, there is no need to panic, but still we will do it a little more carefully. Okay, if you have understood this one, then after this you will be able to make any kind of formula for yourself. Here too, if we have to find out the percentage, then percentage. You already know the method of calculation, so here we will calculate the percentage, take equals to marks, divide by 400, write whatever you want, take this, take this and fix it with f4, you know I want the whole cell, so you have fixed g61 here, now enter, after that you double tap, you will get the correct answer, now you have the next thing, this is a case study in the way. We divide our marks by the total number of marks, in the same way I say that what is my percentage of Hindi within this 189, what is my percentage of English within this 189, so if you want to find out something like this, then you will have to apply the formula here, now like what we were doing there, we keep as many marks as we got, above, so that means, if I have 41 marks in Hindi, then I will put above in And Upon. The total marks here is how much is the total marks 189 so I will keep 189 ok next this is your Hindi, after that you have to find out English then 39 diva is 189 after that 75 / 189 then find out like this now look what is 41 41 is your d3 so basically what are you doing d3 divided by what is your h63d was 63 this and upon In h 63 if we talk about next then d63 / 63 divide by h 63 that means your h 63 is fixed h 63 is coming in everyone everyone needs it otherwise if you drag then it should remain fixed that h 63 is coming in everyone so let’s now apply the formula so we will apply the formula here How many marks are there in Equals to Hindi this is the comma because d63 Then e63 then f63 so it is changing but the one below is h63d 63 / h 63 should have been this e63 / so look here also here also h is 63 if I assume that I am going here then here also h is 63 tell me one thing if you have to do this for 27 75 68 79 then will you check according to 189 then you will make it for 249 According will check the meaning, understand the meaning of this , it means that suppose you were doing this one here or this one here, f e your 73 so what you wanted here is 73 divided by h 73 if I talk about this then what do you want here d69 upon h 69 if I talk about this then what do you want d65 h65 and now yes ya to hindi ka nikala ka karenge then f65 / h65 so In this way it will keep increasing, so now I understood one thing that it is true that here we need h 63 but here again we need h 64, here we need h65, here we need h66, that means this h is remaining fixed 63 64 65, these are changing, so do not fix the thing which is changing, right now you have fixed both of them in the formula, that is why the problem is coming, don’t fix them at all. We do not fix the things which are in keep changing, that is why now we will apply the formula here again, so see, you remove this and after that apply the formula, take equals to marks, divide, now we will take 189, h will take 63, we will press f4 so many times that we get the desired desired result. Now what is our desired result that we have to fix h. But do not fix 63 because it will become 64, 65 will become 66 , then keep pressing f4, keep doing this until the dollar appears in front of h. No one will remember whether to press two times or three times. If you are remembering this, then you will not be able to make any formula by yourself, that is why this is being done in such detail so that you can make the formula by yourself, so here you are wondering why h. Why is 63 not being fixed and if h has to be fixed then dollar should come in front of h then just keep pressing F4 as many times as the dollar comes in front, I see, I press it again, I am gone, it is coming on both, it is coming in front of 63, that means 63 is fixed once more, it is done, no memorization, it has to be done like this, enter it, now you drag it, drag it. After check below this 63 63 h 6363 correct and now drag it for a second now look I am here I this is your g70 so h70 is coming below d70 it is not so h 63 is here h70 is coming here so h is 74 is coming that means now your answers are absolutely accurate so what did you do here you fixed half of it and left half of it so it is the same It was when I explained to you in the mixed section that half should be fixed. What is the solution? Fix half of it and leave the other half for keep changing. Okay, so this is what we have done here, so this is where our cell referencing ends. If there is any doubt anywhere, please let me know in the comment section. In the live class, we do it in a lot of detail, but we know that here we have a little restriction of time, so here we have done it in as much detail as we wanted. Still, if there is any doubt, please let me know in the comment. Section and let us move ahead towards our next formula, so now the formulas that come to you are tax formula, how are tax formulas which are related to tax and let me tell you one thing about these formulas, all the formulas that you will see are very easy to apply, without doing anything, we have just told the text that if we want to make any change then in which text we have to make it but then what is the difficulty in it . So there is nothing but you have to keep in mind that whenever you have a situation, you should remember that this formula will be applied in this situation, the challenge is only that we have to remember that oh we have this situation, now we have to apply this formula, there is no problem in applying, it is very easy to apply, okay, first of all we will directly take the three formulas together and talk about the three formulas. Okay ma’am three yes yes three suppose you have some data like this a one let’s take some data here ok suppose you have some data here I write abc 1 2 3 xyz this is your ID some code is written now suppose you take this abc from inside it each meaning here there are 100 entries from inside that you want to extract the initial three words you understand this we can extract any text How to read, we read from left to right. Okay, now let me quickly explain from the left side. Now from which side you have to do this extraction. If you have to do it from the left side, then what formula will you apply? Will you apply the left formula? What do you think in the left formula? You will tell from where to extract from. From here, we have to extract from this text. Suppose a1a, so you have written a1, after that how much has to be extracted. A, B, C, three letters. If you want to extract, then you write three here and your answer will come, in the same way, suppose you have to do 11 will come at number 9 10 11, that’s fine, so you will not be able to extract it, how will you not be able to extract it, because it will go from left to there, you cannot write this, extract the number nine, if you write nine numbers, it will extract all the numbers and give it, then you cannot apply the left formula from here, you cannot go from the left side, now from which side will you go, you will go from the right side,
that is why what formula will you use? You will put right, now when you go from the right side, what will you get , which number is it on? One, first tell me which text you want to change, you have to change it in a1 and on the right side, how many texts do you want, if you want three, then you have done three, then your answer will come to you, third comes to you, what does mid say in the middle? It says in the middle and if there is a middle, then we will not decide the middle, that means it will not decide the middle itself, we will tell you which middle has to be decided. middle you left right if you don’t remember both then middle can also work ok what do you do in middle first of all tell which text you have to change a1 has to be changed then tell where will be the start from where will be your middle start from suppose I am starting from 1 2 3 4 four so I have made four after that how many extractions do you have to do let’s say 1 2 3 three If I want to extract, I made it three, then my answer will be 1 2 3. Okay, so the middle works in this way. It’s totally up to you, what you have to extract, depends on your situation, what you have to extract and according to that, you will apply your formula, so let’s apply the formula. See, here we will go to the formula. We will apply the left formula for ourselves. To apply the left formula. We will write equals to left, tab ups, we will tap equals to left, we will give text, we have come here, comma number charge, which is written Na C H A R S, its meaning is How many characters will you go here, how many characters will you have to take from there, you have to take a, you have to take r, and you have to take that dot, I told you that here the spaces are counted, so you have to take m, you have to take r, you have to take that dot, then how many numbers have become, they have become three numbers, you will enter three, so here it is, now you double tap all the initial numbers that you have, they are there in keep changing. You already understand that, but you have got all of them, okay, just like that, now suppose I have to extract all this from the right side, M A O K L M So look, it has come with a dash, I said no, it counts, okay, you read it, Oops, Oops, Oops, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, you double tap it, you will get all the answers. Let’s talk about the middle, what do we call the middle in short, when we say mid, then the formula you think is the mid formula. Equals to mid tab. After that, the text will come. What will the text come? Here is your text, okay, this is your text, this is what it means in which. We have to make changes. If we have to make changes inside this text , then this text came. Comma start number, start number, what does it mean, where to start that middle, then a One second, how many characters do you need, comma four, okay, enter 5678 and just tap it, okay, then it would have come to you in this way, if you had done four here, then it would have counted the dashes and given the answer from 5 to 6, because it counts the dashes also, and it starts giving you numbers from whatever you start the middle stew, so you just have to pay attention to this small thing. We have to keep that in the middle, the rest of the things are directly in the left and right, so here we have completed three formulas: The first one is left, the second one is right and the third one is mid. Okay, let’s move next towards our length. If we have to apply the length formula, suppose you have an ID. The ID is written in this way. Okay, you have made 1000 entries and you have the data. Now you want to check whether all the IDs are written correctly or not. Look, if there is any problem in writing, we cannot tell right now how we will check or what we will do. But we know that our ID is only of 12 numbers or 13 numbers only. Just like you know that there will be only 10 digits in the contact details, you know that there will be only 10 digits in the contact details. So suppose somewhere I tell you that here 11 digits are written, here A is written, nine digits are written, then you will not even check what is written, you will tell me straight on the face that it is wrongly written, so this is how you came to know, you checked the length because its length is fixed, the length of the number is fixed, that is, it is of 10 digits, so whatever. If it is of 10 digits, whether it is more or less, then obviously it is wrong, otherwise we check the length in this way. Now we call the length in short. What do we say in our formula? If we say AA lane, then we will put the lane formula here. The suffix was not supposed to come here, we will put the lane formula. Equals to Length tab and what to do in it. Always listen to the formula, do not listen to anyone else, what does the formula say? If you want to take the text, then you take the text, you have taken the text and after that you enter, it will come here and just double tap it, then your complete length will come. Okay, let’s move ahead with this, here we have completed the length, after that comes to you. Trim formula. What does the trim formula tell you? The trim formula tells you that suppose you have some data which has a lot of unwanted spaces inside it. What are the unwanted spaces? I am writing here that there are unwanted spaces, so if you have to remove those unwanted spaces, then now you will sit down and start doing it one by one, then how time consuming is the process, one by one. What will we do in such a case, in such a case, we will apply trim formula here so that all the unwanted spaces will be removed, so you apply equal trim here, tab, after that give that text and hit enter, then in this way all your unwanted spaces will be removed from here. After that, double tap, then all the unwanted spaces there will be removed. Okay, so in this way, when Whenever you get any data, like any data comes from a client, in which data cleaning has to be done, then trim formula is used a lot in data cleaning, because no matter how the data comes out there, suppose sometimes you copy something from the website and bring it from anywhere, then this mistake happens there too, then how can you correct that entire data? You can correct that entire data in such a way that you apply a trim formula and then After this, all your unwanted spaces will be automatically removed. Okay, now let us move towards our next formula, which is not the text formula, we will do the text formula later, after that we will do lower upper and proper. Now what is this lower upper proper? Basically, let me tell you a little because we are going to do three formulas together, let us do a small overview. See here what we are going to do in lower. We will do upper and one we will do what is lower upper and proper one second prop what is lower like your alphabets A B C D this is lower what is upper what is your A B C D this is your upper and what is proper if I have to write tanu then T A N N U S I N G H A L So see the first letter first letter what came first letter capital came and all the other smalls came that is your proper which is your sentence Case, what do we call this? We call it sentence case. If you want lower case, you want all the letters in small letters , then use lower formula. If you want all the letters in capital, then use upper formula. But if you want everything, that is, you can use proper formula. If you want it in sentence case, then you will go here to the text formula. And after that, for a second, look here, all the things are now in sentence case, then you will use small letters. You can do this for small letters, don’t write small, you have to write lower, tap will give the text, meaning what changes are to be made inside it, enter it, then your formula will come and just double tap it, all your formulas have come, in the same way, if suppose you have to do all the things in capital letters , then equals to upper tab, after that you will give the text and enter, then here you have all the things. If it has come in capital letters, then you can convert it to capital letters in this way. When it comes to the proper means sentence case, then already you can see that it is in all the capital letters, so now we have to convert it to sentence case, so to convert it to sentence case, we will apply the formula of equals to proper, tap, after that give the text and enter, then here in this way you will Look, all these things have come in the sentence case, easily the data has come automatically in this manner, so this is what we have completed here, three formulas, the first one is lower formula, the other one is upper formula and the third one is proper formula. Now let us move a little further and let’s see what other things are there. You get tex join flash fill is also of the same. There is an alternative which is not available in every version. It will be available in the versions after 2019. It is very easy and first of all, let us move towards our formula. Suppose you have two types of text and here we will read one more topic, so read it a little carefully. Just give me a minute. Suppose you have two texts here, you have to join both of them, then you can apply the formula like text join. As its name says, its function is also text join, text join, text join, tub came, now read it because I will explain something in it and after that we will apply the formula, first comes the delimiter, then comes the ignore f mt and then comes the text one text two text thi, it goes on. Okay, you have read this, now we will understand it, first after that we will do something, so see, what is a delimiter, it is very important to understand, okay daily pea, this will come in more formulas later on. While going on, understand this very carefully. It is easy to understand. Okay, look, what is a daily pea? It is a thing that joins two things, just like we read in English. Not a conjunction that joins two things. So, in the same way, it is a daily pea. Suppose I write like this Tanu Singhal. Now, there is a space here, a small so t space, what is a daily meter? Suppose I write here tan single, so this is the underscore, what is this daily meter, I write tanu comma single, so this is the comma. What is this delimiter, I write Tanu Sl single, so what is this slash which is there, what is this daily meter, what is daily pea, then what is daily meter, which is connecting any two things, even if there is no space, then space is also your daily meter, okay, you just have to pay more attention to the space thing, that if you put anything because of space, whenever you apply the formula, then you can get confused in the space thing. If yes, then do not get confused in the thing with space, space is also your daily pea. If you want to join two things and there is a space between them, then that space will also be called your delimiter. Okay, now let’s apply the formula here. Equals to takes join tab. After that, we need daily pea. What is daily pea? What have we given daily pea? Suppose R Sharma, how do we want to join it, we want to join it with a space. Okay, now look, I had explained to you that you can either give cell or Then you can give number or text or character along with text, I have said character along with text and character. Right, so the space in text and character is like a character, so whenever we write something in text character, in what thing we write, we write in double inverted comma. Right, then we will turn on double inverted comma. Now for space, we will tell him that if I want a space, then I will give one space, how much space is needed, I will also give one space. Look, sir, I went ahead of him. After this, I will turn off the double inverted commas, I will put commas. Now what are you asking next? True False is never to be memorized. It always happens like this. Whatever formula you are applying, True False is coming in it. Suppose now this data is very small, if later on the data becomes very big and there is an MT cell in between, then do you want it to be ignored or do you want that MT cell to also be included, then there will be a lot of space in between, then what kind of answer do you want? Obviously if it is included, if the MT cell is included then it will become empty, nothing will be shown, then you will make true, false, okay. Now there is comma, text one, text two, then text one, what to add, OK, text two, what to add, enter it, so look here, Aarav Sharma, one is connected to it, if let’s say , I will show this thing by doing it one more time here, text join, don’t get confused, tap delimiter, now I have to add comma, so I put a comma in the double inverted comma, after that I closed the double inverted comma, then put a comma, after that I made true, now you know that this is done twice. Why is the comma coming once again? The comma is to move ahead from that formula and the comma in the middle is for the delimiter. This is called the true sense of the formula that you are able to understand its true sense. Now you are not memorizing the comma and after that you have taken the comma and then the text. If you enter then Rohan comma, okay, it is done in this way. Let us double tap the same formula and come here. Now we have to do a lot of processing inside it too. We had to look at all the things and came up with an easy version of the same, but the easy version works on a little pattern, so we will talk about that also, let us move ahead, we do the same work with flash fruit also. See, any particular work can be done in more than one way in Excel. It is totally up to us that which thing we are remembering at that time, which one we understand better in doing, which one we think is easy and which one we can do in the best way. In that way, we do this work, okay, now where do you get this feature, it is found here in the flash fill inside the data tab, okay, but we will do it with the shortcut key and its shortcut key is control e, what is control e, I write it along with it so that we always remember control e, okay, the flash result works by using control e. Now a little talk about how the flash fill works. And after that we will use flash fill as I told you that the flash fruit works on a pattern like flash f. Okay, now see what is the function of this pattern. It works in two ways, one is input and as soon as we need an output, now we can call input output as question and then we need answer. The thing is the same that you give a question, that means you give an input and from that you get the output, that means you give a question, from that you get If the answer is found, then there should be a pattern in giving the question. There should be similar questions because you need an answer by dragging and there should be a pattern in taking the answer. If there is no pattern then you will not be able to get the answer. The only thing is that if I tell you that after looking at this data then the flash result will definitely work in it. It is possible that the flash result may not work on it, then there is no such guarantee of the flash result but if it If you have understood the pattern then it will give you the answer. If you have not understood the pattern then you will not get the answer. Now let us give you an example of this. Let us assume that you will understand the pattern of the question. Then you will understand the pattern of the answer. What is the pattern of the question that on one side all the first names are there and on the other side are the last names. So are they written pattern wise? Yes, the same work has to be done in all of them, not first name last name first name last name first name last name first name last. Name is something different, something is changing, not changing, neither the pattern means the same, what is the answer to the question, what is the answer, we need Aarav Space Sharma, Rohan Space, Aditya Space, Mehta, Vikram Space, Malhotra, Rajat Space, Bansal, Arjun Space, Thakur, same is required for all, pattern is being formed in the question, and from the same, when we have to extract the answer, a pattern is being formed in it too, so when the pattern is being formed, Will the flash fruit work here? Yes, of course. Now how does the flash fruit work? How does the flash fruit work? You have to give him a command, you give him a command, explain it to him, sometimes it is not possible with one command, then you can also give two commands or three commands, but from my personal experience, I tell you that whenever he had to work, he would do it in one command and when he did not have to work, no matter how many commands you give him, it is okay if he does not work, then you will give him a command here, after giving one command, he will do your work. It will make it automatic and it will understand the pattern, what do you want the answer to be, then the first command we will write here is A. Okay, as you write, it will come A. A. R. A. Correct is to be written. The first command is you have to give correct . If you do not give correct then the answer will not come. Okay, I have given correct and I have given space here Sharma. Now I do not have to do anything. Come to the cell below and press control E and see your yes, see your answer has come, your answer has come, this is the answer for everyone. I wanted, yes, let’s see one more example, suppose it is the reverse of this. Now think what is the pattern here, think what is the pattern here, what is the pattern here, here is the full name, how is the full name also given, there is a pattern in everyone, Arf space Sharma, Rohan space Iyer Aditya space Mehta Vikram space Malotra Rajat space Bansal Suresh space Reddy, so all these are written in a pattern that there is a name, there is a space, then there is a name for them only we know. What is tex split? In my version of tex split, we are using version 2021. It does not have that formula. Inside 365, you will get that formula. What is tex split? Just like we have joined the text, it says to split the tex, so here we will do this work with flash feel, how will we do it, we will give our commands and after that he will understand now what is the command , what do I want Arav here, so here comes Arav. After that, what is the command that I want Sharma here, then Sharma comes here, okay, after coming here, press control e, after coming here, press control e, and this has done your work, okay, so in this way, we can use the very effect of flash fruit, wherever you want to extract any of your things, you have to do anything, you can use your flash fruit there, so this is your flash fill, we have completed it here, let’s do one more formula here. Let’s make some substitutes. Before substituting, we do one thing. We text the text formula. What does the text formula tell you? There is one thing in the text formula which I have taught you very well. It is going to be used here. It is going to be used here. I always say ‘Bo’. Suppose you want this date given. No, which day was it on that date, just like you don’t write your birthday, we write the birth date and you are asked in interviews etc. that which day was that day, tell me which day it was on that day, tell me, if you want to know this, then how will you tell, see, we will apply the equals to text formula, we will tab the value, what is the meaning of the date, the date has to be given, the meaning by which you want to know, you are asking about the comma format, what is the format? You have to know the format of date according to the date, how is the date written inside the date, D D M M Y Y Y or it is written like this. Now if you want to know the day, then that means you have to write DD, but if you want to write the day completely, then how many times can you write it by writing it four times. Now you have understood how many times D has to be written four times. Now what is D in itself? What is D, is it a number, is it a one? What is text? What is that character? What is text? So there is a text and any text is written in double inverted commas. So here you will turn on double inverted commas. Here you will turn on double inverted commas. You will write D D D D. You will turn off double inverted commas. You will turn off parens and enter. So you will get your answer here. Now you can double tap it, you will get all the answers. What did you do, if you wanted to know the days, let’s say. If you want to know the month , then go to Equals to text tab, after that give the value, meaning give your date, in the format of comma, you write four times mmmmm. When you enter the parenthesis off, then look, it has told which month it is – June, September, July, April, July, November, March. So, you have all the months here, so in this way, you want to get the days. You know the format, you want to get the months, you know the format, you want to get the year. Do you want to get the format written, you know the format, you should know the format and now I have got the format done so well for you, so you know the formatting, why we wrote four times D, why we wrote A, don’t memorize it, people here memorize it, write four times D, the answer will come, write four times A, the answer will come three times M, the answer will come, no, the logic behind it. Now you know the logic behind this, why we write four times only, we three. Why do we write only times? Why do we write only two times? Why don’t we do something directly? Why are we writing at all and why have we put double inverted commas in it? Now you know all these things. So here we have completed our text formula. Now let’s move ahead. Now we will do our substitute formula. Substitute formula. We will do it very easily here. What does the substitute formula say? What is a substitute? What is a substitute? What is my substitute? Someone else has come in my place, today I am teaching you Excel, okay, someone else has come in my place, so he is my substitute, someone else can teach Excel in my place, so that is my substitute, if suppose you are not using Excel, you are using G sheet instead, so goel’s has been replaced and in its place, we can use it. Suppose, you can write with a pencil and you can also write with a pen, but if you have picked up a pen instead of a pencil, then what have you done? Is pen a substitute for pencil or is it meant for writing? Yes, both the tasks are being done by it. Yes, there is a difference but what both the tasks do is only for writing. Neither is pen. Pen is the substitute of pencil. In the same way, if there is something inside the data which we want to change, then we can do it with some substitute formula. Then, Equals to Substitute tab. After that, we have to give the text, then which one should be changed. What is the meaning of the text? What type of change has to be done? Do the commas have to be used in it in a single single because there is not the same change in everyone. If there was the same change in everyone then we would have done this. It will not be able to be dragged. Okay, now we have to tell the old text what to change. 56 78 so 56 78 is the number so you can directly write the comma text. What text do you want to write? Let’s say I want to write here 1 2. 3 So I have to write 1 2 3, I have to do something else, if I don’t understand anything else then just finish it, enter the formula, see if the text is apx600, then you will give it in double inverted commas, p, k, r, you will write exactly the same so that it can understand and, what have to be written in its place, suppose you want to write a b c, then you are writing the because text in double inverted commas, right? If you want to write enter then it has written ABC. Okay, so in this way you can replace anything. Replacement here is this one. Why did it mean that we have substituted? Replace is basically a kind of replace but it is not a complete replace thing because we have to do it differently in each case. If you want to replace a particular thing with a particular thing, then you can do that directly. Okay, this was your substitute formula. Now we will move towards our date and time formula and if we are talking about date, then first of all let us learn that the current Which formula is available for date and current time and which shortcut is available? Shortcut: Yes, you can get your current date and current time directly through the shortcut. If we talk about current date, then you will know the current date. Here we apply the formula to get it. Write today’s today formula, tab it and see, I always say, listen to whose formula or listen to the formula, what are you saying brother, nothing else is required, direct parenthesis. Do it, I will give you the answer, then it’s ok, then if he doesn’t want anything, then don’t give it. Turn off the parentheses. If you enter, then the current date will come. Similarly, if you want to get the current time, you can get the current time. For the current time, you have to use the formula of now. I will tab and it also says, I don’t want anything, just turn off the parentheses, so we turned it off and entered, then it gave me the current, okay, I checked today’s time. Have you just put the formula ? Okay, there is a date here, we have to do the time, so look, it has given me exactly the time. You can check the time formula from here. If you make a little mistake in the date formula, if the time and date of your system are not in the correct way because they are captured, then somewhere, how is it able to find out on its own what date it is and what time it is, then suppose anyone’s answer is wrong here. So please check your time setting, is it accurate, whatever it is will be shown here is fine, so you make sure that in any case, if your answer is coming wrong then the reason for that is in your right corner that your things are not correct here, if things are correct here then your current date and current time will be accurate. In the second method, I will erase this. Let ‘s not erase it. Let’s do it here. If you agree, Take the current date, if you want then control and you have to press the colon control and after pressing the colon, you get the date in this way, then look at what you pressed for this, the control is fixed, just remember that for this we press the colon and for this we press the semi colon, the only difference is, now remember the semicalculus, if you do not remember the semicalculus then remember this, just for this we apply shift. Applying shift means using semicalculus. If we are pressing here control shift semi colon, if the colon one is pressed then basically semi colon will be automatically applied, then your timing will come. Okay, you remember this colon colon control colon, your date has come, control along with shift and put it, then use the colon, then your time will come. So in this method, we find out our current date and current time. Okay, now we will move ahead with the text formula. You already know that by pressing it, take a look at the text tab for once. We gave the value D D D D, turned off the parenthesis and entered and here our formulas have come. We had just learned the text formula, so there is no hard and fast rule in it, as you all know that inside a date, there is a day, there is a month and there is a year, so if you want to extract the same thing, then you can directly extract it. It is a very easy formula, like it is very easy, okay, so what you have to do is to apply the day formula. You have to tab the serial number meaning if you enter your date then the day will come. Okay to get the month equals to month, this is very easy. If it comes in handy in any situation then it is very rarely used directly like this then you enter then your month will come and in the same way if you want to get the year then the year tab serial number means if you enter the date then your year will come. Okay so in this way you can get the day month year, it is very easy. Why do let’s say you have a date, it is 9823, it could be like this, it could be 9th August 2023, and it could be like this, it could be 8th September 2023, isn’t it a possibility? Look, it could be like this, 12th month of 2014, who knows, it could be like this, 14th month of 2014, who knows, it could be like this, 14th December 2014, anything can happen, so to know this, you have read Day Month. Year done now you know 14th will be taken in 2012 ok so sometimes such situation comes you don’t know in which format it is written you don’t know Within this date, which is the day, which is the month, which is the year, then you can extract it directly from the formula by applying the formula of day, applying the formula of the month and applying the formula of the year, I hope you have understood, there is a doubt somewhere, let me know, okay, now we will do it. Look here, the day formula tells you how much day is there in that date, when I say days of any two dates. When you find the difference in between, there will be only days, otherwise now the formula we will apply will apply the days. Basically, what does the days do? Here is the formula applied in between two days. Okay, I have to remove this formula. Okay here, how much gap is there between the two dates, how many days have gone by. If you want to know, then what formula will you apply, what formula will you apply, what formula will you apply, the two dates of the days. How many days have come in between, then what will you do? Don’t memorize all these formulas, you have to do them according to what is written. If you go to memorize all the formulas, you will mess up all the formulas because in some, the start date comes first and in some, the end date comes first. In such a situation, you will get confused, you will not even be able to remember the formulas, they will start looking typical, that’s why they seem typical, so that’s why you don’t have to memorize these, put the days formula and tab it. Two and after that see what is written end date end date meaning when is ending end what is happening here comma start date start since when start when is it starting from here enter 42 days have come ok I for once just hold it with control I shift it here for once ok and control minus it from here left ok for now I shift the data for once Took because I wanted to make you do Days 360. There is one day which tells you how many days have actually passed between two dates. That is where Days 360 comes in. We know that look, we go with a very general understanding about our year, which means our entire year, how many days are there in it? Tell me quickly how many days are there in a year. Normally there are 365 days. There are 366 days in a leap year. Okay, if I remember maths, we used to do calculations in maths and in maths, marks were given like this, calculate the number of days below every question, like there are 360 days in the whole year, so what does it mean, what is the meaning of 360, 360 divided by 12 is 12 months, so it means 30, it will not even consider in which month. It doesn’t matter which month has 31, which month has 30 or which month has 28 or which month has 29. It doesn’t matter to him what it is, he has to know that I will agree that in every month even if it is your February it has 30, your May also has 30 and your November also has 30. I don’t care in which 31 comes, in which 28 comes and in which actual 30 comes, I am I will take 30 out of all and give the answer according to that. So in such a case, the formula we apply is Ear 360. Sorry Days 360. Sorry Days 360. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. In such a case, the formula we apply is Days 360. What is Days 360 doing now? What was Days doing? The Days which was giving you the answer was 365 on Edge or 365 on Edge and Was giving according to 366 which is actual but how will it give you as per month on 30 days but month month as per month on 30 days is ok now when you apply the formula then you will understand see I am going to give the same date here the difference will come in the answer equal to 2 days 360 tubs after that start date brother see it is in this start date look at that and end date was taken earlier. Start date first, take start date, take comma, after that end date, leave it for once, enter it and see if the answer is coming, is it yes, leave it, don’t enter it, then see, here it was 220, here it was 217, here it was 43, it was 44, then the answer changed, no, why did the answer change? Just because of this difference , somewhere it must have considered exactly 31. 30 A must have considered 29 28 must have considered because 24 isn’t 24 is the leap year so maybe B He must have considered 29 but he has considered 20 everywhere Sorry everywhere 30 It doesn’t matter to him So that’s yours What is your days 360 So here we completed two more formulas Which is days and days Let’s go 360, now let’s move ahead, which is your network days and network days intel. Look, now you understand a little, now you were given a date for example, you were given a date from 1125 to today’s date, let me write this today’s date is 12 3 2025, what to find out the exact in between. To calculate it exactly then we need days formula. To calculate the according of 30 days in between, what is needed to calculate the according of 30 days, so we need 3 days. Well in this I should say exclude weekends and weekends also only Saturday Sunday off, then what formula will you use for network days and if I say look see what I just explained to you that I want to know how many days are there between two dates. But among them automatically it will turn off Saturday Sunday and tell me that if I take it from here to here and there are six Saturday Sundays in it, then it will remove six and tell me that it was not doing this thing, Days 360 was not doing this thing, who will do this thing, the network will do this thing, but the network will do this thing, but one situation has come, what do you get for the second situation? Now let us read the second situation here, let’s read the second situation here. It comes to you that you say that ma’am, it is fine that they are giving Saturday off but my company does not give Saturday off, I only get Sunday off, that means you are excluding the weekend, you want to exclude the weekend but here you want to customize the weekend, meaning it can be as per your wish, you get it on Monday, I get Sunday off, someone gets Saturday off, someone else gets Saturday off. Some people get off on Monday, Tuesday, some get off on Friday, Saturday, so many things can happen, so in such a case, the formula we apply will be network days intel’s, then you will be able to notice this thing there and you will be able to understand well which thing is there and why it is written. Okay, so here you just understand that the network is also doing the same thing, it is giving you the difference between two dates, but what it does is that it Saturday removes Sunday, where when it comes to the network day int64, then you have applied. Now comes to the network days and network days, ital network days. We have to do this after reading and reading. After reading, all will be done. What is the network days tab asking for? Start date, take the start date. What is the comma asking for? End date, take the end date. Okay, now first of all I will show the answer by bringing it normal and then We will also consider the holidays. If there are any holidays other than Saturday and Sunday, then it is okay to consider them too, but we will talk about it after two minutes. First, we will understand it directly. Answer: Look, 31 has come, look, I had given the same date, in this also I had given the same two dates, in this also the same two dates were given and in this also the same two dates were given, but the difference came here and here, it has removed Saturday Sunday and told me, so how many less days are there. If you have gone and seen, you will get the difference everywhere, then it has removed Saturday Sunday automatic. Now I have one more here, one second control control plus, no, from here, control plus, I don’t know what kind of data is below, so let’s write it, let’s do control R and here we write holidays that we are considering holidays also. Okay, what is there in holidays? You have to tell them the date that my holiday is only then when you tell it, right? So what is there in that, he will consider, if suppose your holiday is falling on Saturday and Sunday, then he will not deduct it twice, he will not deduct it twice, he will not deduct it once, if you directly write the number of the holiday, then he will not be able to understand it. How many holidays are there? Will consider if any of these dates is falling on Saturday Sunday then should I count it only one time OK then you will have to pay for holidays also here and pay attention to cell referencing Look here now look at Network Days tab Start date this is taken comma end date Oh hey hey sorry end date this is taken comma Now these are holidays, when I take them for the first, then also all those holidays are for the last. Loo, there are holidays in all, you will have to look at the same holidays for all, otherwise what will you do, fix it with f4, enter, 31 has come, tap it, then look, there are four holidays here and there is one holiday here, why because it has now considered some holidays there, she might not be falling at all, so you have not taken it, then you should also fall, if it is not falling at all, now these three, four, these 8. From 11 to 20, 12, three or four does not make sense, so it will not fall, so it does not come in it. It is okay, if we had written any holiday directly, then it would not have understood, it would have given the wrong answer, so that is why we should tell them the dates of the holidays. He will check himself whether she falls within that time period or not. Is there any of those dates which is falling on Saturday Sunday? So he will not deduct her double time, he will deduct her single time. So that is your network days. Okay, now network days intel, when did I tell you, I write holiday inside it, network days ital, when did I tell you, then I told you when you have to do customization, look at network days ital or it seems exactly. In the same way, customization is done in the last one, start date is taken with comma, end date is taken with comma, then look, it has automatically opened the list, I have not pressed anything, it has automatically brought the list, now check, Saturday Sunday off is required, was it available only in network days, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, the answer will be the same because only two days have to be removed, yes, changes will come, it is ok because of the date, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Friday Saturday, I want only Sunday only. Either I bring it down like this and press tab or directly write 11. Ok tap comma. After that, Holidays. If we are not taking holidays for now, then we enter this. This is the answer. Look, it was the same thing, but now your answers are different. Why is the answer different in all, because the demand is different, here something was coming exact. According to 360, here Saturday is coming without Sunday. Here along with Saturday, holiday is coming with Sunday. Here we have removed only Sunday and here now if we remove Sunday and also remove holidays, then what will we do? Network days, itel, tap ups, sorry, tub, start date, start date, see, whatever formula is there, see, it is written here, so you can also read the end date from here. You will take comma, after that you have written the same 11, if you want, you could have tapped from there, after that Holidays, Holidays, you will take this, you have to consider this for everyone, you will fix it with f4, hit enter, then look, the same thing has come because there was no holiday considered there and it has been changed. Here, holidays must have been considered, so here he must have changed because he must have checked from there, so in this way, we will make this network of ours. days and network days are used by intel, if you have any doubt then please let me know, I have explained it in very detail so that you can understand it very well, now let us move ahead towards our next formula, which is start month, e date and e month, ok, what do you do here, like you calculate the average due date, that is the work of average due date, understand a little here. It will be better with an example . Let me adjust it for once. This is adjusted. For once, we will understand the theory. Let’s take a case with us so that we can understand it better. Suppose this is you. Okay, Mr. He bought clothes worth Rs 10000. Now he is saying payment of Rs 10000 is fine. So Sir, I will not be able to make the payment right now, I will do it after two months. I don’t have the money right now. So Mr. Don’t you know how many people would be coming in a day? So , he records what Mr. I was patient for two months, now I have to pay my due date, so you should know it, and how to know the due date, it is on 12th March, if you add two months in plus, then what will come in March, April, so your due date will be made in May, so you have added two months, right, so in this way, we calculate our due date, so this is the work which you have done manually, this formula. If you want to do it with then use the formula of e-date, end date, basically end date, then you will put e-date, you will tab it, I have said the same thing, you have to do it after reading it, not by rote learning, what is asking, start date comma, okay, now some people may say, ma’am, if there are days, then there are days. Convert it to months, brother, if the date is days, I tell you, first take the months because you cannot do it with your formula, I have this, so what should I do, no, you did this, after that you went to home just because it is on the journal, we need the date, so here we took the short date, this is the date, one more, I create it here so that you can understand, control plus or control R, I would have removed it if you agree, you say. If I have this month, I will make another one, this is the days, write the days 60 90 65 52 62 32 45 85 45 62 If you have these dates, you do not have these, if you do not have a month, then how will you do it. Look, you will have to give the month in the formula, now how will that month come out, you have to know that, equal to e date tab start date taken comma after that take months. Now there is no month, forget the month, there is no month, you have days, how do you get months from days, how many months are there in a year, if there are 12, then divide by 12, no brother, month will automatically calculate , enter yours, 84, enter did you take this date? Well , there are 30 days in a month, so we will not do it by 12 months, we will do it by days, but it will not be standard, that means, in some, 31 will come, in some, it will come, then this can be messed up, okay, here that thing can be messed up, here two is written, here it is 90, that’s why here I write three, your answer will be correct, equal will come, okay, so here I have standardized it. I have divided it by 30 but you will have to convert it into months. Okay, if you want to be very accurate, if it is normal then you can enter the answer in this way. You will not get confused after seeing these two, because they are written randomly, don’t look at it right now, it is written as one, so here I write 30, the answer will be correct. If three is written here, then if I write 90 here, then the answer will be correct here. It is written here that if I write 60 then the answer will be same then this is different because random is written here just to tell you ok this was your end date, after this another formula comes end of month, now what does it mean, this is the formula which I had understood, within this formula I add one more condition, after that you will understand better, now what is the next condition, this person says this thing. It is true that I have to do 10000, it is true that I will do it in two months but but what does it say but sir, whatever date I follow your due date, take the end date of that month, end date of that month and date of that month, what do you say, oh sir, it is very easy, you are telling me, I did the transaction today, yes yes, then you are saying that my due date will be on my 12th, yes, I am on 12th. I am not liable to give it, I will be liable to give it on 31st May, O then your due date should follow anytime, on that day you will be liable to follow that due date which is the last date of the month, K Yes, now if you understand it right, then if such a situation arises, then you can use end of the month, see equals to e, O month which is the end of the month in which you started. Date taken, start date taken, comma, same months have to be taken, here you have to enter months, then look here, your answers have come, now look, it is the same, you had put the same thing in this date also, you had not done anything different, so here, look at 31, 8 is 31, 20 is 31, 23 is 30, look, all the last dates are just months, if yours is June, then tell me what will come, your date is that date. What is the due date? If it is June, then 30th of June. If your second is September, then 30th of September. If your third is of November, then 30th of November is your last date. If it has gone up even by one day or has fallen, then I am liable to give it in the end of the month. You see your formula, so that is your end of month. Okay, after this we move on to our next day. That is a very very very good formula. It is okay but it will be understood very easily. To understand this, let us consider a small case study and from that we will get better clarity. Okay, see here, he has asked to give the resignation. Now what does the manager say, OK fine, calm down brother, you have to give the resignation, there is no problem, but remember that after giving the resignation, you will be given 21 days’ notice. You have to serve your notice period. You have to serve your notice period. What do you have to do? You have to serve your notice period. Oh shut up, meaning I am here today on 12th March and Now I have 21 more days, which means that if I work, it will go till 3rd April, and this means that I will go till 3rd April, I have to work till 3rd April, but no problem , I will work till 3rd April, I will definitely leave, I am very fed up from here, so he has done the calculation directly till 3rd April, but the manager there says no, son, it is not like what you have done for 3rd April, in that you have also counted your weekends too, have you counted the weekends? Obviously your working days will not be counted. What have I said? 21 working days, 21 working days have to be done. If you have to do 21 working days then your Saturday and Sunday cannot come in it or whatever your weekend is, that is also customization. You know this thing that we do customization inside Intel. Okay, so Saturday Sunday cannot come. They say, OK, so now calculate and tell me till when will I have to work . We will tell you who will calculate and tell. Let’s calculate and tell. See, you came here in work days, after that you enter the formula of work days here, tab it here, it is written work day, it means it gives you the last date, I was saying work days by mistake, I am really sorry for that, like you see, when you did the day formula, do you remember in the day formula, you were getting the date as to which day is within that date, but like you said days. If the formula was done then the difference coming between two dates was net work days because in it the difference between two dates was coming, these were network days. I have also made the mistake written above, I will change it now but this work day by day day means that particular day, that is why he gives the date. Okay, we will take the start date, we will take the start date, comma, what is it saying after that, how many days have to be served, let’s say there is no holiday to serve 50 days. Will we talk about holidays later? Will we talk about holidays later? Let’s enter and here I do one thing, I take it from me, I go to home and here I come in short date. Okay, here I do a control plus A, A, I write it and here I do control R. Okay, here we will do the holiday one, then the holiday one too. You have to explain that if any holiday is considered in between, then neither the manager will consider that. Do it, it’s a holiday, work a little bit, so here you have the work day here , it ‘s ok, so here your work day has come, you double tap it, you will get all the dates. I was talking about today, right, I will show you today’s also, you did it here and we had taken out 21 days, so how do we take out its work day tab, after that was the start date, we did this with a comma, after that we gave this and entered, then we have 10th off. Where will April come? He was sitting there with ‘Third of April’ in it, do Alt HEA, then it will be deleted. Okay, so here we will calculate the working days now according to the holidays, so it is the same step of holidays which was in your network days, you take the start date, put commas, tell the days, take commas, for holidays, you have to tell this and this has to be considered in all the holidays because it is going to remain the same in future, so you Fix it with f4 and enter, your answer will come and here we go, so here you can find it in this way, if suppose you want to do customization, here by default it has considered Saturday Sunday as weekend, but here, if you want to consider Saturday and not Sunday, you want to consider something else, if you want to consider only Sunday, then you can do that also, you will enter the working day, tap the start date. You will take start date, you will go here and put comma, after that you will take days, you will take days here, you will put comma, after that you have to do customization here, what will you do for customization, you have to show only that of Sunday, otherwise you write 11, put comma, after that you have to consider holiday, if there is anything, then we will consider the holiday later, so I removed it and entered, so see this in working day only it considers both Saturday and Sunday. Here it has taken a consideration, so the date has changed, if I suppose I do the same thing here, I take it, I control it like this, and here I take the holiday, we write the holiday here, we write the holiday thing, holiday and we turn off the parentheses and enter and here I am going to consider the holiday also, so we will apply the formula again, how to do equals to work day, take the intel tab here, after that you should start. Date Start date How to take Start date is your comma after that you want days then for days you have this After that you need Sunday only, to take Sunday only you have taken 100 sorry 11 taken I am really sorry for that 11 taken com, now you need Holidays, I have told you about the holidays, select it, fix it with f4 and hit enter, then see it is the same thing but now your only holiday has also been added in it, so your answer has changed Holidays. You have understood the concept, you had done the same concept in the network days and the same concept is there in the work days also. I am so sorry. Okay, so here we have included all the possible formulas related to our date which are used the most. Here we have completed them. Now let us move towards the time formula. There is nothing much in the time formula, it is a very easy thing which you have just learned about the date. What are the things written inside a date? Inside a date, your day is written, month is written and year is written, similarly what is written inside a time, an R is written, a minute is written and a second is written . Because for now it is in this format, so what format will we do it in? No general format will come in the time format, okay ninth R means ninth R is going on, we will apply the minute for minute formula, we will tap, after that you will take it and enter, then it is 10 minutes, from how many minutes it has extracted, we will tap for second, after that we will take the serial number, we will enter, so so many seconds are written in it, okay, we do not want it in this much, we will take it in this. We have rounded it off and given it. We have given it by rounding it off. If you want, you can do it in this way. You can show it normally to two seconds. By rounding it off, we can take it from this. Okay, so in this way your R comes with minutes and seconds. So here we have completed all the possible formulas of our day and time formulas which were most used. We have completed them here and also. We will do the formula further, let’s move ahead, see till now we have seen, now let us start our logical formula. What is the logical formula? The first formula inside the logical formula that we are going to learn is the if formula. Now before learning the if, see how if is called in Hindi . On the basis you will be asked what is the answer, basically you will be given a condition and according to that you have to answer. If you did not understand the thing, let us understand from the example. Suppose there is a Raju, Raju goes to school. Okay, now Raju has given the exam. Now what is said in the exam that if he gets more than 45 marks then he has passed, otherwise he has failed. What did I say that if Raju gets more than 45 marks? If he comes, then he is passed, otherwise he is failed. Okay, so what is the condition that we have given? What is the condition that we have checked his marks, are they more than 45? What is the condition that we have given that the marks are greater than 45? If this is true, then either this will be true or this will be false. If this is true, then write PASS there and if this is false, then write FAIL there. Have you understood just one thing? You have to understand the condition very well, after that you can do this work like suppose we will travel again for now this is student A, this is student B and this is B and this is student C and if I say his percentage then it is 55. If I say his percentage is at 40 and if I say his then it is 75. So now tell me whether the one who is a is pass or fail is pass or fail is pass. If I talk about b then it is pass or fail is fail and if I talk about c then fail of dice is pass then if you tell me this then you know how to apply the formula, we just have to understand a little bit of the formula, basically what will we know by doing time travel, first what did we check, did we check our condition whether the marks are greater than 45, what did we check whether the marks are greater than 45 and look at the marks, it is such a thing. Marks percentage is the same thing, okay percentage is something which is different for this person, it is different for this person, it is different for this person, that means these are the marks. How are the keys changing, so what does it mean here, what will we select , we will select a cell, that is, we will select the cell with marks and then greater than 45, 45, whether it is this or this, the condition is same for everyone that it should be more than 45, so here we can write the number at 45 because the number is always fixed, so here we understood one thing that the first thing we have to check is what we have to check is to check the marks. Is she greater than 45 days? Then we time traveled that as soon as we get to know about the marks, that means we get to know about a condition, sorry, we erase it. As soon as we get to know about a condition, what do we have to do? Now that I have got to know about the condition, what will I do now, I will think about the condition. Is it yes or no, that means, has this condition been successfully achieved, if it has happened . So what will pass and if it has not passed then what will fail? Okay, what are these two? What is text and what do we write the text in? We write the text inside double inverted commas. Okay, now we have understood this but I have explained these things, why what is their logic? Let’s see what formula I am making you here. Right, just give me a minute . Why is it showing like this? No problem, here we will write equal to if tub here. Read what is the logical test value of true and value of false, so now we will elaborate this formula a little bit, after doing it in detail, we will understand it completely, okay, so here I write the F formula which is what is our logical test value if true and value false and the formula we have just given, we will understand it according to the example we have just given, so that we can understand F in detail. What is Logical Test? What is Logical Test? Check the percentage of marks. Is it true of the individual? Is it greater than 45? Value if true, if the condition becomes true then what to do is pass and A value false. If the condition becomes false then what to do is fail. So in this way you will be able to apply your formula here, that is why I told you the value of true by making this condition one condition two. Because value of true value of false also comes in your formula, so now you know what is value of true value of false, you just have to think of the condition properly, after that think about the condition whether it is true or false, after that you can apply your own, so see, here we will apply the formula practically, we will go with the same thing, whoever has more than 45 marks, he will pass, otherwise he will fail. Here we will write equals to if tab, after that logical test, what is the percentage in logical test? The only thing to be checked is the percentage of every student. Take the percentage of every student and obviously now Aarav Sharma will be next. Riya Verma will be next, then Anaya will be there, then Karan will be there, then Sanya will be there and then Rahul will be there. Meaning, the things that are changing will keep on changing, so don’t fix it. Okay, keep it at Greater Day 45. Greater Day 45 will be there. Do you check the comma value of true? If this is true then the condition is true then you have to write pass and if this is false then you have to write fail. Now you don’t know what you have learned till now in so many formulas and in that way. Now you will never get troubled by looking at formulas or symbols. Half of the people get troubled by seeing what are the symbols that why did you put this double e and inverted comma and then why did you put comma after that. Why is this greater than given? I will not be able to understand the formula or they will come. Now look, double inverted comma is text, hence we use comma for any next command. Greater given is given because we want to check this condition. If you hit enter, it will come close to here. Double tap it, then look, it is failing here, why 27 at 33 45, we have not put equal at 45, if we want to assume that If there is equal, then put the equal sign here, enter and now double tap. Now the one who was at 45 also passed. If you want that the one who was at 45 should also pass and the one above him should pass then you can do it like this. Okay, is this working or not? Once I check it, I made it 20. In this side also his marks will have to be 20. So see if he has failed, then in this way you apply your if formula. If you understand how the IF formula looks, take one more condition and tell it in another statement. Suppose any party name is written here. Party name is ok. I write any party name here. A A B C B C D E F G H I have written the party name here. Now I write the amount here and write the status here. I am explaining it very easy. Look, let’s go with a condition that see, this is my party. Now if any payment comes from them, then I write it here otherwise this cell remains empty and now I have to put the status. Suppose from here I have received a payment of Rs. 10000. It is okay from B. No payment has come from C. No payment has come from D. I have received a payment of Rs. 20000. After that I get F. A payment of Rs 63000 has come from H and then I have received a payment from H of Rs 52000. Now I have to update the status here that from whom has payment been received and from whom has no payment been received. Okay, now what will I do here, wherever the amount is written, that is, wherever the amount has come, then I have to write payment done and wherever the amount is not written, I have to write pending. So now what is the condition whether the cell is vacant or not? What will I think here, what is mine, what do I have to check, I have to check the cell, is it equal to MT, if this is true, that means, if it is MT, MT, then yes and no, yes and no, if it is true, the cell is empty, then what should come here, cell is empty, it means payment has not come, it means pending should come, and if we assume that cell is not empty, it means payment has come, then yes, payment received, understood, confusion, tell me once more. See what I am saying, come in the third, I am saying here we are going with a condition, see what is the condition, we have to check the cell whether it is MT and if it is MT, the condition of MT thing is yes and no, if yes means cell is empty, when is it empty, when payment has not come, payment has not come, it means pending and if it is not empty, that means payment is written in it, that means amount has been received, then payment is done. If it comes , then you know the value if true and value of false. You know that pending and payment done have to be written, but this is a logical test, how to write it? What am I saying in the logical test, you have to check the cell, whether it is MT or not, then it means that you have to check a1, then you will take a1. In the logical test, a1 is equal to two. How to show empty, there is no number, any number of text or character or anything other than the number. If it comes in double inverted comma, then double inverted comma. Now you have to show it empty, right? If you have to show space, then you give space. If someone has to show you a symbol, then they write that symbol. You have to show it empty. Stop it as it is. It means nothing. If space is given, what do we sometimes do? We give space to show empty. If you have given space here, then he will understand that there should be space inside that cell which you have shown in double inverted comma. What you write will come, now you will not write anything directly, you will turn off the double inverted comma, this means that it is empty and if it is empty, then it will come, so let’s try it for once, then you will understand better. We will go to logical formula here, we will put Equals to If tab. What is the logical test? What is the need to check this cell, what is the need to check whether it is empty, then I turned on and off the double inverted comma, but did not do anything in it because Only then it will appear that it is empty, there is nothing to be done, comma, if this becomes true then it is really empty, then it is empty, it means the payment has not come, that is, pending, see what happens, sometimes we think negative situation, sometimes we think positive, that is why I explain the logic, if you understand the logic, try the condition by making it yes and no, then we will find the correct answer, otherwise we may get confused, okay. Pending
