PowerPivot for the Data Analyst Microsoft Excel 2010

by Jelen, Bill

• ISBN13: 9780789743152
• ISBN10: 0789743159
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-03
• Publisher: Que Pub

Summary

Make the most of the amazing new business intelligence capabilities offered by PowerPivot for Excel 2010! bull; bull;The first book on PowerPivot, the breakthrough Microsoft technology that can extend business intelligence to any Excel user. bull;Use PowerPivot, SharePoint Analysis Services, and Microsoft SQL Server together, to slice and dice huge amounts of data, and create and share powerful business models. bull;Written by Microsoft MVP Bill Jelen ('MrExcel'), as part of his new MrExcel Library series. Business intelligence (BI) tools make it possible for companies to gain deep, actionable insights for faster, better decision-making - and greater competitiveness. Until recently, however, access to BI has largely been restricted to experts using complex, specialized tools. With PowerPivot for Excel 2010, Microsoft has changed that. Together with SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft's new SharePoint Analysis Services, PowerPivot makes advanced business intelligence available to any mainstream business user working with Excel 2010. Of course, having the tools isn't enough: users must learn how to use them. That's where PowerPivot for the Data Analyst comes in. In this book, legendary Excel expert and instructor Bill Jelen shows exactly how to use PowerPivot to gain deep, actionable insights for more effective business decision-making. Using concrete examples and real-life scenarios, Jelen walks through setting up PowerPivot and integrating multiple data sources; creating and sharing dynamic dashboards; slicing and dicing to perform fast, interactive, ad hoc analyses; leveraging Excel's familiar features in advanced BI applications; and much more. This book is part of the new MrExcel Library series.

Author Biography

Bill Jelen , Excel MVP and the host of MrExcel.com, has been using spreadsheets since 1985, and he launched the MrExcel.com website in 1998. Bill was a regular guest on Call for Help with Leo Laporte and has produced more than 1,200 episodes of his daily video podcast, Learn Excel from MrExcel. He is the author of 30 books about Microsoft Excel and writes the monthly Excel column for Strategic Finance magazine. You will most frequently find Bill taking his show on the road, doing half-day Power Excel seminars wherever he can find a room full of accountants or Excellers. Before founding MrExcel.com, Jelen spent 12 years in the trenches working as a financial analyst for finance, marketing, accounting, and operations departments of a $500 million public company. He lives near Akron, Ohio, with his wife, Mary, Ellen and his sons, Josh and Zeke.

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1

                “There’s Row 20 Million” ................................................................................................................ 2

                “The PivotTable Field List Has Fields from Both Tables” ................................................................. 2

                                Now, I Love VLOOKUPs ............................................................................................................. 3

                                “How Much Will This Cost? Well, the Client Is Free” ................................................................. 4

                                This Book Was Pitched Eight Hours Later ................................................................................. 4

                There Could Be Five Titles for This Book .......................................................................................... 4

                Who Are Those Other People in the Room? .................................................................................... 5

                                This Book Is For The Excel People.............................................................................................. 6

                How This Book Is Organized ............................................................................................................ 7

                Conventions Used in This Book ....................................................................................................... 7

                                Text Conventions ...................................................................................................................... 7

                                Special Elements ....................................................................................................................... 8

                                Cross References ....................................................................................................................... 8

1 Downloading and Installing PowerPivot .................................................... 9

                System Requirements ..................................................................................................................... 9

                                32 Bit or 64 Bit? ........................................................................................................................ 9

                                Not Excel Starter Edition ......................................................................................................... 11

                                Not Excel Web Apps ................................................................................................................ 11

                Installing PowerPivot.................................................................................................................... 11

                                The Many PowerPivot Tabs .................................................................................................... 11

                                Ribbon Tabs in the PowerPivot Application ............................................................................ 12

                Uninstalling PowerPivot ............................................................................................................... 16

                                Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 16

2 The Promise of PowerPivot .........................................................................17

                Preparing Your Data for PowerPivot ............................................................................................. 17

                Getting Your Data into PowerPivot ............................................................................................... 18