comma value false means the cell is not empty that means when the cell will not be empty then when the payment has come then we will do the payment. Pens of enter then see if you do this then see here the pending is coming. Now I delete it here, this is also pending. Suppose if I write any payment here then this payment is done. Okay, in this way we can effectively use if. If one like this. There is a formula which is used a lot, whether you are doing small work or big work, whether you are making a report or doing anything. If is used the most, that is why if you have a doubt about understanding If very well, then please let me know in the comment section. Here we have done it in great detail, just like we did If, similarly in logical functions, there are two more formulas in the logical formula. Other two formula R and and R and and R Now let us give a little logic to this We have to understand what is the meaning of ‘and’ and what is the meaning of ‘and’ and after that we will be able to work well. Okay, now what I am talking about is ‘end’ and ‘or’, these are English people, they are English people, now how come this is my friend Mr. I will eat pizza and burger and on one side I sent a birthday card and wrote what all will happen, meaning this is a fictional kind of example ok and there it is written pizza and burger in English and there is either pizza and burger, can we get both? The answer is no, where else comes to mean either A or B, one but where end comes, means A and B means both and both are ok, so this is the basic difference. Now why did I explain this in between is and and and and, I am talking about logical, I am talking about condition, I see where I have reached, here also it is a matter of condition, like suppose till now you had what was being talked about inside if and what was being talked about, single condition is ok, now it has come to the case of if condition, multiple condition, you have more than one condition and now there are two situations, either both the conditions are satisfied. Only then will some work be done or if only one of them is satisfied then it will work. If both have to be satisfied then apply the ‘And’ formula and if any of the two conditions, suppose you have two conditions, if any one of the two will be satisfied, then apply one more thing. Well, one more thing. The ‘if’ formula is more flexible and gives more customization. How inside the ‘if’ formula, you tell yourself that I have to write a pass, I have to write a fail. I want to get payment done written, I want to get pending written, I can get anything written but there are such formulas which will give you the answer not only on the basis of true and false, remember Go to Special, inside which there was a formula from which true and false were taken out, that is why when we were saying that brother, only where true and false are there, he considers it logical, why do he consider it logical? These and and and and whatever they are, they come from the logical formula. You will answer only and only in True and False. Through these you will know whether your condition is satisfied or not. Now if you understand it with a practical example, you will understand better. Whenever you do not understand the theory, no problem, we explain the theory only so that you can understand the core of it. If you do not understand there, it is okay. Not everyone understands the theory, then you will understand through practical. Now we have an example. What is the example that our manager is telling us to make a list of all the persons who are eligible for the employment like bonus. I said ok, it will be fine, we will make it. What is the condition, the experience of the employee should be greater than 5 and his rating should be greater than 5. If it is so, then he will get the bonus, otherwise I will not get it. Said right, meaning he needed both the things that he should work for more than 5 years and his rating should also be good, only then he will give the bonus. Okay, so in such a case, we will apply the formula of end, what is the end tab logic one, I have to check the experience, is that greater day equal to 2, because even if it is five, it will work and after that we have to check the rating, is that greater day equal to 4, if you enter it, the true answer will come. And double tap here, always look at us, here we are giving sale to whom, we are giving experience and we are giving rating and this is in keep changing, that is why we have not fixed it, now see, here it is six years and if it is 4.1, then your pay here has come true but here it is 3 years, it is 3.8, even if I make seven years of pay here, it is also false, if I make five years of pay here, then go. It is true that means both the conditions should be satisfied, I made it three here, then why did it come false, because the experience here is less than 5 years, he has to satisfy both the conditions, what has to be done, if both the conditions are satisfied, if even one condition is satisfied, then it will not work, see where the thing with one condition works, same is the same example, everything is the same, same is the data, here if even one condition is satisfied then let’s go. If you go to that is your or formula tab, you have to check the logic, Greater than = 5, comma after that, if you want to give logic two, then you will check that the rating is greater than equal to 4. If you enter it, then it will come here. Now let’s see here what was 65, so 65, so it will remain true, assume it is 4, this is 4.5, that means the rating is good but the years of experience are less, still he is giving true, if this of mine becomes three and this also becomes three, then it will go and give false saying brother, if neither of them is failing then if even one thing is right then it will give true to me, what else is that single condition also. If it is satisfied, then it will give you the answer. True and what are both the conditions, that is, all the conditions which you want to impose will be satisfied, then what is more, even if even one condition is satisfied, it will give you the answer. By default, the answers they give are in True and False, so here we have completed our logical formula. Now we come to you some miscellaneous formulas. First of all, we will learn that we have to rank. Now we will understand the method of calculating the rank from an example and then after traveling in the same way, we will make the complete formula. Okay, so let me draw five students here for you. Let us write the students here like this. Student A is one. He is at 60, the marks of D are at 85, and the marks of E are at 45. Now tell me the rank, who will come first, who is the student who will come at the first rank, who has the highest marks, then you will simply look at it and say that D is the first, then you will say for second, B is the second, C is the third, the fourth who will come will be A and the one who will come fifth will be E, and if you If you have given the same answer, then you have given the correct answer. Okay, now it comes to the fact that we will travel. Basically, what did you do? If I have to get the rank of a student, I have to get the rank of A. If we are taking an example, then first of all what I check is, I check the marks of A, that is, that person’s own marks. So, are these marks going to be different for A, different for B, different for C, different for D, different for E? Yes, of course, A’s own marks. B has its own marks, C has its own marks and D has its own marks, so this is keep changing and keep changing means that we are not writing anything on our own, we have to take cells only, the leaves of both numbers and text are removed, only cells have to be written and because there are individual marks, after that, what did you do in the second step, you can tell by just looking at A, what rank he has got. Unless you look at the other students, then to check the same rank, you have to check the same rank. Also checked B, it is 70, which means it is more than A. Well, it is 60, which means it is more than A. Okay, its 85 is more than A. Okay, if it is less than A, then according to this, whatever A will be, it will be on the fourth, so it means to check the rank of A, what did you check? So the second step comes that check the whole lot, basically the whole data. Okay, now tell me one thing, if you find it for b, then find it for b first of all. B’s marks are checked, O is 70, okay fine, after that, you will not do this. C’s is 60, D’s is 85, E’s is 45, okay, you will check A’s too, so no, we move ahead, we check all of them, it means for B too, you will have to check all of them, for C, we will check C’s marks, after that we will check all of them, only then we will be able to tell what is its rank, so basically the whole data remains fixed. If it is sales, then we will fix the sales manually. What is the meaning of fixing manually? We will apply dollars beyond that, then in this way your rank will be determined. It is very easy to get the rank but still you make mistakes in this, then we will also see what mistakes you make and we will correct it and will also see the correct answer. Now let us try it practically, so here we will put the formula here, we will have equals to rank, here you have it, tap the number, the number means which. What is to be checked? What is to be checked? Percentage is to be checked. Have you taken the percentage? Okay, comma is saying that reference means which one should I check? I check in these and I do one thing. For now, I will not fix it and after that we will check the rank. Okay, comma is asking for order. Now don’t memorize here, we will take zero, we will take one. Hey, here it seems to be zero, here it seems to be one, whenever things like this come, true false comes. If row one comes or any thing comes then in such a case you have to read that thing, you read why it is getting written and zero. Why am I writing this? Now I want to know why I am saying this. Generally, we take descending in rank but sometimes the opposite can also happen. You are carrying a negative situation. If you are checking your date, then in the date, the person who is lowest for you will be the one with good date. The one from whom our debt is less, so those are good things. If you use ascending there, then when will you be able to use it now. You will be able to do this when you have understood the logic in it, now you have not understood the logic only, you have done only 01 01, then you will make a mistake, then you will think that how will this happen, here we will do zero, which is descending and parent off, we will enter, we have got the rank, double tap it and the rank is correct, what is it, see, the first rank here is at 78, then the first rank is at 62, then the first rank is at 6051, what happened now ? Let’s check for once the mistake that people generally make, the mistake about which I had also told you that here we checked the rank, what did we check? Firstly, i3 is what is written in i3 and after that we checked from i3 to i17, it is okay, i3 is the individual marks and from A3 to i17 are all children, after that we came here, we had to find the rank within what is i k4, so here we will check. i4 as well as what is staying here from i4 to i1 means what did it do. If you are getting the rank here for i4 then it has been taken from i4 to i 18 whereas in 18 there is no data here, there is no data here and where did it start from. Sorry here, there is no data here and where did it start from here, it did not even check this 51. Then accept it if you are on i6. If you are coming, then it is checking from i6 to i20, it is increasing like this because you have not fixed anything, then in such a case, will it give you the correct rank or not? That is why this was the mistake, so now we will correct it. Just give me a minute, I have to remove all of this and then we will put our formula again here. So we took this, after that we erased it, after that now we will put the formula here. Equal to rank tab ok rank average taken by mistake I took the tab number take the number comma after that take the reference take the reference I took this and now fix it with f4 comma ascending penis off enter and now see now you double tap then your rank has come here see if these failed were failed then see the last rank is 12 15 14 okay so in this way you have to find your rank so here we have another formula. Completed, what is a rank formula? Now let us move ahead. We will do the round formula. What do we do? Whatever you round off, you get it rounded off. Now how will the round off be done? Let’s learn to round off a little bit. I will write a number and according to that I will teach you the normal round off, like suppose you have written 9635 6949. So first of all this. Understand, if I tell you that I want a number up to two digits, then it means that I am saying that I want a number only up to two digits after the decimal, so I want five, so I will write as it is and after that I am here, I want this number up to the second digit, neither this till the second digit, as far as we need, it is dependent on the next digit, if our next digit is If it is above five or equal to five then it gets converted to the next number and the other way it remains as it is, so now the number here is nine which is more than five, so now we will write this number by taking it here, then it is completed in two digits. Suppose this number was 96 3.56 449, then what do we do here in such a case. 9635 Now see on which it is dependent, on the next step it has to be checked whether it is greater than five or equal to five, so here it is four, which is less than five, so we leave it as it is, it comes to zero, okay, it is five, it comes to zero, let me tell you another number, let’s think of rounding it off, see here 89 7.65 5 3 2 I have two. Do you need round off till digits, what will you write 8976, what is the next number, five is equal to five or more than five, then what do we do with it, we round off, so that is your normal round off, now this is the normal round off, I understood when to do it and when not to do it. Here are two formulas and come out which is round up and round. Down tell me one thing, let’s me in this, we will understand this one and I will take its example, okay, I am taking the same number but changing the example a little bit 8 9765 432 Now tell me the answer to this, what will happen on rounding off 8976, this f is dependent on this four, four is small, f is as it is, now what these two are, what is the normal round off? Normal round off, but at the same time, let me tell you some different round off. Suppose I have got this situation here that I have got this number and now I have to apply the round up formula, then the round up formula says whatever the number is, I don’t care what your number is 8976 5 432. If this number is not there then it is smaller than f but still 8976 6 will give the answer, he will always round up no matter what. It doesn’t matter whether the number is above five or not. Okay, this thing, now let’s try it by rounding down. We use this formula to round down, see 8 97.6 5532. Now tell me one thing, technically this number after five is five, so it should become six, but rounding down will give you the answer 8976 5. That means he keeps the number as it is. It doesn’t matter to him whether the number on the side is higher or not. It is less, he keeps it as it is, so that is your round out, now we apply this practically, I explained this round off because people get confused about the decimal thing, so now you will not be confused, so see here, we will apply the round formula, apply the round formula, one second, we will do the equals to round tab, after that look, the number is saying, number has to be taken, meaning which number has to be changed, check, this one has to be done. The comma after that is saying the number digit. I had asked you how many digits to keep, so here we keep two digits or if you want to keep three digits, you can keep three, but after entering two, it has been sen. Now we will read this. First, we double tap it. See, after six, nine was and if it is more than five, then it was sen. After three, two was and if it is less than five, then we left three after six. Two was which is less than 5 so left it as six so in this way you have rounded off now let’s see the round up if the numbers are the same round up Tom after that we will take the number we took the comma the same one is asking the way of putting the digits is exactly the same situation will come different so you have to see ok now see this is the same number here now there was two after three so let it remain three but round up says I don’t care after Whatever number I have, I will tell him by increasing it, even after 63 there is a two, he makes it 64. Even after six, even after a two, he makes it seven. After five, even after a four, he makes it six. So that’s yours. Round up and same stubborn, ours is round down. He says, I don’t care, I will keep it rounded down. If I round it down, then we will take the number. After that, we will take the number . Comma digits two, you need to turn off the parentheses, enter end, you can double tap it, then here the answer comes, see it is 37, because after that there is nine, then it should increase, but it did not increase, it did not increase, it does not increase, it says, I do not care, this is fifth here, after two, there is five, it should increase, but it did not increase, it says, I do not care, I am stubborn, I will do it like this, so the round is your normal round off. Round up always keeps the dozen matter up, what is the next number and round down always keeps it on the down. Dozen matter, what is your number? So here we have completed all the three formulas very well, which is round, round up and round down. Now we will do some such formulas which tell you what is written inside the cell. Now you will say what is this, yes, I am telling you there is a list of formulas inside it, this formula is different. There is no point in doing this but let’s keep it in a little understanding like suppose you know what is written, a number is written, a formula is written, then you can check it, is the number tab, after that give the value, enter is this a number, yes this is the number, it is true, ok equals to is text, whatever you want to check, tab, did I give this value, enter, was this a text, then it gave false. Given, if suppose I do the text tab here, after that I give it and enter, was it text, yes, then it is True, in a way, it is behaving like a logical thing. In True False, it gives you the answer. Let’s tell whether that content is there inside that cell or not, like now you put equals to is here and you are getting lots of them here, you are okay, here you have to check if this is the formula, so you tap on it, give you this, enter the value given by you, is this a formula, yes, there is a formula inside it, then true, if I do the same thing somewhere else, then I would have given this formula tab and this Pooja Deshmukh enter here, was this formula no? That was the name I had written, the text was the constant text, you know this thing, you have already learned about the constant thing and the formula thing, okay, so here you will know, okay, next we will check is the error, is the error tab, is this an error, so you checked this, enter false, now see is this an error , okay, this is close, so we get this here, equals to is the error tab. After that we took this enter, so is it an error? Yes, if there is an error, then it gave true. In this, another formula comes, what does E E R R E R E R E R do, it also tells the error but it does not consider N. It is an error and considers all the errors but E E R R does not consider N and considers all the others. You take this, enter it and it will come true, it is ok. After that, more come to you in the same way like this error e error we have done ok fine after that comes to you e even meaning we have to check whether this number is even check yes this number is even in the same way if it is not an even number then it gives you this false and you get the formula in it see you can read from here like is a like e r r it does not do a but does the rest is a for particular a. You have to check whether there is any error with ‘A’ there or not, this number is good, this is weak number, so here you have many formulas which you can explore, I would like to do something else in this blank like took this blank, took tab, gave value, gave enter, so what was the blank here, otherwise if I remove it, then false comes, then yes, true, this is blank, so in this way, there are many many things here. There are formulas which are logical formulas, they are used very rarely, they are used along with some formula, their usage in themselves is less but if the situation arises then you should remember that yes, there are some formulas of this method too. All the terms that we have taught you, all these formulas are related to those terms in the data. Okay, so here we have completed these formulas, we have many good formulas. That’s done for now. Now let’s move ahead. I have done this for some advanced formula. I have been doing this in basic only but this is in kind of advanced. It is a good formula. Which is Sum F. Now let’s see it in detail. When I talk about the Sum F. So, first of all, look at its name. What is Sum F? How many words is Sum F made up of? Sum and F. Sum. What is the meaning of total? To total something if Had you read a condition just now? Had you read the if? Had you read the else? So this is what you had read for the if. One condition, one condition, two, check it in that. Now and in that condition, I am saying that you have to total. Now you have not understood the point, no problem. Let us understand from the example, this is your manager. The manager has a report. There are 10000 entries in the report and within the entries, there is data of North South East West and the manager has told you that Mr. Raju, you have to prepare a report. In the report, he gave this report to make a report. He wrote this, North, this, South, this, East, West, this, he wrote the total and did it like this and said, brother, fill in the values here, fill in the values, meaning, tell me how many total sales have I made, take the data of these 10000 entries from me and check with me, what are the entries of North, what are the entries of South, what are the entries of East. What are the entries of West, what are the entries of West, total them and after totaling, make such a report and give me such a report. I want to know how many sales have we made in the entire North region, how many sales have we made in the Southern region, how many sales have we made in the East region, so what is the condition here, what is the first condition, first condition will we apply, so what is the first condition, what is to be found for the North and what to do, then if we get the North, we will get the entire North, then what? If you have to make even, then when you have a single condition and you have to make even, because you have to know the total sale, what has he told you, this is what he has said, I want to know the total sale of North Region. In such a case, what is the condition, what is the answer, what is to be done, then what formula do we use to sum, I have understood the condition, okay, I have understood the example, now let’s read the formula for once, after that you will understand better, it is sum, ff, tub, range, criteria, sum, range, ok, range, criteria, sum, range, I write it and after that I explain it to you completely, then we have another color, we work equal . To Sum F Tab Range Criteria Sum Range, this has to be understood carefully because they will understand that if they did not understand this one, nor did they understand the portion, then they will understand the reporting that you do in advance as well as the formulas used there and at the same time, if you are able to do all the work with the data using any formula you have, then you have to understand it very carefully. Okay, yes, first of all we will not talk about the range, we will talk about the criteria. What is the criteria? What is the criteria to search? Now tell me one thing that I have to search. Above, I gave you the example where the manager gave the report to you Raju and said that I want the sum of note South East West, then Raju will search whom, whom will he search for North, he will search only North, he will search only North, the amount is written in front of it, but whom will he search among all the entries, this is the amount, isn’t it? Will start searching for North. North will start searching for North. If all are found, then the amount is already written in front. So whom will he start searching for? North, here what will be his criteria, what will be North then for South, for South for East, for East for West, then what can I say? Can I say that the region is asked for region wise report, neither is the region within the report, within the region report within the report, so I wrote the report because the one with the report should be found inside the main. If you are thinking about the data, then what is your criteria range, meaning in which to search, in which to search, now tell me one thing, I am saying that you have to find the region, okay, you have to find the North, okay, you will search in the data given by the manager, you will search in that only, then you will search in that and tell me, North, okay, this is the entries of North, so in which you have to search, so what will you do here, if you take the region from the main data, then check in the region. You will do North North North North North North North North North and from that you will get to know the sum range which you have to sum means your amount which will come and where that amount will be written in the report. What has to be written in the report, if we have done the total, then what will you get in the main data, so basically now think about it, it was logical, but we have put it in the formula, how is it logical that there is a big data with 10000 entries in which North South East West has entries, so logical. Right, I want to know the total sum of North, so obviously I will first find out all the North, first I found out who I need to know, okay fine, I want to know the North, then I sorted out all the entries of all the North and after that I did all the sums separately and after that I took the total of all the amounts which were here, this is what you do, now we have brought this work inside the formula, how easy is it, so if I start making the formula here, if I start making the formula here, like this example. If I start making the formula, what will be the formula? Look, if Equal to Sum F Tab Range, then what will be the region in main data, what will be the criteria, what will be the region in report and sum range, what will be the amount in main data. If you do not understand this thing, then there is no need to panic. Let’s put an example practically. This is an example with me. What an example. See, here I have party names and also party names. What are the entries of the sale here, see how many entries have been made, one person comes many times to buy the goods, so look, we have a lot of entries, what is it now, I know that I do not have that many people, I have only so many customers, these people come again and again to buy, so here they are, now someone told me that I have to go, according to the name swift4, okay, so now you have come to a new example, leave that example. Now understand this, here there is an entry of sales, name of each party is given, there is sale next to it, you want to know how much sales have been done, then we will put it because if I search for swift4 in the name, then I have taken comma, now I am doing it for one, after that I will tell you how to put it for complete, so who did this comma criteria? If you want to search, then look, it gave me the answer 80586, okay, everyone understood, if I want to check this, then with control shift L, I applied the filter here, from here I searched for shuff nova, sf nova, ok and heavy go, then this is our total, look here 805 869, so here our total will come 80586, understood, okay, we remove the filter here, now the thing was, we have removed one if this is the thing, if I If I drag and bring all the answers, what are the correct answers? What are the correct answers? Look, he is choosing the range from b5 whereas our range should have been from b4. That means there might be chances that this is correct but no, this is the wrong way. We should not do it this way. We will use the right way because what I just said, there might be chances, I was not accurate, so we have to do the accurate work. Equal to Sum So brother, do f4 or fix it with f4. Take all these criteria about comma criteria one. Okay, we have to remove comma for this. After that, even range, even range, tell me one thing. Sf Nava also has to be found in this. Same range for blue puck also, same even range for a cross. So okay, then when this is for everyone then take the even range and fix it with f4. Okay, enter your You will get the total of all the passes . Now you can do Alt Equal to here and enter. You have got the total of the sales. So, how much time did you spend in this method and was it a method that we will apply filters, we will find the answer of North, we will find the answer of South, then how hectic it would have been. So look here, you have to find all the answers in one turn, then this was your sum. If the way we calculate the sum, what do you think in that way? The average is also calculated and the count is calculated in the same way, so in the same way, no matter how much you read excel in the whole series, wherever it seems to be even, understand it automatically. Similarly, the average and count will also start calculating in the same way. Now suppose you want to know about Swift Nova in the same way. On an average, how often does it buy, what does it buy, meaning how much, what does it buy? Now imagine that there is a party which comes only twice or thrice in the whole month and It takes such a major chunk, that is, 30-40 business comes from only that, so we will see or say that three or twelve times it comes in the whole month, but if we look at the average, then brother buys in lakhs and there is a party which comes 20 times but buys in thousands, then from the average we come to know how much a person is buying from us. On an average, how much is he buying, then the method of calculation is exactly the same. Average Average F Tab is exactly the same. Range criteria now. Last comes the average range. Look, obviously if you are doing sum, then the sum range will come by writing the average. If you are doing average then you will write the average range. Doing is of the same values, otherwise the range in which we have to find is the same, so we will take this party name. Do you know that we have to fix it, why do we have to do this because comma criteria is same for everyone, meaning what we have to find is obviously, we have to find these only, comma average range, we will take the one which is in the sum range, the even range. If the average is even, the average will be in the range, we will fix it with f4 because it is the same for everyone, enter it, then see on an average, here is how much they do, if you do not want decimals, then you can remove them from here, okay , so you have this, now comes the point, this was also very easy, the main part of the average comes the count of sales. If I ask you, those who think that you have this for one month, it was a sheet of sales for one month, okay. Now I ask you, how many times does the person who is SF Nova come to you and buy from you, then if you concentrate on this thing a little, then think about it, if any person comes to you, he will buy something from you, if he buys something, then you will enter in your cell, you will enter, it means that every time a person is coming, he is entering in ours, so if I want to know how many times that person buys from me, then I check his name. How many times has his name been written in my entries? If I find out how many times his name has been written in my entries, then it will definitely become a fact. That he has bought something or the other from me as many times as that is why I have included him in the entry of the sale. So, we will do the same thing here. So think about it, here I have to check about a person how many times he has come but is there any consideration of any value in this? Rather, I am checking how many times his name has been written, that is why inside the formula, when you apply count if, then you will do a second tab, then here there is range, there is criteria, but There is no value because we don’t need the value, so we have to count how many times it is written in it, so you have taken the range in which you have to search, fixed it with f4 and after that you have done comma which means the criteria to find, you have to search for them, just enter, then it has come to you, see SF Nava, it is 28 times in the whole month, see the maximum, Golden Leaf has come to you, no, the maximum has come to you, True Harvest or Organics, so this is If you understand it in a very simple formula, then it is a very simple formula. From this simple formula, you have taken out all the insights about how something is going on in your business, so that is your sum formula. If any doubt arises anywhere, then please ask, I know this thing remains a constant for some time, but here also we are doing it in great detail, still if there is any doubt. Please note that you keep commenting, keep commenting because you will get their reply one by one one by one one by one one by one. Now let us move ahead and look at the formula. We have completed the home tab. We have completed our basic formula. Now we should move a little towards the tab. Now what we are going to do in the next tab is insert tab. So see, we have completed our home tab, we have completed our basic formula. After completing the formula, now we should move forward a little in tabs only. Now what we are moving towards is Insert Tab. Here is your Insert Tab, inside which there are different groups, Which is Table, Illustration Chart, Spark Line, Filter, Link, Comment for Insert Tab. If I summarize one thing and say that the Insert Tab is mostly used, then you can create and link the Insert Tab with this. Creativity. Mainly creativity, if you are creative or doing some work like creativity, then you need insert tab. Along with this, you can also do the work like reporting easily through insert tap. Now through creativity, you also get dashboards, so the most important for you is if any tab comes after home, then comes insert tab. Inside the insert tab, you can see the options, which are tables, inside which we can prepare tables. After that comes the Pivot Table. Pivot Table in itself is very useful for reporting. For now, I am giving you an overview of the Insert tab. After that, we will do the groups one by one. After that, you have the Illustration group. Inside the Illustration group, there are different types of things like there are pictures, there are shapes, there are icons . We will talk about all these now in the charts. Basically, I am going with a scenario here and that scenario. This is that we have Pivot which is useful for reporting, Charts in Plus which help in generating insights in creating your dashboards, if they help, then in Plus you will see filters which are your slicer and timeline. You have already used the slicers for the table. When you were reading, now the use of timeline will come with your pivot only, so I can say that there is a group of filters which has slicers and Timeline is the end, so these things are not complete in the complete reporting. This is a huge chunk in itself, which we will not do with the insert tab. We will do it separately and will do it at the end. Why do we do it at the end because what is the result of anything? It has the insight from which we will take the decision. There is a dashboard, so if I put it in the middle now, then it will not be relevant, you will not be able to connect because half of the things are available, half of the things are not available, now the advanced formula is there. If you don’t even know the advanced formula, you have to do it, so only after that, if we do the reporting, we will understand it better, that is why we will do it later, then what is left, the illustration, we will do it now, we will do the spark line, we will do it now, we will do the links, we will do it now, okay, so let’s complete the overview here, now we will do the insert tap. We are going to do that, we are going to do the illustration group. One second, if something comes first in the illustration group, then what is it? As soon as you click on the drop down, you will get three options, this device is stock image and online pictures. You can insert any picture from wherever you want. If you do this device, then it will ask you the location inside the device. If you do stock image, then the stock images will be shown here which you can directly insert . For online, it will be shown online. Now like I insert a picture from here, okay, I have inserted the picture of the boxes, so look, this picture has come here, now I have to arrange it a little, so I arrange its size in this way, look here. Okay, see, one thing is journalized for the insert tab, so understand it very carefully. From the insert tab, you insert anything, whether it is a picture, whether it is a shape, whether it is a table, whether it is a pit. Be it a table or a chart, if you have to make any changes in it, then you cannot make changes from the insert tab. Then we will say ma’am, then what can we make changes in, if only in that, we will have to make changes. See, whenever you insert something, what you do is click on that thing, then you will see that a tab is created above here, look, I am clicking outside, the tab is gone, I am clicking on this, the tab is clicked out. The picture format has been done on this, that is because if I have to make any changes inside it, then I will click on it here and I will get all the options here, I will get all the options here or I can right click and go to the format picture, then I will get all the options here. The options which are here in the extensions too, like these extensions are not visible here in full, they are visible here on the format control. You go to anything right click. Do format, go to picture or go to format, then you get all the options here to change them. So you understood. You insert anything from the insert tab. If you want to change any thing inside it, then a separate tab will be created. Changes will be made directly from it. There will not be a separate tab. I don’t understand. Right click on the same thing. Go to format. You can explore all the options from there. What did we learn here? Insert a picture. Now picture. I clicked on it from here, suppose I have to remove the background, I can do correction, I have to change any color, see, I wanted to show this kind of color, I have shown it, no, I want to show it a little brighter, so I have shown you the way you want to show the color, you can show it, okay after that, you have to show some artistic effect, what kind of effect should come or any other kind of effect, like this kind of, then you can show the effect in this way, I did not like it so much, I made it normal. I want to keep it in this way, I have kept it, after that you want to compress, the size of your picture is very big and you want to reduce it, then you can do that too. Here, if you want to change the picture itself or reset it, you can do that. After this, you want to frame beyond them. Look, if you want to do the framing in this way, then do it. This frame looks fine to me, it looks beautiful, so I did it, okay, I understood, after that suppose you want to change the color of the border of the picture, then I did. If you want to apply any effect on the picture, like I took this yellow color for glow, then it came, after that, the picture layout, if you want to show your picture in some other way, then you can do it like all text, if you want to put any text etc. in it, suppose you have done it here, if you want to make another copy of it, then what you have to do is either you select it and do control C and go to the side and do control v, then one way is to copy it. Look, I have made a picture here, the second way is this, you go to any picture, click on the end control and hold the roll, just drag it down, just drag it down, just drag it down, so in this way you can make many copies. Okay, now as you have done this, if you go to the picture format, suppose you go to the picture format, then bring forward send backward, this means to bring it forward, let’s say I am this picture . If I want to bring forward from this picture then I will bring it forward, so see that it has not come outside, I have to keep it behind this but if I want to keep it in front of the one behind then In this method, if you want to change anything on your pictures, you can do so. Now let me tell you one more thing, whether it is a picture or a shape, how will you know that it has been selected. As soon as you click on it, whether it is a shape, a picture, or whatever, you click beyond that, then bubbles come in the form of these bubbles. You are seeing these points. Yes, if you are seeing these points everywhere. That means there is a selection there, these are not visible, that means there is no selection, these are visible, that means there is a selection, okay, so from here we have learned about the picture, you want to crop it, you can also crop it, you have learned about the picture, after that suppose you come to the insert tab, I click outside, in the insert tab, Next comes to you, there is a shortcut key of the picture which is good for shape, I will also tell you the shortcut key of insert. It is N, like the shortcut key of home is H, its N is N, press Alt, see N is visible and the picture starts with P and stock starts with S, so S, then look, this window opens with you, whatever thing you use very often, just remember its shortcut key, okay shapes, look, shapes starts with SA, so if I press Alt and S H, then the shape will come, okay from here we can take any shape, I took this shape. I have made it, so here I will teach you a lot of good things in the shape later. I will do simple things. Now I have to make any changes in the shape, so look, I cannot do it from the insert tab. If I click on it, then look at the shape format. If it was a picture, then the picture format is this shape. So the shape format has to be changed. The shape has to be edited. You can do it from here, you have to write something inside it, double tap, your cursor will go inside, you will be able to write inside it too, okay. Okay, from here you have to change the color of the shape, you can change the color, let me assume that this color looks good, so I have taken this color. Look, this is the cursor, you can move it here and adjust it. Okay, after that, you want to change some color here. You can do that. If you want to keep some outline, I want to keep the outline yellow, so I have kept the yellow outline. If you want to give some effect like you can get the effect of glow, then you can change the glow in this way. Take the effect. Well, here if you say in the text, you write some text inside it, you Accounts My Bad Accounts Expert, you had to write this, you took this, after that, suppose you fill the text, you want to make it in black color, you want to outline it in black color, you want to outline something in white color, if it is not looking good then you make it black so that it looks darker, do you want to apply any effect, do you want to apply some reflection in this way, then see this reflection has been done, you want to fix it. Yes, you have selected it, gone home, normal, aligned it in the way you do alignment, formatted it in the way you do formatting, see how well it has come, you are not liking this effect, go here and change the text effect, reveal, you can also do this method, see, you can change anything in this method, OK, now assume that Bring Forward and Forward are exactly the same, you click on this. Do it, hold it with control , bring it backward, so you can do it in this way, okay, I have to delete it, I have deleted it, after selecting it, you had this for the shape too, if you right click on it and go to format shape, then you will get many options here, just as there were for the picture, you get all the options here also, it is totally up to you from where you access it, after that you go inside the insert tab. You will see the icon. Click on the icon. Let me tell you that as soon as you click on the picture shaped picture or the stock image, then look from here also. You can go directly to the icon cutout, people, sticker, illustration, cartoon people or you can go to the icon separately. If you want to go to the icon, then you can also go to the separate icon. From here, suppose I take an icon, I took this plane, I inserted it, this is my icon, now if you want to make any changes inside this icon, then I can go to this icon. When I click on it, the graphic format comes up. By clicking on it, the shape format comes up. In the graphic format also you have to change the shape of the graphic. Let’s say you have to change some color, you have to fill something inside the graphic, you have to make the outline of the graphic yellow in color and if you have to apply any effect on the graphic, then I have kept all these look, similar, similar kind of off. So that it looks good, bring forward backward, you know all this, you have to crop, all these things are same, right click on it and format graphic, then the options will come here, all the things are exactly the same, go to insert, after the icon, I tell you the 3D model, in the 3D model, you click, from here we take the emoji, there are very cute emojis, trust me and from here we took this emoji and will insert this emoji, look at the pot once. For this, I made it a little smaller and placed it here, after that I do a little bit on the side. What is a 3D model? You can move it in any way, okay, it’s totally up to you, how do you have to keep it and just look at the face, yes, it is a cute emoji, so now you have to change anything inside it, click on it, the 3D model comes up, you have to reset something from here, what is the way to do it, if you do not understand, then you can do it like this. Or you can move it directly from here, it is fine. Bring forward a backward. You know that by right clicking on the format 3d model, the main thing is to get the rotation done here. In this, you can get the rotation done directly from here. You can get the rotation done manually by entering numbers there. It is the same thing, in this way you can also insert the 3d model, after that you get smart art. Smart art is done in a way that your diagram does not. As soon as it is listed, it is processed, it is processed, if you want to show any type of relationship of cycles, then like you, I took this process one and I did OK, so it came here, now I decrease its size a little, not a little, but I decrease it a lot. And if I have to make any changes inside it, then I can make changes inside it too. How I clicked on it and here both smart art and format came , what is the format for the things inside. To change and smart art means I have to change only a shape, for that suppose I want to make the shape fill orange, so this is not looking good to me, white is fine, it is fine in this way, well, it looks fine for now, if you want to make any changes inside it, then you can do it directly from here, all the features are the same, you can also format the shape by right clicking, next comes to you, go to insert and screenshot screenshot . Let me tell you, if you do this in the screenshot, then if I do not have any screenshot in my system, then it is not showing. If you already have any screenshot, then it will show the other wise. Screen clipping, what does screen clipping do? Now, this will appear on my screen and suppose I take any screenshot, from here, I have taken any screenshot by doing like this, I have taken a screenshot of it. Okay, so look at this screenshot, it will appear here. Let me just adjust it. First, I have added this image here. Okay, now I zoom it, see, this is my image, the screenshot that came is coming in the picture format, I have to make any changes, I can do it by right clicking on it, doing format printer and clicking on it, then the effects etc. which were applied on it, will be applied here also, okay, you can use format printer also, so here we have completed our illustration group, now let us move ahead with our spark. Before reading groups towards line group, I remembered one thing which I have to teach you, what is a picture insert in a shape, so let’s see, suppose I have taken a shape, sometimes what happens is like we are making an invoice or anything, then we have to put a logo, so we keep adjusting it, so it is better that we take a shape and insert a picture inside it, now you will say, yes of course you take it. Right click, go to Format Shape and from here go to the fill option, here you get picture and texture fill, click on the picture and from here you can choose your picture, after inserting it, I take a stock image, from here we take these buttons and insert it, then in this way you can insert any picture inside your shape, first thing, then this is the second thing, let us assume that you are someone very creative in this. Shape has to be given, sometimes what happens is that you have taken a laptop with green screen and you want to show something inside that laptop, then how can we do such a thing, we will right click and here there is edit points, click on edit points. If you do this then you will see that points have appeared everywhere. Now your cursor is also changing. Now you can make anything happen with it, like made it like this, then from this point we made it like this, any kind of shape, like suppose I have to make it like this at this point. It has to be made like this. It is becoming kind of A, isn’t it? It is becoming kind of A. Now I will take this shape a little and make it look tight, now I understand. That is , if I want to do more on this point, then I will right click and do edit points and I have to stretch this one a little bit more, stretch this one and move it here a little bit and now I have to make this shape tight like this, so look, I have made a shape, I was just making a random shape, ch is a a, now suppose let’s look at another shape, we have taken a shape, we have taken a rectangle shape, right click here. Okay, now the picture has come, this picture has come, okay, now I will right click on it, I will do edit points and let’s say okay A points, so I have made it like this, look, it looks exactly as if there is no screen, it looks exactly like that, look exactly like we have created a separate LED kind of that screen, you can make any shape in any way, see, you can make any shape, anything is fine in this way. You can edit their points and create any shape. This is a problem for general people, but it can be done very easily here. Now we can move towards our spark line topic, for that we will need a data, so quickly let’s see what will happen that there are charts made inside the cell itself. There are very small charts which tell you about that data. We understand the charts as soon as we see them, so they are not charts, basically they are There are spark lines which we can create. Now suppose I want to see all the marks of Aarav Sharma in the form of a chart here. So what will I do. I will go to the cell in which I want to show it. I will go to that cell, after that I can do whatever I want to create a spark line. First of all, whenever you have to show a trend, you use the line, then you will take the line. Here you have to take the data range, the data range means which you You want to show that you have taken the data range, location range, I had already told you, go to the cell where you want it, if you do not go to that cell, then here you can put it in the location where you want it, you do OK, then it has come to you in this way, see, it has come in this way, now I will make it 60, it will come in this way, now see, I had just explained to you last that if you insert anything from the insert tab, then you will have a tab for that. One way it comes out is that I can drag it directly, then I will have to go through all the formatting one by one, I will have to change the thing or I will have to change the entire selection, so now what I do is, I click on it, I go to the spark line, first make changes in it, later I will drag it. Okay, what is the edit data here, meaning if you want to change the data itself, then you can do that here on the line column, let me say this. If I want like this then I can do it directly. There is no need to go and do anything. Look, high point means what is the high point of this entire data. 47 60 2040’s 60, then see second is high point, what is low point, 20 which is maths, what is negative point. Negative edge is true, we do not have any answer. What is the first point, from where it started, meaning 47, what is the last point, where it ended, 40 markers. Which will show these markers, like high point, low point, negative point, if we have turned it on then it is showing all the points through the markers, okay, now you know which point is which, okay, I have also told you from here, according to what I am telling you, if you want, you can also change the color of the spark line. Firstly, the spark line means the line that remains, if you look, I have made it red, then the line itself has become red, okay, if you want, you can change the color of the spark line. You can also change it. I am keeping the color of the spark line black, after that you can change the color of the marker, like leave the negative point ready, whatever the marker is, you can show it yellow if you want, or you can show the marker green if you want, I have taken green, or we can show the marker with some other color too. Which is blue, so we have taken these blue ones, after that we show the high point with green. Okay, we show the low point with red, you can show the first point with blue, so look in this way, blue green red red, now you will understand by seeing this, you can drag it, you are not able to see it, so I do one thing, I fill it with color so that you can see it a little better, now you can easily do not fill it just for the sake of showing, it will look very strange, just now you can see this thing clearly, so I have inserted it, just like when we have the spark with the column. If you want to make a line then you can do that also. You have started applying the formula. You go to the Insert tab and then go to the column. Give the data range here, after that you do OK and you have to change any things inside it, like here you have to make the negative points, the high point, you have to make it green, you have to leave the low point red, you have to make the first point blue, just double tap it or drag it and your spark lines will appear. Similarly, you have to do the same for Win Loss. You will go to the Insert tab, you will go to the Win Loss tab, the data will give the range, you have given the range, after that you will do OK, so this is where you got the markers, now you have understood how the markers work, then in this way you can change the colors of the marker, okay, it is up to you, in which way you want to see, in which way you want to show your data, you can use it at that place, so this was your group with Spark Lines, where we have completed about Spark Lines, this is it. All the options were there, after this the link comes to you. Now we will read about the link because of the filter, we are going to read with the pivot. Now we will read about the link. What is the link? For the link, I will need a sheet where we have many sheets like we have this sheet. Now suppose I create a main sheet and write anything here. First of all, I write a name which is written here. Data creation is ok. Creation, we have written this name here, Data Creation. Now suppose I want to put a link on it so that if I click on it, I will either reach the data creation sheet, then in such a case, we can insert the link. You can either go to the cell and click on the link, this window will come up or what can you do or what can you do directly by pressing the control, because what do we call this link, we call it hyperlink. If you do control H then the replacement will come K is the last alphabet so control key is fine, you can remember control key. If you press control key then you will get a window like this. Now let’s see what is there inside the window. First of all assist file and web page. If you want to tell any web page then you can tell. Okay place in the document. If you want to link to any document which is inside this workbook then you can do it from the document. Create a new one. If you want to create a document or want to attach an email address, then you can do it. Now we are going to explore both of these, like place in the document, so we had taken data creation, this data creation is here, comma, click it, OK, now see that it has changed, now you will click on it, you will go directly to the data creation page, okay, which sheet were we on? We were here, now this does not mean at all that we need to have a sheet. I have to take the same name like there is date and time formula but I write Accounts Expert here, okay and by going here, controlling it, going to Place in the Document, I link it to the date and time formula here, so it doesn’t matter what is written here, if I click on it, then access to the date and time formula is okay, so it doesn’t matter at all, it doesn’t matter at all what you have written, where has our sheet gone. Okay, we were here and we come to sheet one, okay, so here we learned, now after this we have to learn one more thing like suppose we have to do a web page, now I copy the link of our website here, here we took the link of the website and from here I copied it, now I go to my place in the sheet, write here web page or website, okay, here we did it with control, after that we took the web page one and we get here the browsed pages, current folder, all this, so Go to browse pages, enter the address here which I want to link, I have linked it, I have done OK, now I have one more thing to do. I will delete it from here so that you don’t think that we have taken the same link as before, we have taken the end here and okay, we have opened it, now we go and click on our link on the website, as soon as we click, it will take a little time just because this is the work of the internet and see, it has directly redirected us, directly on our website, we have come to our website, so in the same way, if you want, you can add any kind of link in it. You can attach it, it will redirect you there itself, okay, how do you have to do it, press the control key, your hyper link will come from there, that thing will be attached, here I have told you both the things, place it in the document and in which way you can also place the web page in this, the third thing is that your email comes in it, you have to log in for the email person, so you can log in that thing or you can directly create a new document, so here we have told The major point is that the link has been completed, after that you get the comment. What is the difference between comment and note? You are also hearing the note when we were doing go to special. We were doing special in pay special. In go to special, there was both comment and note. There was note in go to special. So, what is done with shift f2, like what is done with shift f2, this one is fine and one is this, you get this. Comment is fine. Comment, you can write anything like. Defaulter and Anything Okay, now what is the difference between these two, look for the difference, we need a data data, if we get it, then we can tell the difference, like suppose I have this data, one second, I take some good data, just give me a minute, we have taken this data, okay, we have this data and suppose I have added it here by doing shift f2 in such a way that the payment is pending for this person, so we have to take care of his payment pending in the next time, do this, OK and here. Also, I showed it through shift auto that the payment is done, I showed it here, so this is a note that whenever I go, the same will be visible to me and otherwise I can’t do anything in it, only these notes will be visible to me, only that girl can add a comment here, to add a comment, I showed payment pending here, I did this and I see, it is written here, if you press control enter, then it will be posted, then it is posted, now you will go to this. So the comment is coming but here it gives you the option that means his payment has not come till today, never mind, his payment has not come till tomorrow, never mind, the payment has not come till tomorrow, no problem, the payment has come today, so obviously you want to remove it, then you can right click on it and here you can resolve the thread that the thread is resolved, now whenever you go to it, resolve will show that brother, payment first. It was pending, now it has been resolved. Now let’s say, if you want to delete it, you can delete it. Now, if you want to delete it, you can delete it. Okay , so this is the difference between the comment and your note. This was your comment which got resolved, which you can delete. These are your notes which are visible as it is. You cannot do anything inside it. What you have written is there. It is done in that way, okay, so here we have completed the comment, you have given the link and also the comment, after that the text comes to you, the text is nothing, this is a text box, you will say that it is a text box, I don’t understand, see, it is very easy, the way you have inserted the shape, then you will go to the shape, then the first thing that comes is the text box, don’t you see, this text box has come, so the same text box is directly given separately here, this is also a text box, see, it is the same, you will click on it. Even if you click on it, the shape format comes, so it is the same as I told you about the shape, it is the equation equation or symbol equation, I tell you many equations are already there, ink equation. Suppose you want to write an equation and now you have like you are using a pun tub like me, then you can write any equation here like Why is he considering, he is considering the sum, he is not considering anything, 3 4 is not considering anything, he is considering the fear and the rate as zero, that is, in this way you can make any equation, like I have made this equation, it is behaving like an equation. Let me make one more equation and show it, it is not of much use but still if you have any use of it then you can use it ok just give me a minute equation, we will take ink equation and like you can write this x up in y = 239 in upon 435 multiply by 3 That equation will come, then this was a method, so whatever creative thing was there, it has come in the insert tab. We have completed our insert tab here. Now we will move ahead towards our page layout tab. Now the next tab that comes is the page layout tab. What does the page layout tab do? See, whatever you are creating data and doing, if you are obviously reporting, then there might be chances that you will need all that in hard copy also. So, if you want everything in soft copy, then in such a case, you will need a lot of Page Layout tab because it helps you in printing. Okay, so first of all, let’s have an overview here for once. The group that comes here is the theme group, which we have also read with the cell style, that if we have to change all the colors, then how can we do it? You can do it from here, like I have changed the palette here, so whatever is the initial a which is our home. The palette that was there inside the tab has been changed. Okay, here inside the cell style also, the colors of the palette have changed. Okay, if you want, try changing any palette here again and make it green. Now you go to home and check your palette from here and check the cell style from here. It has changed. Okay, so these are our palettes, which we are here to change things in the entire data. After that, we have the page setup, scale to fit sheet comes. Option comes and arrange comes then mean these three come here which is page setup scale to fit and sheet option ok so before we do this let me tell you why we are doing all this so that we can print right then print how do we select our data and take control . It is also visible that we can connect the printer, that thing is different, the properties of the printer etc., I am not talking about all this here, I am talking about all the other settings related to print, if you setup its end page here also, then other settings will open, then you, I am defining this thing here so that there is no confusion, the settings here and the settings here in the page layout are the same, it depends on you, from where you like to do it, do you like it better that I am here. I make the changes and after that I go to see the preview, then make the changes there and if you think that no, I do not understand what I have to do and what not to do, I want the changes to be reflected, so you can make the changes from here too, those changes will be reflected to you here, okay, so we will make some changes from here as well as from there, but don’t get confused, that is why I have already told you that this thing is going to happen in this way, let’s go now. We move towards one group each. The first group that comes is the page setup. So we know how will the work be done without theri. Our work cannot be done without theri. Our alt okay just give me a minute right now, first of all we will come to the page layout, we will come to the page setup work. First of all, what is the margin? Now what is the meaning of margin? What is the meaning of margin? So we hear profit loss margin, there is that margin over there. Don’t you see, this is your paper. Okay, I ignore the drawing. Do it, this is your paper and I am talking about the paper that comes to you generally and when you look at that paper, you can see the lines inside it in this way, there is another small line in it, okay, this is how the paper is visible and here a slight extra is left so that you can turn to the next page, so tell me one thing, here you are left for the title and for other things, here you can write the serial number etc. and you can write the other things. Yes, this one is left blank space for you and if you talk about exam, then you yourself come here with a line so that the teacher can write his marks here, then what do we say to the one who leaves this area on the side? What is called margin? What is called margin? We say that we have left margin on the side and the middle area which is now I make it a shaded area, a second shaded area which will be this middle area, this one which will be the middle area, inside this you write correct, inside this you write, then the outside area you have left is called margin. Now I will show you or tell you one or two things right there itself. One, you have seen the normal thing, two more things come that let’s say. You have this notebook here or this page of notebook, okay, one is this page and one is this page, okay one, I have done this where also I will do the yellow part, that is your writing portion that you can write here, so we did it here and it is here now I highlight the writing portion where you can write, you can write here and here you can write in this, you can write in this portion, okay so you one Tell me one thing, when you talk about the margin inside this one, you are seeing that the margin on the side is very high, so this margin is called wide margin. What is called wide margin in which there is less space for writing and more space on the side and right here, if you see that there is less space on the side and more space for writing, this is called narrow margin. And how basic understanding or common sense is that if you assume that you have large data, then obviously you You would like that the data on the side should be less in space and my data should come on the same page, then you will use narrow margin. If suppose you have a little data and it should look a little better in the page, then you will use wide margin so that space is saved on the side and my data should come in the middle properly. And if you have a normal situation, then you will use normal margin and not the normal margin as it is then it is fine. Similarly, now you understand the three types of margins, go to the page layout. There are three types of margins within the margin, normal, wide and narrow. We can also customize it. To customize it, we can do it by ourselves. It should be so many centimeters. It should be like this. We can do this by ourselves. It should be horizontal. It should be vertical. Look, it is visible here, the horizontal center on the page should be horizontal and vertical. So, you can do all these things. Now how to do this, once we Let’s look at my data here, if I go to control, my data is coming in this way, the complete data is not coming, then what do I do? Look from here, either I take the margin narrow from here and now go to control, then see more data is coming, first it is coming till the product name, now it is coming till the state or look here also there is an option of margin, you can click here also, you can do custom margin here, I make all the things zero, I definitely want
margin. Otherwise look, the space is gone from here by mistake, it was removed from me, we will go back to the custom margin, we will make everything zero 0 0 0 Row and OK, so look at this whole page, even a little bit of space in the whole page, now the data cannot come on the side, there is no sheet, there is only this much data, so that is why it has done till here, so here I have not left any margins at all, my data is coming in the whole page in the whole page because I have set it myself, customized it if you want. If you don’t customize then you have normal wide narrow. Now if I did wide then only this much data would have come. If I had done normal then this much data would have come in normal. If I had made narrow then I would have had data in this manner. But what I had done at that time was that I had customized everything, I had made it zero, so I make it zero for once , from here I made it zero, made this also zero and did OK, so my data has come in this manner. Okay, next we come to orientation, now let me explain the orientation a little creatively so that that thing can be remembered, now I am telling such a thing and if it is not remembered then what is the use, so just give me a second, now let me explain it to you, see, all of you must be taking selfies, taking pictures, so whenever you take a picture, you have held your phone in this way and now you are taking a picture, so which mode is this mode? Let’s say portrait mode. You are holding the phone in vertical form. The form in which your reels come and shorts come in which form does it come in portrait mode? Suppose I do it like this. Now if I am clicking your picture or clicking any picture, then in which mode am I clicking? Which mode is it in landscape mode? This is landscape mode. If you are giving a picture or youtube0 video, obviously most probably you will be watching it in this way. Right, by doing this in this way, then in which mode are you watching? In landscape mode, if you were watching it like this, then in which mode would you be watching? In portrait mode, then it is fine. Similarly, we can adjust our data, it is up to us, how do we want to print, click on the orientation, look at the portrait, the picture is also visible here, portrait or landscape, we have the data is big, we need to show it in landscape, then do it in landscape, if you want to do it in portrait, then do it in portrait, from here, let’s say for now, I control p, control p for a second, then I have the data coming in this way, okay, let’s say now I once from here I will also tell you from there, I will control p, then look, it is coming in landscape mode, look, now everything is coming after writing till the price. I was not getting the columns in landscape at that time because there are more columns at the top, so I should have done landscape. It was not coming in portrait. Well, you can change it from here also. I told you that all the settings are there here, you can do portrait from here too, it is not looking good in landscape, that’s why we do it here because here we have to do it. You get a direct preview of what is there outside, then we have to come here and check, this is giving me a better clarity, this is giving me a better feeling, my data is visible in it in a very good way, so I will keep it in landscape, okay, so here we learned the next thing, that is our landscape or portrait, which is the orientation, after that comes to you the size, you click on it, many types of things are already given, so either you Pick it directly from there that I have to pick this, I have to do this, I have to do a legal document , I have to make a statement or I want a3 size, I want a4 size, do this, I will definitely tell you a very basic way to understand it, whatever document we make, whatever documents we print, all of them are done in A4, okay and if there is no problem in understanding, then I will tell you that as this number decreases, I will say a3. a2 So that means the size is increasing, the size is increasing, okay and as soon as I say a5, a6, it is getting reduced, now let me give you an example, there are documents in a4, inside a3, your sketch which you make is so one page, the thick page comes, that is your a3 and there if you talk about the pages of the notebook then a5 will come and if it is a small notebook then a6 will come, okay then it is the reverse. It is said that as the number is decreasing, the size is increasing and as the number is increasing, the size is decreasing. Okay, so in this way you can see that the normal document that we prepare is within A4, rest it is totally up to you that in which you have to do it, then that is your size, after that comes the print area. Now think of it, you are in your data, here you control p for a second, by controlling p, the complete data comes and you are seeing. Yes, there are 52 pages coming below, this is such a huge data, but you say no, I don’t want all this data, I only need the state and that much data, I only need this much data, so select the amount of data you want, after that you go to the page layout, after going to the page layout, click on the drop down of print area and set the print area from here, this is done, now you go to control page, only that data will come which you have selected, rest of the data will not come, look below, it is one page. Earlier, how much was coming, 52 pages were coming, so what did you do here, set the print area, what did you do, set the print area, okay, if you do not want to set the print area, then you will go here Clear Print Area, now look, press control, it is complete, right here it is complete, if you want to set the print area, then you can set the print area from there, after that you have the option of breaks, what does it say that if you want to insert any break, then we have inserted break here. So look at this line, my data was here at that time, look here for a second, I had put a break in my data here, so my data is here. Till now everything else is coming below, in this way you can apply brakes, you remove them for once, then these brakes are gone, one second reset all page breaks, look at ours, I take it in normal view, our data has come in normal view, I go here, only after three headings, I insert the break here, okay, one line has come, now I control p, so see, two lines have to come on the initial, in everything else. The data is coming in two lines in the initial because I had put a page break. After two lines, only two lines are coming there, so you can break it as per your wish. Now you have put this break wrongly. So what can you do, go to the break point, reset all the pages, now do control p, then your data will come in the same way. Basically, suppose you have to put any type of break anywhere, you have to show the entries till here, you just go here and break it and then Press control and see that you have got so much data. If you want to leave then simply go to break and reset all pages. After that press control and see that all your data is coming in the normal way. So in this way, if you want, you can also insert a break. After that comes print tiles. Okay, sorry. After that comes background. Suppose you have this Excel file which is visible behind you, which is Excel like this. If you want to insert something in the entire Excel, it looks beautiful. If you want then you can put it, we don’t use it, but it is not used that much, but if anyone wants to do something creative, then you can do it. Let’s say I take the logo from here, I don’t have any pictures like this, we can take a picture from here, so see, this is how the logo will be placed, it is present in the entire workbook, it is present in the entire meaning sheet and if you want to remove it, then just delete the background and it will also be removed. Okay, after that comes the print tiles. Inside the print tiles, there are many settings which help you in printing in different ways, like if you click on the print tiles, then look inside the print tiles, there is the page, there is the margin, there is the header, there is the footer, there is the sheet. Let us know about the page. Suppose my data is not being adjusted. Now I want to adjust it, so I have two options. First of all, look at the orientation. I have done the scaling. You can also do the scaling here. Will read, if the option here has come inside it, then you can read there also, after that the print quality is OK, fine margins are there, which I have read, the header is the footer, which we will read and all the things inside the sheet sheet, whatever we have to change, look at what is there now, print area, print titles etc. You already know that turning on the grid lines means that if you want that whatever I want to print, the grid lines should be visible, then you can turn it on, you want that the black end. If the data is in white then you can turn it on. If you want draft quality or heading of row and column, then you can turn it on. We do not want that. Down the over over the down. The way you want to order the pages, you can do it. Now we have done the down the over, which is right and you do OK. Now look, you come by controlling p and see that the colors have gone from the heading because you had taken black and white as an option there. Now if you do not want black and white, then you can print it. Go to the tiles , go inside the sheet, turn off black and white and do OK. Now turn control panel and see that the colors have come back. It is totally up to you how you want. From here, go to the print tiles. If suppose you do not want the grid lines, you can remove them. Okay, now I will tell you one more thing that suppose you turn the control panel and here the heading is appearing on your first page but the heading is not appearing anywhere on the second page or third page. In such a case, you If you get worried about not being able to see the data, then in such a case, you can get your heading repeated again and again here. You will go to the print tiles and look inside the same sheet. It is written here, ‘Row to repeat at top’ or ‘Column to repeat at the bottom’. There is nothing on the left like if I want to repeat, then I will not take that. If your data is horizontal then you can take it. Right now our data is vertical, so we need row repeat. We have to do this, we will select it, select it and do OK. Now look, now you control p, after that look, you go to any page, look, I look below, I am on page 20, 21 , but all your headings are appearing in every page, so this In this way, you can put any heading you want to put in every page. If you want to remove the heading, then go to the print tile in the same way and remove it and do OK. Now when you control p, your heading is no longer coming here. If you want to put it, then you can go and add it. Okay, here you guys have learned this setting, now we are left with two settings of the page which are Chch is page which we will learn inside scaling and from here we will Okay, so now let us learn both of these things. First of all, let us learn our header footer . What are header footers? Suppose, let’s take a page here. Here we have taken a page and inside the page you will see that there may be a name of your company at the top or anything else you want in every page. If you want, you can write the page number at the bottom. So what we write above is what we call header which we write in the space above. And what we write in the space below, we call it footer, so it is okay, you can also customize your header footer inside your document, so how will it be, like in the page layout, first I go to my data, it can be in two ways, either I can go to the print tiles and from here I can go to the header footer and write here. Ah, either I can choose from here what I want and or else I can write a custom header here, I want it in the center, I want it in the left, I want it in the left. I want it on the right. I want it on the right. I want it in the center. Suppose I want to write Accounts Expert. I wrote Accounts Expert and OK. And here in the footer, I want to write pages. So look, I will not do custom footer, I will take pages from here. Page one, page two, page one. Took and I have given OK. Now I will take a preview tomorrow. I will do a p here just because we don’t have space. Look, page three is also being written and accounts export is also coming on top. So let’s do one thing, this is the margin and we keep it narrow, so see here Accounts Expert is written below. If you are going to page one next, then Accounts Expert is remaining as it is because we had customized it and the pages are going as you are moving. Look, it is going on in every page of yours. Okay, you can do it in this way. If you want to customize the footer, you can do it. As of now, Accounts Expert is visible in the middle, if you click left and right. If you want, you can do it from there itself, there was one way, see what is the second way, you get different views here, you will also get it in the View tab and here also, you go to the page layout view and directly from here, if you want, you can write something else, like let me say here, I write Accounts Expert in small letters in short, earlier it was written there or wait, I write Accounts Expert Accounts Expert app.com, which is our website, okay. We wrote this and entered it and after that I have come to the normal view. Now I did control p, so look, now above here the account is written as expert.com which is a website and see it is being written in every page. Okay, so in this way you have two ways. Either you can write directly by going to the page layout view or you can go to the page layout and see that the page layout is the same and this is also the page layout, so the thing is the same but as per your choice, what do you remember? What do you want to use, then you can either do the page layout from here or go to the print tiles and customize it by going to the header footer here. You see it visible here. If suppose you want to remove it, now you say that you want to remove it, then the methods of removal are the same. Either go to Easy Out there and remove it from there or remove it from here, then they will be removed. Okay, I will keep it here now, so here we have done the whole group of people with page setup, now the thing is. Now comes scale to fit. Suppose I control p. So look here, 64 pages are being made. I don’t want it in 64 pages. I want it in 50 pages. Look, to do it in 50 pages. There is anything to be done in 50 pages. Look, what is the maximum that can happen? One, I can reduce its margin. Okay, I don’t want to reduce the margin because the data has to be shown in a small way. So what can I do after that, which is the data, the size of my data. If I can reduce the size, then how will I know how much to reduce the size? Look, I have two options either I keep reducing the size myself, like I kept reducing the size in this way, it is okay and after that now if I control it, then it will be more. It is able to take entries. Look, my data has become smaller. Now it is able to take more entries. Is it okay or what can I do like custom scaling? I will tell you, wait for a second, click on it here, the same window comes, you come here, either I told it what size to take, I don’t want to tell it the size, I don’t want to tell it the size, I keep it at 100, just keep it at 100 for a second, I I want to tell you how many pages I need to fit in, I need it in 50 pages, now you do it, okay, now according to you, he has taken 62 because he knows because I told him that brother, I need it in 50 pages, now brother, you see, after how many pages you need to do it, will you give me the correct answer, if you give me the correct answer, then now it is 50 pages for me in 20 pages, okay, because we had made the height wise, we fit in two pages. Will do one second one and wide by okay t and from here we will do 25 and okay let’s see once let’s look at it now it has come to 50 pages and it did it comfortably and what it has done is scaling on 81 has shown that whatever multiple we get na I took the multiple that the width of two pages and the height of it in 25 pages adjust it in this way you can adjust it from here also you can adjust it from here also You can do this or go to the print tiles and from there you can also do the page settings from here. You have all the options from where you have to do it. It’s totally up to you. After that you get grade line views and print view. If you want, you can turn it off or turn it on. You will see the same according to whether you have put borders or not. If you have not put borders, let’s say Control A, I do Alt H B A, I do Control A, Alt H B A, I did one second. So my data is gone, even though I am on control, see grid lines are coming, I have removed them then why grid lines are coming then why should it not come because in our page layout the grid line is on, now I have removed it, now I press control, then see now grid lines are not coming, if I turn on these here, now I press control, then see now grid lines are coming, so even if you have not put a border, turn on grid lines, that border kind of off you. It will be visible okay, same with the heading, if it is in view, if I have removed it, then press control, it has come in this way, now the heading is not visible to you, whatever heading comes above, you turn it on, these headings have come, okay, bring forward etc., all these things are the same, we have covered the main ones in the print settings here, now what we are going to do next is that we will do the formula just like the formula, so this one. We are not going to tap the tab. Now what we will tap will be the review tap and then we will tap the view. As its name is, its work is basically giving you review by doing things and helping you in doing things. The first one comes for spelling. Let’s say I take some data here, let’s take a small data like I took this much ta, copied it, brought it here and pasted it and just I did it like this, okay, control A, did Alt OCA, now assume. Take, I make some spelling mistake in electronic, removed this in fashion, removed this in fashion, okay now suppose I want to get it checked, I took this and after that press f7, either press f7 or click on spelling, the thing is the same and it is giving me a suggestion here that look, you wanted to write electronic here, did you write it wrong or wanted to write electric or wanted to write electronics or wanted to write electronica. I remember yes I had to write electronic so now you chose this one. After that see, you have the option Ignore once or everywhere if there is a mistake then ignore all but I don’t want to ignore it, I have to change it. Now the question comes whether the same mistake is still happening somewhere else too. So suppose we do one thing only at one place, I do it here at the same place, copy it, do it here too, do it here too, okay look now, selected the data, pressed f7, now it is saying ‘Electronic Aana’. Okay, if I ignore the one here, then you have understood the thing. If you accept that I make a change here, if I make a change, then it is fixed here, it has not happened in other places, it has not happened in other places, it is showing for other places, if I do change all, then it has been changed everywhere, okay, now it goes to the next page until it is clear that everything is there. The spelling is correct, it will keep telling further, it is saying here, do you want fashion, yes, I want change all, so it was everywhere, now it is saying spell check complete, you are good to go, now you can go, it is absolutely correct, so whenever you feel that your spelling is a mistake, you can check your spellings, it will suggest you that it is a spelling mistake and now you can correct it, inside the complete data, after that comes to you Thesis What is the thesis? It is a synonym in a way, suppose you have written a word, you have written answer and answer is such a basic thing, don’t you want me to write some advanced word for it, I will write answer here and will search for it, that is why I told you that you can call answer as response, you can also say reply, you can also say reaction, you can also say resolution statistics, you click on this, how many words are there inside this workbook, first look inside the workbook statistics. First of all it is telling about the current sheet, which sheet is open, about that sheet, the end of the sheet is g17, the cell with the data is 39, the tables are zero, the formula row is Sheets four, the cell with the data is that many cells and after that it is telling about the workbook, so whenever you want to know anything about your workbook, you can go for the workbook statistics, after that comes to you, check accessibility, now what is good and what is bad inside my report. It is better for me to search for a person to know this than I ask Excel itself to tell me what is better or not so I will click on check accessibility here so it told me here so what is it telling me hard to read text contrast so where is it saying here it is difficult to read okay so here it will suggest you current text color is hard to see consider a high contrast color so That the text is clearly visible because here if I had made dark green color here then it would have become more visible okay like I have crossed it out okay sorry we will go to the review to check accessibility okay so this is our clear missing all the text so see here the text is missing so it is telling me okay after that our rest of the things it is telling me okay the default sheet name is saying there are three sheets which have the default sheet name so you are seeing. If you don’t give the names of the sheets , then we won’t know which sheet depicts what, what does it tell, so in this way it has checked and told me and it will make me correct all the things one by one so that the report I make is at least a little better, doesn’t it help me, that is your check Accessibility Translate is normal, we do not use New comment Add a comment which is the same thing that we learned from shift f2 and then notes Notes: You have already learned where we had added the protect sheet. Here we had protected the sheet inside the format inside the home tab. The same protect sheet is now inside the review. There are so many options that they are found in many tabs, some will be found in the home tab too and some will be found in other tabs too. If we do the same work then there is no problem in that. We have done hide ink. Suppose I am using pe ink here, I have used pe ink here, anything. Ink has been used. Now suppose I want to remove it, then it gets hidden. Hide all ink on sheet or delete all ink on workbook. It gets deleted from the entire workbook. It gets deleted from this sheet or it gets hidden. If I delete from the sheet, then I deleted it from the sheet. Okay, so here we have completed our review tab. I am doing a little tab. If you are also like me, then I have completed my review tab. While practicing, you want to write. I use the pen tab. If you also want to do the same, then I am telling you for that. See, this prop is your pen, there is a brush whose thickness you can increase or decrease, so you can do this normally, like I am writing, you can write anything in this way, okay, after that you also get this pen, this eraser comes with you with which you can erase anything, after that this marker comes. With which you can highlight anything, after that suppose you want to delete the whole thing, then you select it like this, you can move it here and there and can also delete it, after that this arrow comes. Suppose you want to use the arrow instead of the pen, then you do the arrow. If you do not select the arrow, then it remains only a pen, after that comes to you Ink to Shape, so what will you do in Ink to Shape? Suppose you have created a shape like this. After rounding and then in Ink to Shape, I select it for a second and then I go to Ink to Shape, then see it has been converted to shape and it has literally been converted to shape, you click on it, see that the shape format will come, I will make another one and tell you like I have made it here in this way, now I will select it first because my selection will be from this and after that I will click on Ink to Shape, then this is my right. The angle triangle has been formed and now let’s say here I select it with arrows, then see the shape format comes here. Okay, ink to math. Just like we had written the equation, it is exactly the same that you can write the equation here, which we have learned in the equation. Replay of these, let’s say here I have done Tanu single here, anything like this, I have done anything like this and I want to see the ink spread, so look like I have moved my ink in this way. This has come in the format of video, okay, I erase it and okay, we can also delete it, so this was your draw tap, it was very easy, I thought that if you use it, then you should give an overview for once, so this was our draw tab, now we have moved towards our view tab, but still there is one thing left in it, so that is for that one thing, so we will definitely see it, rest I will tell you the most in the view tab. First you get the views: Normal Page Break View, Page Layout, Custom View, then you get this thing from here, so you do not need to worry about going there, you will go to the View tab, then you will see that the work is being done in an easy way, we should do it in an easy way only, so you can see it directly from here, after that, Grid Lines, lad, all the grid lines I was turning on and off till now, I was doing it with the shortcut key T, Alt , you can do it from here. You can also turn it off. Look, I had turned it off for now. Now it has turned on. Do you want to remove the formula bar? Remove the formula bar. Do you want to remove the grade line. Do you want to remove the grade line? Click on these three dots and do the Always Show ribbon here, now the ribbon has come back. Now from here you can turn off the grid lines and the formula bar and also the heading, so in this way, if you want, you can show the entire data on the entire screen, you can also make changes for the ribbon, you can remove the grid lines, remove the formula bar, remove the heading, okay, after that you get the zoom option, so you can use the zoom option. It is better if you explore from here itself, then you will click here, see here, you have to do 100%, 100%, if you want to zoom, then this list has come, if you have to zoom a lot, then you have to click on this, then it is in this way, it is better if you explore directly from here, if you want that list, then click on this, then this list will also come, so you do not need to waste your time by going to the view tab. You can do it directly from here, after that comes a new window. Suppose, the way I taught you, inside the format for the sheet, inside the home, you can copy it from here, then as it is, a sheet will be created. Similarly, if you want, as it is, a workbook will be created. Now our workbook or insert tab is basic. If suppose I make a new window, then the insert tab has come to basic two. Now suppose I want to get it arranged. So I have arranged all, how do you want to arrange it? Horizontal Vertical, I want to arrange it vertically. Okay, so look, all the files that were open have been arranged vertically in this manner. I did not want to arrange in this manner. It’s OK, I did not want so many files. Where were we, we were here. Okay, and we have arranged all the files for once, so in this way you can arrange . Only after this, you will get this view side by side, which view do you want with this, which class do you want with this, so these two views have come, now there are a lot of files synchronizing, if I do this, view side by side, due to there being a lot of files, this is not happening right now, you can also see it in the same way in the other wise, by moving here and there, OK, switch window, switch window, now we are free. First of all, let’s see what is the switch window? Suppose, I can directly jump to any file from here, but if I am confused from there, then I can see it directly from here. Like, if I want to go to Insert Basic, then I have come here. Okay, I right clicked on it, it came completely. After that comes Freeze Pin. What does Freeze Pin do? If you see, now I go down, my heading is not visible, so I am not able to see which thing is which, so if I want to freeze my heading, so how can I do that, whatever you want to freeze, you select the area below it, after that you go to the freeze pane and do the freeze pane, after that see, okay, we have selected the area wrong, we said okay, unfreeze from here and here, come here, from here and after that you come here, okay, now do the freeze pane, freeze pane, then see, this is how your data is being done, okay, directly here too and you If you want to unfreeze , then unfreeze your beans will also be done from here itself. Okay, at the same time, you have the option here, freeze top row directly. Even if you do this, it will become the top row. You do not need to select anything. Suppose you want to freeze the first column, then you see the top row is also there. If you go here and there, your date will remain as it is so that you can see this date is this and the rest of the things will remain like this. You have to unfreeze. Unfreeze it, okay, so in this way you can see your data, so here we have completed our view tab, now what we will do, let’s see what we will do now, I will teach one formula, I will teach two to three formulas that if you are looking at the data, then how are these data created, if you want to learn this, then now you can learn this in a very accurate way. See, first of all, what do we need, first of all, we should know this. Suppose I want the serial number, then I have given the serial number. After that I wrote the number , I want a party name, so I wrote the party name, after that, suppose you want any amount, then write the quantity, write the quantity, after that you want the rate, you write the rate, after that you want the amount, you write the amount, I make one data, I make another data and tell you, let’s make two data. Okay, what can you do for serial number, normally you will write serial number and just drag it as much as you want serial. You need a number, here you can take 10 serial numbers, which is enough and take one more, okay, we are making 10 entries for the party name, now let me tell you for the party name, you can use Chat JPT, all two here too, you can integrate your AI but we will do that later, but now we will use Chat JPT, what will you do, go to your account, write Chat JPT here, you will enter, after that you will You will go to the official Chatpati from open, you will click on it and here without logging in, you can do whatever you want with it, you will tell him give me 10 random Indian business names, then he will create it and give it to you and now you can copy it, okay copied and you go to your data here, after that paste it here, then you have these names, quantity for quantity and rate, amount for amount, then this will come quantity to rate. But for quantity * rate, if you need some values here, then here we will apply a formula, what is the formula? One is Rand formula, all the formulas are Rand, all the formulas are random, okay, what is random now, we will apply the random formula equals to rand between one, so let me explain the formula to you, first let’s do one thing, Rand formula, what does Rand formula do? It gives a random number between one and one, put rand formula, tab it, what is it saying, I just don’t want anything, I just turn off the parentheses, turn off the parenthes, hit enter, then look, it will give a random number, okay, what does rand between do? Equals to rand between tab, it asks you, in between which range do you want the number, like I want a number between 100 to 200, so I asked what is bottom, what is 100 up. Top what is 200 pence of enter so it gave me the middle of that now you notice this changed rand formula whenever you apply it or do any activity the whole formula changes like suppose I have written a here it has changed write anything here d whatever I am doing this will keep on changing so this is a draw back of it but I will also teach you how to correct it okay so first we rand You will fill your data here using ‘Between’, after that I will teach you another formula. ‘Between’ tab, after that at the bottom you have to write which is the quantity, neither 500 is good, you can write 50 to 150, Pens of Enter, so here we have written the quantity, what can we do in the rate, Equals to Round, ‘Between’ tab, after that at the bottom, take 1000 in the highest. Take 5000, turn off the pens and enter it and double tap here. Here you can put any formula of yours. If you put the formula here and just check then you have created the data here. Now what is its biggest draw back is that it will keep on changing, so what will you do to ensure that it does not change. Select all the data, select both of them, do Control C and go to the same place where it is, do not go anywhere else, do Control Alt v at this place and in which Now change it, this is the formula, convert it into values and do OK, then see that now the values are written here and the values do not change, the formula changes because there is a reference in it, so now it will not change. Now you can do whatever you want, after that you can do whatever formatting you want in it. If you do not feel like doing formatting, simply press Alt O A. This is a shortcut key of your auto formatting. Where you can use any key and give OK, its formatting is done, you just correct its alignment, then look, you have data ready, you get worried like this, let’s create another data, here I will take the rest from here, I have taken this thing, instead of party name, I will take student name, okay and here I want student name, here we will call only four GPTs, give random 10 Indian names. With first and last name, okay, we have entered and it will give us, okay copy it from here, come here and paste it, so it comes to us, now we will write here Hindi, here we will write English here, we will write maths here, we will write science here, we will write total here, okay now look, I need marks here, I know I need 10 rows, 10 rows have to be filled, four columns have to be filled, total, so I will get it later, so here we will put the formula. We will tap the array, see how much is required per day, how much data is required, 10 is required, 10 entries are required, then write 10, how many comma columns are required, Hindi, English, Math Science, four columns are required, four commas are minimum, if there are marks then minimum can be zero, maximum can be 100, minimum row can be maximum 100, if you want to keep some more minimum maximum then you can keep comma, now it is asking for integer, see if you want that Decimal number will also work in the result, so put false for me, but if you want it or not, I don’t want decimal number to work, then put true that I should get complete integer, then it is totally up to you, what do you want, I have to do true because I want complete number, I turned off the parens and entered, then look, it came in one go, but there is a problem with it, do anything, if there is a change, then there should be no change, what did we think for that, what did we do to select this data? We will do Control C, we will do Control Alt v, we will enter, and see, in this way your data has now been converted into values, now you do not have to do anything, here you press Alt equal to 2, here it comes Control A, do Alt o A, press A here, let’s say I want this formatting, I have done the formatting, okay, your data is completely prepared, so in this way we prepare the data for ourselves, now we will enter our advanced formula. Let’s move towards advanced formula. First of all, I am going to take the formula that we have. If I talk about ifs, then look, we have done no ifs. Okay, so now we are talking about ifs. What is ifs? What is ifs? It is the one where there is multiple condition. When we talked about ifs, what did we clearly write when we talked about ifs that brother, single condition is single. We had written the condition, just like when we talk about ifs, we have this plural word, so now we have a multiple condition, now it can be any multiple, which is more than one, okay, so here we go with a normal scenario like now see, here the rating is given and here the name of the party is given, so what is inside this scenario, we take two things because there is more than one. We have to see the condition that if the rating of a person is below three or equal to three then we call him good and if he If it is above three, then what do we call it? We say excellent. Okay, we can keep these two things that if it is like this, then this is this, if it is like that, then this is the condition here, so what can we do here, we can put ifs formula, ifs tab, okay, this thing, no, we can do more than one, just because now you have made only a single condition, so now we do with two conditions, okay, so what will we apply logical test here. What logical test will be applied, who has to be checked, who has to be checked, you see these things, no, I have already made you know that now all the terms will come, you have already done the logical test, now you do not have to do it again, now you have understood it, so we have to check the rating, we have checked the rating, what have to be checked, is it greater than equal to 3, what if it is greater than equal to 3, then first let us take the Smollett one. Is it equal to 3 then what do we have to write that it is good and if this rating is greater than 3 then what do we have to write that it is excellent. The value of true value false does not come in it. It just has to be told directly in it that write this, then see it has come in good, you double tap, see it is five, I make it four, then see it has come in excellent, I make it six, that’s it. If I give a five, then see if it comes in excellent, then in this way you can do these things. If suppose you have multiple conditions, how will you do it in this way, then you may have to apply more look ups, you may have to apply Will tell, okay, I take it like this and delete it, okay, I had prepared this report, on this side, I have taken the names of all the parties, on this side, I have taken January, February, March, this is my data, inside which I have a look, let me tell you, date, month, name, category, product name, everything is okay, what do I have to do now, I want to know the total of the particular party, right now the same party must have bought many times, so I want to know in January. How much did you buy in February, how much did you buy in March and there is date and month written next to it, so I can find out this too, so here generally when it comes to sums, I take a sheet here. See, when we talked about sum if, if you remember, okay, we saw that you had a sheet with 10000 entries given by your manager, in which North, North East, West South entries were given, so you sum them. Now the same manager is saying to you that yes, it is okay that you have taken out North, now in North also tell me how much in January, how much in February, how much in March, how much in June, now he had single condition in North and put one more condition, how much in January, how much in February, so now what have you got, multiple conditions have become multiple conditions, so there are multiple conditions, so it seems ifs, that is why we will put even ifs, okay even. If you apply Ifs then you get the same things. See Equals to Sum Ifs tap, what comes out of that, Sum Range Sum Range, what to sum, Criteria Range, Criteria Range One, Criteria One. Look , let me tell you a little difference for once, so that you can understand well, here we will first put Sum F. Sum F, here was our range Criteria and here was our Sum Range, okay and here what will we do, Equals to Sum Fff, now this What is taking even range criteria range one criterion neither then criterion range two criteria two and so on because if you can take more than one then tell me one thing tell me one thing let me first ask what is this range in which you look for so here what is the criterion range do you look for the criteria no there is more than one criterion here so I have written criterion one and here I have written criterion range one. It is the same here, there was only one, so there was no need to specify whether there is one or two. Here the specification is done only because there is more than one criteria here, so here I wrote criterion one, here I made the criteria range one, here also you used to select the range first and then select the criteria, here also you are selecting the range first and then You will select the range of criteria, then a criteria of the same will come, okay, here the sum range was given, it was given in the last place, here you have given the sum range earlier, the only difference is that everything else is the same, now we will put the sum ifs, earlier I have shown you the data, we will put the sum ifs here, let’s do the data, yes, okay, we will do the sums, let me go here for once and I will put this data in one go or else one. Let’s put it in both the bars one by one, first find out the answer for one time, then find out the whole answer together because cell referencing, now we have got the hang of it, now we are talking about advanced things, so equals to sum, ifs tab, sum range, we need the sum range in our data, obviously we will take the sum of sales price, we have taken the comma, after that look at this formula, read the criteria range, one criteria, what is the names, is the names of the names. If you are searching for the names then in which name then you have taken the named range, okay comma, what is the criteria, what is the criteria, you go here, Bharat Innovation is in even F, comma, after that, criteria range two, now you have January, February, March, this was also your condition, so now you will go here and where will you get to see this, whatever you have made for this month, you got this, after that you have f2, okay, don’t fix it now, comma, after that you have this. Here, who has to be checked, I have to check January, enter two answers, it may not be of Bharat Innovation, it is good, this is the way we enter this data, now what is it, I tell you how to calculate complete, in this there may be only zero answer, no sale was done in January, that is why it is here, then I delete it from here, they will sum the complete of complete, if that means we will tab all the completes, will give the sum range here. What will come, we have to take our amount, so from here we will take the sale price, this is the entire amount taken, tell me one thing, the even range is going to be the same for all, did we do this thing in Even F also, yes, it is going to be the same for all, fix it with f4, fix a comma after that, what is the criteria range one, what is your name, then what will be the range, there will be a column with its name, we have taken the name, is it going to be the same for all, with f4, it is going to be the same? Fix comma after that, if your criteria comes then what is the criteria? Whatever you are going to search, you are going to search all these names, na select all of them in one turn, comma after that, second, what are you going to search, this is January February, so first of all you have to take the range, then you will go inside your data, you will take the range from here, from where will you get this monthly range, have you selected this, is it going to be the same for all? It is going to be the same , fix it with f4, do the comma, I think, okay, I think, I will tell you later, okay, now what criteria do you have to take, so this is all in one go, if you want the answers of January, February, March, then select all of them, do not take the total till December, enter the complete answer till December, our data was such that selective sale was going on, so see, the entire sheet has been filled in this manner, so if you also want, then it is in this manner. Let’s see what we have applied, you may think that I have done it very fast, but if you apply, then do it very slowly with patience, reading each and every thing and understanding each and every thing. I will once again revise it to see what I did. First of all, I had to sum the range, so whose sum had to be done, I had to sum the amount inside my main sheet, Criteria Range, Criteria Range, what was to be taken, brother, I had to see according to my party name. Where will I find the party name? Inside the party name, in the main data, there is criterion one which we are looking for, criterion two in our months and criterion two which is inside our report, so in this way we have applied this formula and have prepared our sheet. Through the formula, if you were to apply the filter yourself, how much time would it have taken, then here you can create it directly, so here we have completed all the ifs. Well, there is a very small formula which is left with us, which is sub total, so we would like to see it further and see what is the benefit of sub total. I just want to tell you that, so I do one thing, I take a little data from here, let’s just take this much, okay, we will copy and paste it here separately, let’s do old OC. Now what do I do, I sum here. To do this, what do I have to do here? To make even, what do I have to do here? Tell me, I have to do alt equal to. I made alt equal to enter, so here I have got even. I do a little formatting on it. Okay, here I have got even. Now what do I do here? With control shift A, I apply a filter here. After applying the filter, I do any filter. I have to check the decor, so I did the decor and OK. So now I am not getting even here, then it is a big problem, so what do we do in such a case, we put sub total here, instead of sum, whenever we work, we should use sub total, what benefit does sub total give us, put sub total, do the tab, see what sub total says, it has a lot of options, so you can use any one in it, what do we have to do now, we have to sum, how much is the sum, is it nine pe, or I go like this. Should I tab or directly write nine like this, comma after that is sum like the formula of sum seems to be reference one reference to that means he is asking for the number then you will give the range from here, you will enter then your total will come, now you see, press control shift A, after that you take dicker from here and do ok, then see now it will show you the sum of whatever you want to sum, you can do car excrement from here, do ok then see it will show the sum. So this was your sub total formula which helps you a lot, so whenever you are working on any of your big data, you know that I have to apply a filter on it, later if I want to check the total then apply sub total instead of normal sum and it will give you a better result, so here we have completed our sub total formula. It is about advanced formula and not about look up. How can it be like this, what we are doing now. They are going to do their look up formula, what are they going to do? Look up formula is ok, look up formula, now why did I say this, so let me tell you its logic too. Look, we do three formulas, we do look up, A is look up and Bring it, search it, bring it, now you will say, what does this mean? I don’t even understand it. Suppose this is your manager. The manager has a complete data in which there are lakhs of entries. Now the manager has selected you out of 1 lakh entries. He has given you this and here he has made a report in which there are 100 entries in it and has told you to extract the data of these entries and give it to me. Take this data of 1 lakh entries. Take this from inside it. There are 100 entries, take them out and give them the specifications. Take out these 100 entries and give me these 100 entries. Will you apply a filter or not? Will you find out from there? No, this is a very time consuming process. So, what do you do? Do you use the look up formula? What will the look up formula do for you? We will go inside this data and will give you the answer of these 100 entries from this data. Okay, so now you understand this. If I talk about lookup formula in general, then how does lookup formula help you? If you want to extract some small information from big data and you want to extract some information from big data, then lookup formula is used. Now you will say that ma’am, lookup formula is used, so what is this and lookup H lookup And look up then comes to us A look up and then comes to us What is horizontal data? Do you remember I had made a special on you in which you were transposing the data, then the horizontal data had come, your that is your horizontal data is fine and single access data, why are we saying that, we will understand further, now suppose you have understood, why is it called v look up, why is it called h look up, both the formulas are the same, I do it like this, both the formulas are the same, if v lookup comes When I went, h lookup came. The only method is that when the data is vertical then apply v look up and when the data is horizontal then apply h look up. Now I am talking about these two, so h look should not feel left out, it should feel the most modernized. Why should it feel? One, x look up is a new formula, it is not in every version, it is in the versions after 2019 and the x look up is optional. Whose alternative is v for look up and h for look up, it is okay if you don’t know v look up, h look up doesn’t come, no problem, x look up comes, all the work will be done, if v look up comes and the rest don’t come, then there is a problem because h look up will not happen, h look up comes, even if v look up does not come, there is a problem, but if The same will be useful, this is an alternative and I would say it is an easy alternative if you have not learned V look up. Suppose you are in an interview and in his system only V look up works. Let’s see, I am going with a scenario that this is your big data or this big data with lakhs of entries, party name is written here, category is written here or product name is written here, region is written here, contact number is written here, is it okay in some way, this is your A column, B column, C column, D column, E column is okay and now you have to find the data inside it, so here you are making a report inside which the first name is written Raju, now you have to bring its contact details, what should you bring? If you have to bring the contact details, then basically you have to find Raju, who do you have to find, if you want to find Raju, then how does the look up formula work? When suppose this data, suppose I am creating a dummy data here, inside this data, this one here, I do not want to spoil anything, so I am creating it here. Suppose Raju is standing here, that means there is a person standing here who has to find Raju. Okay, so he should know that he is searching for Raju. If I I will not tell him that I need Raju’s contact details. I need Raju’s contact details. Will he search ? That’s why whenever they start the formula, they should know who they are looking for. Whom we are looking for, we call it look up value. What do we call look up value look up? What do you call look up value? Look up means whom to search for, go and bring whom to bring, that value, Raju is the look up value when your formula is started. If that person goes inside and searches, then he should know in advance that he should keep roaming around for a while, then you will tell him that wait, I had to find Raju, it will not happen like this, so when he starts the formula, right from the beginning, he should know what is the look up value, if we want to find Raju, then from here itself, our first question arises, what comes out, I write down here, the first question that comes out is that our look up value is extreme. It should be on the left because look, there is vertical data, so first it will go to the first column, first it will go to A. How do you read AB, CD, this is how you read, that’s how you check, isn’t it a systemic way? Check B first, then check C, then check A, then check G, then check G. Don’t do it like this. It will go to the first column, then to the second column, then to the third column, then to the fourth column, then to the fifth column. He will go and then he will find out, oh here is the contact details and I wanted the contact details from here and that too of Raju, he will find Raju here only, this Raju is here and after that he will go and check the contact details in each and every column, then the first requirement is that your look up value should be in the extreme left, if your look off value is not in the extreme left, because see, if any person starts searching for something. If you do it, it will go left to right, it will go left to right, you are going A B C D, if you are looking at yourself then you are going left to right, then if your look up value is not left to right, if your look up value is not in the extreme left, then your look up will never give the answer and mainly people make the same mistake. They know how to apply V lookup but they do not understand the parts of V lookup, that is why. If it doesn’t work then you understand its meaning now. If you apply it then you will understand better. Second second comes to you, what is Ajman? No duplicate look of value. Now let’s say no in this. No duplicate data. Data can be duplicate. Look up value should not be duplicate. Meaning if I say there are two Raju’s then you will not get confused about which Raju either tell him in a simple way Raju Sharma Raju’s anything but if you tell him only two same person’s name is in it then get confused. This will happen, then it will bring wrong data, that is why the look up value should not be duplicate. If the subsequent data is duplicate, then it will work. Look up value should not be duplicate. These two conditions are there. If these two conditions are satisfied, then you can apply V Look Up on that data. It will bring you the answer and give you the answer. Now see what all the things are there inside V Look Up. Now V Look Up works like this, now I will tell you more about the look up. Here, if A look up happens, A look up happens, in v look up, what does it do? It is checking each column. In H look up, it will just go to each column and check. It will go to the first row, then it will go to the second row, then it will go to the third row, then it will go to the fourth row. So the movement here is from up to down. Okay, this is the only difference, it is the same ajman, that is everything. Now let me tell you both the formulas here like what is the Equals to v look up tab. Look up value table array column index number and range look up So let’s write it and after that tell you like here we look up what is coming inside it look up value table array what is coming after that column index number and what comes after that after the column index number your true or false ok I will also tell you the look up h look up also here and tell you by writing h what is the meaning of look up h look up look up value now you will be able to understand the difference in