                                Decide on a Sequence for Importing ....................................................................................... 19

                                Import a Text File ................................................................................................................... 19

                                Add Excel Data by Copying and Pasting .................................................................................. 22

                Define Relationships ..................................................................................................................... 23

                Add Calculated Columns Using DAX .............................................................................................. 25

                Build a Pivot Table ........................................................................................................................ 26

                World-Class Data Compression ..................................................................................................... 31

                Asymmetric Reporting with PowerPivot ....................................................................................... 33

                                Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 34

3 Why Wouldn’t I Build Every Future Pivot Table in PowerPivot? .....................37

                Great Reasons to Use PowerPivot ................................................................................................. 38

                                Create One Pivot Table from Multiple Tables .......................................................................... 38

                                Use Massive Data Volumes ..................................................................................................... 39

                                Fit More Data into Memory .................................................................................................... 39

                                Use Named Sets to Build Asymmetric Pivot Tables ................................................................. 39

                                Join Four Pivot Tables Together Using a Single Set of Slicers .................................................. 40

                                PowerPivot Slicer AutoLayout Runs Circles Around Regular Excel Slicers................................ 41

                                PowerPivot Allows for Standalone Pivot Charts ...................................................................... 42

                                Convert Your PowerPivot Pivot Table to Formulas.................................................................. 43

                                Measures Created by DAX Run Circles Around Calculated Fields ............................................. 43

                The Downside of PowerPivot ........................................................................................................ 44

                                You Lose Undo ........................................................................................................................ 44

                                PowerPivot Is Not Smart Enough to Sort Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr ................................................... 44

                                It’s Hard to Change the Calculation in the Pivot Table ............................................................ 46

                                You Cannot Create PowerPivot Pivot Tables with VBA ........................................................... 49

                                You Cannot Edit a Single Cell in the PowerPivot Window....................................................... 49

                                GetPivotData Is Harder to Use with PowerPivot .............................................................. 49

                                Show Items with No Data Is Grayed Out ................................................................................. 51

                                Calculated Fields and Calculated Items Are Grayed Out .......................................................... 52

                                You Cannot Double-Click to Drill Through............................................................................... 52

                                Grouping Does Not Work with PowerPivot ............................................................................. 53

                                Certain On-Worksheet Typing Adjustments Do Not Work in PowerPivot ............................... 55

                                Greatest Pivot Table Trick of All Time: Show Pages Does Not Work ........................................ 57

                                Other Minor Annoyances ........................................................................................................ 58

                Bottom Line ................................................................................................................................. 58

                                Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 60

4 Getting Your Data into PowerPivot .............................................................61

                Getting Excel Data into PowerPivot .............................................................................................. 61

                                Converting Your Data to a Table and Linking ......................................................................... 62

                                Add Excel Data by Copying and Pasting .................................................................................. 67

                                Adding Excel Data by Importing ............................................................................................. 76

                Importing Data from SQL Server ................................................................................................... 79

                Importing a Text File ..................................................................................................................... 80

                Importing from Atom Data Feeds ................................................................................................. 83

                Importing from Other Sources ...................................................................................................... 83

                                Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 84

5 Creating and Managing Relationships .........................................................85

                Trying to Autodetect Relationships ............................................................................................... 85

                Manually Defining a Relationship ................................................................................................. 88

                Calculating Between Tables .......................................................................................................... 89

                Defining a Difficult Relationship ................................................................................................... 91

                                Unwinding a Lookup Table ..................................................................................................... 91

                Building a Concatenated Key Relationship ................................................................................... 95

                Is This Harder Than a VLOOKUP? .................................................................................................. 98

                Questions About Relationships ..................................................................................................... 98

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 100

6 Using Data Sheet View .............................................................................101

                Working with Data in the PowerPivot Window .......................................................................... 101

                                Applying Numeric Formatting .............................................................................................. 102

                                Sorting Data in the PowerPivot Window .............................................................................. 104

                                Filtering in the PowerPivot Window..................................................................................... 104

                                Rearranging Columns ........................................................................................................... 106