this. Look up table array raw index number and true and false. Now see the difference between these two. Look up value. Look up value. Whom to search? Whom to search? So whom did we have to search there? If we had to search Raju, then Raju is yours. Look up value is the table array in which we have to search and in this we give the entire table so to search in which we do not give any specific thing. Like within the range, Pressa easily used to say, search in the party name, it is not there. If you give the complete data in which you want to search then the complete data is complete data but remember that the range should be on the extreme left which is your look up value. This is what I told you. Look at the column index number. In V Lookup, it checks in each and every column, hence the column is the index number. Inside it is the raw index number. What is the difference between the two, in which the answer is written, the column with the answer or the raw number and you tell this number by counting yourself and After that you get True or False True. You use Approximate to match whether you want an approximate answer or not. We will put False because we need an exact answer. Okay, now let’s go ahead and see if you understand. I will look at our data first. Name is Category. Product Name is Region. City is everything. After that you come here to v look up. Here we will apply the formula for Harmony Foods is equal to two. v Look up tab one second I had to zoom it a little bit here equals to v look up tab look up value Harmony Foods are looking for comma table array table array is where we have to tell all the data to it so you take your data and remember whenever in the table array, your look up value should be in the extreme left, there is no look up value in the extreme left because he will start looking from the left, your look up value will not be found in the left. And if it will not give you the answer, then from here on the extreme left our look up value, we have selected the data, comma, after that it says the column index number, what answer do we want, do we need a category, count the category, on the first page comes the name, on the second page comes the category, then what is your column index number, so you have taken two, comma, after that, what do you have to do, should I put true or false, we will get the exact match from true. If we want the answer then we will take the exact answer, tap on it and close it from here and enter, then see our answer has come here, okay now I will tell you by adding one more thing in it like I have added the serial number here, serial number and here I do one and here I have done this and made it a fill series, I take this and go to home. I took this format post, I clicked on it, once again and I am here to tell you that we look up, which is the mistake that people generally make and after that they say we look up doesn’t seem to look, we look up tab look up value look up value, we have to search this: comma table array table array, take the table array, they take it from the serial number, so you take it from the serial number, now tell me one thing, is your look up value in the most extreme left or not? That’s why the answer will not come, I am telling myself right now, the answer will not come, but let’s look at the column index number. First of all, there is the serial number. One second number is the name. On the third number, there is the category. If you want a category, then you will write three, comma, after that, false tab. Panis of enter. The answer will not come. Will A not come? Now the answer will come. Look at the answer. Equals to V. Look up tab. Look up value. Look up value. You have to search for a value. We are here. Okay sorry, had to take a look up value, I put back equals to v look up tab look up value, we took the look up value, comma, after that we will take the table array, table array, we have to take it here, now we cannot take the table array from here, what will we do, we will take it from here because what we need is in the extreme left, whatever look up value we need in the extreme left, we have searched from here, comma, after that now we will take our column index number, then the column index number. Now should I write two or should I write three because there is also a serial number, so we always have to count from where the range starts. Now where does our range start, it starts with the name, so the name is the and the category is the two. Whichever range you give, it seems to be the same, its data does not know the data before and after it, so that is why if you write two from here, then write two directly here, make a comma, do false, tap on the pencil. Turn it off and enter, you will get the answer. Okay, understand. Now suppose you can drag this. If you drag, will the answer come? What if the wrong answer has come? This is the wrong answer for you. Okay, so how will you bring the correct answer. To get the correct answer, see, we need the product name here. If I am doing it here, then it is 2 to 2, so ours was that, 2 is our category, so this is this . How to fetch the answer because it has look up value a2 and here it has taken our look up value b2, it has taken the look up value fashion, so what look up value is our fashion, otherwise you cannot do this, so now if suppose I have to do something simultaneously, then how can I do it, so either I have this method that I keep changing the column index number for each one, three for this, four for this, five for that, so this is a time consuming process. How can I put equals to we look up tab look up value comma, after that we will take the table array table array, now we will take it by name only, you know why we are taking it by name and whether the table array is going to be the same for all or not, then we will fix it with f4, comma, now tell me one thing , what answers do I need in the column index number, what answers do I need, I need category, product name, region, city, state, meaning if I count again. If I start doing 2 3 4 5 6 7, I want the answer till seven, then should I do it one by one because I write two manually and it is fixed, so when I drag, there is not even three in place of two because it is fixed, so what will you do in such a case? 7 Turn off the curly brackets, after that, remove the comma, remove the tub, turn off the parenthes, enter, your answer will come in one go, it is correct, see how correct it is, a2 is its look up value, a2 is its look up value, a2 is its look up value, ok, I still have one complaint from here that I had not kept this or that, so if you want, you can fix it, what can I do now ? I select it and just drag it over here, then see, it will give me all the answers, okay, this was one method, but this method with curly brackets does not work in the old versions, so in such a case, you can put a column formula here, what can you put a column formula, if I delete it here, then I tell here, the column formula will appear here, equals to and look up tab, look a value look a. Value taken comma table array will take table array you took and it is going to be same for all so fixed it with f4 now look column index number we cannot take curly brackets but We have to take something like this that if it starts counting automatically, then we will put the column formula here, then what will we do in the Column Formula tab, after that, if we want to count from here, then we will come to our V Lookup and wherever it is, then we have to take it, okay, after that we have to turn off the parentheses, put a comma, after that, false , turn off the parentheses, enter, so see, it has given me the answer, okay, so one way is also there, if in your If the curly brackets don’t work then you can use the column formula. Okay, this was your nested formula. Nested formulas are when you put another formula inside a formula. Here we have put a column formula inside a formula so that we get the answer. So this was your nested formula. So in this way we put our and look up. If I had to put H look up, for H look up also I have If there is data to be passed, then what do I do? If this data is visible to you, if it is in horizontal form, then we will apply H look up, okay, but before that, H look up is normal, it is used very less, so now what we will learn is that we will learn X look up, look inside Can’t go here, can’t go there, it should be on the left. There is no ajman, it does all the work with ease. Second thing, let me tell you what values are written inside x look up . Array, just like you did not do in range, you used to directly choose the party name. Now in this also, directly choose and return array. What is the meaning of written array? Answer, just as in that, you did not do it by taking the same range. You used to take the same range or return it. Meaning, we have to tell what is the answer, find out what is the answer, what type of search is to be done and who has to do this search. Okay, so now we will put our Look up is done very easily, so we will directly take care of equal to We will fix the comma, after that return array answer, what is the answer, what is the answer, what is the answer, what is the answer, if we want the category answer, then we will take the category answer and enter, then see here, I should have fixed it because it is going to remain the same for everyone, enter and just double tap it, then you have the answer for everyone, but what should we do so that it gives the answer for everyone, so tell me one thing about us, if I have for everyone. If we want an answer then our look up value is going to remain the same and when the look up value is Y then the look up array is also going to remain the same, the only answer is what we have to change, what do we have to change in the written array, what should we do in the written array so that we have all these answers, right? We have to set it in this way, so let’s put it again. Let’s check once in which way we put it. We can see by putting lots of combinations, then look up X. We will tab, we will look up value, we will take comma, we will look up array, we will go to our data, look up array means where we will find it, where we will find it in the name people, we will find it in it, we fixed the comma with f4, now we need return array, in return array we need answers, from category to gender, so I selected till gender and the selection is done till the bottom, now it has come from c2 to h30 331. If I enter it directly, it will give me the answer. Is it Maharashtra Pune Male Gender Is it correct We check Voman Dress Yes is it correct and then now I drag it and bring it down Is it giving me the correct answer Fashion Suit South Kochi And see what answer was coming here I delete it and it was getting the answer here All West Vadodara Gujarat That means our X look up is wrong here Is it wrong They check so that If we want to understand it right, then look here there is a2, here a2 a3 a4 a5 is coming, it means it is coming right. But here also this thing is coming fine, that means the look up value is coming fine, the look up array is fine, now it comes to the point, now tell me one thing, if we want to find the harmony force, then our range is from c2 to h33, okay, here our same will remain the same, here it is from c3 to 332, here it is from c4 to h33, it means c should remain common and the numbers are increasing, the numbers are increasing, but We have to keep the number number the same. We also have to keep the number the same, so what will we do, we will put a dollar in front of C so that C is fixed, let’s try once and in front of H, now let’s see by entering. Hey, I should have done it here, let’s fix it with A4, let’s try and see only by doing, we will know where what mistake we are doing. When we entered, then see, now it is here. Now I go and drag it, then there is no impact on the answer, why not if I am here? If we had taken leti, what would have come to mean that C was already fixed, we should not fix C, we have made this mistake, now let us fix two and see, we put dollar in front of two, fix it with f4 and here also we fix it with f4, okay let’s enter, so what we did here is that the number is changing, right basically C and h remain the same, the rest of the numbers are changing and see your answer has come, what were you doing? Change of s and h to c and h was the same but the number was changing. Now I will try to explain it again so that if you understand it better then equals to If you want the answer then take the answer till gender but remember to press f4 so much that your numbers get fixed. C and H are fixed anyway but these numbers should also be fixed because the range is going to be the same for everyone and you press enter, you will get the answer and after that you can drag it because if you have not fixed the look up value then it will keep moving and you will keep getting such answers, then in this way From this you can apply Yes, let me do HMC like this, here I will write any name, like what we do is that inside this filter, we create a drop down with data validation, okay, I am going to teach you this later on, but for once here, let us create it, okay, so here we have the name, we will write any name here and after that we will have its formula, meaning its data will come in it, no matter how many times it is written, everything will come, so first of all for this. We need that whatever is your data in which you are going to search, I am going to search which also has duplicate entries inside it, so if there are duplicate entries inside it, then we are going to search in it, we keep this data here, it is okay for once, we are going to search inside it, now the thing is that we have to keep the same heading there and the other wise, our data will not come in the right way but remember that according to whom you are searching, your heading should start from there. If you want then we will take comma from here, copy it and go to our filter here and paste it here, so in this way your data has come here, now we will put the formula here, Equals to Filter tab, after that we will take the array, inside the array you have to give the complete data, so you will give the complete data from here. Well, the data you have to give is to be given by name, it is not necessary, you can give the complete data, you have given the complete data, comma after that it says Include according to whose name you are looking for. According to whom you are looking for according to the name,
then you will select it, you will do equals to and what should it be equal to, what should this cell be equal to, this cell should be equal to this cell, whatever you are searching should come inside this, enter it, so here just because we have to take it like this, in the date format, okay, so here he has brought me all the entries, whatever his Look, if the entries were not completely copied here, then here it has completely copied and brought it from the date, so all the entries that we had to take, all the headings which were to be taken should have been taken from the date, so it has locked it and if I say some other name from here, then look, it has locked the entries for that too, if I do something else, it has brought it’s entries and given it. You click any of them, it will bring all the entries and give it to you, okay. So in this way, if you want, you can apply a filter formula, if you have duplicate entries, then it brings that too and gives it, so this was your filter formula, you see, making a search box, this is what it means to make a search box, in this way, you create a box, write your name in it and your complete data comes below, then they say that the search box has been created, the name is written above and the complete data is below, so this is what happens, that search box is fine, next we move ahead. Look, till now you were working with this actual data and what was inside it. There was a look up value in the extreme left. There was a look up value in the extreme left. Now I do this work with the look up value. Whatever is there, I bring the shift category here. Hey brother, no problem, do control plus, sometimes things do not work, control v and delete this, okay. Right now I say that I want a category according to the name, then you will say that there is no look up value in the most extreme left, otherwise how will we look up? I will apply Datchi’s formula. Now how does the index max work, which is an index? Equals to the index tab. So look, what is required in it. Are arrays required? Raw numbers are required. Column numbers are required exactly the same way as we use in Laka etc. Raw numbers are required, are column numbers exactly the same? How does this work? It works on the intersection, basically it will find the data in two ways here, it will also find your vertical data, then it will also find the horizontal data, where the intersection will come, it will bring you the answer. Okay, so now how will we use this intersection, how will we do all the things, let us see, we will put the equals to index formula here, we will tab it, we will give it, we have to give the complete data, so we will give the complete data from here, it does not matter, you complete it. Give the data, don’t think that brother, yes, if it is a serial number, then don’t give it. Give a comma. After that, the raw number. If your data is vertical or horizontal, if it is vertical, then you can give the raw number in the vertical. What can’t you give, then instead of the thing that you cannot give, I am telling it in a very simple way. I have not gone into much detail because you will get confused. The formula is like this, that is why I am telling a very logical thing, the vertical data is raw. You can give numbers, you can not give, you know that we are applying a different formula of combination, then put the match. If there was horizontal data, then we could have given the raw number, then we could not give the column number, then there we would put the match formula in place of the column number, now here we will put the match formula in place of draw, put the match formula, do the tab, what does the match say, look a value, what to search, then you see what to search here, we have to search this name, isn’t it the name? You have to search comma, after that look up array, where will you get this name, it is exactly the same as you will get this name, right here inside this column, comma, after that you want exact match, less day, greater day, obviously exact match, do zero, turn off the parentheses, so till here you have put the column number, you have not put the column number, now you will tell him what is the answer, so you had chosen from the serial number, right? If you want answer category, then 2 is your column number. Is there anything left after that? Will we use comma? No, there is no need to do anything after that. Turn off the pennis and enter, then it has given me the answer. Fashion is ok, can I drag it? Try it by dragging. No, why can’t it? Why can’t it because the answer has already been given? I have given it a column number. Can I bring it like this? Yes, I can bring it like this, but here I have to do it. We will have to check the match because even inside the match we have given a look up value, is it correct? We will have to check that thing once again for the product name. What did we do? We took the array and took the array. We will select the entire data from here and the array is going to be the same for all. Yes, so it has been fixed. Comma after that, can you give R number in the raw number and vertical data? No, apply the match formula. Tap Do after that look up value. What is the look up value? You see, you need according to the name. You have taken the name. You have taken the comma. The look up value has to be changed again and again, so we will not fix the look up array. Look up array. Where will you get it? It will be found here in the name. So you have taken the name. The look up array is going to be the same for all. Yes, so you fix it. After that, we need zero exact. Take off the commas. Do the comma. After that, what do you need? Column index number. What do you need the answer to? Now you need the product name. The product name would have come anyway. There was no need of a match. There was no need of an index, but you tell me. 1 2 3 4. Forth on the fourth number and enter. Here the answer will come. Woman dress. Just drag it over here. So you have all these answers. Now we can drag it. Can’t we? Okay, so in this way you can use the index match. I just wanted to tell you a little bit, you all. Work can be done with v look up Lo, even if I change my heading in this way, your answer should change. Now this work cannot be done in V Look Up, why because there is column index number in Select it, OK, you have selected it, put a comma, after that the field means what is the answer you want, what is the answer saying, what do you want, give it whatever is written in this field, it is not there because we can change it, so give that comma, after that criteria criteria, you already know what we have to find, but here we give the criteria with the heading, when we enter, then this answer has come, now look, I am here. If I am changing it then look, the answer will change, this is me, no one of any kind will give you any error here, let’s put it once more like D gut did tab did what did we do in the database, we give the complete data in the database, give us your whole load data, okay, these are multiple criteria, then it comes in handy, you gave a comma after that, what is it asking from you, you will check this field field, whatever is written about it, give a comma after that, criteria. So the only criteria here is that it has to be given along with the heading, enter it, your answer will come , you check it, you change it, then see that it is getting changed, okay, so in this way we apply the D Gut formula, after that you get D Sum, D Sum also works in multiple criteria, so we will put Ds here, like Sum If is an upgraded version of Sum If, so if DCM is to be applied, DCM. Put the sum, if it seems easy, then put that, there is an alternative to that, tap the database, take the database, we have to get the complete data in the same way, we have taken the complete data, after that do the comma, after that it is saying tell the field, then from here we will tell the field, we want the amount answer, so we took this comma, after that it asks us in D Sum to tell our criteria, so now the D Sum is such that within which we have to give the criteria along with the heading, we have If you enter the given then this answer will come, okay what you have to do, everything is the same, you have to give the same database, you have to give the same fields, you just have to keep in mind that whatever criteria you give, you will give it along with the heading, so here we have completed two more formulas, f is d sum and d is gut, after this let’s do a formula which is large and small. Basically, assume that you have this data and you want to know that it is rank wise and not rank wise. We are extracting but give those five numbers which are the highest or give those five numbers which are Smollett, then in such a case you can apply the formula, see here you put large equals to large tab, after that array means from which you have to find, then you have to search from this, so we have taken this comma k means which values 12 2 3 4 5 This is what we need, top one is needed, top two is needed, top three is needed, then you take this and enter. If you do, the top five values will appear before you. Similarly, the opposite will be given that if you want small then small will also come, just tab it, you have to give an array, give it a comma, tell him the meaning of top small, he will tell from the bottom, he says no, your rank came from the bottom according to that which is the lowest, according to that, he has gone away telling, so it was very simple but it should have been done, so I got it done for you, after that it comes to you, a we are mostly at our place. We have covered all the formulas that we need to know in advance. In this, I will teach you one more formula which is the finance formula. Finance formula. I want to explain it to you in complete detail. So let’s complete it with a case study. See, here we will take a very simple example. Suppose you have bought a phone. Okay, you bought the phone and you bought that phone for Rs. ₹ lakh. It’s okay. And on which interest of NM 12 is going to be charged, now you figure out how much its installment will be, so 1 lakh and you are going to pay it in 1 year, you are going to pay it in one year, then you see how much you will pay within 1 year, 1 lakh, then you have to pay the principal amount of ₹ 1 lakh, so its cost is ₹ 1 lakh, plus its discount on ₹ 12 means interest of ₹ 1 lakh on 12, then you will have this amount. How much becomes 112000, it becomes okay, now you have to divide this amount by 12, that much will be your installment. For example, for once, let us take 8000, that is, your 8000 is being made, so within 8000, you know that you have withdrawn only a little of 1 lakh, this is also the 12th installment, so your 8000 is being made. Your principal amount is also going inside it and along with it, your interest amount is also going there. Right, whenever you have to calculate the installment that how much money will I have to pay, then you apply PMT. PMT calculates the installment and gives it. When out of this installment, when you want to separate how much interest has gone and how much principal amount has gone, that means brother, I have paid how much principal amount and how much interest has been paid, then I will calculate the interest amount. For this, you apply IPMT and calculate PPMT to know the principal amount, then I can say that whatever is logical for you is fine, there is no such equation, PMT is equal to IPMT plus, PPMT means your installment, what is formed from the principal amount in interest plus, so this is how the formula works. Now let us see one or two things in the formula here. What are one two things, one two factors, one. So what is the factor that principal amount is the principal amount which is the main amount on which you have bought it. Okay, secondly, what is the rate rate? The amount of interest you have to pay, the interest you have to pay, now the interest you get generally, when P is written, that means enum means for the whole year. If I write this on 12, it is for the whole year, then how much will it be for the month, because of our formula. If it asks us in months then Ch is 12 but divided by 12 then it will be % of every month. Okay, after that it asks for time. Time means in how much time you have to repay it. Suppose if you have to repay it in years, then our formula asks us in months. So 2 * 12. We will answer 24 that we have to repay it in so many months so that because your installment goes, it goes as monthly installment. If it does not come for this reason, then what will we do here? Now apply our formula and see, here it comes to you, you can see what is the loan amount, it is a loan of 1 lakh, your interest is being charged, so how did you withdraw this much monthly, if you have done it at 10/12, then the monthly installment has come, sorry, the monthly interest has come, the loan term is said to be five years, so the period month should obviously be 60. It is 5 * 12 for 60 months, so now if you want to withdraw the installment, then what will you apply? PMT, will you tap? You have already calculated the rate, so you take the article, calculate it in advance, divide by 12, otherwise you will have to put a comma in the formula, after that on n, on n, what will be the time taken, to be repaid in 60 months. Comma after that, PV means the principal value will be this much. Enter, then you have this answer. Principal amount is an outside world, meaning we have to give this value, it is outwork. If you show this value as negative inside your formula, then this value will come positive. Otherwise, you can also keep the installment in negative. You have to know the principal amount. Now that you know the installment, you want to know that if my installment goes, then it will be in that. How much will the principal amount go to, then we will tab PPMT, we will take the same rate, comma after that, what are you asking but for how many years it is going to last, that is, we have to find out the number of years, how much principal amount we are paying in a year, or in that one comma, how much is the total going to be, go after 60 months or comma, what is the PV after that, enter lakhs, then see, this amount from this installment is your principal value and right there. If you take out the interest on pay then IPMT tab, after that you will give the same rate. You have to take out the year on the comma, but the year comma is once in a year and after that what are you doing on N meaning your months comma after that enter your PV then this much is your interest. If you total both of them then which is 21 24. This much is your installment going. This much principal amount goes inside the installment and this much amount of interest goes. So here we have done the basic, meaning it is basic, if you understand it well, then it will be basic. Other wise, you will get confused in this also. In the basic funda way, I have given you the finance related formulas here, so here we have covered all the formulas from basic to advanced. Now we will move towards our main topic which is going to be our pivot, where we will learn from reporting, where we will learn about dashboard. After all this, we will tap the data tab and developer, now let’s move on to it, so if you have watched this video till now, then I can definitely say that now you must have understood Basic Excel and Advanced Excel very well. Unfortunately, we have to stop this video here and the reason is that youtube2 If I am explaining pivot table to you, making you a dashboard, making you make a power query or making you make an AI tools and in the middle that video has to be ended there. That’s why we will bring part two of this video where we will cover all the similar topics, be it your pivot table, charts, dashboard, power query, DAX, VBA, macros, AI tools, all of them are going to be covered in part two of this, so you will stay with us, as well as all the content I have used here, you can access it on the app on top of our app. Go above and check the free content there, you will get all the sheets. Apart from this, if you want to do professional training, do live professional training, then you can join us. We deal in accounting software, data analytics and finance, so all the software related to this, you can explore them on our app, on the website or if any query comes, then you will meet directly on call or whatsapp2, till then you will get your Don’t forget to give feedback because from your feedback we get to know how we should bring content to you and how we can deliver the best for you. So let’s meet in the next video till then goodbye.
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The provided text offers a comprehensive guide to using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) within Microsoft Excel. It covers a wide range of topics, from recording and editing macros to creating custom functions and user forms. Key concepts explored include variable declaration, data types, control structures like loops and conditional statements, and object-oriented programming principles. The text provides practical examples and step-by-step instructions to automate tasks and enhance Excel’s functionality. Debugging techniques and strategies for error handling are also discussed. The ultimate goal is to equip readers with the skills to create sophisticated Excel-based applications.
VBA Macro Programming: Study Guide and Reference
VBA Macro Study Guide
Quiz
What is the purpose of commenting your code in VBA? Comments are used to describe the code’s functionality and intent, making it easier to understand and maintain. They also help in recalling the code’s purpose after a period of time.
How do you rename a module in the VBA editor? In the Project Explorer window, select the module. Then, in the Properties window, change the “Name” property of the module to the desired name.
How can you access a macro stored in another open workbook? You can access the macro via the View tab (Macros -> View Macros) or the Developer tab. Make sure “All Open Workbooks” is selected in the “Macros in” dropdown.
Explain the difference between a Property and a Method in VBA. A Property is a characteristic or attribute of an object (e.g., name, color). A Method is an action that can be performed on an object (e.g., clear contents, activate).
What is the purpose of the “Option Explicit” statement? “Option Explicit” forces explicit variable declaration. This means all variables must be declared before they can be used, preventing errors caused by misspelled or undeclared variables.
Explain what “scope” means in the context of procedures. Scope determines where a procedure can be called or used. Procedures can be public, private, or undeclared; undeclared defaults to public.
Describe the purpose of the Immediate Window in the VBA editor. The Immediate Window is used to test code snippets, display the values of variables, and execute commands directly during development and debugging. You can execute or print by either typing “print” or a question mark.
What is a user-defined function (UDF) in Excel VBA? A user-defined function is a custom function created in VBA that can be used in Excel worksheets just like built-in functions, performing calculations and returning values.
What does the term “debugging” mean in the context of coding? Debugging is the process of identifying, tracing, and correcting errors (bugs) in code to ensure the program runs correctly and produces the expected results.
Explain the purpose of a “breakpoint” in VBA debugging. A breakpoint is a marker inserted into the code that causes the program execution to pause at that line. This allows the developer to examine the state of the program, inspect variables, and step through the code line by line to identify errors.
Quiz Answer Key
Comments are used to describe the code’s functionality and intent, making it easier to understand and maintain. They also help in recalling the code’s purpose after a period of time.
In the Project Explorer window, select the module. Then, in the Properties window, change the “Name” property of the module to the desired name.
You can access the macro via the View tab (Macros -> View Macros) or the Developer tab. Make sure “All Open Workbooks” is selected in the “Macros in” dropdown.
A Property is a characteristic or attribute of an object (e.g., name, color). A Method is an action that can be performed on an object (e.g., clear contents, activate).
“Option Explicit” forces explicit variable declaration. This means all variables must be declared before they can be used, preventing errors caused by misspelled or undeclared variables.
Scope determines where a procedure can be called or used. Procedures can be public, private, or undeclared; undeclared defaults to public.
The Immediate Window is used to test code snippets, display the values of variables, and execute commands directly during development and debugging. You can execute or print by either typing “print” or a question mark.
A user-defined function is a custom function created in VBA that can be used in Excel worksheets just like built-in functions, performing calculations and returning values.
Debugging is the process of identifying, tracing, and correcting errors (bugs) in code to ensure the program runs correctly and produces the expected results.
A breakpoint is a marker inserted into the code that causes the program execution to pause at that line. This allows the developer to examine the state of the program, inspect variables, and step through the code line by line to identify errors.
Essay Questions
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recording macros versus writing VBA code from scratch. In what situations would recording a macro be preferable, and when is it better to write the code directly?
Explain the different levels of variable scope in VBA (Procedure, Module, and Public). Describe how each scope affects the accessibility and lifetime of a variable, providing examples of scenarios where each scope would be most appropriate.
Compare and contrast the different types of looping constructs in VBA, specifically Do While/Until loops and For/Next loops. Explain their use cases, advantages, and limitations, providing examples of when you might choose one type of loop over another.
Describe the purpose of error handling in VBA. Explain the different error trapping options, discuss how to implement error handling using the On Error GoTo statement, and provide a detailed example of an error handling routine.
Explain how the Select Case statement and the IF/THEN/ELSE/END IF structures achieve the same purpose. Discuss the scenarios in which one might be more suitable than the other.
Glossary of Key Terms
Argument: A value passed to a procedure when it is called.
Breakpoint: A marker in code that pauses execution for debugging.
Calling Procedure: A procedure that invokes another procedure.
Called Procedure: A procedure invoked by another procedure.
Code: Instructions written in a programming language.
Collection: A group of related objects.
Comment: Explanatory text in code that is ignored by the interpreter.
Compile: To translate source code into machine-executable code.
Constant: A named storage location that contains data that cannot be changed during program execution.
Data Type: The classification of a particular type of information (e.g., Integer, String, Boolean).
Debugging: Identifying and fixing errors in code.
Declaration: Specifying the name and type of a variable or procedure.
Explicit Declaration: Declaring variables before use (using Dim, Private, Public, or Static).
Implicit Declaration: Using a variable without declaring it (generally discouraged).
Function Procedure: A procedure that performs a calculation and returns a value.
Immediate Window: A VBA window for executing code directly and displaying values.
Intrinsic Function: A built-in function provided by VBA.
Loop: A programming construct that repeats a block of code.
Macro: A series of commands and instructions that are grouped together as a single command to accomplish a task automatically.
Method: An action that can be performed on an object.
Module: A container for VBA code (procedures, declarations).
Object: An entity in VBA that has properties and methods.
Object Browser: A VBA tool for exploring available objects, properties, and methods.
Parameter: A variable passed to a function or subprocedure.
Procedure: A named block of code that performs a specific task (either a Sub or a Function).
Project Explorer: A window in the VBA editor that displays the project’s files.
Property: A characteristic or attribute of an object.
Public: A scope that makes a variable or procedure accessible from any module.
Private: A scope that restricts a variable or procedure to the module in which it is declared.
Run Time: The period during which a program is executing.
Scope: The region of a program where a variable or procedure is accessible.
Statement: A complete instruction in a programming language.
Sub Procedure: A procedure that performs a task but does not return a value directly.
Syntax: The rules governing the structure of a programming language.
Variable: A named storage location that can hold data that can be changed during program execution.
With…End With: A VBA construct that simplifies code by allowing multiple operations on a single object without repeatedly referencing the object.
VBA Macro Recording and Editing Fundamentals
Okay, here’s a briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided text excerpts:
Briefing Document: VBA Macro Recording and Editing
Overview:
The provided text is a transcript from a course or tutorial on VBA macro recording and editing within Microsoft Excel. It covers various aspects of working with macros, from recording and cleaning up code to understanding procedures, scope, error handling, and using the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). The text emphasizes practical, hands-on learning, with numerous examples and step-by-step instructions.
Key Themes and Ideas:
Macro Recording as a Starting Point: The text highlights the value of recording macros as a way to generate VBA code quickly. It suggests recording, then modifying the generated code. “We’re going to record a macro again to get this lesson started, and along the way… whether we’re recording macros or we’re writing VBA code from scratch, we’re also going to be using properties and we’re going to be using methods.”
Importance of Code Comments: The document stresses the significance of commenting code liberally for clarity and maintainability. “ments are meant to describe your code it’s a good idea to comment your code liberally i’ve written code before and didn’t comment it and six months later i had to figure out what the intent of the code that i wrote was so comments are really good.” The comments generated from the macro recorder serve as a basic form of documentation.
Understanding VBA Code Structure: The text explains the anatomy of VBA code, including modules, sub procedures, function procedures, and the With…End With construct. It illustrates how recorded actions translate into specific VBA commands (e.g., Rows(“1:1”).Select, Selection.Insert).
Procedures: Sub vs. Function: The document differentiates between sub procedures (which perform actions) and function procedures (which perform calculations and return values). It explains how function procedures can be used as User Defined Functions (UDFs) in Excel worksheets. “a function procedure performs a calculation and returns a single value or an array of values so differs from a sub procedure.”
Module Management: The transcript stresses the organization of VBA code through modules and the importance of giving modules descriptive names. A prefix “mod” is suggested to identify modules in a list. “You want your module names to be as descriptive as possible… we don’t want them to be module one module two module three module four so we’re gonna use the properties window to make some changes to properties so we’re going to start with renaming module 1… we’re going to use lowercase mod mod to indicate that it is a module.”
Properties and Methods: The course material makes the distinction between properties and methods: “properties to change the name of a module we use properties to change the name of this particular sheet tab and a method is an action that is taken on an object so you’ll learn how to access methods along the way as well.”
Scope of Procedures: The importance of understanding procedure scope (Public, Private, Undeclared/Public) is discussed. Scope determines where a procedure can be called from. “Scope determines where the procedure may be used…If a procedure declaration is preceded by the keyword public this makes the procedure accessible to all modules in the visual basic project…If the procedure declaration is preceded by the keyword private this makes the procedure available only in the module where it resides.”
Variable Declaration and Data Types: The text emphasizes the importance of explicit variable declaration and assigning appropriate data types. Implicit declaration can lead to errors. Various data types are mentioned (Byte, Boolean, Integer, Long, Single, Double, Currency, Date, String, Variant). The Option Explicit statement is key to enforcing explicit declaration.
Intrinsic Functions (String Manipulation): The document introduces built-in VBA functions like Left, Mid, and Right for manipulating strings. It demonstrates how to extract specific characters or substrings from a larger text string (like a VIN number).
Conditional Logic (If…Then…Else, Select Case): The transcript covers conditional branching using If…Then…Else constructs and the Select Case statement. These are used to execute different blocks of code based on specific conditions. These control structures are analogous to the IF function in Excel.
Looping Constructs (Do While/Until, For…Next, For Each): The document introduces looping constructs for repeating code blocks. It covers Do While and Do Until loops, as well as For…Next loops for a specific number of iterations and For Each loops for iterating through collections (e.g., worksheets).
Object Variables and the Set Keyword: The course material explains the use of object variables, which hold references to objects (e.g., worksheets, ranges). The Set keyword is essential when assigning objects to variables.
With…End With Construct: The With…End With block is presented as a way to simplify code by avoiding repetitive object references.
The Offset Property: This property is discussed as a means to easily reference cells relative to a starting cell using rows and columns offsets.
User Interaction (MsgBox, InputBox): The transcript shows how to use MsgBox (message box) functions to display information to the user and InputBox functions to prompt the user for input.
Event Procedures: Event procedures are introduced as a way to trigger code execution based on specific events (e.g., worksheet activation). The example given shows how to run a macro when a specific sheet is activated. “as soon as we activated that sheet it ran our get new inventory calling procedure.”
Error Handling: The text provides an overview of error handling in VBA, covering the types of errors (logic, runtime, syntax). It introduces the On Error GoTo statement for trapping errors and creating error handling routines. “We’re going to get into trapping errors with the on error statement which includes understanding the error object writing an error handling routine and working with inline error handling.”
Debugging Tools: The transcript refers to using debugging tools in the VBE, such as breakpoints, stepping through code (Step Into, Step Over, Step Out), the Immediate Window, Locals Window, and Watch Window.
The Object Browser: This tool is described as a way to explore available objects, their properties, methods, and events, as well as to get online help. “The object browser allows you to browse through all available objects in your project and see their properties methods and events.”
Quotes Highlighting Key Concepts:
“Apply a counting format to columns we’re going to make that plural columns g and then and h and when you move away from that line it will turn green again indicating that it’s a comment.” (Illustrates commenting and how the VBE recognizes comments.)
“Clear contents is a method of the range object it would empty the cells delete everything that’s in the cells in the range add is a method of the workbook’s collection object and it’s used to create a new workbook and then you have activate and that’s a method of the worksheet object it’s used to activate a worksheet” (Illustrates the use of methods on objects)
“the scope of a variable determines not only where it can be used but the circumstances in which the variable is removed from memory.” (Highlights the importance of variable scope.)
“We need to tell it what values to assign to each variable and now we’ve told it where to display those variable values which column and cell to display it in by using our offset statements within the with end width structure.” (Highlights the importance of assigning values and specifying where to display)
Overall Impression:
The excerpts provide a solid foundation for learning VBA macro recording and editing. The practical examples, step-by-step instructions, and emphasis on code organization and error handling make it a valuable resource for beginners and intermediate users alike. The course’s emphasis on troubleshooting and debugging is especially valuable.
VBA Macro Programming: Recording, Modification, and Usage
Macro Recording, Modification, and VBA Basics
1. What are the benefits of commenting code in VBA, and how are comments created when recording a macro?
Comments are crucial for code maintainability and understanding. They explain the purpose and intent of specific code sections, making it easier to revisit and modify the code later, especially after a significant time has passed. When recording a macro, the descriptions entered in the “Record Macro” dialog box are automatically inserted as comments in the generated VBA code.
2. What is a “With…End With” block in VBA, and what purpose does it serve?
A “With…End With” block is a construct in VBA that allows you to perform multiple operations on a single object without repeatedly specifying the object name. It improves code readability and reduces redundancy. For instance, when modifying multiple formatting properties of a cell, you can use a “With Selection” block to apply changes to Selection.Font.Bold, Selection.Alignment, etc., without rewriting “Selection” each time.
3. How can you rename a module in the VBA editor, and why is it important to do so?
To rename a module in the VBA editor, select the module in the Project Explorer window, then go to the Properties window (usually found below the Project Explorer). Double-click the “Name” property and enter a descriptive name for the module. Renaming modules helps organize your code into logical sections, especially when a project contains multiple modules. Using a prefix like “mod” is helpful for quickly identifying modules in a list.
4. How can you access a macro stored in one Excel file from another Excel file?
To access a macro stored in one Excel file (e.g., vehicles.xlsm) from another, the file containing the macro (vehicles.xlsm) must be open. You can then access the macro by going to the “View” tab, clicking “Macros,” and selecting “View Macros.” In the Macros dialog box, you can choose the macro from the open file. The macro will be listed as [filename]![macroname].
5. What are properties and methods in VBA, and can you provide examples?
In VBA, properties are attributes or characteristics of an object, while methods are actions that can be performed on an object.
Properties: Examples include changing the name of a module or a sheet tab, and you can do this using the properties window.
Methods: Examples include Range(“A1:B11”).ClearContents (clears the contents of cells), Workbooks.Add (creates a new workbook), and Worksheets(“Sheet1”).Activate (activates a specific worksheet).
6. What is the difference between a Sub procedure and a Function procedure in VBA?
Sub Procedure: A block of code that performs a series of actions. It does not return a value. Sub procedures are commonly used to automate tasks or manipulate data.
Function Procedure: A block of code that performs a calculation and returns a single value or an array of values. Function procedures can be used in VBA code or directly in Excel worksheets as user-defined functions (UDFs).
7. What is the “Immediate Window” in the VBA editor, and how can it be used for testing Function procedures?
The Immediate Window in the VBA editor allows you to execute VBA code directly and view the results immediately. To test a Function procedure, you can type a question mark (?) followed by the function name and its arguments (e.g., ?MSPRStatus(10000)) and press Enter. The result returned by the function will be displayed in the Immediate Window, allowing you to quickly verify its correctness. The print command functions the same as the question mark.
8. Explain the difference between implicit and explicit variable declaration in VBA, and why is explicit declaration preferred?
Implicit Declaration: Occurs when you use a variable without first declaring it using a Dim statement. VBA automatically creates the variable, but its data type may not be what you intend, potentially leading to errors.
Explicit Declaration: Involves declaring each variable with a Dim statement, specifying its name and data type. This is the preferred method because it forces you to define the variable’s purpose and helps prevent errors due to typos or unintended data type conversions. To enforce explicit variable declaration, you can set the “Require Variable Declaration” option in the VBA editor’s options. This will automatically insert Option Explicit at the top of every module, forcing you to declare each variable before using it.
VBA Programming in Microsoft Office Applications
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is a Microsoft programming language integrated into Office applications like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. It allows users to automate repetitive tasks and extend the capabilities of these applications.
Key aspects of VBA programming include:
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): VBA is an object-oriented language where everything in an application is an object with its own features (properties) and actions (methods). For instance, in Excel, the application itself, cells, worksheets, charts, and shapes are all objects.
Automating Tasks: VBA enables automating recurring tasks, creating user-defined functions, and controlling other Office applications. It can attach code to events, allowing it to run automatically when an event occurs (e.g., activating a worksheet).
VBA vs. Macros: While Excel macros are powerful, VBA offers advantages like attaching code to events, decision-making capabilities, looping structures, and the ability to create user input forms and dialog boxes. Macros have limitations because you are restricted to tasks that you can perform in the Excel interface.
Excel Object Model: VBA uses a hierarchical structure of Excel and its objects. The application resides at the top, followed by objects like workbooks, worksheets, and ranges. VBA accesses these objects by moving down the hierarchy using the dot operator.
Collections: These are groups of objects of the same type, such as all open workbooks (the Workbooks collection) or all worksheets in a workbook (the Worksheets collection). VBA code can loop through members of a collection to perform actions on each one.
Modules and Procedures: VBA code is stored in modules. Sub procedures define specific tasks, while function procedures return a value. Procedures have naming rules and conventions.
Variables: Variables store data in the computer’s memory during procedure execution. They have naming rules, scope (where they can be used), and data types (e.g., Integer, String, Boolean). Explicit declaration of variables is preferred to avoid errors.
Language Elements: VBA has language elements like variables, data types, and intrinsic functions. Intrinsic functions are built-in functions that perform specific tasks.
Control of Flow Structures: VBA uses control of flow structures to make decisions in code. These include conditional branching (If Then Else, Select Case) and looping constructs (Do While, For Next).
User Forms: VBA allows the creation of user forms with controls (text boxes, check boxes, etc.) for user input. Code can be applied to these controls to perform specific actions.
Debugging: VBA includes debugging tools to identify and correct code errors. The Visual Basic Editor has a debug toolbar for stepping through code, setting breakpoints, and inspecting variable values. There are three types of errors: logic errors, runtime errors and compile errors.
Error Handling: VBA provides error trapping options using the On Error statement to handle runtime errors.
Object Browser: The object browser allows browsing through all available objects in a project and see their properties, methods, and events.
Code Protection: VBA code can be password protected to prevent unauthorized access.
Excel Macros and VBA: Automation Guide
Macros in Microsoft Excel are a way to automate repetitive and recurring tasks. While macros and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) both contribute to automation, VBA offers more advanced capabilities.
Here’s a comparison of Excel macros and VBA:
CapabilitiesMacros are limited to tasks that can be performed within the Excel interface.
VBA allows for more complex operations, such as attaching code to specific events (like activating a worksheet), decision-making processes, looping structures, and creating custom user input forms.
LimitationsWhen recording macros, users are restricted to actions achievable through the Excel interface.
VBA removes these limitations, offering greater flexibility and control over Excel and other Office applications.
Code Access and ModificationVBA enables users to write and modify code, including the code behind recorded macros.
Users can access the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) to view and edit the VBA code associated with macros.
Saving Files with MacrosWorkbooks containing macros must be saved in a macro-enabled format (.xlsm) to preserve the VBA code.
Failure to save in this format will result in the loss of the code.
SecurityExcel has security measures that, by default, disable macros upon opening a macro-enabled file.
This is indicated by a yellow band with a security warning.
Users can enable content from trusted sources.
Trusted locations can be set up to avoid security warnings for files from known and secure sources.
Creating MacrosMacros can be created by recording actions within Excel or by writing VBA code directly.
The developer tab in Excel provides tools for recording, viewing, running, and editing macros. If the developer tab isn’t visible, it can be enabled in the Excel options.
Macros can be initiated from the “View” tab or by using the shortcut Alt + F8.
Running MacrosMacros can be run using a button in the developer tab or using Alt+F8.
Macros stored in one file can be used in another if the file containing the macro is open.
Visual Basic Editor (VBE) in Microsoft Office: A Guide
The Visual Basic Editor (VBE) is the environment used to write, edit, and manage VBA code in Microsoft Office applications. Here’s a breakdown of its key aspects, based on the sources:
Accessing the VBE: The VBE can be accessed from the Developer tab in Excel by clicking the “Visual Basic” button. A shortcut key, Alt + F11, can also switch between Excel and the VBE.
Environment Overview:
The VBE opens in a separate window from Excel.
It has a menu bar with options like File, Edit, View, Insert, and Tools.
Toolbars provide quick access to frequently used commands.
Key Components:
Project Explorer: Located in the upper left corner, it displays all open projects (files) and their components (modules, sheets, forms).
Code Window: This is where VBA code is written and edited. To view a code window, click on a module in the Project Explorer.
Properties Window: Displays the properties of selected objects (e.g., modules, forms, controls). Properties can be modified to change the appearance and behavior of objects.
Immediate Window: Accessed via the View menu, this window is used to test function procedures and execute single lines of code. For example, ? msrpStatus(10000) will print the result of the msrpStatus function with the argument 10000. The question mark is the same as print in VBA.
Modules: Containers that store VBA code. There are different types of modules:
Standard modules
Class modules
UserForm modules – each form has a built-in class module that contains code related to the form and its controls
Customization:
Options: The Tools > Options menu allows customization of the VBE.
The Editor tab includes code settings, such as “Require Variable Declaration,” which forces explicit variable declaration.
The Editor Format tab allows changing the font size and style of the code window.
Toolbar: VBA commands, like comment block, uncomment block, and compile project can be added to the toolbar. Right-click on the toolbar and select “Customize” to add commands. The compile project icon checks the code for errors.
Debugging Tools: The VBE includes a debug toolbar to investigate errors.
Breakpoints: Breakpoints can be inserted to pause code execution at a specific line.
Step Into: Executes code one line at a time.
Locals Window: Shows the current value of variables.
Quick Watch: Displays the value of a selected expression.
Object Browser: The object browser (View > Object Browser, or F2) allows browsing through all available objects in a project and see their properties, methods, and events.
Help: Context-sensitive help is available by pressing F1 when a keyword is selected. This opens the Microsoft documentation for VBA.
Code Protection: VBA code can be password-protected via Tools > VBAProject Properties > Protection tab.
VBA Procedures, Functions, Modules: A Developer’s Guide
Procedures and functions are fundamental building blocks of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code, serving to organize and execute specific tasks.
Here’s a breakdown of procedures and functions in VBA:
ProceduresA procedure is a named group of statements that execute as a unit to perform a specific task.
A sub procedure defines specific tasks, such as inserting a new row or adding column headers.
Sub Procedures:
Begin with a Sub statement and end with an End Sub statement.
Can be executed in several ways, such as through a macro dialog box, by calling it from another procedure, by attaching it to a button in the quick access toolbar in Excel, or by attaching the procedure to an event.
Event Procedures:
Respond to specific events within the application.
To create an event procedure, you must access an object’s events.
Typically, the names of event procedures should not be changed.
Property Procedures:
Allow a programmer to create and manipulate custom properties.
Outside the scope of the training course in the sources.
Calling Procedures:
A sub procedure can act as a calling procedure by bundling multiple other procedures together.
A calling procedure calls other procedures to execute them in a specific order.
FunctionsFunction procedures perform a calculation and return a value or an array of values.
Begin with a Function statement and end with an End Function statement.
Can be called from a sub procedure or another function procedure, or used in a worksheet formula.
When created in VBA, a function procedure can only be executed in two ways:
By calling the procedure from a sub procedure or another function procedure.
By using the function in a worksheet formula, where it becomes a user-defined function.
Can be tested using the Immediate Window in the Visual Basic Editor.
ModulesModules act as containers that store VBA code.
There are two main types of modules:
Standard Modules: Used for storing standard code.
Class Modules: Used for creating one’s own objects.
Naming Rules and ConventionsProcedure names can be up to 255 characters long.
They can be alphanumeric, but the first character must be a letter.
Spaces and special characters are not allowed.
Procedure names must be unique within a module.
Conventions include starting names with a verb and using proper case for each word.
Scope of ProceduresDetermines where a procedure can be used.
Public: Accessible to all modules in the VBA project.
Private: Accessible only within the module where it resides.
Undeclared: If a procedure’s scope is undeclared, it defaults to public.
Executing ProceduresProcedures can be executed or run in different ways within VBA:
Using the macro dialog box.
Using the run sub user form button on the VBE toolbar.
Calling the procedure from another sub procedure.
Adding a button to the quick access toolbar in Excel.
Attaching the procedure to an event.
Running it from the immediate window in Visual Basic Editor.
VBA Object Variables: Declaration, Assignment, Scope, and Benefits
Object variables in VBA are used to make code more concise and avoid lengthy object references. Instead of repeatedly typing out the full reference to an object, you can assign the object to a variable and then use the variable name to refer to the object.
Here’s what you need to know about object variables in VBA:
Declaration:
Object variables are declared using the Dim, Public, or Private keywords, just like regular variables. The Static keyword can also be used.
Instead of a data type (like Integer or String), you declare the variable with an object type, such as Worksheet or Range.
Example: Dim mySheet As Worksheet
Assignment:
To assign an object to an object variable, you must use the Set keyword.
Example: Set mySheet = Worksheets(“Sheet1”)
After this assignment, you can use the variable mySheet to refer to the “Sheet1” worksheet.
Scope:
The scope of object variables is determined by where they are declared (module-level or procedure-level) and the keyword used (Dim, Public, Private).
Dim or Private: The variable is available only within the module or procedure where it’s declared.
Public: The variable is available to all procedures in all modules.
Benefits:
Conciseness: Object variables shorten code by replacing long object references with a simple variable name.
Readability: They can make code easier to read and understand.
Efficiency: Although not explicitly stated in the sources, using object variables can improve performance by reducing the need to repeatedly resolve object references.
Example (Based on the sources):
This example is based on information in the sources and demonstrates the use of object variables to sum the selling price in a column and place the total two rows below the last populated cell:
Sub AddTotals()
Dim lastCell As Range ‘ Declares object variables
Dim totalFormula As String ‘ Declares object variables
Set lastCell = Range(“I2”).End(xlDown) ‘ Sets lastCell to the last populated cell in column I
lastCell.Select ‘ Selects the last cell
ActiveCell.Offset(2, 0).Select ‘ Offset moves the active cell 2 rows down
totalFormula = “=SUM(I2:I” & lastCell.Row & “)” ‘ Formula for total
ActiveCell.Formula = totalFormula ‘ Enters the formula in the offset cell
End Sub
Excel 2019 VBA Full Course Tutorial (7+ Hours)
The Original Text
hi everyone i’m trish connor cato welcome to the excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course this course is for beginning users looking to automate repetitive and recurring tasks in microsoft excel vba is microsoft’s programming language and it’s built into the office applications our focus during this course is on excel specifically you’ll be equipped with the basics to start writing your own vba code modify the code behind macros you’ve already recorded and have an understanding of how vba lends itself to creating efficiency in your daily tasks we’ll start with the basics where you’ll learn the types of things you can do with vba versus recording macros in excel as well as some key terminology which will help in your vba journey and you will get to edit vba code you’ll learn the importance of macro enabled workbooks and how to save them as well as how to modify some security settings we’ll move on to understanding the excel object model collections and how to reference objects in vba code once these basics are covered you’ll be ready to move on learning about the different types of procedures creating procedures learning the scope of procedures and working with methods you’ll also learn how to get vba context-specific help from within the visual basic editor if you’re enjoying these videos please like and subscribe if you want to earn certificates and digital badges please become a member of our patreon the link is in our video description if you have any questions you want answered by one of our instructors please join our off-site community the link is in the description as well as always if this course has exercise files you’ll find them in the video description below in our first lesson getting started you’re going to be learning about an overview of vba that includes what type of language it is why you would want to use visual basic for applications versus recording macros and advantages that it can give you in terms of efficiency we’ll move into recording a macro and running it in excel and then we’ll go into the visual basic editor environment and you’ll get an overview of the environment before we start editing a macro in vba you’ll learn how to save a macro enabled workbook and the importance of doing so you’ll learn a little bit about macro security now in this lesson we’re going to be using two files that are in the video description there both excel files one is named vehicles and the other one vehicles two we will be creating a vehicle’s macro enabled workbook during this lesson and the name of that workbook is shown on the slide you will not find it in the video description at this time so what you would want to do is grab those two excel files vehicles and vehicles too from the video description and put them somewhere on your system where you have easy access to them before we get hands-on let’s go ahead and get an overview of vba so as mentioned in the introductions vba is a microsoft programming language that is currently built into the excel word powerpoint outlook and access applications it’s one of the many programming languages that evolved from the basic programming language which was developed in the 1960s it was first released in excel 5 and that was in the office 1995 suite since then it evolved to encompass the applications that are mentioned in this slide vba is known as an object-oriented programming language oop this means that everything within an application is an object including the application itself objects have their own set of features and uses known as properties and methods respectively here’s an example of object oriented programming so the example using excel would be that excel is an object that contains other objects for example cells worksheets charts pivot tables shapes etc each object has its own properties for example a worksheet has a name a workbook can be opened and closed and these are a couple of a workbook’s so methods are like actions you will work with objects and manipulate them via their properties and methods throughout this course so why vba it can give you the ability to run macros automatically create user defined functions which can be used in the excel application you can use vba to control other office applications and mostly to automate recurring and repetitive tasks don’t get me wrong the power of macros is excellent in excel but vba does have some advantages so for example there are no limitations when you’re recording macros you are limited to those tasks that you can perform in the excel interface with vba you can attach code to events so that it runs automatically when the event occurs for example activating a worksheet would be an event vba allows for decision making and it has several decision-making structures ensuring code only runs when certain conditions are met the looping structures in vba ensure code runs multiple times based on a condition and then there’s forms and boxes you can use vba to create user input forms dialog boxes and message boxes in excel so we’re going to get started i have the vehicles excel file open from the video description and we are going to be recording a macro in this file now the thing is we want to prepare excel for recording a macro there are several ways that you can start a macro recording but we want to add the developer tab to the ribbon as that is one of the ways that you can record your macros review your macros so on and so forth so the first thing we’re going to do is right click on any ribbon tab home insert page layout whatever and when you right click on a ribbon tab you’re going to choose customize the ribbon in the customize the ribbon options box on the right side everything that has a check mark is a tab that’s showing on your ribbon we want to check the box in front of developer and then at the bottom you’re going to click ok and now you have the developer tab on your ribbon and let’s navigate to that tab so for parts of this course we’re going to be using this make vehicle information so we have make-believe then numbers we have year we have make model classification color dealer cost and manufacturer suggested retail price columns in here and we’re going to record a macro that is going to apply the column headings and also a little bit of formatting so on the developer tab of the ribbon in the first group the code group you’re going to click on the record macro button and don’t worry it’s not going to be recording until after we clear the dialog box so when you click that button the record macro dialog box opens and you have to give your macro a name well you don’t want your macros to have generic names so make them as descriptive as possible now of course there are rules to naming macros macro names must begin with a letter can be alphanumeric and can contain the underscore character no spaces so we’re going to name this macro capital a add capital f formatting almost together so it follows the naming convention we’re not going to assign a shortcut key to the macro to make it run later we don’t need to do that here and you have choices as to where the macro is going to be stored so by default it’s going to just be in this workbook the file that it’s going to be recorded in this workbook your other choices are a new workbook or your personal macro workbook if you store it in the personal macro workbook that workbook opens in the background every time you open excel and so the macro is available to any and all excel files we’re going to leave it on this workbook and there’s another way that you can access it from another file that you’ll see a little bit later i like to add a description to a macro so that if anyone comes behind me and they need information about what the macro is going to do the description will cover that so we’re going to type in a description box add column headers comma bold and centered period apply accounting format to column g period autofit columns a through h so that is the intent of the macro that we’re going to record so at this point once we click ok everything we do until we stop the recording is going to be recorded and i like to say this while you’re recording the macro if you make a mistake and you correct the mistake you don’t have to start all over again because it’s recording both the mistake and the correction so go ahead and click okay you’ll notice on the developer tab now where it used to say record macro we now have our stop recording icon there and we’ll use that when we’re completely done going through all the steps that we’re saving in our macro so for right now the first thing that we want to do here is right click on row heading 1 and choose insert so we get a blank row a new row one and that’s the row that we’re going to be adding our column headers in and so we’re going to click in cell a1 and we’re going to type then v i n and i’m doing it in all capital letters so vehicle identification number i’m going to press my tab key to get over to b1 and i’m going to type year tab make tab model tab again classification the next one is color the next one is dealer cost two separate words and lastly in all caps msrp for manufacturers suggested retail price after that one i’m going to just press enter so we have our headers in where they need to be and then we’re going to select row heading 1 again and we’re going to go to the home tab of the ribbon in the font group we’re going to make it bold and in the paragraph group we’re going to use the center alignment button so the headers are centered within their cells now we’re also going to add in adjusting column width in here so don’t worry about that right now the next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to select column g by clicking on its column heading so the entire column is selected and on the home tab in the number group we’re going to click on the dollar sign for the accounting number format and then the last thing we’re going to do is we’re going to select column headings a through h and i just clicked on a and dragged across and we want to auto fit these columns with right so that’s what we want to do we want to auto fit and we do that by going to the cells group over to the right on the home tab of the ribbon and in the cells group you’re going to select the format drop down and from that drop down you’re going to select auto fit column width so now every column is wide enough to display everything in the column and if we were to make entries and they were wider than what they are now it would automatically adjust the column width now typically when i’m done recording my macro before i click stop recording i just like to click on any blank cell just to make sure that nothing is selected we’re going to go back to the developer tab and choose stop recording in the code group typically you cannot undo the effects of a macro so we just recorded this macro while we were recording it we were doing the steps now what i’d like you to do is i’d like you to press ctrl z which is undo and the only thing it undid was the column auto with everything else our headings are there they’re bold and centered we have our accounting format and column g and it just undid the column autofit so we want to redo that step so we’re going to just do control y which is redo and we end up again with the result of our macro you will learn some workarounds for undoing the effects of a macro later on but for right now we want to test this macro on a different sheet so we’re on the inventory sheet tab in this file we have two other sheets let’s go to sheet two sheet two has the same data that was on sheet one initially when we came in here and this is a good sheet to test our macro on so we can go on the developer tab in the code group this is where you can use the macros button to access any macros that you may have in this file so we’re going to click on macros and we only have one ad formatting it’s already selected and on the right side you’re going to click the run button so at the end of the day you should have those column headings they should be centered and bolded and the auto width the column auto width is in effect and you have the accounting number format in column g so while we were recording our macro it was generating visual basic code in the background visual basic for applications code in the background now on the developer tab we can get to visual basic you will learn other ways of starting macro recording without using the developer tab you’ll learn shortcuts throughout the course on how to switch back and forth between visual basic for applications and the excel interface but for right now on the developer tab the first button in the code group is visual basic let’s go ahead and click on it visual basic for application opens in its own separate window and so you literally have this window and your excel window open at the same time and we’re just going to focus on the vba window right now and so before we get started in here we’re ultimately going to edit the code behind the macro we just recorded but i just want you to get acclimated to this environment this is known as the visual basic editor or vbe just so you know it doesn’t have a ribbon interface it never updated it still has the old school menu bar where you have file edit view and everything and then underneath it it has some tool bars that we use this was like pre-ribbon days how excel itself and all the other office applications used to be on the left side of your screen you may have two different panels open you have a project explorer window at the top and a properties window at the bottom if you don’t have both of those panes showing you can go up to the view menu and you can click on project explorer and then come back to view and click on properties window and you can see the shortcut keys for both of them or you could do ctrl r to bring up project explorer and f4 to bring up the properties window let’s talk about the project explorer window first for every excel file that you have open you will have a separate project so right now i only have one excel file open it’s the vehicles dot xlsx file so it creates its own vba project and it has the name of the file afterwards now i may have a few things here because i have some add-ins that create projects as well if you don’t have them you’re fine but this is a cautionary tale here because there have been times when i’ve had like five excel files open and i find myself doing some coding and then i look and see that i’m doing it in the wrong files project so i can always cut and paste it to the right project but you do want to be aware of what project you’re working in when you click on vba project vehicles.xlsx it expands and you can look up at the title bar and it lets you know that it is in that project now so just kind of get in the habit of making sure you’re in the right project it has two folders in that project microsoft excel objects those are your sheet tabs so we had the inventory sheet we had a sheet 2 and a sheet 3 and then the entire workbook is an object as well so it lists that then you have another folder called modules that folder was created when we started recording our macro actually when we finished recording our macro it created that modules folder your code is stored in modules so expand the modules folder and it created a default module it names it module one and if we were to go back over to excel now and record another macro it would also put it in module one if we were to close excel saving it properly and then reopen it and start recording a macro it would create module two it would always give it the next number module two module three you can also rename modules in here which you’ll see in a little bit so if you click on module 1 you will actually see the code window and that is everything that it created while we were recording our macro so it converted our steps into vba code and we’re going to edit this in just a little bit but i want you to have your editor window be as comfortable an environment for you to be working in so one of the things we’re going to do is we’re going to go up to the tools menu and click on options we will revisit some of these settings later in the course but when you go into options you have four tabs editor editor format general and docking one thing one setting that i want to make sure that you have checked well like make sure all of the code settings have a check mark in front of them and as we work in the course i’ll explain what these settings mean your windows settings you can actually have all of those checked as well go to the editor format tab and this is where you can set your font size so i have my font set to 14 point which is comfortable for me i can bump it up to 16 and then at the bottom i’m going to click ok so font size and if you want to go back in and change the font i’m cool with the code looking font courier font um that works for me i’m just so comfortable with it it doesn’t bother me so i just wanted you to know that you can change some of those settings in the environment for yourself and for the ones that we are going to be utilizing in the course we’ll go back in there and talk about what those settings are actually doing the other thing we want to customize before we edit our code is we want to add three icons to the toolbar that we’ll be using frequently throughout this course so what i’m going to do is i’m going to just right click in a blank area of any toolbar and go to customize and the customize dialog box opens you want to make sure you’re on the commands tab at the top and then you’ll see a list of categories that mimic the menus that are up there file edit view insert so basically you’re gonna have to tell it where it resides on the menu in order to add it to your toolbar so under categories we’re gonna select edit and then all the commands from the edit menu show on the right side of your screen and on the right side of your screen you’re gonna scroll down we’re looking for two commands the first one is comment block and the second is uncomment block so what i’m going to do when i find comment block i’m going to click and hold on it and i’m going to drag it right after the question mark on my toolbar and then i’m going to grab uncomment block and drag it right after comment block now we have one more command that we’re going to add up there under categories we’re going to click on debug and the command at the top of the list is compile project i’m going to grab that and drag it right after uncomment block so i have comment block uncomment block and compile project when we get ready to use those commands i will explain what they’re going to do for us they’re going to be kind of helpers for you let’s examine the code that was generated while we were recording our macro first of all let’s look at the information starting from the top we’ll talk about the option explicit statement a little bit later in the course don’t worry about that right now what i want you to focus on is the name of our code ad formatting it comes after the word sub and you’ll notice that both option explicit and sub are in blue that means those are visual basic for application keywords they mean a specific thing in this code and should only be used for their intended purpose it creates what’s called a sub procedure to contain our code so it starts with the sub statement and if you scroll down at the very bottom it concludes with an end sub statement you have to have both if you have a sub and not an n sub you’re going to get an error message but it did this automatically while we were recording our macro it gave it the name that we named it ad formatting and then after it it put a set of parentheses some procedures have parameters that need to be defined and that would happen inside the parentheses we’re not there yet but that’s why they’re there and they need to be there then you’ll notice several lines that are in green beginning with apostrophes those are comment lines so when we were filling out the record macro dialog box right we named it ad formatting and we put a description in add column headers bold and centered apply accounting format blah blah blah comments are meant to describe your code it’s a good idea to comment your code liberally i’ve written code before and didn’t comment it and six months later i had to figure out what the intent of the code that i wrote was so comments are really good and so when you put a description in the record macro box it comes in as comments they’re informational when you run your code or execute your code the comments do not execute and we can do a little bit of clean up there um we don’t need that blank apostrophe at the top so i’m going to just delete it and then i’m going to delete the two underneath because they’re not necessary either and then it starts our code well the first thing we did is we right clicked on row one and inserted a new row so that’s rows one colon one dot select and then selection dot insert right and so it moved everything it shifted everything down and gave us the blank row at the top and then we clicked in cell a1 and we typed it in so that’s range even though it’s a cell range a1 dot select notice the quote the double quotes inside the parentheses there surrounding a1 and an active cell which is now cell a1 don’t worry about formula r1c1 right now but activecell.formular1c1 equals whatever we typed in that cell then b1 c1 d1 e1 f1 g1 h1 same thing and then we selected row one again so at this point we’re all the way down here in the code when we selected row one again and once we selected it we made it bold so before that selection dot font dot bold would equal false when we made it bold it changed the false to true and then you have what’s known as a with end with block starts with the word with and if you go down several rows it ends with an end with statement and this is an interesting thing you’ll learn more it’s known as a construct right you’ll learn more about this construct as we go in the course but this allows you anything that you do in the paragraph group on the home tab is included in this width block bold is not in the paragraph group on the excel ribbon right but your alignments are the ability to wrap text your orientation whether you’re going to indent merging cells all of that is included in the paragraph group on the home tab in excel so all of these settings here are those things that mimic the paragraph group and what we did is we centered those headings so what happened is when we did that the dot horizontal alignment equals excel center it was changed from excel left because typically things are left aligned in a cell so all of these other settings are the default settings the only thing that changed was excel center one of the things you you want in your code is for it to be as concise as possible we don’t need everything that’s in that with block we we really would just keep the horizontal and vertical alignment but we didn’t do any wrap text orientation indenting any of that kind of stuff so we’re going to select the lines from wrap text all the way down to the dot merge cells equals false statement we need to leave that end with statement underneath that so once you have dot wrap text through dot merge cells line selected go ahead and press delete and then i’m a little ocd so i’m gonna shift tab to get the end with statement back in line with the with statement so if i have to troubleshoot code i want to make sure that i can see with and end with at the same margin if that makes sense and when we start putting our code together i’ll be walking you through how it should be formulated so when we were recording our macro we formatted column g as currency column g is the dealer cost column and we should have formatted the manufacturer’s suggested retail price column column h well it says currency in here but it’s actually accounting okay so we want both of those columns to be formatted in accounting underneath your end with statements you’ll see columns and then in parentheses in double quotes g colon g dot select the second g you’re going to change to an h so now we’re telling it when this macro runs select both of those columns and apply the format on both of those columns and that’s what we want to do and then we have where we selected columns a through h and we did our columns autofit and then i said at the end before we stop recording click on any blank cell whatever cell you clicked on it will say range and then in parentheses and double quotes that cell dot select we’re going to change whatever that cell is that cell reference we want it to be a one and so we just modified the code that was generated for our macros now we’re just going to modify our comment our second comment line here to make it accurate so apply a counting format to columns we’re going to make that plural columns g and then and h and when you move away from that line it will turn green again indicating that it’s a comment now that we’ve edited our code and we’ll test it shortly um we want to change the name of module one you want your module names to be as descriptive as possible um it’s kind of like folders that you’re organizing your code in so we’re gonna have several modules throughout this course and we don’t want them to be module one module two module three module four so we’re gonna use the properties window to make some changes to properties so we’re going to start with renaming module 1. in your project explorer window click on module 1 and then if you look down at your properties window it says properties for module one the object that we have selected and the only property a module has is the name property so if you double click on name it highlights module one for you and we’re going to talk about a prefix that we’re going to use here to identify it in a list as a module we’re going to use lowercase mod mod to indicate that it is a module and then we’re going to give it its name and that’s going to be capital f and the rest of the word first so mod first if we’re looking at a bunch of stuff in a list we’ll know that it’s a module because it has that three character prefix of mod and then when you press enter you’ll notice that it updated the name of the module in the project explorer window you can change the names of sheet tabs in here as well so in your project explorer you have that microsoft excel objects folder where you’re seeing your three sheet tabs we have one and it’s called sheet1 and in parentheses inventory sheet1 is how excel knows that sheet inventory is what it was renamed to but the system identifies it as sheet1 and then we have sheet2 and we have sheet3 we’re gonna click on sheet3 and in the properties window you’ll notice that there are two name properties the one at the top is indicative of the system name right so what excel knows is that name is the name property at the top my arrow got a little skewed there and then you have a name property lower down in your properties window and the one that’s lowered down is whatever you decide to name that sheet so the second name property the one that is not in parentheses you can double click right on name and it selects sheet three and we’re going to type new vehicles two separate words just like you would do it in excel if you were renaming the sheet tab and press enter so notice in your project explorer now you have your sheet1 which had already been renamed to inventory sheet 3 which we just named new vehicles we added the compile project icon to our toolbar and what that does is it kind of goes through your code for you and it checks to make sure that everything is okay if there’s a problem it will let you know by highlighting that problem so what we’re going to do is make sure you’re clicked anywhere between your sub and in sub statements you can be anywhere between those two statements and go up to your toolbar and find your compile vba project icon that we added there and just give it a click and it dims out and you didn’t get any notifications of anything wrong so your code is good good habit to get into good icon to have on your toolbar so now that we’ve modified our code we want to save this file and if you look up at the top you know your title bar is vehicles.xlsx the standard four character excel workbook extension if we don’t save this file in the right way it’s as if we didn’t record a macro and we wouldn’t have any vba code in it so you have to save it as a macro enabled workbook as a matter of fact let’s check this out on the toolbar you have a save button and notice when you hover over it it wants to save the file go ahead and click on that save icon and you get this pop-up message that says the following features cannot be saved in macro free workbooks and then it says vb project that’s your visual basic project to save a file with your code in it click no and then choose a macro enabled file type to continue saving as a macro free workbook click yes we are going to click no when you click no it gives you the save as dialog box now we’re going to leave the same name vehicles but we need to change the type right underneath the file name where it says save as type click on excel workbook and we want the second choice excel macro enabled workbook again if we just save this as a regular excel file it’s not going to keep your code so we need it to be macro enabled and part of that is for your security which i’ll explain in just a few moments and after we have it set as excel macro enabled workbook we’re going to go ahead and click save so now if you look up at the title bar it has a different extension dot xlsm that’s your macro enabled excel workbook extension and so it will retain our code and now that we’ve saved it as macro enabled we’re going to switch over to excel to test our edited code there’s a couple of ways that you can switch over to excel back and forth between excel and visual basic first of all and i’m not going to use this way but the first button on the toolbar is excel so i can use that to switch back over to excel i’m a real shortcut key person so alt f11 will also switch me back and forth between excel and the visual basic editor so i can just keep doing alt f11 and you see that it switches back and forth between the two separate application windows that are open when i am back in excel i’m going to do control o to get the open dialog box to display so this is where we’re going to open the vehicles 2 file and by the way if you look at my screen we have two files we have vehicles and vehicles too right we have two versions of vehicles i’m pointing to the macro enabled worksheet and then we have our original one which is just a regular excel file and if you look closely the icons are slightly different the macro enabled worksheet icon has an extra little thing in its lower right hand corner than the other regular excel icons so we want to open the vehicles to excel workbook and so we have two excel files open we have our macro enabled vehicles and we have vehicles too earlier when we went to record our macro i said if you save your macro in the personal macro workbook it opens behind the scenes every time you open any file in excel this is a workaround we save that macro in the vehicles file but we can use it in vehicles too as long as the vehicles dot xlsm file is open i don’t typically save in the personal macro workbook there are occasions that i do that if i’m going to use it across a wide range of files but typically my files are structured so differently that macros from one won’t work well with others so what we’re going to do here is we want to use the macro that we recorded the add formatting macro we want to use it in this file another way of getting to your macros instead of going to the developer tab is you can go to the view tab of the ribbon and all the way to the right the last button is macros so check this out if i do the drop down arrow under macros i can view or record them um and i’m going to just go to view macros notice that it gives the file name exclamation point and then the name of the macro that vehicles.xlsm file has to be open and it’s showing you macros in all open workbooks if we did the drop down and we choose this workbook right it’s showing there as well because the other one’s open so you can access it but it really resides in that other file vehicles the macro enabled vehicles file and so we’re going to just click on vehicles xlsm exclamation point ad formatting and choose run so you’ll notice that it gave us our headings they’re centered and bolded notice one of the changes we made is we had it do the accounting format on the msrp column right so that worked we also cleaned up some comments and stuff in there as well so you will see that if you have the file that contains the macro open you can access it from other excel files that you open also notice that the active cell is cell a1 because we changed that as well we’re going to close this vehicles 2 file without saving any changes to it so i’m going to just close that file when it prompts me i’m going to say don’t save the changes and i still have my macro enabled vehicles file open so in our macro enabled vehicles file first take a note look at your um sheet tabs so we renamed sheet 3 new vehicles and that’s what shows on the sheet down there we did that in the properties window in the visual basic editor so another change that we made in there that you’re seeing in here and i mentioned earlier and we saw that you can’t really undo the effects of a macro when we tried to do it it didn’t really undo it it only undid the column autofit right so we saw that but i said that there is a workaround like let’s say on the sheet 2 right that we wanted to test the macro and it’s already been run so we certainly don’t want it to put another row in here right at the top so on sheet 2 what i’m going to have you do is just delete row one so i’m just right clicking on the row header and choosing delete and now i’m gonna go to the view tab drop down view my macros and i’m going to rerun this macro so it puts the headings back in right we see that we have the currency format on or accounting format on the columns g and h and it put us in cell a1 so you would have to kind of manually delete the effects of a macro to rerun it on a sheet like that we’re going to go ahead and right click on the sheet2 sheet tab and we want to delete sheet 2 and confirm the deletion so now we have two sheets in this macro enabled file we have our inventory sheet and we have our blank for right now new vehicle sheet let’s go ahead and save and close this vehicle’s file now we’re going to explore what happens when you open a file that is macro enabled so what i’m going to do is i’m going to just relaunch excel and go to open and navigate to wherever you saved your macro enabled vehicles file and when you’re there you can go ahead and select the vehicles macro enabled file i’m going to just double click on it here and open it now because it’s macro enabled you’re going to get the yellow band underneath the ribbon that says security warning macros have been disabled and then there’s an enable content button microsoft does this by default that’s the default security settings for a file that contains macros that has been saved as macro enabled and it’s to kind of protect you so if you receive a file from an unknown source you probably do not want to enable the content it’s not the typical way of delivering viruses to computers anymore but it used to be delivered via macros that were infected via viruses so if it’s from a trusted source you can go ahead and enable the content which we’re gonna do now that can be annoying if you’re working with a lot of macro enabled files and you know the people that are creating them maybe your colleagues yourself you all work in teams or something like that so we’re gonna modify a truss center setting and you’ll see how this works so what we’re going to do is we’re going to go to the file tab and all the way at the bottom on the left you’re going to go to options on the left side of excel options at the bottom you’re going to click on trust center and then on the right you’re going to click on trust center settings so the first thing i want you to see here is on the left side click on macro settings so the default setting is to disable vba macros with notification that’s what the yellow band that we got and i wouldn’t suggest changing that what you can do to make it a little bit more convenient and you don’t get that yellow band when you’re you know using files back and forth amongst your teammates or colleagues is we can set either trusted documents on the left or trusted locations i always do trusted locations it’s more global than trusted documents so click on trusted locations and i’ll tell you um how this works right so i set up a folder on my desktop it’s called files for video description and it’s where i’ve stored all the files that we’re going to be using during this course and i want to set that as a trusted location so any of the macro enabled file formats that we’re going to be using during this course that folder and its any subfolders will be a trusted location so what i’m going to do underneath here is i’m going to click on add new location toward the bottom right and then i have to navigate to that location so i’m going to just do that i know it’s on my desktop so you’re navigating to wherever you put the files that you’re going to be using so the folder name for me is files for video description and i’m going to click ok and then i’m going to say subfolders of this location are also trusted so any folders within that folder would also be trusted and then i’m going to click ok and once i do that it shows up in this list of trusted locations so it could be a shared network drive if you’re all of your files that you and your team are working together on are in a specific shared network drive you can use that as a trusted location so that you don’t get the yellow warning and have to enable content at the bottom we’re going to click ok and then let’s close and reopen this vehicle’s macro enabled file so when i open it it’s in a trusted location now so i don’t get the yellow banner under the ribbon i don’t have to enable content and i didn’t disable the default trust center setting so that’s still in place but this file is now in a trusted location so i’m able to open it with no problems just to recap what we covered in this introductory lesson one on the getting started section we reviewed what you can do with visual basic for applications you learn that it is an object oriented programming language that is part of the microsoft office suite you learned that it’s the code that is produced in the background when you record a macro you also learn the advantages of visual basic for applications over recording macros we moved into customizing the ribbon to add the developer tab and we recorded a macro in excel that added and formatted column headings on a worksheet we then toured the visual basic editor environment and were able to edit the vba code produced by our recorded macro we also changed some vbe settings including font size and we saved a macro enabled file you tested your edited macro and lastly modified some trust center security settings by adding a trusted location you also understand the importance of saving a macro enabled workbook or else all of your work would be lost before we get hands on again in lesson three we need to go over some background information and i should mention at this point that this slide deck is also in the video description and you can use it for your future reference no one is expecting you to memorize all of these things so we need to talk about the excel object model you need to understand collections and how to reference objects and also how to simplify object references you learned that vba is an object-oriented programming language and we discussed that that means that excel is an object that contains objects objects that have attributes known as properties can be manipulated through vba and objects also have methods which are actions that can be performed on them via vba so this is a foundational lesson here and again you’ll be able to reference the slide deck so the excel object model hierarchy is a hierarchical structure of excel and all its objects with excel the application residing at the top of the hierarchy so you can see on this slide that we have the application at the top of the hierarchy here on the left and then underneath the application you would have add in objects window objects workbook objects and then we expand on the workbook object a workbook object has a name a visual basic project a workbook also contains worksheets worksheets can contain comments hyperlinks names ranges and pivot tables for example so a simplistic example is over on the right where you have excel the application which is an object at the top of the hierarchy then you have a workbook a worksheet is an object of a workbook and a range is an object of a worksheet and you’re going to be seeing this as we’re working in this video course the next thing you need to understand are collections now collections are key in vba programming a collection is simply a group of objects of the same type a collection is also an object collections are useful when you need to work with not just one worksheet but with a couple of them or all of them you’ll learn later that your vba code can loop through all members of a collection and do something to each one we have a table that shows the collections the most commonly used collections in visual basic so you have the workbooks collection and it would be all currently open workbook objects so all currently open cell files are part of the workbooks collection you have a worksheets collection and it’s a collection of all worksheets contained in a particular workbook the charts collection is a collection of all chart objects so these are excel worksheets that only have charts on them a collection of all chart objects contained in a particular workbook object a chart sheet is not part of the worksheets collection as it is not considered a worksheet it is in fact a worksheet but it only has a chart on it and then you have the sheets collection plural a collection of all worksheet objects contained in a particular workbook object so you have a worksheets collection and then you have a sheets collection what is the difference the sheets collection contains all worksheets and all chart sheets whereas the worksheets collection is just all of the worksheets and then the charts collection is just all of the chart sheets the sheets collection combines them all so you can reference these things sometimes across different collections as you will see when we resume with our hands-on stuff in order to access the objects that you want to reference in your code you’re going gonna have to learn how to reference them so you can work with an entire collection quite easily but it’s most often the case that you’ll need to work with a particular object in a collection for example if you need to work with a particular worksheet you’ll need to know how to reference it when it comes to referring to an object in a collection you can either use its name or its index number to reference a single object from a collection you put the item’s name or index number in parentheses after the name of the collection so you have two examples on this slide that refer to the exact same object the first worksheet in the workbook so worksheets and then in parentheses and double quotes sheet1 by name or worksheets and in parentheses 1 by index number when you refer to an object by its name the name must be enclosed in quotes when referring to an object by its index number you need to know that the first object in the collection has the index number of one using a workbook with three worksheets as an example sheet one has an index number of one sheet two would be two and sheet three’s index number would be three and index numbers are not enclosed in quotes we’re going to spend a few slides on referencing objects so each worksheet in the worksheet’s collection is an object in two collections which we mentioned already worksheets and sheets each chart sheet is an object in two collections charts and sheets so there’s another example of how to refer to sheet1 you could use the sheets collection instead of the worksheets collection like a typical office application you get several ways of referring to the same object you know there’s multiple ways of getting the same thing done in excel and along the way you’ll find a way that works best for you although i do have some suggestions so all excel objects are under the application object in the hierarchy remember excel the application is at the top of the hierarchy you access these objects by moving down the hierarchy and connecting each object with the dot operator you can even access the value of a particular cell on the worksheet by using the range object and you saw that when we reviewed our code there is no cell object in vba really it would be the range object even with one element and here are additional examples on this slide of object references so referring to a specific workbook application dot workbooks and then in parentheses and double quotes the name of the workbook including its extension and then a specific worksheet in the workbook if you’re using the entire hierarchy application.workbooks the name of the workbook and then dot worksheets 1 the first sheet referring to the value of a cell your application.workbooksname.worksheets1 dot range a1 dot value the last example is known as a fully qualified reference it specifically refers to all the objects in the hierarchy from application down to range so again you have this power point in your video description for future reference now i’m going to tell you about simplifying object references you want it to be as concise as possible and i i mentioned that earlier it’s easier to write and easier to troubleshoot should there be any issues so visual basic for applications can assume some of the object references for you for example it assumes that the workbook’s collection is within the application object and that means that you don’t have to reference that object in most cases another example here is that if you only have one workbook open one excel file open it is the only one in the collection so vba assumes it is the active workbook and you don’t have to reference the workbooks collection if the first worksheet is the active sheet in the workbook you don’t have to reference the worksheets collection as vba will assume it so gonna go over these examples the code that refers to the value of a cell so starting with the application application.workbooks the name of the workbook in parentheses and double quotes dot worksheets 1 by index number dot range a1 dot value if vba is assuming the application object it would just start with workbooks in the name of the workbook so on and so forth if it’s the only open excel file it will assume the workbooks object so you can just start with worksheets and if the first sheet is the active sheet all you would have to reference is range a1 dot value and so the last example is the most concise and therefore preferable you don’t want to have to type all of this line unless you just like to type like that my arrow drawing is getting horrible here but you don’t have to type all of that why would you want to type all of that maybe fat finger to keyboard whatever set of circumstances could happen when all you would have to type would be this and also if someone is coming behind you or if you have to troubleshoot the code this is a lot more difficult to troubleshoot because it has more on this line than the last and preferable example now that we’ve gained an understanding of the excel object model hierarchy collections and how to reference objects we’re ready to dive into lesson three which is working with procedures and functions previously you were introduced to modules and sub procedures when we edited the vba code that was generated by the macro we recorded you’re going to get more in-depth knowledge on those two topics during this lesson so we’re going to start by doing a deeper dive into modules and then procedures then we are going to move on to creating a standard module as well as creating a sub procedure you’ll learn different methods of executing procedures or running them including how to call procedures in this lesson then we’re going to create a function procedure and we’re going to use the immediate window within the visual basic editor to run it you’re going to learn how to get context sensitive help within the visual basic editor which is really cool we’re going to use the vehicles macro enable file that we created as well as another file in the video description and it’s another excel file named received vehicles those two files need to be in the same directory for this lesson you saw earlier that when we recorded a macro vba created a module to store the visual basic code in and so we discussed how a module is a container of sorts that stores your vba code well there are two different types of modules there are class modules which allow you to create your own objects and we’ll begin using class modules when we get to lesson seven and then there’s standard modules one of which you already saw and it uses the application objects we also discussed that our code was put in a procedure specifically in our case it was a sub procedure began with the sub statement and end it with the n sub statement so a procedure tells the application what to do as it defines a specific task specifically it’s a named group of statements that are run as a unit for example a block of code a sub procedure defines specific tasks like our ad formatting sub procedure it told the application what to do so insert a new row and then we typed in the headers that kind of thing when responding to events you’ll learn about these later they can be known as event procedures there are also function procedures and you’ll be introduced to creating function procedures during this lesson a function procedure actually returns a value property procedures are outside of the scope of this course but they exist and they’re are series of statements that allow a programmer to create and manipulate custom properties for example read-only properties for forms before we dive in we’re going to go over the naming rules and conventions for procedures now the rules cannot be broken conventions are suggestions but just so you’re aware of them you need to know what they are and i use conventions as well as the rules so if you inherit an excel macro enabled workbook and you’re looking at somebody else’s code they may be using the conventions so anyway let’s go over this and then we’ll get hands on and learn more about procedures and modules by recording another macro so when we’re naming procedures the name may be up to 255 characters it can be alphanumeric the first character must be a letter you can’t use any spaces or any of the special characters listed on the slide and the names must be unique within a module so you can’t have to add formatting sub procedures within the same module it will disallow it you just can’t do it and then the conventions begin the names with a verb use proper case for each word within the name when two or more procedures are related place the words that vary at the end and there are some examples so you could name a procedure close workbook get new inventory get selected date begin and get selected date end so if you’re looking at these in a list the ones that have the words that vary at the end would still be all together in the list so you know that they’re related procedures i’m back in the vehicles macro enabled file that we created earlier and i’m going to switch to the new vehicles sheet tab now we’re going to record a macro again to get this lesson started and along the way and going forward beyond this lesson whether we’re recording macros or we’re writing vba code from scratch we’re also going to be using properties and we’re going to be using methods now you saw properties we use properties to change the name of a module we use properties to change the name of this particular sheet tab and a method is an action that is taken on an object so you’ll learn how to access methods along the way as well and i want to show you another way of starting a macro recording without accessing the ribbon so i’d like to direct your attention to your status bar and it’s at the very bottom underneath your sheet tabs of your excel screen so the area all the way at the bottom now it starts with ready you may or may not have num lock and some of the other stuff that i have on my status bar but in particular i’m interested in making sure that you have this icon i don’t know it looks like a spreadsheet with a little camera on it in a way and if you don’t have it i’m going to show you how to get it down there you can right-click in a blank area of the status bar and you get the customize status bar menu and notice that a lot of the things on my customize menu are already checked which means they will show in my status bar as appropriate so for example caps lock and num lock my num lock is on and that’s why it’s showing down in the status bar my caps lock is currently not being held down i’m not enabling caps lock on my keyboard i should say so that one is not showing there but where i to enable it it would show in my status bar the setting that we’re interested in having you have down there is macro recording that’s that icon so if it doesn’t have a check mark in front of it and you click on it it will check it if it does and you click on it it unchecks it like it just did on mine so i’ll click on it again and then you just click on any blank cell you want to make sure you’re in cell a1 before we start recording this macro and what we’re going to do is we’re going to go down to that icon in our status bar that looks like a spreadsheet with a looks like a camera lens to me but if you hover over it it says no macros are currently recording click to begin recording a new macro and we’re going to do just that and it gives us our record macro dialog box so you could start this process from the developer tab or you can start it from that icon on your status bar now for this macro we want to name it using our rules and conventions so we’re going to start with a verb capital g get capital n new capital v vehicles because remember you can’t have spaces you could use the underscore character but i prefer to just use this convention we’re not going to use the shortcut key we’re going to store it in this workbook and we’re going to click in the description box and we’re going to type copy and paste data from the received vehicles file and again it once we click ok it’s ready to follow our instructions so go ahead and click ok notice that the icon on your status bar now looks different and it looks like a stop button and if you hover over it it says click here or a macro is currently recording click to stop the recording so we can start and stop it from the status bar as well so what we want to do is we want to open the received vehicles file that is in the same directory as this file and i’m going to use the shortcut combination control o to bring up my open dialog box i’m already in the proper directory for myself and i’m going to just double click that received vehicles excel file to open it and once it’s opened you’ll see that it has a limited amount of data there’s some then numbers and dealer costs and so what we’re going to do is we are going to click anywhere on the spreadsheet it’s only on sheet 1 and we’re going to hold down our control key and type the letter a and the letter c so a selects everything and c is the copy command and now we want to switch back to our vehicles macro enabled file so one way to do that is we can go to our view tab on the ribbon the next to the last button is switch windows and i’m going to use i’m going to just click on vehicles to switch back to that file we’re already in cell a1 in the vehicles file on the new vehicles tab i’m going to just do control v as in victor to paste in the information we have one more step we’re going to take before we stop this macro recording i’m going to switch back to the received vehicles file and i’m going to just close it and now i can go down to my status bar and stop the recording before we switch over to the visual basic editor to look at the code that we just generated just wanted to give you some examples of methods so i’ve said that a method is an action that is taken on an object so clear contents is a method of the range object it would empty the cells delete everything that’s in the cells clear all of everything that’s in the cells in the range add is a method of the workbook’s collection object and it’s used to create a new workbook and then you have activate and that’s a method of the worksheet object it’s used to activate a worksheet you know if i click on the inventory sheet tab i’m activating that sheet so examples of how you access the methods you start with the object so range a1 colon b11 in parentheses and double quotes you use the dot notation and then you can access the method clear contents workbooks dot add worksheets you have to give it the name or the index number of the sheet dot activate so we’re seeing the dot notation used to call methods as well and when you’re in the editor and you do the dot it sometimes gives you and usually gives you built-in help that it will list the methods that are available for that particular object i’m going to just delete this text box off of my spreadsheet then i’m going to alt f11 to switch over to the visual basic editor the first thing i want to point out is the project explorer window the upper left corner and if you look in your modules folder now we renamed what used to be called module 1 mod first so because we had closed the file and reopened it when we recorded this macro it created a new module since module 1 wasn’t in use anymore it used that and so we would have to go there to find the code that we just recorded the macro for so i’m going to switch to module one and it created a sub procedure we named it get new vehicles we put stuff in the description explaining what it is and you know we can get rid of those extra green lines that are preceded by apostrophes that don’t need to be there just to kind of clean up the code of course you want it as concise as possible when we did control o the open command it did this activewindow.close and then workbooks.open right so open is a method of the workbooks object close is a method of the active window object so we did workbooks open we had to give it the name of the file and these characters here so it says file name followed by a colon equal then there’s a space and an underscore the space and the underscore means the rest of this syntax the rest of what is needed here is on the next line it’s called the line continuation character space and underscore combined like that in visual basic is the line continuation character and that’s what we have after file name colon equal if we didn’t have that there we would get an error message because it’s saying hey you gotta give me the path to the file name including the file name so it just goes to where i have my on my hard drive users trish desktop files for video description and then it’s in that received vehicles the name of the file is receive vehicles.xlsx and that line starting with c begins with an open double quote and ends with a closing double quote and then i scrolled a little bit when i got over to that other file receive the vehicles and it took note of that that’s this active window small scroll down and then we did control a to select everything which is a 1 through b11 dot select select is a method of the range object and then we have range a2 activate and then we did copy so we actually just did control ac and it created those three lines of code and then after we copied it we switched back over to the vehicles macro enabled file we click in cell a1 and then we pasted what was on the clipboard onto the active sheet starting in cell a1 and then we went back over to received vehicles file calling the activate method and then we said close that window and then of course with every sub statement you have your n sub statement at the bottom now that we’ve reviewed this code that was generated from us recording that macro there’s a few things we want to do we want to rename module one so it’s more specific and we want to create a new sub procedure from scratch in the newly named module so let’s start in our project explorer window i’m gonna just click on module one go down the properties window double-click name and we’re gonna call this mod remember that three character prefix which is a convention not a rule mod new vehicles and i’m using the proper casing all mushed together and then i’m going to press enter so we have mod first and mod new vehicles in mod new vehicles click at the end of your in sub statement and press enter we’re going to go to the insert menu and we’re going to choose procedure and this is a microsoft product so this is just one way of doing this in the add procedure dialog box we’re going to start work our way from top to bottom right in the name box we’re going to name this procedure move cells so capital m capital c mushed together procedure name move cells the type defaults to sub for a sub procedure and we’re going to talk about the scope in a little while but we’re going to leave it on public and we’re going to just click ok so a couple of things happened it automatically put a dividing line between your get new vehicle sub procedure and this new sub procedure and it has the keyword public because we did it from within the dialog box and again you’ll learn about scope in a little while and that’s what public speaks to it gave us our sub and our n sub statements and of course the open and closing parentheses at the end of the first line so what i’m going to have you do is i’m going to have you click outside of the closing parentheses public sub move cells press enter twice and then press the tab key on your keyboard i talked about code being concise but also you need to know this you’re going to probably end up spending more time troubleshooting code than actually writing code it’s just the way it goes and there are certain things in terms of how you format you your code that makes it easier to review when you’re troubleshooting and indentation is one of those things i like to look at my code and see the public sub and in sub statements at the same margin and that’s what we’re doing by indenting here so now you’re going to type a few lines of code four lines to be exact and you can take them off of my screen the first line is going to be columns plural open paren open double quote b close your double quote close your paren so columns b so we’re referencing column b you’re going to use the dot notation and start typing select and if i don’t type it with a capital s when i press enter at the end it will automatically capitalize it for me and now we’re going to type selection dot cut enter i’ll explain it all when we get it in and then we’re going to type columns open paren open double quote g close the quote close the paren dot select active sheet dot paste and typically i like to have a blank line after public sub and a blank line before end sub so my previous block my get new vehicle sub procedure i’m going to just get that blank line above the n sub statement so basically it’s going to select everything in column b and it’s going to cut it put it on the clipboard and then it’s going to select column g and it’s going to paste what was in column b into column g congratulations you just wrote four lines of vba code from scratch now earlier we added some buttons to our toolbar and we used one of these earlier be anywhere in between your public sub and your in sub statements and go on and click that compile vba project that we put up on the toolbar earlier and again if there were any errors in your code you would be notified of it it’s kind of line checking your code you accessed the select method of the columns object and once you have something selected it is known as the selection object so you access the cut method of the selection object and the paste method of the active sheet object in that code block so let’s go ahead and save is save on the toolbar or you could do control s and then we’re going to do alt f11 to switch back over to excel so we can test this code there is another way that you can access your macros in here so earlier we accessed our macros from the developer tab by using the second button macros we also accessed it from the view tab of the ribbon by going to the last button which is macros well there’s another way of doing it and it’s a shortcut key so you can use alt f8 to open the macro dialog box and so in here you’ll see your ad formatting macro your get new vehicles macro both of those were based off of macro recordings i should say and then move cells is listed in here even though we created that sub procedure from scratch so this is just another way alt f8 that you can open the macro dialog box and we’re going to double click the move cells procedure so you could click it once and then choose run or you could just double click it to run it and it did exactly what we asked it to do just very quickly selected everything in column b cut it and then pasted it into column g so the next part we’re going to do is going to further our automation what we want to do is we want to edit the add formatting sub procedure so that it works on this sheet the new vehicle sheet that we’re currently on and before we do that we’re going to delete everything on this sheet new vehicles we’re going to do control a to select everything and then we’re going to just press delete and then just click in cell a1 now we want to go back over to the visual basic editor alt f11 will get you there and in the project explorer we’re going to double click mod first which is where our ad formatting sub procedure resides now notice the first two lines in our code block that’s when we right clicked on row one and we inserted a new row well we don’t want to do that again we want to keep the row headings that we already have so we don’t want it to insert a blank row above row one which now contains the headings so we need to delete just those two lines of code rows one colon one dot select and selection dot insert shift blah blah blah the first two lines so i already have them selected and i’m going to delete those two lines and then what i’m going to do is in your project explorer window go ahead and double click mod new vehicles again to get back into that module where we have our get new vehicles which is the result of a macro and notice when you do a macro it gives you in green that it’s based off of a macro you didn’t create this code and then whatever description you put in right so we should probably add comments just so i can be a good example here to our move cells sub procedure i’m going to click at the end of the public sub line and press enter twice and then i’m going to type an apostrophe now when you type an apostrophe it’s like saying the visual basic hey heads up the next thing i’m going to type is going to be a comment which means you’re not going to execute it when the code executes it’s just there for informational purposes and we’re going to say that this is going to select and cut contents of column b and paste into column g and then when i press enter it will turn that line green because we started with an apostrophe before we do the next bit i just want to go over that there are different ways to execute your procedures or run them within the application or in vba so we’ve used some of these already um we’ve used the macro dialog box the ones that are highlighted on in yellow on this slide we will use during this course so you’ll later on we’ll use the run sub user form button on the vbe toolbar we’ve already used the macro dialog box we’re going to call the procedure from another sub procedure which is the one the example we’re going to do next later on we’re going to add a button to the quick access toolbar in excel you can also attach the procedure to an event which you will learn later and also you can run it from what’s known as the immediate window in visual basic editor so many different ways to execute procedures so like i mentioned we’re going to be calling the procedure from another sub procedure in this lesson we’re going to click at the end of the end sub statement in your move cells public sub procedure and we’re going to press enter twice we’re going to create another sub procedure here going to do it in a different way and it’s going to be known as the calling procedure you’ll see how this works and i’ll explain more after we get it done now we’re going to actually just type this in we’re not going to use the add procedure insert procedure dialog box and so we clicked after in sub we pressed enter a couple of times and we’re going to type sub and then we’re going to name it get new inventory and press enter twice so you get the line the dividing line between the move cells sub procedure notice we didn’t have to type the opening and closing paren or the end sub statement the visual basic editor will supply you with those when you’re typing it from scratch so now we’re going to press i’m going to just do shift tab to out dent let’s do a comment here i’m trying to be a good example we’re going to type an apostrophe and we’re going to put this is a calling procedure that is calling three other procedures and press enter at the end of the line it turns green press enter again and then tab to indent we simply need to give it the names of the procedures so this is known as a calling procedures and the procedure names we’re going to type are known as called procedures so we are going to type get new vehicles enter move cells enter add formatting enter it should look like this on my screen so get new inventory’s purpose is to kind of bundle those three other procedures together in the order that they’re listed there and it will execute them when it is executed so we get three for the price of one we execute get new inventory and it executes three other sub procedures for us go ahead and compile your project and save we have our three procedures that are called procedures in our get new inventory sub procedure two of which reside in this same module ad formatting resides in mod first we’re going to talk now about the scope of procedures and why it’s possible that we can access the ad formatting procedure from a different module so of course we’re going to review the scope of procedures on the slide because again the slide deck is in the files in the video description and you’ll be able to re use it for future reference so scope determines where the procedure may be used you have basically three different scopes really two so the first one is public if a procedure declaration is preceded by the keyword public this makes the procedure accessible to all modules in the visual basic project if the procedure declaration is preceded by the keyword private this makes the procedure available only in the module where it resides it cannot be accessed from any other modules or from the excel workbook and then you have undeclared so we have no private procedures at this point if no keyword is inserted at the start of a sub or a function declaration the default is public okay so i’m going to switch back over to the visual basic editor and we’ll take a look at this and i’m still in mod new vehicles so we have the result of a macro we recorded a macro and we named it get new vehicles it simply named it sub it didn’t put public or private so it’s considered undeclared which means it’s public then we created a procedure by using the insert menu and because in there and i’ll bring up that dialog box the scope is defaulting to public so when we created the move cells procedure it added the public keyword and then we create it from one from scratch sub get new inventory we didn’t type public before sub we left it undeclared so all of these are public procedures and if we go to mod first add formatting is also undeclared which means it’s public and i look at the end of that and i want that blank line above in sub so i just modified it and did that so because ad formatting is public i’m going to go back to mod new vehicles we can access it by calling it from this module that’s why that’s possible the scope of procedures matter now one other little fix we’re gonna do because i already know it’s going to be an era and you may not even have this line in your get new vehicles sub procedure in mod new vehicles but that first line of code since get new vehicles is included in our calling procedure if we have the first line saying active window close it’s going to just close the file and then it won’t be able to run the rest of the code so that very first line active window close if you have that line you know could cause you to have an issue with the code if you don’t have that line as your first line if your first line is workbooks dot open file name so on and so forth you’re good to go but if not you want to delete that first line active window closed we’re going to leave it at the bottom but not at the top and then go ahead and save your code and now we’re ready to alt f11 to switch over to excel and we’re on the new vehicle sheet in cell a1 we’re going to do alt f8 to bring up our macros box and we want to run our calling procedure get new inventory so i’m going to just double click it and my screen will flicker for a moment and then ultimately stop okay so what happened well it ran the bundle let’s switch back over alt f11 the first thing that it did is it ran get new vehicles so it opened the received vehicles file it selected everything and then it copied everything and then it went back over to our vehicles macro enabled file made sure it was in cell a1 and it pasted the data and then it went back over to received vehicles file and closed it after that it did the move cells sub procedure so once it brought in that information from received vehicles it selected everything in column b and it pasted it it cut it and then it pasted it in column g and then after that it did add formatting which is in mod first and that’s where it added the headings for us right so it added our column headings and we didn’t want it to create a new row there because it came in with a heading row so we had already modified this it did the currency formatter accounting number format and it auto fitted the columns it also made the headings bold and centered in their cells so it ran the bundle we ran one sub procedure that called three other procedures so when i go back and look at it in excel we’re still on new vehicles right it moved the dealer costs to the appropriate column applied the appropriate formatting to it and it added the headings instead of the headings that came in from the received vehicles file and the formatting that it did so you saw that calling procedures lend themselves to efficiency but there is further efficiency to be had earlier we discussed how sometimes a sub procedure is known as an event procedure and that happens when you attach it to an event so first thing we’re going to do here is we’re going to do control a on this new vehicles sheet to select everything and then we’re going to press delete we’re going to clear the sheet just click in cell a1 and switch back over to your visual basic editor now on the left side you attach to in order to make something an event procedure you have to access an object’s events so we’re going to double click in the project explorer window we’re going to double click sheet 3 new vehicles now notice at the very top of your screen you have two different drop downs above option explicit which we still haven’t talked about but we’re getting there you have a general box and to the right you have a declarations box both of them have drop downs on their far right sides the left side where it says general is known as the object list the right side where it says declarations currently is known as the procedures or events list so we’re going to do the drop down arrow to the right of general and the only thing because we have sheet3 selected the only object we’re going to see is worksheet so we’re going to select worksheet and it creates this whole like sub procedure framework it’s private so it’s only available within where we’re putting it it’s attached only to the new vehicle sheet which the system knows as sheet 3 right so the first thing the default event for a worksheet if you look at the right now where it used to say declarations it says selection change that’s just the default event that’s not the event that we want what we want to happen is we want our calling procedure to run whenever the new vehicle sheet is activated so we’re going to do the drop down all the way to the far right of selection change and these are all worksheet events right activate before delete calculate you have a whole list we want to select the activate event so now it gives us the framework for a private sub procedure that it names worksheet underscore activate typically with event procedures you don’t change the names right it’s kind of like hard coded so it’s that particular worksheet activate event that we’re going to code so we don’t need this second block we don’t need this this is just what was created as soon as we selected worksheet it selected the default event which is selection change so we can just delete that click at the end of the parentheses on the private sub worksheet activate line press enter twice just so you get that blank space again we’re going to press tab so it’s indented and we’re simply going to call our calling procedure by name we named it get new inventory so that’s the one that has the the three called procedures within it so we’re saying whenever the new vehicle sheet is activated go ahead and run that bundled calling procedure known as get new inventory go ahead and compile your vba project using the toolbar you want to get in the habit of doing that and save and switch back to excel just make sure you’re in cell a1 on new vehicles which we deleted everything off of and now we’re going to go to our inventory sheet tab at the bottom and then we’re going to click back on the new vehicle sheet tab to activate it and voila as soon as we activated that sheet it ran our get new inventory calling procedure so we get the same result we didn’t have to do alt f8 to get into the macros dialog box to make it run or anything like that we simply made it an event procedure and it was the activate event for this particular sheet we are going to once again clear this sheet by doing control a and delete just click back in cell a1 and go ahead and save your vehicle’s file so now we’re ready to create a function procedure and if you remember from earlier a function procedure performs a calculation and returns a single value or an array of values so differs from a sub procedure so when you create a function procedure in vba it can only be executed in two ways compared to the nine ways you can execute a sub procedure you can call the procedure from a sub procedure or another function procedure or you can use the function in a worksheet formula it becomes a user defined function in your excel application and you’ll see both of these play out when we do this we’re going to create a new module for this so i’m going to just go up to the insert menu in the visual basic editor and i’m going to choose module so it gives me a new module one and and let’s rename that module using the properties window we’re going to call it mod and then capital f function and in this module we’re going to create a function and what it’s going to do is we’re going to give it different values for an msrp and depending on the value it’s going to display a message and once we get it typed in and stuff it’ll be easier to kind of explain it to you so in your mod function i’m going to click at the top after option explicit and just press enter and we’re going to type the word function and a space and we’re going to call it msrp so all of that is capitalized and then capital s status and then in the parentheses we have to have an open parenthesis we’re going to type msrp that’s a parameter you’ll also hear it as an argument so we have to pass the function an argument in order for it to give us a value as its return and after that you’re going to press enter and notice it gives you the end function statement just like it does when we do a sub procedure and it gives us the end sub statement so i’m going to press enter again and i am going to press my tab key to indent it’s just a structure thing visual basic doesn’t care now we’re going to build what’s known as an if construct it’s more specifically it’s an if then else if else construct which is a lot to say and can be overwhelming it’s similar to the if function in excel you’re being rudely introduced to it for this function but you’ll get a deeper dive in control of flow structures in a later lesson so i will explain this after we get it typed in so we’re going to type if and then msrp we’re going to do the less than symbol 20 000 no punctuation on the 20 000 and type then and press enter now tab a little bit more one more time so if the msrp value is less than 20 000 then if that is true it’s going to do what we say on this line we’re going to type now we’re going to type msrp status the name of our function equals and in double quotes less than 20k and close your quotes so if the msrp value is less than 20 000 it’s going to say as the function return the result of the function it’s going to display the text less than 20k press enter and then shift tab and you’re going to type else if and it’s all one word initial capital letters msrp less than thirty thousand then next line down you’re gonna tab msrp status the name of the function equals and then double quotes less than 30k and close your quotes enter and shift tab we’re almost done we have two more lines now we’re going to type else just else not else if space msrp status the name of the function again equals and then double quotes greater than or equal to 30 k and close your double quotes enter and we need an end if statement so end if and press enter one more time so you get that blank line between end if and in function so if the msrp is less than 20 000 it will display the tax less than 20k if it’s less than 30 000 meaning it’s not less than 20 000 but it’s less than thirty thousand it is say less than thirty k to display that text if neither of those statements are true if it’s not less than twenty thousand and it’s not less than thirty thousand it’s going to just display greater than or equal to 30k so the else statement and notice when you got to the end of the line it put that colon after else you didn’t have to type that so there’s a line editor every time you get to the end of the line it’s checking the line to make sure it’s okay so this is known as an if construct it’s going to do different things depending on whether a statement is true and that’s how you create the function procedure now we should go ahead and compile our project so again you just need to be anywhere between function and in function and do your compile project make sure there’s no errors and then we’re going to save so there are two ways to execute a function procedure the first way is by using what’s called the immediate window and it’s really testing the function to make sure that it works properly and so we’re going to do that way first and then i’ll tell you about the second way which is really super cool in my opinion um and you’ll see that soon so the first thing we need to do is get the immediate window open in visual basic editor so we’re gonna go to the view menu and we’re going to choose immediate window and it opens in the bottom of the screen in the immediate window we can test this function procedure i’ll explain it after we type it in you’re going to type question mark and then msrp status the name of the function and then in parentheses now if you notice right underneath where we’re typing in the immediate window right right underneath that it’s showing that in the parentheses it’s waiting for us to give it a argument so we use msrp in the parentheses as a parameter and now we have to pass it an argument in order for the function to work which means we have to give it a number that represents an msrp in the parentheses we’re going to just type 10 000 no punctuation close the parentheses and press enter question mark means the same as print in vb a right so it’s saying print the result right there in the immediate window so if we look at our if block we said if it’s less than 20 000 we want it to say less than 20k and that’s exactly what it did now we can use either the question mark or the print keyword to the same effect in the immediate window so now in the immediate window you’re going to type print and then msrp status open paren and we’re going to put 20 000 in there and close the parentheses and now press enter so it’s giving us less than thirty thousand so question mark and the print keyword do the same exact thing in the immediate window we’re testing our function to make sure that it works so let’s do another one we could do either question mark or print whichever your preferred one is and we’re going to set it up again msrp status and this time in the parentheses we’re going to put 40 000 close the parentheses press enter and we should get the greater than or equal to 30k the else statement is working because it’s not less than 20 thousand it’s not less than thirty thousand the parameter that we gave it the argument that we gave it in the parentheses it’s forty thousand so we’re getting greater than or equal to thirty k if you’re creating super complicated function procedures you would want to test them in your immediate window giving it different values to make sure it works the other way to test it let’s go ahead and switch over to excel i’m doing alt f11 there okay and let’s go to the inventory sheet tab and click in cell i to and so i2 you’re going to type an equal sign like you would for any built-in excel function and then you’re going to start typing the name of the function we’re going to type ms and our msrp status function shows up here it’s a user defined function in the excel application once you create it unless you go and delete that function you will be able to use it in excel we’re going to click on or since msrp is already selected i’m going to just tab key it’s called tabbing it in and then we are going to click on cell h2 the very first msrp and we don’t even have to type the closing parentheses here because we’re doing it in excel application so go ahead and press enter and then click on i2 and the little notch in the lower right hand corner of the cell is known as the fill handle and once i put my mouse on top of the fill handle it looks like a thin black cross and i am going to double click so you’ll notice it’ll fill it all the way down to the bottom until it runs into a blank right so if i do control n it filled it all the way down to row 105. and it’s looking at each msrp’s value and determining what to display in the adjoining cell and so we are going to right click on the column i column heading and delete that column and i want to show you something else since we’re in here go to the formulas tab on your ribbon and the first button is insert function click it where it says or select a category most recently used do the drop down arrow and you might have to scroll down to see it but you’re looking for a category called user defined now there’s going to be stuff in here that you’re like what does that mean don’t worry about it this stuff that comes into excel automatically but you’ll see your msrp status in that list so that is a user defined function in the excel application which i think is just pretty cool we can just cancel out of that and go ahead and save your file so our last topic in this lesson is getting context sensitive help in the visual basic editor so i’m going to do alt f11 and switch back over to vbe and in vbe i’m still in my mod function module i’m going to just click anywhere in the word function at the beginning of that function procedure and i’m going to press f1 on my keyboard so it brings up the context help box because you’re in excel visual basic for applications and it’s saying that there’s an object in both visual basic and excel called function we’re interested in the vba function so we can just either double click it or go over and click on help it’s already selected so it launches your browser and i can tell you that the vba documentation from microsoft is awesome so it gives you the function statement from vba it lets you know that it declares the name arguments and code that form the body of a function procedure it gives you the syntax so you know just like sub procedures there’s different statements public private right if it’s undeclared it’s public um there’s also friend and static and then the function name and then in parentheses the argument list and you can give it a data type as its return as well which we didn’t have to do on hours right um there’s also an exit function statement that we didn’t need to use so it gives you the breakdown about everything descriptions on everything right and so and then there’s remarks at the bottom and so it says there’s one line in here that says all execute all executable code must be in procedures you can’t define a function procedure inside of another function sub or property procedure and notice that sub there is a link so if i click on that link it brings me to context sensitive help about the sub statement and the other thing i’ll point out in here is on the left side it lets you know that you’re looking at the sub statement right so if i scroll up on the left side there’s the if then else construct and again we’re going to do a deeper dive into that later but if i wanted more information on that i can just click on it on the left side right and it gives you all the information you need to know about that if i continue to scroll up it’s all under the heading statements which is under the heading reference which is under the heading language reference so anything you need to know i’m going to just switch back over to my visual basic editor you can access it by pressing f1 when you are on a particular keyword right so it works that way it gets you into the microsoft documentation really good context specific help at your fingertips so we covered a lot in lesson three and just to recap what we covered we went into a deeper dive about the types of modules that are available within visual basic and the types of procedures then we went on to creating a standard module we created a sub procedure and we called procedures by creating a calling procedure you also learned about the scope of procedures then we created a function procedure and we tested it using the immediate window before going into excel and accessing it in its interface as a user defined function after that you were shown how to get context sensitive help from within the visual basic editor thank you for attending excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course hi everyone i’m trish connor cato welcome to the excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course this course is for beginning users looking to automate repetitive and recurring tasks in microsoft excel vba is microsoft’s programming language and it’s built into the office applications our focus during this course is on excel specifically you’ll be equipped with the basics to start writing your own vba code modify the code behind macros you’ve already recorded and have an understanding of how vba lends itself to creating efficiency in your daily tasks a key component of vba is its language elements you’ll learn about this important topic by learning about variables their scope and how to declare them you’ll also gain an understanding of vba data types intrinsic functions and the with end with structure and how it provides efficiency in your code you’ll also learn to create message boxes and input boxes in this lesson as well as gaining understanding of object variables the next lesson will teach you how to control program flow through supported control of flow structures this lesson begins with an overview of structures and boolean expressions you’ll then learn how to utilize conditional branching and the lesson ends with learning about how to use looping constructs if you’re enjoying these videos please like and subscribe if you want to earn certificates and digital badges please become a member of our patreon the link is in our video description if you have any questions you want answered by one of our instructors please join our off-site community the link is in the description as well as always if this course has exercise files you’ll find them in the video description below in our fourth lesson we’re going to dive into expressions variables and intrinsic functions you’ve already experienced comments seeing them when we fill out the description in the record macro dialog box and we’ve actually modified comments and added our own comments to code that we created from scratch and comments are known as a foundational vba language element well there are others and we’re going to get into them in this lesson so we’re going to get started by learning and understanding variables we’ll go over vba data types and intrinsic functions which include expressions we saw the with end with structure in the first macro we recorded the add formatting macro it created that structure with everything that resides in the paragraph group on the home tab of the excel ribbon and we deleted a lot of extraneous lines just to make our code more concise you’re going to learn about the offset property using message boxes and input boxes and object variables we’re going to be using our regular vehicles macro enabled file as well as two other excel files that are in the video description and you should be putting these files all in the same directory so we’re going to be using an excel file named then numbers and another one called sales fiscal year variables are often considered the most important vba language element since one of vba’s main purposes is to manipulate data variables store data in your computer’s memory when procedures are executed and the data may or may not end up on disk some data resides in objects like worksheet ranges other data is stored in variables you create data that is stored in a variable usually changes while your procedure executes there are of course naming rules and conventions when it comes to variables very similar to the rules and conventions or the rules for naming procedures variable names can be up to 255 characters alphanumeric the first character must be a letter cannot use spaces or any of the characters listed on the slide and then it has another one that is not a procedure rule vba is not case sensitive but it is case preservative so you’ll learn about declaring variables in a moment and you’ll see this play out when you declare a variable if you declare it in proper case right using the rules and conventions and then let’s say the next time you reference it you type it in all lowercase visual basic editor gonna automatically change it to the case it was when you declared it and that’s what case preservative is a convention is used proper case for each word within the name of the variable and we have a couple of examples today’s date then num before you can use variables they need to be declared and just like procedures variables also have a scope so there are two declaration methods they’re implicit and explicit implicit declaration means you declare the variable by just using it without writing a declaration statement and this method can lead to code errors so for example with implicit declaration let’s say i name a variable green for example and then when i go to use it i misspell green it’s going to think that i’m implicitly declaring another variable and you can see how that could lead to coding errors explicit declaration is the preferred method you write a declaration statement to officially declare the variable now when it comes to variable scope you can use either the dim or the private keyword they mean the same thing they’re used interchangeably they have the same result i typically use dim and you declared a variable at the top of the module before the first procedure and that area at the top of the module is known as the declaration section if you want the variable available to all procedures in a module you would use dim or private and declare it in the declaration section the public keyword is also used in the declaration section at the top of the module and you use it if you want the variable available to all procedures in all modules and then there’s a static keyword static variables retain their value even when the procedure ends and you declare a static variable at the procedure level it means it’s only available in that procedure and when you declare variables you should assign them a data type so on this slide it’s talking about the data types that are available in vba and you can see the name of the data type the number of bytes that are used and the data types range of values a byte uses the data type known as a byte uses one byte and has a range of values from 0 to 255 a boolean data type uses 2 bytes and has either true or false as its range of values you have integer long single double currency and then at the bottom you have decimal data type those are your numeric data types they use varying bytes and they have varying ranges of values you have a date data type i don’t think you will ever be in a situation where you’re not covered as concerns a date i mean it goes back to the year 100 and all the way up to the year 99.99 you have your string data types fixed length and variable length and you have a variant data type so if you declare a variable and you don’t assign it a data type it will automatically assign it the variant data type look how many bytes that’s using if it’s a value it’s going to use 16 bytes and if it’s a string it’s going to use 22 plus bytes so you want to be careful and really try your hardest to assign data types when you’re declaring variables i’ve gone ahead and opened the vin numbers excel file that was in the video description and i still have my vehicles macro enabled file open but our focus right now is going to be on this file so it only has one sheet it has one then number and it has several other columns year make model color country classification what we’re going to do is insert a new module create a sub procedure and declare six procedure level string variables we talked about the declaration section at the top of the module window and anything you declare there depending on the keyword that you’re using determines the scope of the variable and the scope of a variable not only determines where it can be used but also affects the circumstances in which the variable is removed from memory only procedure level variables that are declared using the dim keyword are removed from memory when its code has completed execution if you use the static keyword in a variable that’s declared at the procedure level that means it’s going to retain the value of the variable after it executes so you’ll see what this means and how we’re going to use it when we switch over to vbe which we’re going to do right now by doing alt f11 so i want to point out a few things to you now since i still and you do too have the vehicles file open there’s a vba project that we’ve been working in this whole time for that particular file i’m going to collapse that project because we have another open workbook we have another vba project and it’s thennumbers.xlsx file that we just opened one thing i want to point out at the very top of the screen and i’m going to just select like sheet one in here to get rid of the code that’s on my screen and at the very top of the screen we have that option explicit statement this is when it’s time to learn why that’s sitting there and what it means so let’s go to the tools menu and go into options like we did earlier in the course and one of the options under code settings on the editor tab is require variable declaration and that way we can’t do an implicit declaration we have to do an explicit declaration the implicit ones are where you don’t write a declaration statement you just use the variable but that’s the type that can lead to code errors so to get the system to force you to write declaration statements you want this setting to be checked in your options require variable declaration and that means that it produces i’m going to just cancel out of options it forces that option explicit statement to show at the top so it’s going to force you to do variable declaration the other thing we talked about just a moment ago is that the scope of a variable determines not only where it can be used but the circumstances in which the variable is removed from memory you can always use two techniques to remove all variables from memory one of them is the reset button on the vbe toolbar so it looks like a stop button when you hover over it it says reset and a lot of times if you get cold errors once you resolve the errors you’re going to want to reset anyway if you ever get a runtime error there’s a dialog box that will pop up and it has an end button on it if you click end it will remove all variables from memory so i’ve closed the immediate window as we won’t be using it it has an x in its upper right hand corner just to give me some more working space here and what we want to do we’re going to take this in little steps like i said we’re going to set up the framework of a sub procedure and we’re going to declare six string variables we are going to look up at the top of your screen right underneath the option explicit statement is known as the declaration areas that’s why it says declarations over to the right in the procedure box we are going to first insert a new module so we’re going to use make sure you’re on your vba project then numbers right we want to be on that one we’re going to go up to insert module so it gives us a module 1 which we are currently in and again i always verify in the title bar up at the top what file or what project i’m in and then what module i’m in and this is where we’re going to create a sub procedure we are going to type sub and we’re going to name it parse then since then is all capitalized i’m going to leave it that way parse then i’m going to press enter twice and press the tab key so it gave me my parentheses and my end sub statement i’m going to actually and actually we don’t have to press tab i’m going to shift tab i’m going to declare procedure level variables but first i want to type a comment so i’m going to do an apostrophe and type this procedure will parse the vin number into the appropriate columns and then i’m going to press enter and enter again so i have my comment line now we’re going to use the dim keyword so i’m going to type dim and i want to show you two examples here again you want your code to be as concise as possible so you guys you don’t have to type or do anything other than watch my screen just want to show you an example here so hopefully this example is going to show you how to make your code more concise i’m going to highlight the lines of interest here these variables are all using the string data type and i typed a separate line item using the dem keyword for each item why would i do that if they’re all the same data type i can type this line just using the dem keyword once separating the variable names by commas and at the very end giving it the as string data type so that’s the line that you’re going to end up typing and then i’m going to end up keeping but i have another example let’s say you were only declaring two variables and they had different data types so in that case you would end up with two lines dim dealer cost as single dim then number as string the ones that have the same data type i grouped them together on one line easier to type easier to troubleshoot so i am going to go ahead and delete these individual rows of variable declarations and i’m going to delete the last two and we want to declare six procedure level string variables and you’re going to type this dim statement that i have on my screen and you’ll notice that when you get to the as keyword and you start typing string a list of data types will appear so it’s not going to let you type in a data type that you just make up or pull from thin air that is not compatible with vva now that we have our six procedure level string variables declared and again they’re only going to be available to the procedure within which they’re declared we are going to look at building intrinsic functions so by definition they’re functions that are provided by the application like a function procedure an intrinsic function performs a specific task or calculation and returns a value you may be familiar with the three functions we’re going to use in this section because they’re essentially excel functions and there are string functions in excel so if you’ve ever used any of the excel text functions these may be familiar to you we’re going to use left mid and right so the left function extracts specified text from the left of the text string its syntax is left and then you have to tell it what string expression and then you give it a numeric expression don’t worry about memorizing this i will walk you through it when we’re ready to go back to visual basic editor the mid function extracts specified text from the middle of a string it has three arguments well first you use mid which is the name of the function and then it has a string expression that it needs to reference a starting position in that string and the number of characters you want extracted and then the right function does the opposite of the left it extracts specified text from the right of the text string it too has the same arguments as left so right and then the string expression that it’s referencing and a numeric expression that references how many characters are going to be extracted and again don’t worry about this i will guide you through these functions and now i want to show you just a split screen of a slide on the right and the vin numbers excel sheet on the left i mentioned earlier that these are just make believe then numbers but the way we’re using them in this course and the way we’re going to use them in this procedure that we’re developing is based on the slide so we’re saying the first character in the then so in this case the number one represents the country of origin honestly i don’t know if that’s true or not just make believe data here but this is how we’re using it the second character of the then would represent the make the third and the fourth characters would represent the model the 11th character would represent the year 12th character would represent the color and the 17th character of the then would represent the classification again i will guide you through this as we’re using our left right and mid functions but you have the slide for future reference if you want to kind of run through it again on your own you’ll know how we’re using the vin number now we’re ready to use our intrinsic functions in this parse then procedure we already created a blank line underneath our variable declaration dim statement in this procedure and we’re going to press tab on the keyboard to indent and what we’re going to type is range and then in parentheses and double quotes a 2 close your double quotes close the parentheses we’re going to use our dot notation and now you’ll see the list pop up with methods properties bunch of different things we’re gonna start typing select and when it shows up on the list and it’s highlighted i can stop typing and press my tab key to get it in and i’m going to press enter so it’s going to select cell a2 and then we’re going to reference one of our variables but we’re going to reference it in all lower case so we’re just going to type then num and then a spacebar equals and we’re going to type active cell dot and when the list comes up start typing value when i see it on the list i highlight it and tab it in so we’re saying select cell a2 and then that is the active cell once it’s selected we want the then number variable to be populated with whatever is in cell a2 so in excel you can see that the only then number in this file is in cell a2 so it’s going to select that cell and then assign the then num variable that then number go ahead and press enter at the end of that line and notice that it adjusted the casing on venn num remember vba is not case sensitive it’s case preservative so when we declared that variable we did uppercase v uppercase n and then when we typed it in we did it in all lower case as soon as we press enter at the end of that line it goes back and preserves its original declaration case that is an example of case preservative so now we’re going to type year so we’re going in the order of the way we declared the variables that’s easy to keep yourself organized so we started with select cell a2 and then populate the then num variable with the then number that is in cell a2 now we’re going to say what to populate the year variable with so we type year equal and then we’re going to type the mid intrinsic function open paren so right underneath it it’s telling you the arguments that it’s looking for so you’ll see that yellow banner there right right now it’s waiting for the string argument and then you have a numeric argument right and the string argument is bold because that’s the one that it’s waiting for in the open parentheses we’re going to type then num the name of our variable and again doesn’t matter how you do the casing because it’s case preservative then num comma 11 comma 1. so the mid function has three arguments the string argument the start as long argument right that’s the starting position and then the last argument is the number of characters so we’re saying the year is going to equal the 11th character of the then we’re saying in that then num variable which now holds the entire vin number we want you to go to the 11th character and extract one character which is the 11th character you’re gonna type a closing paren so the 11th character of the then represents the year and press enter our next one that we’re going to do is the make because we’re doing them in order here so instead of you watching me continue to type i finish this part of this procedure so we left off with doing the year so i’d like you to just copy from my screen and assign values based on the character or characters in the then to make model color and classification you can pause the video until you get it done and once you have the other variable assignments done go ahead and compile your vba project so just be anywhere between sub and in sub make sure there’s no errors by the way if you just watch my screen i’m going to take out this classification line and i just want to show you something you don’t have to worry about spacing you know the variable is a case preservative so i could type that line as classification no space equal mid open paren i’m typing then num in a weird mix of capitalization 17 comma 1 and i’m not typing spaces at all i’ll type the closing parentheses and when i press enter it gives me the appropriate spacing and it case preserved the name of the variable so you don’t have to worry about your spacing there’s a line editor so when you get to the end of the line and you press enter it will fix little stuff like that for you so you don’t have to worry about that now for the classification since we have 17 character then 17 characters total in the then we could have used the right function it would have just been right then num 17 right the last character but you can also use mid there same result now we’re going to go ahead and i’m going to compile again since i made a change and it’s saying the variable is not defined so i got a compile error this time class because i misspelled classification so it’s not defined i spelled classification and it’s like uh nope sorry you have explicit variable declaration turned on and you did not declare that variable so i’m going to just do ok correct my typo i’m going to compile again and now i don’t get the error we’re gonna test this at this point so we’re gonna switch over to excel i’m gonna use the excel icon on the toolbar to switch over since i have multiple files open and we’re going to test this we’re going to go alt f8 to open up our macros dialog box and we’ll see the macros that are in the vehicles macro enabled file that we still have open as well as this one that’s not prefaced by a file name parsfin because it’s in the current file that we’re working in so i’m going to just click on parsed then i double clicked it and absolutely nothing happened i wanted to show it to you at this stage let’s switch back over alt f11 and switch back over to our parseven sub procedure so all we’ve done at this point in this procedure is declare variables and use our intrinsic functions to assign each variable a value but we haven’t told it what to do with the values assigned to the variable so nothing happened it assigned the values to the variable but we didn’t say how to display those values in order to tell it where to display the values of the variables on the spreadsheet we’re going to take a look at the width end width structure and the offset property and then we’re going to go and complete that parseven sub procedure compare these two code blocks so the top one these four lines selection dot starts at the end of each line it’s repetitive and then you have whatever the thing is so selection dot horizontal alignment equals excel center selection dot vertical alignment equals excel center selection dot wrap text equals true selection dot merge cells equals false so you’re repeating the selection and the dot on every line as a compared to the with end with block of code so you say with selection and then you just do the dot and the thing that it is and what it equals and at the end of it you have an end with statement so with end with structure saves you some typing makes your code a bit more concise and that’s one thing that we’re going to use and then you’re going to learn how to use the offset property it allows you to refer to a cell that is a specific number of rows and or columns away from another cell so it has a syntax dot offset it is a property and then you have the number of rows comma the number of columns as arguments both arguments are not required if you use the rows argument only close the parentheses after it if you use only the columns argument use a comma as a placeholder for the rows argument when positive numbers are used in arguments the property goes down rows and right across columns when negative numbers are used in its arguments the property goes up rows and left across columns so i have some examples here range a1 so if you’re in cell a1 right dot offset one comma two refers to cell c2 the first argument is the rose argument so it’s saying go down one row and go to the right two columns so if i’m in cell a1 and i go down one row i’m in row two and if i go across two columns i’m in column c so it refers to cell c2 if i’m in cell c2 and i do an offset of negative 1 for the rows argument and negative 2 for the columns argument it’s going to go up rows because we’re using negative numbers there and it’s going to go to the left of cross column so it’s going to refer to cell a1 i have range a1 offset 1 and that refers to cell a2 i’m just using the first argument the rows argument so it’s just going down one row it’s staying in the same column no column offset and then the last example there range a1 offset comma two so we’re not using the rows argument but we need a comma as a placeholder or we’ll get an error message and we’re saying go to the right two columns but stay in the same row so that refers to cell c1 and again this powerpoint is in the video description for future reference and i already gave you the typing tips that are on the bottom of the slide so now we’re going to add our width and width structure and include it and it will be our offset statements we’re going to click at the end of the classification line and press enter and then tab and we’re going to type with active cell enter tab again and type dot and the letter o so the offset property shows at the top of the list notice it’s a property you can tell by the icons over time you’ll learn the different icons in the list but the one that looks like offset it looks like a spreadsheet or a piece of paper that a hand is holding that indicates it’s a property if you look down at the green icon that’s in the list for parse and paste special those are methods so just visual cues for you since offset is selected i’m going to tab it in so i don’t have to type and then i’m going to do an open paren comma because we’re not going to use the row offset but we have to use that comma as a placeholder we’re only doing column offsets here one close the paren dot value and you’ll see value on your list so you can double click it or tab it in equal year it’s saying the active cell is still cell a2 up at the very beginning we said select that cell and then we assign the then number variable the vennum variable the value of cell a2 where the actual then number resides that is still our active cell so we’re saying starting with cell a2 offset one column so go to b2 and put in the value of the year variable which is the 11th character of the then now again you don’t have to watch me type i’m gonna just pause and get the rest of these offset lines in and then you’ll be able to pause your video and type them in so after the year offset line you’re going to type the other remaining five offset lines on my screen for make model color country and classification but you’re also going to have to type the end with statement unlike when we do a sub or a function procedure when we type sub parsevin and press enter it gives us the open and closing parentheses for our parameters if any and it gives us the in sub statement or if it’s a function procedure the end function statement it will not give you the end with statement that is required with the with end with constructs so make sure you out dent and get your end within and you can go ahead and pause the video and get those lines typed in and once you’re done you’re going to go ahead and compile your project check to make sure there are no errors and we’re going to switch back over to excel i’m using the icon on the toolbar to get there and so now we’re ready to test it we told it what values to assign to each variable and now we’ve told it where to display those variable values which column and cell to display it in by using our offset statements within the with end width structure so i’m going to just be on any cell in here and i’m going to do alt f8 to bring up our macros dialog box and i’m going to click on parse then and then run or you can double click it and i’m like yay it worked it put the right bits of data in the right cells except for country what happened to country stay tuned and we’ll take a look and you’ll find out just so you know i did this on purpose you can blame me but i did it on purpose because a lot of coding is troubleshooting and we get to debugging code in like the last chapter of the last lesson of this course but along the way you’re going to run into situations and it’s helpful to get some guidance in what to do so in this case everything worked except it didn’t populate country in row two so the first thing we’re going to do since it didn’t work the way it’s designed to work is we’re going to delete we’re going to select b through g2 and just press delete and we’re going to switch back over to the visual basic editor so the last thing we did was our with endless structure and i’m going to start there and i look through the list and our offset statements pardon my ocd but i have them in order one two three four five six again i don’t want to be looking up and down if i’m troubleshooting to figure out where something is but i do have an offset statement for country so i’m like okay it’s not that the compiler did not pick up any errors so it’s something that i probably missed so i look up in the upper half of this and i said you know we’re going to tackle these variables in their order so we started with then num then we went to year make model color and then we skipped country and went to classification so we never did our country intrinsic function to tell it what value to assign to that variable which means that it can’t display anything even though we did an offset statement i’m going to click after the color mid function line and press enter so it’s in order the first character of the then represents the country so we’re going to use the left intrinsic function here we’re going to type country equals left open paren then num and we want it to extract one character which is the first character from the left side of the then number and we’re gonna close our parentheses we’re gonna press enter just so it does any formatting and then i’m gonna delete that extra line and shift tab so classification we’re going to go ahead and compile our project again make sure there’s no errors and now we’re going to switch back over to excel we’re going to do alt f8 to access our macros box and we’re going to run parse then again and now you’ll see that the year make model color country and classification columns are filled in appropriately as a result of the parse then procedure so because we created a sub procedure in this file you probably want to go ahead and save it as macro enabled workbook and i’m going to let you go ahead and do that on your own and when you’re done and you look in your working directory you have two vehicles file one is just a regular excel file and the other is macro enabled and now you have two vin numbers you have your regular one that we started with and then the macro enabled one that you just saved now we’re going to begin to get some background information on both the message box function and the input box functions in visual basic so we’re going to start with the message box function on the slide it has the syntax so in parentheses you have a prompt which is required and then you have two optional arguments buttons and title the message box function displays a pop-up box with a message for the user another thing vba will allow you to use the function without enclosing the arguments in parentheses a best practice here is to always enclose function arguments in parentheses so you err on the side of caution and to provide consistency in your code now if you do not use the title argument the title defaults to the name of the application which in this case is excel microsoft excel so the table on the right tells you about the argument it displays text in a message box for the end user the buttons is a number that specifies which buttons and icons appear in the message box this is optional if it’s not used the message box will default to the ok button and then you have the title argument like i said if you don’t use the title argument it defaults to the name of the application but if you want it to say something else in the title bar of the message box then you would use this argument to choose which buttons and or icons display in your message box you do that by using what are known as vba constants constants are similar to variables they are declared however while variable values can change during program execution constant values do not change and visual basic for applications constant names are preceded by lowercase vb so you have a table on the right we’re not going to review this again the slide deck is in your video description files and you can use it for future reference but if you just want an ok button in your message box the value for that particular constant is zero if you wanted a question mark icon in your message box you would use the value of 32 to represent that in addition to referencing the icons and the buttons in the message box by utilizing the values as we saw in the previous slide you can just use the vb constant name if you say vb yes no plus vb exclamation it will display the yes and no buttons with the exclamation point icon if you have vb ok cancel plus vb critical you’ll get the ok and cancel buttons and the critical warning icon and you can also have multiple lines for the prompt argument by using the vb newline constant so here’s an example msg box that’s the message box function in parentheses in double quotes because it’s text do you want to continue question mark then we’re using the concatenation character the ampersand to combine everything and we’re using the vb new line constant so it’s saying go down to the next line and on the next line it’s going to say click yes to continue then after that so all of that is the prompt argument and then we say vb yes no plus vb question so we want the yes and no buttons and the question mark icon and then the last argument is the title and we’re gonna put in step one of three for a title and when we get back into visual basic editor to use the message box function you’ll use the assignment operator which is the equal sign to assign the return value of a message box button to a variable you’ll see that in a bit and we’re also going to be using the input box function similar syntax to message box has three arguments one of which is required which is the prompt it has a title argument and a default argument and an input box is used to obtain a single piece of information from the user the information could be a value a text string or even a range address input boxes always display ok and cancel buttons so the prompt argument is just like the prompt argument for a message box the title argument is the same as well it’s optional but it’s the text value that appears in the title bar and if you don’t use it it would be the name of the application and then the default argument is new to you here it’s the default argument for the user’s input so it’s optional but you can pre-populate it and if the user doesn’t want what you pre-populated with they can type over it so we’re going to get ready to use both the message box and the input box functions we’ll be working again in our vehicles macro enabled file i’m in the visual basic editor for our vehicles macro enabled file and in the project explorer window i’m going to go ahead and double click sheet 3 new vehicles so this is where we use the event procedure when the new vehicle sheet is activated it runs the get new inventory calling procedure which bundles all the other procedures to retrieve that data and so we’re gonna make this further automated by modifying this procedure here and it’s going to give the end user a choice whether they want to get the new inventory or not so we’re gonna modify this worksheet activate subprocedure and click right in front of where it says get new inventory and press enter a few times and then use your up arrow to go back up so we want that blank line after private sub worksheet activate again just for spacing purposes and when you have to debug your code it’s easier to read so what we’re going to do is we’re going to declare a variable and it’s a procedure level variable so it’ll only be available in this sub procedure so we’re going to use our dem keyword and we’re going to name the variable response and we’re going to declare it as an integer and then i’m going to press enter and this is how you assign the user input from a message box results to a variable our next line is going to do just that we’re going to type response equals remember the equal sign is the assignment operator and then we’re going to type msg box we want to use our line continuation character here we’re going to do a space and then an underscore and press enter and remember if we didn’t do that and we just press enter we’d get an error because it’s expecting the rest of the message box arguments the rest of its syntax rather on the same line unless we tell it to continue to on the next line so that’s what we’ve done here and then we’re going to tab again and we’re going to do an open paren double quotes do you want to run the get new inventory procedure question mark closing double quote comma so that’s our prompt argument and your arguments separated by commas now we want another line continuation so we’re going to do a space and an underscore and enter we’re ready for what combination of buttons we want in the message box as well as which icon so we’re going to type we’re going to use the constant names vb yes no plus vb question comma and for our title bar argument our title argument it’s going to be in double quotes run get new inventory and i’m going to put a question mark at the end of that and close the quotes and now we’re ready to our closing parentheses now we’re going to press enter and we’re going to shift tab to get back to the margin so so far we’ve declared a variable response as an integer and we’re saying response equals whatever the user choices are in the message box well we have to tell it what to do based on a user choice so now we’re going to type if and then response equals vb yes then and now i’m going to use my delete key to get the get new inventory line on that same line if the response equals yes so if there’s going to be a yes and a no button in the message box if the response equals yes then run the procedure and we’re not telling it what to do if they say no in the message box so if they say no it’s not going to do anything in other words it’s not going to run the procedure go ahead and compile your project make sure there’s no errors there and let’s go ahead and save so now we’re ready to test this messagebox function and i’m going to just do alt f11 to switch back over to excel or any way you want to get there is fine and we’re going to click on the new vehicle sheet tab and let’s just say no at this point right so this time when we click on it instead of just running the procedure it gives us our message box let’s say no on the message box and it doesn’t bring in any of the new vehicle information go back to your inventory sheet tab click on new vehicles again and now you’ll see your title bar run get new inventory you see it has the question mark icon in the message box and it has yes and no buttons so we’re gonna click yes this time and it ran the procedure and we’re gonna select everything by doing control a and pressing delete and then just clicking cell a1 on new vehicle sheet again and go back to your inventory sheet now we’re going to switch back over to visual basic we’re going to use the input box function in our next example so we want to in visual basic editor we want to go to our new vehicles module and we’re going to modify this get new vehicles sub procedure the scenario here is that it defaults to opening that received vehicles file right and copying and pasting the information from it so suppose that that file changes over time maybe this month it’s called received vehicles maybe next month it’s called something else we want to give the users the end user the ability to put in what the actual file name is most of the time it will be received vehicles so we’re going to use that as a default setting that the user can override as necessary so the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to go ahead and update the comment line so i’m going to just select that first comment line that says get new vehicles macro i’m going to leave the exclamation point there though so it will retain its status as a comment line and i’m going to type prompts the user for the name of a file comma opens the file comma selects the data and the second comment line the copy and paste data we’re going to just say copy and paste data into the current workbook so it’s going to be a more accurate description than what it was before underneath i’m going to press enter a couple of times and now i’m ready to declare two procedure level variables they’re both going to be strings so we’re going to do dim file location comma file as string so our two string variables and now i’m gonna click in front of workbooks dot open file name and press enter a few times and then i’m gonna up arrow so i have a blank space after our variable declarations and i’m gonna type file location equals this workbook dot path the directory path to this particular workbook this vehicle’s workbook so we’re assigning that path to the variable file location i’m going to press enter and now we’re going to say file equals and we’re going to type input box open paren double quotes what is the name of the new vehicles file question mark double quote comma and we want our line continuation character here so space and underscore and enter now we’re going to tab in one time and now we’re ready for the title argument so that is the prompt argument what is the name of the new vehicles file now we’re ready for the title argument and it’s going to be in double quotes new vehicles file name question mark close your quote comma line continuation so your space underscore enter and our last argument here for input box is the default argument so the actual text box in the input box will be populated with and we’re going to put it in double quotes received vehicles and you have to have the extension dot xlsx close your quotes closing paren enter we’re almost done with this one and we’re going to do shift tab just to get to the same margin as file location and file and we’re going to type file equals file location the ampersand for our concatenation character and then in double quotes a backslash another ampersand and file so we’re saying that the file location is the path on your directory path to this workbook the vehicle’s workbook and the file variable is going to be the result of the user’s input box choice if they keep the default it will be received vehicles.xlsx if they over type that it’d be whatever they over type it with and then we’re saying we want to combine the file location and the file with a backslash in between the file location and the file name and that is then going to be what the variable file represents and this is assuming that the received vehicles file or whatever file has the new inventory in it is in the same directory path as this workbook we have one other change to make to the existing code that was here so i’m going to go underneath my file equal file location concatenated line and i’m going to just delete the blank lines that are there and now we’re going to change that workbooks.open file name line so what i’m going to do is after the equal sign at the end of that line i’m gonna type file and then we’re gonna delete the continuation character notice how we get that red line underneath because we don’t have we’re not telling it to continue on the next line and we’re going to delete that whole path there because now we’re saying open the file based on the variable file so file is now the file location path and whatever file is in not name is in the input box whether it’s received vehicles or whether the end user types in something else so we don’t need the rest of that stuff that we had there go ahead and compile your project and save so now we’re going to be ready to test this and i will say we’ve given now the end user the ability to say no or yes that they want to run the get new inventory procedure and now the additional use of being able to dictate which file to bring the data into from i’m going to just go over to my excel and i’m on the inventory sheet tab i’m going to click on new vehicles and there’s our message box and we’re going to say yes that we do want to run the get new inventory procedure and now we see our input box we point out the title argument new vehicles file name question mark right here is our prompt what is the name of the new vehicle’s file and then we have our default argument where it populates it with receive vehicles.xlsx and it can be overwritten by the end user we’re gonna click ok to accept the default and it runs the procedure and of course we are going to select everything and delete it actually go back to your inventory sheet tab the last part of this lesson is getting used to object variables so they’re used to make your code more concise they help you avoid typing lengthy object references and when you’re declaring object variables the scope statements you use with regular variables are applicable so your dem private public keywords are the same object variables are declared with object types instead of data types so we have the syntax there you could use dim public private static the name of the variable as the object type so examples would be public sheet as worksheet dim range as range when you assign values to object variables you have to use the set keyword so your basic syntax would be set variable name equal object name set sheet equal worksheets year-to-date sales set range equal activesheet. a1 through f12 once you assign an object to an object variable the object can be referenced by its variable name now we’re going to do exercises obviously using object variables and we’re going to be using the sales fiscal year dot excel sx excel workbook in your directory it was a file from your video description so in this excel file we have multiple sheet tabs if i just right click on your tab scrolling arrows you’ll see going from june 1st 2016 to august 26 2016. each sheet is representing sales on that day so you have your vins your year make model classification color dealer costs msrp selling price and the sales person each sheet has different amounts of data so different amounts of rows of data depending on the sales on that particular date we’re going to use object variables and we’re going to create a sub procedure that will sum the column column i the selling price column and place the result in the cell two rows below the last populated cell in that column so for example on the 26th of august sheet we want the selling price sum to be two rows underneath the last selling price in column i and we’re going to use object variables to set that up let’s go ahead and switch over to the visual basic editor and make sure you’re in the right project if you still have your vehicles file open you may not see it here if you don’t see your file your sales fiscal year file listed over here sometimes you have to close the visual basic editor like mine’s been open the whole time so i’m going to close it and then go back into it just a little trick sometimes it doesn’t refresh and now i can see projects for sales fiscal year which has a lot of microsoft excel objects because of all the sheets i can collapse that and i still have my vehicles project there as well collapse that what we’re want to do in here is start this code where we’re gonna declare object variables so we’re gonna expand our sales fiscal year project and you can collapse your microsoft excel objects folder right click on your sales fiscal year project in project explorer hover over insert and choose module and in module 1 we’re going to start a sub procedure we can just this one’s not going to be very long we can just type it in so we’re going to type sub and we’re naming it add totals and i’m going to press enter twice and then i’m going to tab and i’m going to declare my object variables so we’re going to use the dim keyword and the variable name is going to be last cell as a range so as an object not a data type so we’re dimming last so we’re declaring last cell as a range enter and we’re going to dim total formula as a string and enter so two object variable declarations i’m going to enter again and then tab we’re going to set so we have to use the set keyword when assigning a value to an object variable last cell equals and then range and in parentheses and double quotes we’re going to type i2 so cell reference i2 close your quotes close your parentheses type the dot notation and then end and now when you type an open parenthesis you’ll have a list that pops up and we’re looking for the entry that says excel down that’s an excel constant and we’re going to close the parentheses so that line is saying starting in cell i2 go all the way to the end of that column until you find the last populated cell we’re going to press enter and we’re going to type last cell dot select right so the last populated cell is now selected in column i press enter and we’re going to do active cell dot offset you remember our offset before in parentheses we’re gonna do two close the parentheses so we’re saying the last populated cell is currently selected and we want to go down two rows dot select and select that blank cell two rows down from the last populated cell now we have to tell it what the object variable total formula is going to be so we’re going to do total formula equals in double quotes equal sum open paren i to colon close your double quotes space and an ampersand we’ll get this one typed in and i’ll explain it and then a space last cell dot address which will be on your list open paren false false closing paren space ampersand and then in double quotes a closing paren you’re like what okay so basically it’s saying we have that last cell right selected the last cell object variable is set to the last populated cell so it’s saying give the total formula give me the sum from cell i2 through the last cell address wherever that last populated cell is it could be i24 could be i26 whatever it is and then it wants to know if that last cell address is absolute and we’re saying false it’s not absolute by row it’s not absolute by column and then we just need to enclose it in a parenthesis a literal parenthesis so we have that in double quotes as well and now we just have to assign it so we’re going to go down and we’re gonna type active cell dot formula equals total formula declared to object variables we set both of them well last cell we we said it’s from i to the last populated cell starting in cell i2 and then select that last populated cell offset it by two rows and populate the total formula result in that cell that’s two rows underneath the last populated cell in column i that’s what you just did and we have our in sub statement there and you’re going to go ahead and compile your project and save so when we get to the save part right it lets us know that this is a macro free workbook we could lose our code here so we’re gonna do no on that message box and you’re gonna save it same file name as macro enabled we are going to test this sub procedure in a different way than we’ve seen our procedures run before so normally we’ve been running our procedures and the entire block runs we want to see kind of like the behind the scenes step-by-step version of what happens when we test this add total sub procedure with our object variables so i’ve arranged my windows i have my visual basic editor on one side of my screen and i have the excel sales fiscal year now macro enabled workbook on the other side of my screen so take a moment and get your screens arranged that way and then in the excel portion of your screen you’re gonna do alt f8 to bring up your macro dialog box now i still have my vehicles file open so you’ll see the macros that are in that file the code blocks that are in that file but you also see our add totals code here and so what you’re going to do is you’re going to just click once on add totals and over on the right you’re going to click on step into so now in your visual basic editor you’ll see that the name of the sub procedure is highlighted in yellow and there’s a yellow arrow in the margin so at this point if we were running the procedure it would be at this step it would just be highlighting the sub line of the procedure there’s no change in our excel window at all we used step into from the macro dialog box the shortcut key for step into once it started is just the f8 key on your keyboard so now we’re going to press f8 so it skipped the lines our object variable declarations it skipped those lines and it went to the first line of code so it’s saying set last cell equals range i2 and xl down so we want the last cell to be the last populated cell in column i but notice there’s still no change on your excel workbook at this point press f8 again and now it’s on the last cell select line again you’re not seeing any change in excel let’s f8 again now you’re seeing a change in excel in excel it has now selected the last populated cell in column i so when this active cell dot offset line is yellow highlighted you’ll see the step before it you’re now seeing the results of last cell dot select press f8 again so now you’re seeing the results of active cell offset by two rows so now it’s selected the cell two rows underneath the last populated cell in column i we’re going to f8 again no change in excel because we told it what the total formula is right it’s the sum of from i to the last populated cell in column i at this point we haven’t told it where to put that result so go ahead and press f8 again and you’ll get the result now activecell.formula equals the result of the totalformula object variable so you can see how this can be useful when you have varying amounts of data on different sheets but you want the sum to be two rows underneath the last populated cell in a particular column we’re going to press f8 one more time to finish the procedure so now all your yellow shading is gone in visual basic and on that one sheet the 26th of august sheet we do have the sum of column i’s selling prices in this lesson we did a deeper dive into foundational vba language elements and we started by getting an understanding of variables and you learned that variables store data in your computer’s memory when procedures are executed and the data may or may not end up on disk some data resides in objects like worksheet ranges and other data is stored in the variables that you create and so you learned about the naming conventions when you declare variables how to declare them you learned about the data types that are supported in vba and the importance of assigning data types to the variables you declare so that it uses the least amount of memory on your computer you learned about the scope of variables meaning where they can be accessed from as well as two methods of declaring them which is implicit and explicit and we have the option explicit statement at the top of all of our modules so it forces us to explicitly declare our variables which is the preferred method because implicit declarations can often lead to code errors and so we moved on to covering some intrinsic functions and we used the left mid and right functions to extract data from the then string we learned how to make our code more concise by using the with end with structure it decreases the amount of typing that you have to do and we did that when we used the offset property to put the extracted data into the right cells we moved on to using the messagebox function to give the end user more control over whether a procedure runs or not you learned about visual basic constants which are used to control which buttons display in the message box as well as which icon displays in the message box and then we moved on to input box which gave the end user the ability to change to a different file to get that data brought into the main vehicles file and you saw that it has similar arguments to the message box function but it also has a default argument which we populate it with the name of the file and the end user can overwrite that and then we ended up with declaring object variables and we did that so that we can configure a sum function on a sheet that shows two rows below the last populated cell in a particular column and this is useful when you have sheets with varying lengths of data on it to be able to set up object variables and get the result in the same position relative to the last populated cell in a column so lesson five is about controlling program executions we’re going to start by learning about control of flow structures as well as boolean expressions you’ll learn about conditional branching looping constructs in this lesson as well we’re going to be using our regular vehicles macro enabled sales fiscal year macro enabled files as well as two text files in the video description one is called inventory append and the other is called model to this point we’ve worked with code blocks either the ones that we created via macro recordings or by writing sub and function procedures that progress line by line through the code this is known as a sequential structure there will be situations where a sequential structure is not what you need for your project and we actually got to visually see a sequential structure where we did our object variables and we stepped into the code seeing line by line how it works in the background in vba you use control of flow structures in your code to make decisions such as which statements to skip testing conditions to determine what the code should do next and to execute some statements multiple times you’ve seen a small example of that when we did our message box function where we modified that event procedure with an if then construct so if they did the yes button in the message box it would run the code if they did the no button it would do nothing so you’ve had a small example of that already so here you’re seeing the common control of flow structures you have sequential which we’ve already discussed you have unconditional branching and you’ve seen that already you’re just not aware of it yet and that’s a statement directs the flow of execution to another location in the program without condition so when we created a calling procedure that is unconditional branching you’re going to learn about conditional branching the code to be executed is based on the outcome of an expression that evaluates to true or false a boolean expression and that’s also known as a decision structure and it is used to implement conditional branching and then we have our looping structure which a block of code is executed repeatedly as long as a certain condition exists within the conditional branching and looping structures there are constructs that you use to carry out the job of the structure so we’re going to focus on our conditional branching right now we’ll revisit this slide later to go over our looping structures but within your conditional branching there are two different constructs there’s if then and select case so if then statement does something if something is true your select case statement does any of several things depending on something’s value and we’re going to focus right now on our if then constructs and you also need to know a little bit about boolean expressions here so let’s do that first so boolean expression evaluates to true or false they usually contain two expressions on either side of a comparison operator if the expression evaluates to true the condition is met and the structure passes control to the code to be executed so we have an example here sheets dot count less than three if the count of sheets in the workbook is less than three the expression is true if the sheet count is greater than or equal to 3 the expression is false boolean expression expressions are of the integer data type so they’re stored as 0 for false and negative 1 for true but now we’re going to just briefly go over these comparison operators the ones that i like to know about when i tackle a new programming language is how is not equal to represent it because it varies according to a different programming language so in here it’s less than and equal to symbols together in vba also at the bottom of the slide you use the is keyword to compare object variables and you use the like keyword to compare string expressions in visual basic then you have the logical operators and so you can test for more than one condition by joining boolean expressions with a logical operator we have the table here we have and or not an exclusive or when you’re using the and operator each expression must evaluate to true for the entire condition to be true when you’re using or only one of the expressions must evaluate to true for the condition to be true the not logical operator says the expression must evaluate to false for the condition to be true and then you have exclusive or which returns true if the expressions are different so i have a couple of examples of joined expressions here year greater than 2017 and make equals chevrolet both of those conditions have to be true because it’s using the and keyword in order for the expression to evaluate to true selling price less than or equal to fifteen thousand or list price greater than fifteen thousand only one of those statements has to be true in order for the expression to be true because it’s using the or logical operator the if then construct has four variations that can be used in visual basic for applications so we’ve already seen if then if the condition evaluates to true it executes the code after the then statement if the condition evaluates to false it does nothing the next variation is if then end if it’s the same as if then but it closes the if block with the end if statement and i’ll just let you know now most of the time it needs to be closed with that end if statement or you’ll get an error then you have the if then else end if variation if the condition evaluates to true it will execute the code after the then statement if the condition evaluates to false it will execute the code after the else statement this is the one that’s most similar to the if function in excel in the if function you give it a condition and you tell it what to do if the condition is true and what to do if the condition is false and then we have if then else if end if and by the way you can also have if then else if else end if and this is used to test multiple conditions and it can take an action on any that evaluate to true and again the else statement can be used if all conditions evaluate to false so if condition is true let’s say if condition one is true then it will execute the code after the then statement else if condition two is true right or condition three condition four condition five so the ability to test multiple conditions and say what to do if any of them are true there is another conditional branching structure which we’ll talk about before we use and that’s the select case statement but for right now we’re going to go ahead and use our if then constructs i’m back in the visual basic editor and i’m in the code window for our sheet 3 new vehicles so that event procedure which we already modified to add our if then statement we’re actually going to put in a if then end if statement in here imagine if there’s something already populating cell a1 on your new vehicle sheet if that’s the case if the sheet is already populated you don’t want it to have the message box asking if they want to run the get new inventory procedure because the sheet is already populated only if that cell is empty do we want it to bring up the message box offering the end user the choice to run the procedure so we’re going to create an if statement and let’s click at the end of our dim response as integer line and press enter and i’m actually going to press enter twice and then i’m going to do my tab key and we’re going to start typing this if then end if construct so i’m going to type if and then active sheet dot range and then in parentheses and double quotes a1 for cell a1 and you want to close your quotes and close your parentheses dot value equals and we’re gonna have a set of double quotes which means it’s empty so two double quotes no space in between and then we’re gonna type the then keyword if cell a1 on the new vehicle sheet is empty then right we want it to do response equals message box do you want to run the get new inventory procedure so all of the stuff that we have there and now what we need to do click after that if response equals vbs line press enter and tab and type end if now the other thing we’re going to do is we’re going to click in front of that if response equals vbs line and we’re going to press tab twice we have an if construct nested within an if then end if construct it will only bring up that message box do you want to run the get new inventory procedure if cell a1 on new vehicles is empty let’s go ahead and compile and then save and switch over to excel go to your new vehicle sheet say no you don’t want to run the procedure and just type anything in cell a1 can be number text anything now go back to your inventory sheet and back to new vehicles and you’ll notice that the message box does not pop up because cell a1 is not empty so now you can click on cell a1 and delete that information go back to inventory back to new vehicles and because the sheet is not populated at least so a1 is not populated it displays the message box and we’re going to say no on that message box so now we’re going to create a function procedure and we’re going to do it in our new vehicles module for our vehicles macro enabled file and we’re going to create a function procedure with two arguments this is going to evaluate the character in the then that represents the model year and then mark up the cost based on whether the vehicle is from the current or previous year so the then character is the 11th character in the then so we’re going to use an intrinsic function here within an if then else end if structure so we’re giving it something to do based on two different things right what to do if our condition is true and what to do if it’s false so the 11th character of the then is either populated with an a or a b the a means it’s the previous year in which case it will get a 10 markup the b means it’s the current year and it will get a 15 markup so i’m going to guide you through this now so i’m in mod new vehicles and i did control end to get to the bottom of the module and i’m going to type the name of the function that we’re using here so it’s going to be function and it’s going to be called get msrp and in parentheses we’re going to give it two parameters dealer cost and then num and press enter twice so now you’ll have your function and end function statements and this is where we’re going to now set up the if construct using the mid function so i’m going to tab and i’m going to type if mid open paren then num comma 11 1 so if the 11th character of the then number close your paren equals and then double quotes b then enter and tab get msrp equals dealer cost times 1.15 and then we can put a comment at the end of that line so i’m going to do a single quote and afterwards i’m going to type vehicle is current model year and then press enter so only the comment portion of that line turned green anything after the apostrophe or single quote turns green and it’s just explaining what that math is on that line and that the character b represents the current model year okay so now we have that we’re going to do a shift tab to get back to the same margin as if and we’re going to type else enter tab and we’re going to type get msrp equals dealer cost asterisk for multiplication 1.1 which is 10 percent we’re gonna do a comment a line comment there so your apostrophe and then vehicle is previous model year enter shift tab and you need to type an end if statement here and then i’m going to press enter again so i have that blank line between end if and end function now we’re going to go ahead and compile and save and we’re going to call this function from another procedure so we’re not going to test it quite yet what we’re going to do is we’re going to go to the upper right corner where it says get msrp in your procedure list we’re going to do the drop down arrow there and we’re going to select the get new inventory procedure just to navigate to that procedure in the get new inventory procedure we’re going to declare two local variables so right underneath the comment line i’m gonna at the end of the comment line i’m gonna press enter twice and i’m gonna just declare these two local variables so we’re gonna dim dealer cost as single data type and then the next line we’re gonna dim then number as string data type so we have our variables declared click at the end of the add formatting line and press enter and you’re going to type range and then in parentheses and double quotes a2 dot select so we wanted to select cell a2 and so a2 on the inventory sheet is where the first vin number resides so we want that cell selected and then we’re going to assign the then number variable that cell as its value so the next line down we’re going to do then number equals active cell dot value and enter and now we want to assign the dealer cost value in sell g2 on that sheet to the variable dealer cost so on this line we’re going to type dealer cost equals active cell dot offset so we have to offset it by six columns no rows so it’ll go to g2 where the first dealer costs would be so we’re going to do a comma because we’re not using the row offset and then a 6 close your paren dot value so we’re assigning the value of cell g2 to the dealer cost variable and then we’re going to call on the next line down we’re gonna call the get msrp function and put its result in cell h2 so that line is going to be active cell dot offset in parentheses comma 7 which takes us to h2 and we’re going to do dot value so the value of cell h2 is going to equal and this is how we call the function procedure by its name and its parameters get msrp and then in parentheses dealer cost comma then number let’s go ahead and compile in our get new inventory and save and we’re going to switch over to excel so now we’re going to test this get msrp function by initiating our calling procedure so we’re going to go to the new vehicle sheet and we’re going to say yes that we want to run the procedure we’re going to use the default file name and you’ll notice that the msrp column is not wide enough now right and that is an easy fix so let’s select everything on this sheet and delete it and switch back over to the visual basic editor if you look at our get new inventory sub procedure the ad formatting procedure is being called before we do the get msrp section of this so we just need to move add formatting to right above the end sub statement so i’m going to just select it and cut it and then i’m going to click at the end of the active cell offset line press enter and then i’m going to ctrl v to paste it and get rid of the extra space by doing shift tab in front of it we had add formatting in the wrong position so now to add the formatting at the end after the msrp is already calculated and so now i’m going to compile and save again and switch back over to excel go back to the inventory sheet tab back to new vehicles yes run the procedure keep the default and now you’ll see that the msrp column is populated and formatted accordingly so the column width has been adjusted and everything and again it’s either 10 or 15 percent depending on whether the 11th character is a b or an a in the venn now we can clear the sheet again the new vehicle sheet and we’re going to create another function procedure that will get the year in the appropriate column on the sheet we can just go back to the inventory sheet after you clear it and then switch back over to the visual basic editor window i’m still in my new vehicles module i’m going to click at the end of the end function statement at the bottom for our get msrp function i’m going to press enter twice and we’re going to type function and this one we’re going to name get year and we’re going to give it one parameter and that’s going to be then num press enter a couple of times in this one we want to declare a local variable it’s going to be named year marker with a string data type so i’m going to just do dem year marker as string we’re going to set the value of the year marker variable to the 11th character of the then remember that’s the a or b either indicates the current year or previous year type in year marker equals and then we’re going to use the mid function mid open paren then num comma 11 1 the 11th character the vin number enter and now we’re going to use an if then else end if construct here as well so i’m going to tab over mid and then then num and you can copy and paste this if you want 11 1 equals and then in double quotes a then enter tab get year equals 2018 and then i’m gonna do a shift tab so i can get my else statement at the same margin as the if statement so else enter and then tab get year equals 2019 enter shift tab and end if and i’m going to press enter again so i get that blank line between end if and end function now we have to tell the get new inventory procedure where to place the result of the get year function so in your get new inventory procedure i’m clicking at the end of the line that starts with dealer cost press enter and you’re going to type active cell dot offset and then in parentheses comma 1 dot value equals get year and you have to put in the argument so it’s going to be uh get year we just use vin number and then you can go ahead and compile your get new inventory compile get year if you haven’t it compiles everything in the module actually so you don’t have to compile one and then save and then go ahead and switch over to excel let’s switch back to excel and test our work so at this point we should be getting the msrp and the year extracted from the then let’s go ahead and test this so i’m going to just go back to the new vehicles tab i’m going to run the procedure accept the defaults let it click and were and we have our year in column b and our msrp in column h again we’re going to select everything and delete it go back to your inventory sheet and switch back over to the visual basic editor now we’re going to create another function procedure to extract the classification from the then the classification is the 17th character of the then the last character of the then and depending on what its numeric value is it would either be a classification of a car a truck a van minivan or an suv so we’re going to put that function at the bottom of our new vehicles module and we’re going to just type function get classification is what we’re naming it and we’re going to give it then num as a parameter press enter we’re going to do our function level or procedure level variable declaration so we’re going to do dim class marker is what we’ll name this variable as string enter twice now we have to tell it which character of the then is the classification code we’re going to do that by saying class marker equals we’re going to use the right intrinsic function and then in parentheses then num comma 1. just extract the last character on the right of the vin number which is the 17th character representing the classification now we’re ready to do an if then else if end if construct because we’re going to actually be testing four different things so we’re going to have our test that we do on the if line and then we’re going to have three else if lines so it tests three other things we’ll start that i’m gonna press enter twice and then i’m gonna tab i’m gonna type if class marker equals one then enter and tab get classification equals and then double quotes car enter shift tab now we’re ready for our first of the three else if statements we’re going to do else if is one word initial capital letters on each one in visual basic so else if class marker equals two then enter tab get classification equals and then double quotes truck enter shift tab your next else if else if class marker equals three then enter tab get classification equals and then quotes van slash minivan and do your last else if so if the class marker is four then the classification is suv and you can see my elsa statement for the suv i’m going to press enter and shift tab and then i have to type my end if and you want to make sure you have press enter so you get the blank line between end if and end function now we’re going to navigate and again i’m using the procedure list i want to go back to get new inventory procedure and so we’ve been adding these active cell offset lines to put the year and the msrp in their correct cells right we have one there for dealer cost as well and we want to make this code more concise so we’re going to create a with end with block because we have other things that we’re going to be extracting as well so it’ll make this code more concise i’m going to click at the end of the dealer costs equals line and press enter and i’m going to type with active cell and then on the next line down i’m going to double click active cell before the dot offset and delete it just leaving the dot offset do the same thing on the next line go to the end of the last.offset line press enter and type end with so now you’re gonna go back and click after the dot offset comma one line press enter and we can add the offset here for the classification so we’re going to do dot offset and this one’s going to be comma 4 dot value equals get classification the name of our function and then we’re using then number as the argument here so this way we have the offsets in order so far one four and seven and that makes it easier to troubleshoot now i’m going to press enter at the end of that line just to get the spacing and then i have to delete and shift tab again so now we have our width block set up i’m going to select from with down to end with and press my tab key so that that width end width structure is indented now we can compile and save and switch over to excel and we’re going to test this so at this point we should have the year the classification and the msrp populate when we test this so go ahead and switch over start your procedure except the default and now we have the year the classification and the msrp extracted from the then and we can switch back over to visual basic editor we’ve just used the if then else if end if construct and there is a variation on that a different construct that mimics its use and it’s called the select case in select statement so it also tests for multiple conditions a lot of people think that select case is easier to read than the if then else if end if construct and also easier to troubleshoot so the if then else if end if construct has limitations it can only test like seven conditions but with select case you’re unlimited in the number of conditions that it can test so i have a slide in here giving you the syntax but we’re gonna just go ahead and use it before we set up our first select case construct to extract the color from the vin number i’m going to have you switch back over to excel and select everything on the new vehicle sheet delete it and then go back to the inventory sheet and then come back into visual basic editor i’m at the bottom of the new vehicles module underneath the get classification function and i am going to type function and we’re going to call it get color and we’re going to use then num as a parameter press enter twice we’re going to do a variable declaration here so dim we’re going to name it color marker as string and enter twice we need to tell it which character of the then number represents the color and it’s the 12th character of the vin it’s only one character so we’re going to use the mid function here color marker equals mid and then in parentheses then num comma 12 comma 1. so extract the 12th character of the then number that represents the color gonna press enter twice and then tab now we’re ready for our select case construct so we’re going to type select case and then color marker press enter and tab case 0 enter tab get color equals and then double quotes black so if the 12th number of the then is the 12th character of the then is a 0 that represents the color black press enter and we’re going to shift tab just till we get to the case margin and we’re going to type case 1 enter tab get color equals white and double quotes and press enter shift tab now i’m going to fill out the rest of the cases and the rest of this select case statement and then you’ll be able to just copy it from my screen now you can pause the video and complete your select case statement don’t forget the in select at the bottom if you need to make sure that that is there as well so you have your other cases there go ahead and get those populated and once you have that function get color completed we need to go back to the get new inventory procedure and we need to add the appropriate offset in our width and width block for the color and so it’s an offset of five columns so i’m going to click at the end of the get classification offset line and type another offset with a comma 5 dot value and that one’s going to equal get color and it’s using then number as an argument so we have that all set up now we’ll test the color in just a moment but first we’re going to create another function procedure and we’re not going to have to type this one from scratch because i have a text file that you’re going to access that’s in the video description that we’ll use for this one so in the meantime just go ahead and compile and save i’m going to do control and the end key to get to the very bottom of the new vehicles module and after that and make sure you’re after the end function statement that’s down there and you’re going to go to the insert menu and choose file in your files for video description or whatever your working directory is where you pulled in these text files you’re going to open the text files folder and we’re going to double click the get model text file so now if you look at the bottom of your screen it brings in this whole function and so saving you some typing here it’s using a select case statement here i’m going to just format it a little bit so i want a blank line after function another blank line after the variable declaration and then i want to have my yeah we’re assigning it we’re telling it what numbers from the vin number represent the model by using the mid function so it’s actually two characters the third and fourth characters of the then number represent the model so i’m going to put an enter after the model marker equals midline then i’m going to select everything from select case to end select and i’m going to tab to indent it now my ocd gets the better of me here i’m also going to tab in my cases and i can select multiple cases so we don’t have to spend time getting them indented properly and everything but my ocd is just going crazy right now because i’m not doing that but this is what happens when you bring it in from a text file i’m just going to go to the bottom and put an enter in front of in function so we have that space there and so you could see it’s two numbers starting with the third character of the then if it’s 16 it gives you the model as katera if it’s 17 it’s seville so on and so forth and now what we have to do is we have to make reference to this in the get new inventory procedure so that the result is in the right cell so i’m going to go back to get new inventory procedure using my procedure drop down and we’re going to add an offset here the offset for the model is three columns from the active cell so i’m going to click at the end of my offset comma 1 line and do dot offset it’s going to be comma 3 dot value equals get model with an argument of then number and we’re going to compile and save now we have one more that we’re going to do by typing it ourselves and then we’ll test these three so the last one we’re doing here if you look at the very bottom of my new vehicles module i have the framework of the function get make already set up and you need to copy that onto your screen recreate that onto your screen and then for the select case and select statement i’m going to put up a powerpoint slide and have you kind of work through it on your own get your function your variable declaration and the fact that the make marker represents the second character of the then in and once you get that in you’ll use the following powerpoint as your guide to build your select case statement and when you’re done building it you can go ahead and and pause this video while you build your select case statement you’ll be able to see my completed block of code and so you can see my completed get make function and now the only thing we have to do is get its offset reference and by the way the make is offset by two columns and we need to put that in our get new inventory procedure so i’m gonna switch to that procedure and put them in numerical order so i’m clicking at the end of the offset comma 1 pressing enter and i’m going to do offset comma 2 dot value equals get make and with an argument of then and now we can compile and save and we can switch over to excel so we’re just gonna get our procedure our calling procedure running by clicking on the tab you know how to do this go ahead and yes select the default of received vehicles and now we should have everything extracted in row 2 the year the make the model the classification the color dealer cost was already there and we have our msrp which is a calculation either 10 or 15 percent markup depending on the year well done everybody you can clear that sheet and return to the inventory sheet tab so we just used our conditional branching constructs all variations of the if then construct and the select case construct now we’re going to get into our looping constructs we have the 4-2 next loop which executes a series of statements a specified number of times we have a for each next loop which is used on collections and it loops through each object in the collection and then you have your do while and do until loops the do while loop statement does something if something else is true and the do until loop will do something until something becomes true we’re going to get started with our do loops so they’re used to execute a block of code repeatedly as we’ve been setting up our function procedures we’ve been seeing that it’s extracting the pertinent information from the vin number but it’s only populating the second row whereas we have other venlum numbers on the sheet and so we’re going to use these looping constructs to populate the rest of the sheet now there are two variations of the do loop do while and do until so the do while loop runs until as long as the condition is true and do until will run when a condition becomes true each of your do loops have two different syntaxes both of the constructs test a conditional value but the differences between the two control how they handle the tested condition here’s the two different syntaxes for do while you can start with do while and give it the condition and if that condition is true it will run the statement block or you can have it run the statement block before testing the condition which is the second syntax there so the first syntax will execute the statement block zero or more times depending on whether the condition is true the second will execute the statement block at least once because it’s not going to test the condition until it has executed the statement block and the same holds true for do until you can have it execute zero or more times by testing for the condition up front or you can have it execute the statement block at least once because it tests the condition at the end and then we have our four loops so four two next and four each next four two next executes a series of statements a specified number of times before each next loop is used on collections and it will loop through each object in the collection until there are no more objects so they do the same thing just in a different way so we’re going to switch over to the visual basic editor and what we’re going to do is we’re going to modify our get new inventory sub procedure by adding a do while loop to it the end result of this is that when we run the procedure in excel it is going to populate for all of the vin numbers on the sheet so all of the years makes models color classification all of that will be populated for all of the then numbers we’re going to start the modification look for the line in your get new inventory sub procedure that says then number equals active cell value click at the end of that line and press enter and we’re going to indent so i’m going to press my tab key and we’re gonna do do while two separate words then number and we’re gonna say not equal to so that’s the less than or great and greater than signs together do while then number is not equal to and we’re gonna put two double quotes to represent a blank so it’s gonna run this loop as long as the then number is not empty that’s what we’re saying to do there it will stop running this loop when it finds an empty vin number and now what we’re going to do we’re going to go down to add formatting line click in front of it press enter and up arrow and you have to give the loop keyword here so we’re going to just type loop and actually indent the word loop so it’s at the same margin as do while so it’s going to run this loop as long as the then number not equal to empty so not empty and then we need to add a couple of other things here under our offset comma 7 line click at the end of that line and press enter and we’re going to do an offset of one row so we’re going to do dot offset and then in parentheses one dot select and then underneath that after your offset one line press enter do shift tab and you’re gonna type then number equals active cell dot value so what does that do so we have our offset so as it’s extracting things from our function procedures it’s putting them in the right cells so after it does that we’re saying go down one row so right now the active cell right is range a2 which we assign to the then number variable so the first then number is in cell a2 and that’s what we’re assigning to the then number variable and now we’re saying go down one row so it’ll be on a3 the next vin number and it’s assigning that cell’s value to the then number variable and then it will keep looping until it doesn’t find any more than numbers we’re going to go ahead and compile and save and we’re ready to switch to excel to test it so start your procedure and of course select the default file name and now that you you can see that it populated for every vin number on the sheet we did that do while loop which says do continue doing this stuff right by extracting and putting it in the right offset columns continue doing this stuff until you have no more than numbers and it did just that so now the sheet is populated we’re going to perform a few more tasks in this file and one of the things that we want to do is i have another text file with and procedure in it called inventory append and what it will do is once you run the procedure in here and you get the sheet populated your new vehicle sheet populated it’s going to select everything from cell a2 through h11 so it’s purposely going to ignore the headings it’s going to select from a2 to h11 and it is going to cut that selection and then it’s going to paste it on the bottom of the inventory sheet so right now our inventory sheet goes through row 105 and anytime we bring in new vehicles we want them appended at the bottom of the inventory sheet so that’s one thing that we’re going to set up and then the second thing that we’re going to set up is we’re going to write a sub procedure that will then delete the data on new vehicles we’ve been deleting it manually this whole time and then we’ll add a line of code to call the procedure that deletes the data let’s first start by deleting the data off of new vehicles as we’ve been doing typically go back to your inventory sheet and then switch back over to the visual basic editor now we’re still working in the new vehicles module i want to get to the very bottom of that module and this is where we’re going to use a text file to get the inventory append code so we’re gonna go to the insert menu file and in your text files from the video description you’re gonna double click inventory append so when we look at that sub procedure right it’s using a an object variable dim last cell as range and then we have dem response as integer and we’re assigning the response to the outcome of a message box that says append the new inventory now it will have a yes no button and its title bar says append inventory if the user selects the yes button then it’s going to set the last cell to equal starting with h2 all the way down to the last populated cell in column h and then starting with a2 so basically it’s going to select the range a2 through h whatever the last row in column h that’s populated in and then it’s going to cut that selection switch to the inventory worksheet and it’s going to go to the bottom it’s going to find the last populated cell in column a and then it’s going to offset by one row so it’s going to go to the first blank cell in column a and start pasting the data from the new vehicles sheet tab and then it’s just going to select cell a1 and save the workbook that’s what that is going to do now we’re not going to test it right now we’re gonna test it in a moment we’re gonna create another sub procedure this one is short and quick so i didn’t have a text file for it click at the end of that in sub statement for your inventory append procedure press enter and you’re going to type sub clear sheet and press enter twice so we’re creating the sub procedure that’s going to tell it to clear the new vehicles sheet anything that’s on it so we’re going to just do an indent here and we’re going to type worksheets remember how to reference from a collection and then in quotes new vehicles close your quote close your paren dot select so go and select that worksheet and then we’re going to do cells dot select which will select all of the cells on the sheet kind of like us doing control a and then we’re going to do selection dot clear so clear everything in those cells and then we’re going to end with range and then parentheses and double quotes a1 dot select we want it to end up on cell a1 so that’s our clear sheet sub procedure so we’re gonna call clearsheet from within inventory append in inventory append we’re gonna click in front of activeworkbook.save and press enter and up arrow and we’re going to just type clear sheet to call that procedure so we want it to clear the new in the new vehicle sheet before the workbook is saved and last but not least we’re going to call the inventory append sub procedure from our get new inventory procedure so i’m going to go to my procedure drop down make my way back to get new inventory and we’re just going to add the call line here click at the end of the ad formatting line which is right above in sub press enter and we’re going to type inventory append to call that procedure and that procedure is going to call the clear sheet procedure now we’re ready to compile and save and switch over to excel so now we’re going to test to see if our append functionality works well by activating our new vehicle sheet go ahead and start your procedure use the default it will pop up and ask you if you want to append the new inventory now you’re going to select yes it clears the new vehicle sheet and when you switch back over to the inventory sheet remember we were at row 105 before and now we’re at row 115 because it appended the information from new vehicles onto the sheet you can go ahead and save your file we’re going to be using the sales fiscal year macro enabled file that we used earlier and in that file we’re going to use both of the four loops i’m gonna go ahead and close this vehicles file and i already had sales fiscal year file open i’m gonna just bring it back up and maximize it and i’m gonna actually switch over to visual basic editor here and make sure that i’m seeing this project because again sometimes if you have multiple files open you switch over it doesn’t update i want to make sure that i have the sales fiscal year project in project explorer then i go back to excel so this is the file earlier we had it do a sum function and place its result two rows down from the last populated cell in column i we did that earlier now we’re going to use our for loops because we have several sheet tabs of sales data on it and you’ll see how the for each next loop and the four two next loop are similar to each other we’re going to get the same result we’re just using two different loops so what we’re gonna do now is we’re gonna start with the four two next construct to repeatedly call that add totals procedures so all the worksheets have the selling price column totaled and i’m going to just switch over to the visual basic editor for that the project explorer window i’m going to collapse microsoft excel objects so that i don’t have all of those sheet instances showing up so we see or i’m looking at the module 1 code window and we see our add total sub procedure i’m going to click at the end of the end sub statement and we’re going to create another sub procedure and the first time we do it we’re going to use the 4 2 next construct so that’s when you have it run the loop a specific number of times and we’re going to create a sub procedure and we’re going to call it all totals and press enter twice and then we’re going to tab and we’re going to declare by using dim just a small letter i as an integer and press enter twice and then i’m going to tab again so my for loop is indented and for this one we’re going to tell it what i equals so we’re going to say 4 i equals one two worksheets dot count i equals one to however many worksheets are in the file and we’re gonna press enter after that line and tab we’re going to type worksheets and then in parentheses i dot select enter add totals enter shift tab so you’re at the same margin as your for statement and you’re going to type next i and then enter so you have a space between it and your n sub statement so we declared i as an integer and i represents worksheets one two three four five so starting with one i equals one to the total count of worksheets in the file we’re gonna select the first sheet and once the first worksheet is selected we’re calling our add total procedure it’s going to run on that first sheet then it’s going to go to the next i the next sheet run that procedure and it’s going to keep doing that until there are no more sheets to go to go ahead and compile and save and we’ll switch over to excel and test this out so we already have this sum configured on the 26th of august sheet and that’s fine we’re going to do alt f8 since we don’t have this attached to an event procedure and we are going to select all totals not add totals but all totals that’s where we put our four to next loop so i’m gonna just double click it so at some point during the execution of the program you will get this runtime error 1004 it says application defined or object defined error i will explain why this happened in just a moment but what we want to do is we want to click the end button in that error message and it takes us to the last cell well it takes us to a cell on the july 4th sheet tab if we do control home you can see that july 4th well it’s a holiday no sales happened on that day and that’s why we got that run time era so we’re going to fix that by adding some code so let’s go back over to visual basic editor the issue that caused the error is in the add totals procedure not the all totals one that’s calling ad totals in the add totals procedure we have to tell it that if cell i2 right is blank or if cell i2 is not equal to zero so if it’s if it’s unpopulated if it’s populated with anything other than a zero then run the procedure if it’s not populated with anything any number right then we want it to print the text no sales in cell a3 so we’re going to set that up you’re going to click after your dim total formula as string line and press enter twice and then tab and we’re going to use an if statement for this so if range and then in parentheses and double quotes i2 and we’re going to use our not equal less than greater than symbol 0 then if cell i2 is not equal to 0 then go ahead and run this code select everything from set down to active formula and tab it over click at the end of the activecell.formula equal total formula line press enter and shift tab and we’re going to type our else statement to go with if enter and we’re going to tab and we’re going to type range and then parentheses and double quotes a3 dot value equals and then double quotes no sales then we’re going to type enter shift tab and end if so your completed sub procedure add totals should look like my screen if the sheet is blank essentially right it’s going to put no sales in cell a3 if the sheet is not blank if there are values in column i then it’s going to calculate the sum and put it two rows below the last populated cell in that column that’s what we just set up there and we’ll test this soon go ahead and compile and save so in our all totals sub procedure we use the for to next loop now i’m going to show you the difference and it’s going to end up being the same end result between 4 2 next and 4 each next so 4 2 next repeats specific number of times in our example it repeats on every worksheet in the workbook for each next is used on collections so the easiest way to show you this is we’re going to use a for each next construct to duplicate the work that we have in the all totals procedure that we created with a 4 2 next construct so the first thing we’re going to do is select your entire all totals sub procedure and one of the buttons we added to the toolbar was comment block click on that comment block button and it basically puts the apostrophe before each line thereby commenting out that entire sub procedure at the end of its end sub statement press enter twice and we’re going to create another sub procedure named all totals you can’t have two with the same name so that’s one reason why we commented out our original one and for this one we’re going to use the for each next loop so we’re gonna just type sub all totals enter twice we’re gonna tab in and we’re gonna dim sheet as worksheet where creating like an object variable right every sheet is going to be declared as a worksheet here and now we’re going to press enter twice and tab and we’re going to type for each sheet in worksheets and that’s the worksheets collection right so all of the worksheets in the workbook for each sheet in the worksheets and we’re going to press enter and we’re going to tab again and we’re going to type sheet dot select enter add totals enter and then we’re going to shift tab and type next sheet the difference between this one and this one first one we did that we commented out the first one runs a definite number of times it runs from the first sheet until it runs out of worksheets this one we’re using the sheets as a collection object so for each sheet in the worksheets collection it’s going to select the sheet and then it’s going to call the add totals procedure and then it’s going to go to the next sheet in the collection and so on and so forth until it runs out of sheets so after your next sheet you should have the blank line and then you’re in sub statement so since we’re calling the add totals procedure which we modified so we wouldn’t get that runtime error we’ll see the results of our modification as well when we run this new all totals procedure go ahead and compile and save and we’re ready to switch to excel and test this out so i’m gonna just go back i’m gonna right click on my tab scrolling arrows in the lower left corner and i’m gonna go back to the first sheet which is 26th of august and that’s the one that we calculated the sum of the selling price before and now i’m going to do alt f8 to bring up the macros box and we’re going to double click all totals and so you saw your machine kind of click and were right it left me on june 1st and we see that we have the total of the selling price and it’s two rows beneath the last populated cell in column i i’m going to right click on my tab scrolling arrows and navigate to the 4th of july and that was one sheet that caused an error before because there were no sales on that sheet and so now you can see in cell a3 on the 4th of july sheet that it actually has no sales so we diverted it from having that runtime error go ahead and save your file in this lesson we went over control of flow structures and we utilized pretty much all of them so we worked with our looping structures we worked with our decision structures and so we started with our um just a general understanding of the structures of our controller flow structures and their variations you learned about boolean expressions and how to combine them with comparison and logical operators we went into conditional branching and that’s when we used our if constructs and our select case constructs and then we finished by using our looping constructs we used our do loops and then we did both variations of the four loops the four two next structure and the four each next structure thank you for attending excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course hi everyone i’m trish connor cato welcome to the excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course this course is for beginning users looking to automate repetitive and recurring tasks in microsoft excel vba is microsoft’s programming language and it’s built into the office applications our focus during this course is on excel specifically you’ll be equipped with the basics to start writing your own vba code modify the code behind macros you’ve already recorded and have an understanding of how vba lends itself to creating efficiency in your daily tasks we move into creating a form and programming its controls during this lesson you will learn about form properties events and methods and learn how to add controls to the forum and modify their properties you’ll ultimately launch a form with code the next lesson will take you through the steps necessary to create pivot tables programmatically and visual basic for applications if you’re enjoying these videos please like and subscribe if you want to earn certificates and digital badges please become a member of our patreon the link is in our video description if you have any questions you want answered by one of our instructors please join our off-site community the link is in the description as well as always if this course has exercise files you’ll find them in the video description below now we’re going to get started with lesson six working with forms and controls we have several topics to cover in this lesson you’re going to start learning about the userform object and then its properties events and methods there’s a toolbox we’ll be using to add controls to the user form we’ll go over what kind of controls will be able to access from the toolbox we’ll be adding controls to the form and modifying the control properties formatting the controls and then we’re going to apply code to the controls to determine what their use is going to be finally you’ll learn how to launch the form via code we’re going to be using our sales fiscal year file as well as accessing another text file named coding controls during this lesson so far in this course you’ve created message boxes and input boxes you’ve learned that message boxes display messages and accepts input from the user via buttons in our case it was ok and cancel buttons an action is then taken on that input via coding input boxes display messages to the user but also allow the user to type in one input or have it default just like a message box input action is taken on the input box via coding the userform objects allow for multiple inputs which can then be coded to perform specific actions these inputs can be text check boxes or drop down lists for example and they’re known as controls user forms have properties events and methods that can be accessed these next few slides are for your reference after you’ve completed the course i will be guiding you through this as we do exercise so i have a slide with a description of form properties that can be accessed the next one are form events so for example the click event and whatever action is attached to it will occur when the left mouse button is clicked went over the form and the next slide is about form methods you have cut copy paste hide move so on and so forth and again i will be walking you through these during the exercises in this lesson the one that i do want to cover with you now are form control prefixes we’ve used lowercase mod as a prefix for a module and so if you’re looking at them in a list you’ll see them all begin with mod we have prefixes for form controls and i’ll guide you through these as we use them but for example chk would be a check box cbo is a combo box and we’ll be utilizing these throughout the lesson each form control has its own set of properties and they differ depending on the type of control but this slide has a list of common control properties that most controls have so you have like a height property a width property that type of thing and again the slide deck is in the video description so you’ll have access to these reference slides we’re ready to get hands-on now with the userform object before we insert a userform object into our sales fiscal year excel file let’s talk about the different types of modules again we did a brief review early in the course your standard code is stored in modules like in this project we have module one we could have renamed it we didn’t we’ve also in a different file created event procedures and if you expand your microsoft excel objects folder in the project explorer window you’ll see one for each sheet and all the way at the bottom of all of the sheets you have one called this workbook and in our vehicles macro enabled file we did an event procedure based off of the new vehicles sheet tab which was known as sheet 3 in the system your sheet modules and this workbook module are where you store event procedure codes and i’m going to just go back up and collapse the excel objects folder so i don’t have to look at all of those sheets so we have our regular module where you store your function procedures your sub procedures and then you have your event procedure modules your worksheets and this workbook now we also talked about early in the course a class module the modules we’ve been using like module one that’s a standard module class modules we’re not going to use in this course however those are used to create your own objects and so now we’re going to create a user form and that actually sets up a forms folder and no matter how many forms you create in this particular file they will all go into that forms folder so it’s almost like another module just for form user form objects and you’ll see that now as we go to insert our user form so we’re going to just go up to the insert menu and choose user form and now a couple of things happened you have the blank grid a framework for your user form object on your screen and attached to it is a tool box which you’ll use to access the controls that you’re going to put on the form now i’ll give you a heads up here sometimes if you have double monitors your toolbox may show up on another monitor and it could be behind some other open windows so if you need it you may have to search it out if i click on a blank area here try to deselect this user form it’ll disappear but then it’ll reappear when i click back on the user form typically and we can always get it back by using the view menu now i’m going to close my toolbox for a minute it has an x in its upper right hand corner so that i can see in the project explorer window that i now have a forms folder with one form in it which it names by default userform1 now we’re going to use the properties window to change some of the properties for our user form object and again if your properties window is not showing on your left hand pane you can go to your view menu and select it or you can press f4 to bring it up we are gonna give the form a name using the appropriate prefix we’re gonna give it a caption which will show in the title bar of the form and we’re going to give it a height and width measurement so in the properties window we’re going to start with the name property we’re going to double click name in parentheses and we’re going to type lowercase frm capital g generate capital r reports so that’s the system name of the form frm generate reports the next property we’re going to do is the caption property and again that shows in the title bar and we’re going to type just in plain english and as you’re typing it you can look at the title bar and see it populating generate sales reports and i’m pressing enter after i change a property we’re going to double click height and we’re going to make it 300 and we’re going to scroll down if necessary double click with and we’re going to change that value to 400 and by the way the height and width values would change if we manually resize the form by dragging its sizing handles in the next exercises we’re going to add controls to the form and set properties for those controls so the first thing we need to do is display our toolbox again and we can get that from the view menu because we closed it by using its x so we’re going to just go to view toolbox and the tool box shows up again and we can move it so you can see it clearly and if you look at the controls in the box as you hover over them so the first one is your mouse pointer it’s the select objects control the next one is a label third one is a text box you have a combo box list box so on and so forth so we’ll be using several of those controls placing them on our form and you’ll learn also how to size and align your controls a little bit later in these exercises so let’s get started we’re going to add start date and end date label controls to the form so in my tool box i’m going to look for the label control it’s the capital letter a and i’m gonna click on it on the toolbox and now if i move my mouse over the form grid it looks like a crosshair i can click and hold and draw the label control or i’m going to just click in the lower left corner of the form and it places the label control there for me and so now with that label control selected we’re going to change some of its properties so typically you don’t name labels unless they’re going to be some kind of code attached to them so we’re not going to use the name property we want to look at the auto size property so the auto size property is set to false if we double click auto size it will change it to true and we want it to be true and then the caption property is the text that shows on the label so i’m going to double click caption and i’m going to type end date in plain english followed by a colon and press enter and now you see the end date text populating the label and then you notice how it wrapped end date within that label control we don’t want it to do word wrap so the last property is word wrap and it’s set to true we’re going to double click it to set it to false so it doesn’t wrap the words in the label and i’m going to just manually move so i want my mouse pointer to look like a four-headed arrow on that end date label and i’m going to just drag it down just a little bit we also want a start date label so instead of starting from scratch i’m going to just right click on the end date label and i’m going to choose copy and then i’m going to right click in a blank area of my form grid and choose paste so now i’m going to move the copy of the end date label above the existing end date label and now it’s just a matter of changing some of its properties a couple of things we didn’t give the label a name so we don’t have a label name here our other property auto size is set to true already because we copied it and word wrap is set to false and it’s the caption property we’re gonna change so i’m gonna double click caption and i want it to say start date in plain english with the colon and press enter so copying it actually saves you time because it copies some of the pertinent property information as well now we’re going to add two text box controls we’ll do the first one and then copy it and modify the properties for the second one we’re going to find in the tool box our text box control and it’s the one that has the lowercase a b to the right of your label going to select it and again when my mouse is on top of the form grid it looks like a crosshair and i’m going to click to the right of the end date label and let it place the text box there i’m going to move mine up just a little bit so it’s more in line like that and with that text box control selected we are going to give it a name so in the properties window we’re going to double click name we’re going to use lowercase t x t as the prefix for a text box and we’re going to type capital e and capital d date so txt end date and the other property that we’re going to change for the text box is its width property and we’re going to make the width 50. and then we’re going to copy that text box paste it on the grid and move it down so it’s to the right of the start date label and on the copy we’re going to just change the name of it to txt start date and notice the name property didn’t come over with the copy because you can’t have the same name for controls on a form object so txt capital t capital s start capital d date is what we’re naming that text box when this form is completed and totally coded it will generate sales reports based on user choices in the form and as such we want to add two buttons to the form we want to add a display button and a cancel button so we’re going to use the command button control in your tool box the command button control is in the second row it’s the second one on my screen in the second row and it looks like a lowercase a b as well when you hover over it of course the screen tip will let you know it is command button so we’re going to go ahead and select it in the toolbox and we’re going to place a command button like in the upper right hand corner of the form in the properties pane we’re going to name it using cmd as the prefix for a command button capital d display so cmd display is the name and the caption we’re going to go down to the caption property and that’s the text that shows on the button and it’s just going to be display in plain english and the last property we’re going to change is the default property default property is currently set to false we’re going to double click it to make it true so the default property when it comes to a command button is you can press enter to make that button happen instead of having to click on it that’s what the default property does and you can only have one default property on a button on your object your userforum object so we have cmd display and we gave it a caption of display and we changed the default property to true now we’re going to copy that display button paste it on the grid and drag the paste it version underneath your original display button and again don’t worry about alignment we’ll fix that later so on the copy notice the name didn’t carry over right we’re going to name this one c md capital c cancel we’re going to give we’re going to change the cancel property here from false to true and that means you can use the escape key on your keyboard to make that button happen and so we set cancel to true the caption property we’re going to change it to cancel and the default property we need to change to false because you can only have one default command button and that is the display button if you click on a blank area of your grid you’ll see the display button has like that dark border around it whenever you see a button like that in a dialog box it means you can press your enter key to make that button happen this would be a good time for us to go ahead and save right from the toolbar before we continue adding controls to this form now we’re going to add a combo box control to our form so the combo find the combo box control in your tool box and select it and we’re going to put it in the like the lower right hand corner of the form in the properties pane we’re going to change its name to prefix of cbo and then capital m month we’re going to use its list rows property and that just says how many rows will be in the drop down list so we’re going to change list rows to 12 and then the match required property we’re going to double click that to change it from false to true in visual basic controls a combo box by default says no match is required which means that the end user can type in their own entries and use them from the list we don’t want that to happen we want them to pull just from the list that we’re going to populate later so we have our combo box in the lower right hand corner and now we’re going to click in a blank area of the grid and you can copy your start date or end date label because we’re going to want another label and we’re going to paste it onto the grid and then we’re going to move that label to the left of the combo box i’m going to just move mine down a little bit and again we’ll do some alignment stuff in a little while so now we just have to change the label properties now we’re going to use this label later and code some stuff for it so we want to give it a name so we’re going to name this lbl prefix for a label month capital m month and we’re going to give it a caption of 4 which month question mark and then i need to move my label over because it auto expand it so it’s not overhanging my combo box so your form should look similar to mine at this point now we’re gonna add two frame controls to the form and we’ll add the first one of course copy it to create the second one but the frame control is utilized to group related other controls together so we’re going to start by adding our first frame control on my toolbox the frame control is the first one in the second row it has an x y at the top of it we’re gonna click that and i’m gonna click like in the upper left corner of the form grid and now in order to make space for the other frame i’m going to move this frame over as far left as i can where i can actually see the borders of it and then i’m going to decrease its width manually by just clicking on the right center sizing handle so my mouse looks like a double-headed arrow and dragging it backwards about that much and so we’re going to give the frame a name and it’s going to be fra is the prefix for frame control capital p period and we’re also going to give it a caption of period and the caption is what shows up the upper left hand corner of the frame now we’re going to copy that frame paste it onto your grid and drag the pasted frame to the right of your period frame and for this one we’re going to change the name property to fra sales and we’re going to give it a caption of sales so the next thing we’re going to do is we’re gonna add three option button controls into each frame we’re gonna find the option button in the tool box and it looks like the little circle with a dot in the middle of it the next to the last one in my first row and i’m gonna select the option button and now i’m gonna click inside the period frame and then i’m gonna copy that option button and i’m going to paste it twice inside the period frame so you’ll have three option buttons inside your period frame and if you click on the top one you’ll see in the name property it’s option button one second one is two second one is three you kind of want to have them in the right order for tab order purposes a little bit later and again we’ll deal with the alignment a little bit later and i’m going to show you how to get three option buttons in the sales frame now too another efficiency tip here what we can do inside the period frame just click in a blank area inside the period frame and do control a and it selects all three option buttons right and then you can just do control c to copy them and then right click inside your sales frame and paste let’s do the properties for these option buttons so the first one inside the period frame should say option button one as its name property its name property is going to be opt as the prefix capital m month and we’re going to give it a caption of month and you can see the caption shows instead of option button one the second option button in the period frame which name is currently option button 2 we’re going to change it to opt all with a caption of all the last option button option button three in the period frame its name is going to be opt other with a caption of other so we have month all and other option buttons in the period frame let’s go to the sales frame so the first one in the sales frame since we copied it it’s now option button four and we’re going to give that a name of opt sales person with a caption of salesperson and i’m making that caption plain english two words and then the next one in the sales frame option button five that one is going to be opt model with a caption of model and last but not least option button six its name is going to be opt classification with a caption of classification so now we’re ready to do some formatting of our form controls and we’ll start with alignment and grouping we’re going to start by aligning the option buttons in the period frame so just click in the period frame and do ctrl a like we did before to select the option buttons and we can go up to the format tab the format menu hover over a line and we’re going to click on lefts so those three option buttons are aligned by their left edge let’s do the same thing in the sales frame also align those three option buttons by their lefts now we want to align our two frames by their tops so i’m going to select the period frame hold down my control key and select the sales frame that’s one way of getting them both selected i’m going to go back to format menu align and this time we’re going to choose tops and we can click away and see they’re perfectly aligned by their top edges now now we want to group the options buttons in each frame so that if we move any one of them all of them will move they’ll retain their alignment and everything so i’m going to just click in the period frame and do control a to select all three option buttons i’m gonna go to the format menu and i’m gonna click on group and now you’ll see there’s one border around all three option buttons instead of three separate borders they’re grouped together now do the same in your sales frame now i’m going to show you how to use a selection net also known as a selection marquee has a lot of different names to select different objects so we want to align the period frame and the start date and end date labels by the left edges so i’m going to click slightly above and to the left of the period frame click and hold and drag down until your start and end date labels are within that little guideline so now when you let go it selected the period frame and the start and end date labels that’s called a selection net and we’re going to go to format align lefts let’s use a selection net to select our display and cancel buttons as well as our combo box and let’s align those by their left edges as well at this point we haven’t coded any of our form controls yet but we want to test our form make sure it displays properly and specifically we want to test the tab order on the form just make sure your form is selected and you can use the run button on the toolbar run sub user form button or you can just press f5 to run the form and the form should pop up on your screen it’s on top of some other module so we want to test the tab order on the form now when i bring up the form notice that it’s flashing in the end date field that’s where it’s starting if i press the tab key on my keyboard it then goes to start date if i press tab again it looks like it has the display button and then the cancel button and then the combo box then it goes into the period frame and it’s on month then all then other then it goes to the sales frame and it’s on salesperson then model then classification the frames the tab order is perfect because we made sure that the option button copies were in the right order so option button one two three four 5 6. but we can see that the rest of the tab order on this form is not the way it should be so we’re going to go ahead and fix that go ahead and close the x button in the upper right hand corner of your form and it should take you back to your form design view if you will if not you can double click frm generate reports in your forms folder in the project explorer window so we need to adjust the tab order here so we’re going to go to the view menu and on the view menu you’re going to select tab order and i’ll move this box here so we can see it a little bit better the labels don’t have to be included in the tab order because we don’t want to tab to any labels in there at this point so the tab order that we want is that it start period frame and then go to the sales frame so they’re at the bottom of my tab order list which is why it went there last i’m going to click and hold on fra period and drag down to select fra sales and with both of them selected on the right side i’m going to use the move up button until they’re in the first and second position then i’m going to click on txt start date move that up so it’s in the third position and put txt end date in the fourth position we want our combo box cbo month to be underneath the end date text box and then we want our command and display buttons underneath cbo month and again we’re not concerned about the labels because labels are not input controls we can click ok and then we’re going to do f5 so we can test the tab order on our form notice that the month in the period frame is already selected when we do tab it’s going to go to all and then other then into the sales frame sales person model and classification after that it jumps down to the start date text box then to the end date text box then to the combo box finally the display button and the cancel button we can close the form again by using the x in the upper right hand corner when we code the controls on our forms we’re going to be doing them in what are known as built-in class modules these modules contain procedures that are used to respond to events for a form or maybe a worksheet or that performs tasks in support of the form or worksheet so we’re going to be populating our combo box for starter by using code so what we’re going to do is we’re going to right click on the form anywhere in the blank area of the grid and this is only one way of doing this and we’re going to choose view code so now if you look up at the top right gives you the file that we’re in but it says frm generate reports code that is a built-in class module this is the code just for that particular form the first thing we’re going to do is explore the object list where it says it defaults to user form right and notice the user form default procedure is the click event we’ll do the drop down next to to the right of user form and you’ll see all of the controls that we’ve placed on that form and this is a good example of when using the prefix is handy your command buttons are grouped together your frames are grouped together your option buttons are grouped together as are your text boxes so you don’t have to keep looking through a list for something not knowing what the actual control is so that’s a good example of why you want to use those prefixes here we’re going to leave it on the user form object now i mentioned that it defaults to the click procedure but we want our code to be based on its initialize procedure so to the right of click in your procedure list you’re going to select initialize and just like when we did an event procedure earlier we don’t need to keep the framework for private sub user form click we’re going to just delete that and leave our private sub user form initialize in sub statement the initialize procedure happens when the form is loaded into memory so when the form is run that’s when this procedure will happen at the end of the private sub line we’re going to press enter twice and we’re going to do a with end with statement so i’m going to tab over and i’m going to type with and then cbo month so that’s the combo box the month combo box i’m going to press enter tab i’m going to do dot and the list pops up we want to use the add item method so dot add item space and then double quotes jan for january now you can copy that add item line we need 12 of them january through december and we’re just using the three character abbreviation for the months with no period and once you have your 12 add item lines we’re gonna shift tab and we have to have our end with statement and you can go ahead and compile and save and in your project explorer window you’re going to double click frm generate reports we’re going to press f5 to run it and we just want to test our drop down so go to your for which month drop down and you should see january through december there we added those items to the combo box and we can close generate sales reports form and we’re going to change one property for that combo box so select the combo box on your form grid and we’re going to go down to its text property and that’s like the default property so we want it to default to january so we’re going to just type j a n there and enter and now if we i have to select my form first and f5 we’ll see that the for which month combo box is now defaulting to january and we can close it another way to access the code window for the form is just by double clicking on the form grid and that will take you to your built-in class module and it’s built in because a form is a built-in object here in excel vba so unlike a regular class module where you’re actually creating objects that are not included in the application this is a built-in class and so we’re in the code window and we’re going to hide controls based on when another control is selected so for example if month is selected in the period frame we want to hide the start date and end date labels and text boxes and we have several event procedures to code so we’re going to insert a text file and then review the code for your understanding first we’re going to declare some variables and we’re going to click at the top after option explicit and press enter and we’re going to do public sales comma period as string and press enter so we’re declaring variables up in the declaration section and we’re making them public so that means they’re available to any modules here and then we’re going to click underneath our end with statement we’ll click at the end of it and press enter and we’re going to type cbo month that’s our combo box name dot visible which is a property equals false which shows up on your list right underneath that we’re gonna type lbl month dot visible that’s its label equals false so right now it’s telling it not to show the combo box or the label but we’re not done yet so we’re going to click at the end of n sub and press enter and then we’re going to go to our insert menu and choose file and we want to grab that coding controls text file so we can just double click it and boy did it help us with a lot of typing look at all the stuff that’s in here we’ll go over with all of this code that we didn’t have to type means we declared two string variables sales and period the first thing that came in from the text file is private sub cmd cancel click so when the cancel button on the form is clicked it’s going to unload the form from memory and me is just a shortcut for the current object in this case the form so that’s one thing that came in from the text file coding that cancel button and then we have our opt all button when that option button is selected when it’s clicked or accessed it’s going to set the period variable to all when the classification option button is clicked it’s going to set the sales variable to equal classification when the model option button is clicked it’s going to assign model to the sales variable so we need to do a fix here because i just noticed that model doesn’t have double quotes on it coming from the text file and it needs to or we would get an error message and you might want to make a note if you want to avoid that later to just go into the text file and change it in there so the next sub procedure is opt month when it changes if that opt month button is clicked right and you see this next sub procedure it’s going to set the period to equal month if opt month equals true then we want the combo box and the label to be visible or else we want them to be hidden unless they need to select a month they don’t need to have the label or the combo box showing up on the form and then we have we’ll go to our private sub opt other this one has a change event and this one has a click event so when it’s clicked the other option button it will set the period to other and if it’s other then we want the start date and end date text boxes to be enabled so they’re accessible if they select other in that frame or else we want them to be disabled so they’ll still be visible but the end user won’t be able to access them and then the last but not least if they select the sales person option button in the sales frame it’s going to set sales variable to equal sales person and you want to go ahead and compile and save let’s go test some of this so i’m going to just double click my form in the forms folder in project explorer to get back over to it and the first thing we’re going to do is in the properties pane we’re going to disable the start date and end date text boxes so i’m going to click in the start date text box and i’m going to double click the enabled property to change it from true to false and i’m going to do the same with the end date text box and now i’m going to go ahead and press f5 to run the form so make sure you’re just on the grid and you don’t have any control selected and then f5 will be successful for you and so the first thing i want you to do is try to click in the start date and end date text boxes and you cannot in the period frame select the month option and you’ll notice that the combo box and its label will now become visible and accessible on the form if you select the all option button in the period frame your start date and end date text boxes are not available to you because we want it to run all the reports for all of the dates and then if you select the other option button now you have the ability to get into the start date and end date text boxes so in the background on my screen you see that opt other change is what’s causing that so if they select opt other if they select the other option button it’s going to assign the period valuable the value of other and it’s going to enable the start date and end date text boxes and now we’re going to use the x in the upper right hand corner to close the form again and the last thing we’re going to do instead of us having to go to the forms folder and double click the form and then f5 to run it we want to launch it programmatically so we’re going to do that now we’re going to go over to our project explorer window we can right click on the modules folder hover over insert and choose module and we’re going to rename module 2 in its properties window we’re going to name it mod reports and in mod reports we’re going to type a very short sub procedure so we’re going to type sub we’re going to name it show form press enter twice and we’re going to tab over we’re going to type the name of our form including its prefix frm generate reports the dot notation and then we want the show method we just created a sub procedure that will show the form when this procedure runs and now we can compile and save and we could just execute the procedure by pressing f5 anywhere within it it brings up the form and because we brought it in from a text file we coded the cancel button we can actually use the cancel button to unload the form from memory and close it in this lesson we learned about and used the user form object we changed some form properties and we went over some properties events and methods for form controls we accessed the toolbox to be able to get to our form controls and we added controls to the form and modified their properties and then we did some formatting of form controls in terms of alignment and grouping and we moved on to creating code for form controls in a built-in class module and we used a lot of code from a text file that was in the files in the video description we ultimately ended up launching the form via code and we will be revisiting using the form in a later lesson in lesson seven we will be working with the pivot table object and visual basic so the first thing we’re going to do is create a pivot table in excel and then we’re going to create a pivot table in visual basic for applications when end users use the form that we created in the previous lesson it is going to generate pivot table reports based on the user’s choices on the form after we get our pivot tables done we’re going to finalize our form and then you’ll learn how to add code to a button in excel for ease of use pivot tables allow you to summarize data from a worksheet or an external data source and create reports you can decide how to summarize the data and the data to be analyzed and after you create a pivot table you can pivot the data to look at it in different ways for different analysis when you’re creating a pivot table in vba two separate objects are used the pivot table object which is the pivot table in the workbook and the pivot cache object which is a memory location that’s created and it holds the source data the pivot table is created from when you’re doing this in visual basic the pivot cache object needs to exist before a pivot table is created so you use what’s known as the create method of the pivot caches collection object to create that pivot cache in vba and i have on this slide it’s syntax the one required argument is source type and then you have two optional argument source data and version the source type argument has five options in the form of excel constants so we saw visual basic constants earlier they’re preceded by vb like when we were working with the message box right these are excel constants which are preceded by xl so you have consolidation database external pivot table and scenario process wise once the pivot cache is created the create pivot table method of the pivot cache object will be accessed to create the pivot table and it has four arguments as listed on this slide table destination table name read data and default version and the final three the only one that’s required is the table destination argument and again this is background information for your future review if you need to refresh on anything i will be guiding you through this when we get started the pivot cache and pivot table can be created in the same procedure and the fields that are going to populate the pivot table have to be set up separately within what’s known as the pivot fields collection yes this sounds complicated until you get used to it when it comes to pivot fields collection it’s a member of the pivot table object and it contains the columns of data from the data source the pivot fields orientation property is used to populate the pivot table report field names are assigned to the values in each column based on the column headings an excel constants are used here as well your if you’re used to pivot tables you know you have row labels column labels you have report filter you have values so the excel row field would be for your row labels excel column field for your column labels excel page field is used for the report filter an excel data field is used for the values you have an extra constant here excel hidden which is used to hide a field and then at the bottom i have the syntax of the orientation property for your future reference so we’re going to start in our sales fiscal year file by recording two macros to create the pivot table so i’m on the 26th of august sheet tab and i’m going to just click anywhere within my data there and we’re going to start a macro recording so i’m going to use the mac no macros currently recording button down in my status bar that we used earlier i’m going to click on that and we’re going to name this macro create pivot table and then we’re going to just click ok now just make sure you’re anywhere within your data and except for on that sum of the selling price we’re going to be anywhere within the data go to the insert tab of the ribbon and the first button is pivot table i’m going to click the upper half of the button in the create pivot table dialog box you’ll see that it has selected all of your data we were just anywhere within our range and it will select everything until it finds a blank and that’s the choice we wanted to use select a table or range and then the next choice you make is choose where you want the pivot table report to be placed it defaults to a new worksheet which is typically how they’re used and so we can just click ok so we’re on a new sheet we have the framework of our pivot table on the worksheet and to the right we have our pivot table fields list this is where we need to stop this recording remember it’s a two-step process even when you’re recording it as a macro in excel the first step is to create the framework of the pivot table and we’ve done that so i’m going to go down to my status bar and select stop recording now we need to record a macro that will select the fields that we want in our pivot table report so i’m going to go back to my status bar and start another macro recording and this one i’m going to name select fields and click ok in your field list on the right you’re going to drag your year field to the filters box underneath and notice your pivot table report is already starting to shape up we’re going to drag classification to columns and we see our pivot table we have our column labels and it’s showing the classifications car suv truck minivan we’re going to drag well we could put a check box in front of make and it will automatically put it in the rows box and we’re going to put a if we scroll down we’re going to put a check mark in front of selling price and it’s automatically going to put that in the values box so any text space field will automatically go into rows and any numeric field will automatically go into values and the default aggregate that’s used is the sum function so now in our pivot table we can see our row labels are the makes of the vehicles our column labels are the classification and we’re getting the selling price for each combination there now we’re ready to stop our macro our second macro from recording so you could stop the recording and let’s switch over to visual basic editor and in project explorer i’m going to collapse that microsoft excel objects folder and now you’ll notice we have mod reports module 1 and module 2. we’re going to double click module 2 and that’s where it put the code for the two macros we recorded and we’re going to rename module 2 so using its properties we’re gonna name it mod sheet pivot so this is the code that was created when we did our create pivot table macro right it’s adding you can see it’s referencing the pivot caches object right and we’re using the source type of excel database and you have all of this code that was generated by your two separate macro recordings and then we had to record a separate macro for selecting the fields and that’s where you’ll see those excel constants for page field column field row field so on and so forth so if you create a pivot table while recording a macro in excel you have to record two macros one to set up the framework of the pivot table and the second one to populate the pivot table report with the appropriate fields now we’re going to start creating our pivot table in visual basic editor and so we’re going to start by creating the pivot cache and pivot table objects which can be in the same procedure as you’ll see but before we do that switch back over to excel and delete the sheet that has your pivot table report on it and then we’re going to insert a new sheet a new worksheet and we’re going to name it reports and the sheet tabs in your excel file should look like mine on the screen so i’ve made the report sheet the first one and i deleted the other sheet where we recorded our macro and created the pivot table and now we can switch back over to the visual basic editor in your project explorer window switch to mod reports where we have just that one small sub procedure that shows the form we’re going to click after the in sub statement here and you’re going to type the sub procedure that i will display on my screen momentarily i’ve changed my font size to 18 so you can create that sub procedure that we’re naming create pivot based on what’s on my screen we’ll talk about it after you get it typed in in this sub procedure we are declaring two object variables destination and range data both with the range object type we’re setting the destination variable to equal that reports worksheet cell a1 that we just created in excel and we’re setting the range data object variable to equal the range a1 through j1 all the way down to the last populated cell in column j after that we’re accessing the pivot caches object so activeworkbook.pivotcaches.create and i’m using the line continuation character there space and underscore and this time in the parentheses we’re using a different syntax and we’re doing this here because you’ll probably come across it in code that you inherit so we’re actually naming the arguments and separating them from their values by using a colon and an equal sign so the first argument for the pivot caches is the source type and for an excel spreadsheet the data on an excel spreadsheet you use the excel constant of excel database the next argument is the source data and that is going to be the range data so a1 through the last populated cell in column j and then we’re doing another line continuation character at the end of that line and now we’re moving on to the create pivot table method of the pivot cache object and that line starts with dot create pivot table and then we’re giving it a destination for the table which is what we populated as the destination object variable so the report sheet cell a1 is where we’re going to start the pivot table framework and then we’re naming the pivot table sales pivot let’s go ahead and compile and save our work and we’ll switch to excel we need to run that sub procedure our create pivot procedure on a sheet that’s populated with data so i’m going to go to my 26th of august sheet tab and i’m going to just be anywhere within my data and i’m going to do alt f8 to bring up the macros dialog box and we want to double click create pivot it doesn’t initially look like anything happened but we told it to put the framework of the pivot table on the reports sheet tab so let’s go to reports and we’ll see the framework of our pivot table so now that we have the framework of our pivot table we’re going to switch back over to the visual basic editor because we have to create our fields collection regardless of whether you’re creating a pivot table by recording a macro or by using visual basic for applications it’s going to be a two-step process we’re going to be still working in mod reports and we’re going to go up to the top and click after option explicit we need to declare some variable names up here so we’re going to type public and after we click after option explicit i pressed enter we’re going to use the public keyword page name comma row name comma column name comma data name as string so four string variables we declared in the declaration section and you can press enter so now we’re gonna go to the bottom of our create pivot sub procedure click at the end of the end sub statement and press enter and we’re going to create another procedure sub procedure here so we’re going to type sub and the name of it is set fields and press enter a couple of times well we’re going to declare an object variable here within the procedure so we’re going to do dim and then i’m just calling it pvt table as pivot table and pivot table will show up on your list underneath that we’re going to use the set statement remember we have to use set for our object variables set pvt table and then equal worksheets and in parentheses and double quotes reports dot pivot tables and in parentheses we need to put what we named the pivot table which is in quotes it’s sales pivot and then we’re going to close those parentheses we’re going to press enter twice and we’re going to do a with end with block so we’re going to indent and we’re going to type with pvt table enter and tab we’re going to do dot pivot fields which will show up on your list and then in parentheses page name dot orientation equals xl page field so we’re referencing that constant and just a reminder the excel page field constant refers to the field that’s going to go into the report filter box we’re going to press enter and we’re going to do dot pivot fields again this time in the parentheses we’re going to type row name dot orientation and this one is going to equal excel row field so the field that’s going to go into the rows box for the pivot table enter again we have two more of these lines that we have to do so dot pivot fields and use the list as necessary to decrease your typing and in parentheses for this one we’re going to do column name dot orientation and this one equals xl column field and last but not least we’re going to do dot pivot fields in parentheses data name and that’s for the values dot orientation equal excel data field we’re going to press enter and shift tab and we’re going to type in our end with statement and enter again so now what we’re going to do is we’re going to finish up this sub procedure we have four more lines to type and i’m going to shift tab to out dent so i’m at the same margin as our dim and set lines and we’re going to type active workbook dot sheets and then in parentheses and double quotes reports dot activate and i’ll scroll down so you can see this a little bit better our next line is pvt table like our object variable name dot pivot select then we’re going to type a space in a set of double quotes comma and from the list that pops up we’re going to select excel data only another excel constant so the data field is the values field and we want to we’re typing this line to say select all of the values and we’re going to press enter and then we’re going to tell it how to format it so selection dot number format equals and in double quotes we’re going to type a dollar sign pound sign comma two more pound signs and a zero and then close your double quotes the number format and i have it highlighted on my screen that we’re using so it’s going to start it with a dollar sign and the pound represents any digit that may be in that position you have your thousand separator is the comma and then we have two more pound signs so digit placeholders if they’re in that position it will put them there if not it will skip it and we’re saying that we’re not going to have any decimal places on our numbers here if we wanted decimal places after the ending zero we would we could do a dot and then zero zero which means that it would have two decimal places the zero that’s sitting there instead of the pound signs or as they’re now known hashtags that would represent a leading zero for a number if it’s less than one so that’s the number format and you’ll see it once we finish this up and now we have one more line to finish this set field sub procedure and we’re going to just type range and in parentheses and double quotes e1 dot select this is going to set the fields whether they’re filter fields row fields column fields or your values fields for the pivot table that we created because the variables will not populate until we actually run the form again we’re going to be able to test this our sub procedure for setting the fields in just a little while we have some more tasks that we’re going to complete that i have under the heading finalizing the form what we’re going to do here is we’re going to create code that will generate pivot table reports based on the selections the user chooses in the form so in other words we’re going to distribute user responses to the correct procedures specifically we’re going to create code that will perform these steps when the user activates the display button on the form we want it to hide the form and whatever option is selected in the period frame will be evaluated determining the month or the start date and end date of the pivot table report the sales option that is selected in the sales frame will also be evaluated and at this point the variables containing the field names will be populated then the source data will be pulled from the workbook and placed on a new sheet and then the data will be moved to a new workbook and the pivot table will be created so we’re going to get started on these finalizing the form steps and i’m still in visual basic editor and in the project explorer window i’m going to expand forms folder and double-click our generate reports form to get back to it and then i’m going to double click in a blank area of our form to get back to our built-in class module which has all the code that we’ve created for this so far so we want to select the framework for the click event for your display command button so where it says user form at the very top of the module in the procedure list we’re going to do the drop down and we’re going to select cmd display so now we have private sub cmd display click event waiting for us because click is the default procedure for a command button i’m going to click after the opening and closing parentheses and press enter a couple of times and we’re going to tab and we’re going to type me dot hide and hide is on the list and in this instance as we saw previously when we used me it’s referring to the form when we click the display button it’s going to hide the form that’s one thing that we need to happen so now we’re going to declare some variables up top in the declaration section and we already have public sales and period as string click after period type a comma and type month so we have sales period and month as string variables press enter at the end of the as string line and we’re going to type public start date comma end date as date and press enter now we’re going to navigate to the end of this module and we’re going to create another sub procedure there that’s going to code the options selected in the period frame on the form and we’re going to use a select case construct here so at the very bottom of the module we’re going to type sub we’re going to name it get dates press enter a couple of times and then tab and i’ll scroll down so you can see my whole construct down there and we’re going to type select case period enter and then tab case and then in double quotes month enter tab month equals cbo month and we’ll type all of this in and then i’ll go over it and review it with you after i press enter after cbo month i’m going to shift tab so i get back to the case margin and i’m going to type case and then double quotes all enter tab start date equals get first date enter end date equals get last date enter shift tab case and then double quotes other so we have month all and other in our period frame enter and we’re going to do start date equals txt start date enter end date equals txt end date enter shift tab twice and you’re going to type end select and then i’m going to press enter again so i get that blank line between n select and end sub so let me break this down for you we’re doing a select case statement which is like an if then else if end if statement so we have three cases here right based on the period so case month means the month equals whatever month is selected in the combo box when they select all in that period frame the start date is going to equal the results of a function procedure that we don’t have in here yet called get first date and then the end date is going to equal the result of a function procedure that we also don’t have in here yet called get last date and then if they select other in the period frame the start date is going to be the start date that the end user puts in the start date text box and the end date will be the end date that the end user puts in the end date text box so that’s what we’ve created here in this get date sub procedure now the good news is the two procedures that we don’t have in here yet get first date and get last date we’re gonna bring in from a text file so we don’t have to type it and then we’ll review it so i’m going to click at the end of the end sub statement and press enter beneath our get date sub procedure and we’re going to go to insert menu file and this particular file that we want is going to be well we have get first date we’ll bring in the get last date first so we’re going to do get last date double click that file and then go to the end of that function after the end function statement be on the next blank line go back to insert file and we’re gonna insert get first date and so now let’s review these get last state and get first date functions we’ll start with get last date so we’re doing object variables here dim sheet as worksheet and then we’re just doing regular variables last date and test date we’re declaring those as dates so we’re starting with last date equals zero and we’re using a for each next construct so this is going to go through the worksheets for each sheet in worksheets the test state equals and it says see date and then in parentheses sheet.name so the name of the worksheets in this file are dates and see date is a conversion function that it’s going to convert the text date on the sheet tab into an actual date so let’s say it’s on the 26th of august 2016 sheet right it’s gonna convert the text on the sheet tab to a date format and assign it to the test date variable and then it says if test date is greater than the last date then the last date equals the test date and that’s in an if in if then end if construct which is nested in our for each next structure then it’s going to go to the next sheet and it’s going to repeat the process until there’s no more sheets and then it will determine what the last date is and so the result of the function get last date will be the last date that’s in the file and then get first date is similar right where we have our declarations and then it starts first date equals 99.99 well actually five nines and for each sheet it’s going to convert the sheet name date to a date and if the test date is less than the first date then the first date equals the test date and then it ends that if block with end if goes to the next sheet repeats the process until there are no more sheets now notice this one came in and the last line is red and if it’s not when you go to compile it’s going to be red because we declared first state and it’s all mushed together but in the text file it came in as two separate words so i’m going to just mush it together in that line and now we can compile and save so those two function procedures will determine the earliest date and the latest date in the workbook for the period frame at this point we have three more procedures that we’re going to need to do we’re only going to type one of them we’ll bring in the other two well actually we have four procedures we’re going to type one of them and bring in the remaining three from text files so we’re at the bottom of this module and we’re going to create a sub procedure under our get first state function procedure and i’m going to just type sub and i’m going to type get sales by grouping and press enter twice so this procedure is going to code the options in the sales frame on the form so it’s kind of like telling it if they select sales person in the sales frame what fields need to be in that pivot table report and so on and so forth so we’re going to do a select case statement for this i’m going to tab over type select case sales press enter and then tab case and then double quotes it’s going to be salesperson and on the form made that two words and then we’re going to press enter and tab so no page name which is the filter for the pivot table equals and then double quotes sales person and i’m going to check whether that needs to be separated there sometimes it’s what you called it on the form and then other times it’s the way it shows as a column header so i will definitely double check that before we test these procedures and then we’re going to do enter and we’re going to do row name equals and quotes year enter column name equals make and then our data name for our values in the pivot table report is going to equal selling price and i believe these are the headings on the spreadsheet we have a few more finishing touches we need to do in order to complete this process so we want to navigate to mod reports and go to the bottom of the module under our set fields sub procedure and we’re going to use a text file to bring in three other procedures so we’re going to go up to insert file and this time we want to consolidate data text file i did this as a text file because it actually contains three different procedures so we have a sub procedure named consolidate data then we have another sub procedure telling it where to start grabbing the cells and we have another sub procedure for finishing the report and just to kind of go over them briefly for you what these are doing so the consolidate data sub procedure will create a temporary worksheet in the file and name it reports and that will hold your pivot table report based on the option the user selects in the period frame it will collect the data from the worksheets this procedure calls a function that directs it to select the pertinent cells from each worksheet and if you look through it you can see the code blocks for that and they have select case statements and they’re using grab cells to grab some cells when it references grab cells it’s calling the sub procedure right underneath it named grab cells it’s passed an argument that is the beginning row number of the cells to be selected and it uses an if construct to grab all the cells on each worksheet that are applicable to the choices made in the form and then last but certainly not least we have a sub procedure named finish report and that moves the collected data from the reports worksheet into an existing workbook in the same directory named reports it then deletes the report worksheet in the sales fiscal year file and creates the pivot table in the reports workbook i should mention this by now we have created across different files multiple modules we also have an built-in class module for our form so you have lots of different blocks of code and what you want to do is as you’re working in visual basic you want to start saving your code blocks that actually work so after they’re tested and i have a code repository i just copy and paste my sub and function procedures into a word document because a lot of times you can reuse the same code over and over again you might have to just change a file name or something like that but why build it from the ground when you already know you have code that has worked before so i’ll make that suggestion here because especially some of these text files you’re getting really great code blocks to use in future vba projects we have just a few more finishing touches before we’ll test everything and this time we want to go to our built-in class module for our form so i’m going to just double click frm generate reports in the forms folder and then i’m going to double click a blank area of the form to get into that module we want to locate the click event for the display command button at the toward the top of mine i have private sub cmd display underscore click and currently it only has me hide in that sub procedure click at the end of me hide and press enter and now we’re going to use this to call other procedures we are going to call our get dates procedure enter get sales by grouping procedure enter consolidate data and we’re going to pass it up an argument of month so we can just put month after it consolidate data month and the finish report procedure and then we’re going to type unload me so when the the display button is clicked on the form it’s going to hide the form and it’s going to call those procedures get dates get sales by grouping consolidate data finish report and then it’s going to unload the form from memory now we have a modification we need to make in mod reports so we’re going to go back to mod reports and i’m going to use the procedure list to navigate to the set fields procedure we need to make a small modification there so when we created this set field sub procedure we did a number format but then when we created the get sales by grouping sub procedure for the selection in the sales frame if they select model we made color the data name so we made color to value field we don’t want the colors to be displayed with like a currency format really because it’s just going to be a count of color here we need to change this set fields procedure so it doesn’t put a numeric currency format on a color field if that’s what’s selected in the sales frame to adjust that if it is an actual value like a selling price value we do want it formatted in a currency format but if it’s account of models we don’t so we’re going to address that by using an if function so click at the end of the line that says activeworkbook.sheets reports dot activate and press enter and you’re gonna go ahead and tab and we’re gonna type if and then the name of our form frm generate reports dot sales and we’re going to use our not equal to so less than greater than and then in double quotes we’re going to type model if what they select in the sales frame on our form is not equal to model we wanted to go ahead and give it the currency format so we’re going to type then after model and then we’re going to come down to the line that has selection dot number format click at the end of that line and press enter and you’re going to tab and you’re going to type end if so it’s only going to apply a currency format if the selection in the sales frame is not model otherwise it won’t apply if it is model it won’t apply the currency format it’ll just be the number and we’re going to make a minor modification to our create pivot procedure so i’m going to use my procedure list to navigate to that one and then here in the set range data line we’re going to change the j1 range to i1 so when it consolidates all the data it’s only filling the column i we don’t need it to say j there so just another minor change and now we’re gonna go ahead and compile and save so two things we’re gonna do before we test this i promise that i would double check our sub procedure get sales by grouping it’s part of your built-in class module for your form to determine whether the salesperson case should be one word or two words it actually should be one word there so i’m gonna adjust that and i’m going to compile and save and then i’m gonna have you switch over to excel and delete the sheet tab that you created that you named reports which has the framework of the pivot table on it so just delete that sheet tab because it’s going to happen for us automatically when we test this and once you do that come back over to visual basic editor and we’re going to double click our form in the forms folder and then we’re going to press f5 to run this form we are going to select month in the period frame and then go down to the bottom right to your combo box and select july and in the sales frame we’re going to select sales person and then you’re going to go ahead and click your display button it’s going to click and were for a little bit on your screen and finally when it’s done now i’m getting a not responding message but that’ll clear we’ll see that a message box will pop up that says microsoft excel will permanently delete this sheet do you want to continue now notice it created that reports sheet tab for us and it just gathered all the information for the pivot table report so we’re going to tell it to delete this sheet and when i switch back over to excel you’ll notice that you’re in a whole different file this reports file has been sitting in the same directory as our sales fiscal year file and it was a file that was in the video description and what it did is first thing we’re going to look at is consolidate sheet tab so all the stuff that it gathered together for the selections in the form it put on the consolidate sheet tab and then it created the reports sheet tab where your actual pivot table report is showing so if we click on that pivot table report and you look at your fields list the sales person is being used as the filter field we have make in columns year in rows and the sum of the selling price in values and we’re going to close this reports file without saving the changes and you should still be in sales fiscal year and it doesn’t have a report sheet tab so we’re going to test this again using different selections on the form let’s do alt f11 to get back to our form and then we’re going to make sure it’s selected and press f5 to run it and this time we’ll we’ll still select month for and select july but this time in the sales frame we’re going to select model and now we’re going to choose display so again the clicking and wearing where it’s running all those procedures and gathering the data and you will ultimately get the message asking if you want to permanently delete this report sheet in sales fiscal year and we’re going to say delete and then when you switch back over to excel it is in that reports file and again if you look at the consolidate sheet it has all the data that was consolidated and then we go to the report sheet and this is where we put in that if statement because when we select model we said we don’t want the count of the models to be formatted as currency and you can see here or the count yeah of the model colors we don’t want them to be formatted as currency so they’re not they’re just the count of the colors per model and we can close the reports file without saving the changes so now we’re going to set up a way for the end user to display the form and make their choices without having to go into the code window so we’re going to add a button to the quick access toolbar that will show the form for the end user and the way we’re going to do that is we’re going to go up to the quick access toolbar and currently mine just has save on it and to the right of the save icon is a drop down arrow and when you select the drop down arrow you have a list of commands but toward the bottom you’re going to select more commands and it opens up the customize the quick access toolbar excel options window now on the right it defaults to customize quick access toolbar for all documents that’s the default well we want this button to only show in this document so we’re going to do the drop down next to for all documents and we’re going to choose for sales fiscal year and then what we’re going to do on the left side we’re going to access the drop down where it says choose commands from popular commands and when we do that drop down we see popular commands commands not in the ribbon all commands and macros we’re going to click on macros scroll down in this list until you see the show form macro we’re going to select it and then we’re going to click the add button so on the right you should just have show form sitting there for this particular document on the bottom right so you notice all of these macros have that same symbol right we’re going to change the symbol so with show form selected on the right underneath on the right you’re going to click on the modify button pick a symbol of your choice from the list of symbols that are showing there that you would like to have on the quick access toolbar for this so i always like to do different ones than the default ones i think for this one i’m going to just pick i’ll just pick the red circle no i’ll do the colorful butterfly just for fun so i’m going to click on the butterfly and click ok and now you’ll see the icon in front of show form and at the bottom you’re going to click ok so now you have that icon whichever one you selected on your quick access toolbar and when i click that icon it actually brings up the form so this is how the end users will be able to access the form and we can do cancel on our form and you’re going to go ahead and save your file to recap lesson 7 we started by recording two separate macros in excel to create a pivot table first the framework of the pivot table and then to create the fields that we want to use to populate the pivot table so two separate macro recordings then we went into visual basic for applications and we created a pivot table programmatically we had to create the pivot cache object first and then we could tell it to create the pivot table and we can do that in the same procedure but we had to do a separate procedure to set the fields for the pivot table just like we had to create create two separate macro recordings one for the framework of the pivot table and one to set the fields after that we spent some time finalizing our form by adding more code and we use some text files for some of the code that we added we then reviewed some of those text files and their procedures therein so you learned about the consolidate data procedure grab cells function and the finish report procedure and what they do in terms of the workflow here and then we modified our click event procedure for the display command button by calling all of the other procedures that we created or we created via text file and we added a line that said unload the form from memory once all of the other procedures have run we saw when we tested everything and we tested it a couple of times that it gathers all the data and puts it on a reports sheet tab in the sales fiscal year file and then it copies and pastes that data into a reports file in the same directory on its consolidate tab and then it creates the pivot table on another tab in the reports file and the pivot table displays the choices that were made on the form and we ended up adding code to a button on the quick access toolbar in excel and i selected the butterfly icon and that’s the way the user will launch the form to make their selections to get their pivot table reports created thank you for attending excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course hi everyone i’m trish connor cato welcome to the excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course this course is for beginning users looking to automate repetitive and recurring tasks in microsoft excel vba is microsoft’s programming language and it’s built into the office applications our focus during this course is on excel specifically you’ll be equipped with the basics to start writing your own vba code modify the code behind macros you’ve already recorded and have an understanding of how vba lends itself to creating efficiency in your daily tasks the course ends with you learning how to deal with code errors known as debugging and how to write error handling code if you’re enjoying these videos please like and subscribe if you want to earn certificates and digital badges please become a member of our patreon the link is in our video description if you have any questions you want answered by one of our instructors please join our off-site community the link is in the description as well as always if this course has exercise files you’ll find them in the video description below in the last lesson of this video course we’ll be focusing on debugging code we’ve already experienced some coding errors also referred to as bugs during this course as a matter of fact if we haven’t we could consider ourselves lucky as errors and coding go hand in hand typos will happen syntax may be overlooked math errors may occur and there are many more things that can cause code errors during program execution this lesson will introduce you to the three types of errors that can occur during execution and the reasons why they occur the process of tracing and correcting code errors is known as debugging the visual basic editor has a debug toolbar that can be used for this purpose we’ll also cover some tips for minimizing errors and what you can do if you cannot resolve them and you’ll see in this lesson why the structure of your code is important during the process of debugging code is easier to review when it’s organized in a logical structure so specifically we will be covering the following topics the types of coding eras and their causes using the debug toolbar to investigate errors and we’ll be setting breakpoints stepping through code using break mode during run mode and determining the value of expressions then we’ll move on to handling errors where you’ll gain an understanding of error handling and learning about vba’s error trapping options we’re going to get into trapping errors with the on error statement which includes understanding the error object writing an error handling routine and working with inline error handling as mentioned you’ll get tips for minimizing errors and tips on what to do if you cannot resolve them and finally you’ll be introduced to the object browser window and we’ll review more detail about that when we get there we’re going to be using our sales fiscal year file in this lesson there are only three types of eras that you may have in your visual basic for applications code so the first type is known as a logic error and these are the most difficult errors to locate and visual basic will not help you find them they’re usually caused by typos and logic errors will not stop your code execution instead you will have an unexpected outcome for example you may have used a minus sign instead of a plus sign and an expression so it will calculate the expression but you’ll get an unexpected outcome because of the wrong operator that’s being used then there are runtime errors a runtime error happens when a line of code cannot be executed the procedure is halted and a message box will display that defines the error there is a help button in the message box that can be used to view the help topic associated with that specific type of runtime era there are many types of runtime errors they’re caused by if you divide by zero that can’t be done if you reference a non-existent workbook or worksheet or other object and referencing an excel cell that contains an error are a few examples of things that can cause a runtime error and last but not least you have syntax errors now these are detected by the line editor and the compiler so as you’re typing code when you get to the end of a line and you press enter if there is a syntax error in that line the line will turn red and examples that can cause this are incomplete expressions and missing arguments and then syntax errors are also detected by the compiler so all along we’ve been compiling and then saving and the compiler checks all lines of code in each procedure and all declarations within the project a variable declaration is required if we have that option explicit statement at the top of a module the compiler will check that all variables are declared and that all objects have correct references to properties methods and events it also checks constructs to ensure the correct required statements are present so when you have a with block you need to have the end with statement when you have an if block you need to have end if the compiler will display a message box that describes the error if found so i mentioned using the debug toolbar in the visual basic editor to investigate errors the tools that are on that toolbar can be categorized as follows tools that help you manually execute the program tools that suspend the execution of the code and tools that assist in determining the values of expressions so there’s an illustration of the debug toolbar and its tools so the first set of tools would be the ones that could help you suspend the code and then you have a set of tools that can help you manually execute the program and that would start with like toggle breakpoint all the way through step out and then the last group of tools the window tools i call them are tools that assist in determining the values of expressions so this slide is for your future reference it’s just a further description of the debugging tools and their shortcut keys if any and a description a comprehensive description of each tool now most debugging is done when the application is suspended and that’s known as break mode an application is in break mode when a runtime error occurs a breakpoint is manually inserted into the code or a stop statement is entered within the code some of the tools for debugging can be utilized in design mode and or at run time in addition to when the application is in break mode so for example the step into tool can be run in break mode and design mode the immediate window can be run in brake mode design mode or at run time and the watch window can be run in brake mode and run time now before we do this next exercise i just want to review and i increase the size of the font for three of the tools on the debugging toolbar and those are the step tools so we used stepped into earlier in the course and we saw that that executed code one statement at a time one line at a time there’s also the ability to step over code and that would execute code one procedure or one statement at a time and then you have your step out option which can overlook a called procedure and execute the remaining lines of the calling procedure so you’ll get more experience with step into and you’ll get new experience with step out in this next lesson so we’re going to start by creating a syntax error and remember these would be detected by the line editor when you get to the end of the line and you press enter or by compiling your project which we’ve been doing all along and when you compile it compiles everything in the module we’re going to force this to happen i’m in the visual basic editor for sales fiscal year and then module one in the add totals procedure and what i’m going to do is i’m going to delete the end if statement and then i’m going to go up and compile the project now it gives me a compile error and it specifically tells me block if without end if so i can click ok and i’m going to put my end if statement back in and then i’m going to compile again and i don’t get the error let’s do another one in the if line we’re going to change the not equal to symbol to an exclamation point put an exclamation point there and now click out of that line and when you click out of that line the compile error comes up it says expect it then or go to and the entire line turns red we’re going to click ok and now go up and compile the project and this time you get a compiled error that says syntax error so this one’s a little bit more specific it’s letting you know there’s some kind of syntax error in that line and this is typical when you’re clicking out of the line it’s the same as pressing enter at the end of it and the line editor kicks in when you compile then the compiler kicks in this message is more specific i’m going to click ok and i’m going to change the exclamation point back to our not equal symbol and then i’m going to compile so now i’m in mod reports and i used my procedure list to get to the consolidate data procedure that’s one that we brought in from a text file and we’re going to go to the view menu hover over toolbars and click on debug so the debug toolbar comes up on the screen now we’re looking for a specific line of code and before we find it i’m going to decrease the width of the project explorer and properties panes on the left because we’re going to end up viewing this procedure side by side with the excel workbook after we set our manual break point so we’re going to scroll down in the procedure it says select case frm generate reports dot period when you find that line you can be anywhere within it and on the debug toolbar if you hover over the hand icon you’ll see that it says toggle breakpoint and it gives you the shortcut key which is f9 i’m going to just click the hand and it turns that line maroon and it puts a maroon oval in the gray bar to the left of the line that is indicative of a manual break point when you set a manual break point and you execute the code it will execute it up until the break point and then it goes into what’s known as break mode as you’ll see in a moment so i’m gonna arrange this so that my editor window is on the right side of my screen and i have my excel file on the left side of my screen and in the excel file i’m going to go ahead and start this procedure by running the show form procedure from the quick access toolbar so it’s going to bring up the form and in the period frame i’m going to select month and then choose august from the combo list and i’m going to select sales person in the sales frame and click display so if you notice on your excel screen the reports sheet has been created but it’s not populated and if you look at your editor screen now that line that where we set the manual breakpoint has yellow shading and a yellow arrow in the gray border to the left of it and so it ran all the code up until it gets to that line and now it’s in what’s called break mode now that we’re in break mode we can use our step tools i’m going to just display my debug toolbar again and your step tools are to the right of the hand so there’s your step into that does line by line you have step over which goes procedure by procedure or statement by statement and then you have step out that would skip any called procedures or just execute the rest of the code as one block so the first thing we’re going to do is step into and it goes down to the next line and we’ll do step over at this point that’s still within that for each block we’re going to step over again it goes down to compare which is another statement we’re going to step over again and it goes to the next statement and now go ahead and click on step out and it runs the rest of the code and you can see that it’s going through your excel workbook and ultimately you’ll get the pop-up asking if you want to permanently delete the report sheet in the sales fiscal year i’m going to go ahead and click delete and it opened the reports file and gave me my pivot table we’re going to go ahead and close the reports file and don’t save the changes and i’m going to just maximize the visual basic editor window again i’m going to expand my project explorer window so that i can get back to mod reports and notice it didn’t remove our break point so i’m going to click in that line and consolidate data procedure and go click the hand again to get rid of the break point and typically after using these processes i go ahead and click the reset button on the debug toolbar just to make sure there’s nothing lingering in memory you can go ahead and save so now i’m going to challenge you and give you an on your own exercise in the same consolidate data procedure i’m going to have you set the breakpoint again at the same line select case frm generate reports dot period and then i want you to execute the show form procedure until the program enters break mode so go ahead and pause the video and do those things at this point and i have my windows side by side again the program has halted execution at the point where it created the report sheet and now we can look at a couple of the window debug tools so with my debug toolbar to the right of your step tools are your window tools so the first one we’re going to select is the locals window and it opens in a pane on the lower half of the editor window and what it’s showing you is the current value of any variables if you look at mod reports under expression it has a plus sign when you expand it you’ll see your public variables and their values at this point it also on the right tells you the type of variable so the locals window will show you that when you’re in break mode and i just collapsed mod reports again and then what i’m going to do is i’m going to go ahead and press f8 so it’s at my break line i’m going to press f8 so it steps in to the code and i’m going to f8 until i get down to the on error resume next statement so now there’s a in the expression window the value of compare the compare expression is reports if i hover over compare in the code window you can see that it’s letting me know the value of that variable right in the code window when it’s in break mode in that compare line in the code window i’m going to have you select the function c date which is a conversion function right converts the date on the sheet tab the date the text string of the date on the sheet tab to an actual date so we’re starting with the letter c in c date and we’re going to highlight it until we get to the first closing parentheses after compare so just the function and its argument in parentheses is selected on your debug window the next to the last icon is quick watch another window so when we have that expression selected it gives us the context so it lets us know the vba project mod reports consolidate data procedure the expression itself and then its value is a type mismatch because there’s text on the sheet tab and then we’re converting it to a date so quick watch gives you different information than can show in your locals window and we’re going to close the quick watch window and you can use the x to close the locals window and now what you can do is you can go ahead step out of your code and i deleted the report sheet and i’m going to close the reports workbook without saving the changes and i’ll just maximize my editor window again we’re going to start forcing some runtime errors to happen and it is best practice to write error trapping code to try to avoid runtime errors you might not be able to avoid all of them but it will be helpful to avoid as many as possible error trapping options are set in the options dialog box in the editor where we set the required variable declaration earlier and changed our font size to review those options before we get into error handling they’re listed on this slide so there’s three options you can break on all errors so that means even if you’ve written error handling code a break in execution will occur if a runtime error is encountered so it really disables any error handling code that you’ve written break in class module the execution will break and an error message will display when an unhandled error occurs within a class module this option is only useful for debugging and then you have break on unhandled errors the execution will break and an error message will display when any unhandled error occurs and again we’ll review those options as we go over our next set of exercises there are some methods to error handling in visual basic for applications an on error statement is used to enable what’s called an error trap if an error is generated after this statement is executed the error handler becomes active and passes controlled to the code on the on error statement that it’s is specified and there are two types of on error statements on error go to and on error resume next i have the syntax so for on error go to then there’s a corresponding line label and then on error resumed x once an on error statement traps an error the error can be handled in one of three ways you could write an error handler this is a routine that is pointed to in the on error go to statement line label the line label statements address one or more types of errors for the procedure another method is ignoring the error and that’s what happens when you use the on error resume next statement to trap the error and handle it by moving to the next line of code and then you have inline error handling and that’s also on error resume next you can use it to trap the error you enter code in the procedure to check for errors after any statements that are expected to generate them you’ll see in the upcoming exercise that the error object can be used to examine information about an error that has just occurred the error object has a global scope and has properties and methods that are useful for finding out information about the current era clearing error information and generating errors the properties contain information about the error that just occurred in the current procedure so you have a number property and it’s the identification number of the most recent era and numbers represent different types of errors you have a description property which describes the error and corresponds to the error number and then you have a source property which is a name that identifies the component module and or procedure that generated the error and all three of those properties have data types as listed on this slide the error object only has two methods clear and raise clear resets all the error objects properties to zero or zero length strings this method is used automatically when any on error statement is encountered and then you have the raise method which generates a runtime error and it can specify the number of an error defined by vba excel or another application such as word and you’re like what is she talking about well it’ll start making sense when we start doing it which is going to be right now we’re going to start by causing a situation that will lead to a run time era so i’m in my working directory and what we’re going to do is we’re going to rename the excel file called reports we’re going to just name it reports with the number two and now i’m going to bring up my sales fiscal year file in excel i’m going to start the show form procedure from the quick access toolbar i’m going to select all for period and model in the sales frame and click display eventually you’ll get the runtime error has an error number 1004 sorry we couldn’t find my path reports.xlsx is it possible it was moved renamed or deleted and we’re gonna click the debug button on that message so it takes us over to mod reports to the sub procedure finish report and the error is being caused when it tries to execute that workbook dot open file name line because it’s looking for a file named reports now i’m gonna go up to the standard toolbar and i’m gonna click the reset button i’m going to go then go back to mod reports and notice that it cleared that break in the code for us so now before we write error handling code i want to show you the options that are available for you we saw them on the slide so i’m going to go up to the tools menu and choose options and when i get it in there at top i’m going to go to the general tab and on the right side you have your error trapping options so remember break on all errors really means ignore any error handling code that you would write your other choices are breaking class module or break on unhandled errors i usually use break on unhandled can’t really say usually it just depends on what kind of project i’m working on and i’m going to click ok to get out of there so now we’re going to modify this finish report sub procedure by using the on error go to statement so we’re going to click at the end of our variable declaration line dim sheet as worksheet press enter a couple of times and then you’re going to type on error go to and go to is one word here and then error handler in this example error handler is what we’re calling our line statement so on arrow go to error handler we’re going to go down and click at the end of the set fields called procedure and press enter and on this line we’re going to type exit sub and i’ll explain it after we get the rest of this in we’re going to press enter a couple of times and then we’re going to type error handler what we named our line label followed by a colon enter and we’re going to do a select case statement here so let’s select case and we’re going to do air dot and the list pops up and we’re going to select number so that’s a property of the air object so select case error num number enter tab and then we’re going to say case 1004 that’s the number of the runtime error we got so case 1004 enter tab message box and in parentheses and quotes the reports workbook is not available period close your quotes close the paren enter we’re going to out dent and we’re going to do case else enter tab message box again and this one is going to say error number we’re going to do a concatenated statement here colon space double quote our ampersand for concatenation air dot number again ampersand we’re going to do v b l f which is line feed we’re gonna do an ampersand and we’re gonna do our line continuation character of space underscore enter tab in double quotes error description colon space double quote space ampersand and air dot description so another property of the error object there and we’re going to close the parentheses we’re going to enter and out den until we get to the same margin as select case and we need our end select statement there and now we’ll break down what we just did so using on era go to what we’ve done is we said if there’s an error when this procedure runs go to our line so error handler is the line what we what we named it so if there is an error it’s going to go down and before it gets to that line it’s going to exit the sub procedure now this is only if there’s an error we don’t want it to try to keep running the sub procedure we wanted to exit the sub procedure and go to the error handler so we did a select case statement if the error number is 1004 it’s going to show a message box saying the reports workbook is not available if it’s a different error number it’s going to show a message box that gives the error number and then on the next line the error description both are pulled from the error object so that’s how you can trap this error go ahead and compile and save before we test this error handling code we need to switch back over to excel and delete the reports sheet tab confirm your deletion and now what we’re going to do is go ahead and launch the show form procedure again i’m going to select the same selections all model and display and this time instead of getting a runtime error we get our pop-up because it was era number 1004 the reports workbook is not available you can go ahead and click ok on that message box now this time we’re going to leave the reports sheet here and what i’d like you to do is go back to your working directory and rename reports to back to reports and then come back over here to your sales fiscal year file now that we have the file renamed we’re going to set up a situation where we will use inline error handling by using the on error resume next statement in your file go ahead and launch the show form again and this time i’m going to select month and choose july and i’ll just do salesperson in the sales frame and display we’re getting runtime era another 1004 that name is already taken try a different one and we’re going to select debug so it brings us to the consolidate data sub procedure where activesheet.net equals reports well remember when we’re running this procedure it has been creating the report sheet for us it’s already there so we’re getting this runtime error because you can’t have two sheet names with the same name reports we’re going to go ahead and use our reset button on the toolbar and i’m going to make my way back to mod reports and i’m still in the consolidate data procedure and after our variable declarations we are going to press enter after dim sheet as worksheet a couple of times and we’re going to type on error resume next and then we’re going to go down to the line that says activesheet.name equals report click at the end of it and press enter a couple of times and tab and we’re going to type an if statement here so if and then air dot number equals 1004 then enter and tab active sheet dot delete sheets on the next line and then parentheses double quotes reports dot cells dot select enter selection dot clear enter air dot clear that’s the clear method of the error object so clear out the error enter and then i’m going to shift tab to out dent and type my end if statement and you want to go ahead and compile and save so because the report sheet was already there when it ran this it created a new sheet so if i go look at excel i have this empty sheet three and so what this is saying and that’s the active sheet if after it goes to activesheet.name equals report and it gets that error it’s going to say active sheet delete which is that generic sheet and then it’s going to select the report sheet and all of its cells and clear everything off of that sheet and then it’s going to clear the era as well so that’s what this one is going to do let’s switch over to excel and the first thing we’re going to do is get rid of that extra sheet before the report sheet just delete it and go ahead and launch your form and we’ll do month july again here and i think i’m going to do model and display so now it’s letting us know that it’s going to delete this sheet now i’m on sheet 4 and we’re going to select delete to confirm it and then it’s going to go through the process and you’ll get your second delete prompt to delete the reports sheet and now you have your reports workbook open with the pivot table that one covers the case of if you forget to delete the report sheet from sales fiscal year we are trapping the era and resuming the rest of the code you can close the reports workbook without saving the changes so i promised you some tips for minimizing errors and also some tips on what to do if you can’t resolve an error i’m going to just stop talking and let you review this slide hopefully some of these tips will help you avoid errors and some of what to do if you can’t resolve them these are from my personal experience oftentimes if i ask someone else to look at my code or i’m explaining the issue i’m having with it the explanation will become clear to me during that process or someone else might look at it and instantly see what’s causing the era the object browser allows you to browse through all available objects in your project and see their properties methods and events in addition you can see the procedures and constants that are available from object libraries in your project you can also get online help as you browse in the object browser so you’ve already noticed some icons in the editor environment particularly in the list that are displayed and you’ll see those icons in the object browser window as well so i’ve given you a table here with the icons and what they represent within the visual basic editor i can go to the view menu and choose object browser its shortcut key is f2 and so it opens kind of like in its own window and notice at the top it says all libraries if you do the drop down there you could just see the excel library or the microsoft forms library or office or vba or vba project i’m going to select vba project and so this is our project and what it’s showing on the left side under classes these are the objects that are in our vba project so it’s showing all those worksheets and it’s showing our form if i click on frm generate reports then it shows you things so these are properties events methods it’s our objects our controls like month and period and sales those are our frames so you’re seeing everything that’s in your project as i continue to scroll down i see the click event for the cancel button and the display button so you’re seeing events properties all of those things and methods that make everything kind of work together and some of those properties we didn’t use on the objects on our form like we didn’t use the print form property but it’s available because it’s in the vba project library so if i click on cmd display click on the right hand side and i look almost at the bottom of the screen it just lets me know that it’s a private sub procedure and it’s a member of the form generate reports that we created and you can feel free to explore the object browser if there’s anything in there that you want more information on you can click on it and then you’ll have your help icon up here in the upper right so you can explore help topics from in here as well and to close the object browser i’m going to use the second close window the smaller one in the upper right hand corner of the screen to close the object browser our last topic in this course concerns how to protect your code so if you have end users using this excel file and they have the developer tab or they know how to switch over to visual basic for applications editor you may not want people to be able to access your code so you can password protect it it’s kind of a two-step process so you’re gonna go in the visual basic editor you’re gonna go to the tools menu and you’ll notice on the list you have an option for vba project properties let’s click it there are two tabs you’re on the general tab you’re gonna go to the protection tab and you’re gonna check the box that says lock project for viewing and then you have to give it a password and confirm it for training purposes i’m going to just use the word train and all lowercase and i’m going to click ok and then i’m going to save now you’re going to have to close both visual basic and your excel file for this to take effect so go ahead and close both of these windows and then reopen your sales fiscal year macro enabled file once you have your file reopened you can alt f11 to get back into the visual basic editor if you expand your sales fiscal year vba project you’ll see that it prompts you for your password and those who do not have the password will not be able to see the objects forms and modules and access them so again once you set your password you need to save and enclose vba and excel and reopen the file for that password protection to take effect to recap this lesson we started by going over the different types of coding eras and their causes you learned how to use the debug toolbar to investigate errors we set breakpoints we used our step debugging tools we entered break mode during run mode and we used the locals window and quick watch to determine the value of expressions and variables when it comes to handling errors we got an overview of error handling and vba’s error trapping options and then we moved on to trapping errors with the on error statement we learned about the error object and its methods and properties we wrote an error handling routine by using on error go to with a line handler and we also worked with inline error handling um actually sorry i got the mat opposite the error handling routine was the on error resume next and the inline error handling was on era go to we reviewed some tips for minimizing errors and what to do if you can’t get them resolved we did a quick tour of the object browser when you’re new to vba that can be very helpful so you can learn about different properties and methods that are available for different objects and then we end it with password protecting your code thank you for attending excel 2019 visual basic for applications video course thanks for watching don’t forget we also offer live classes and office applications professional development and private training visit learned.com for more details please remember to like and subscribe and let us know your thoughts in the comments thank you for choosing learn it [Music] you
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