                                Hiding Columns at Two Levels .............................................................................................. 108

                                Using PowerPivot Undo and Redo ........................................................................................ 109

                                Deleting Columns ................................................................................................................. 109

                                Using the Context Menu ....................................................................................................... 109

                Adding New Columns Using DAX Formulas................................................................................. 110

                                Operators in the DAX Language ............................................................................................ 110

                                Building Formulas in the PowerPivot Grid ............................................................................ 111

                DAX Function Reference.............................................................................................................. 112

                                Date and Time Functions ...................................................................................................... 112

                                Using YEARFRAC to Calculate Elapsed Time........................................................................ 119

                                Using TIMEVALUE to Convert Text Times to Real Times ..................................................... 123

                                Examples of Math and Trigonometry Functions ................................................................... 123

                                Examples of Text Functions .................................................................................................. 130

                                Examples of Text Functions .................................................................................................. 132

                                Examples of Logical Functions .............................................................................................. 139

                                Examples of Information Functions ...................................................................................... 142

                Grabbing Values from a Related Table ........................................................................................ 142

                                Using One Value from a Related Table .................................................................................. 143

                                Getting Multiple Values from a Related Table ...................................................................... 143

                                Filtering Multiple Values from a Related Table ..................................................................... 144

                Using the Recursive Functions .................................................................................................... 145

                Using Other Functions................................................................................................................. 146

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 147

7 Building Pivot Tables ...............................................................................149

                Elements of a Pivot Table............................................................................................................ 149

                                Arranging Field Headings to Build a Report .......................................................................... 150

                                Using the PowerPivot Field List to Create Reports ................................................................ 150

                Building a Pivot Table ................................................................................................................. 152

                                A Look at the Underlying Data .............................................................................................. 152

                                Defining the Pivot Table ....................................................................................................... 153

                                Using the Report Filter .......................................................................................................... 159

                                Report Filters Versus Slicers .................................................................................................. 161

                Explanation of Column B ............................................................................................................ 162

                                Returning the Column Labels to Sanity ................................................................................ 164

                                New Trick with Column Labels.............................................................................................. 164

                                Is There a Way to Permanently Sack the Compact Layout? .................................................. 165

                Two Important Rules with Pivot Tables ...................................................................................... 166

                                Pivot Tables Do Not Recalculate When Underlying Data Changes ........................................ 166

                                You Cannot Move or Change Part of a Pivot Table ................................................................ 167

                Working with Pivot Charts .......................................................................................................... 169

                Behind the Scenes with PowerPivot Field List and Add-In.......................................................... 172

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 173

8 Cool Tricks Native to Pivot Tables ..............................................................175

                Applying Sorting Rules to Pivot Tables ....................................................................................... 175

                                Presenting Customers with the Largest Sales at the Top ...................................................... 175

                                Adding a Custom List to Control Sort Order .......................................................................... 179

                Showing the Top Five Customers ................................................................................................ 182

                                Notes About the Top 10 Filter ............................................................................................... 183

                Changing the Calculation in the Pivot Table ............................................................................... 184

                                Easiest Way to Force a Count ................................................................................................ 184

                                Using Sum, Count, Min, Max, or Average ............................................................................. 185

                                Changing the Show Values as Drop-Down ........................................................................... 187

                                Base Fields and Base Items ................................................................................................... 188

                Pivot Table Formatting ............................................................................................................... 190

                                Change the Numeric Formatting for a Field .......................................................................... 190

                                Formatting Changes on the Design Tab ................................................................................ 192

                                Not Enough Styles? Multiply by 20 ....................................................................................... 194

                Applying Data Visualizations and Sparklines .............................................................................. 195

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 197

9 Cool Tricks New with PowerPivot ..............................................................199

                Building a Report with Two Pivot Charts .................................................................................... 200

                                Chart Formatting Changes .................................................................................................... 202

                Adding Slicers and Understanding Slicer AutoLayout ................................................................. 203

                                Cannot Directly Change the Size of Slicers ............................................................................ 204

                                Controlling the Size of the Bounding Rectangle ................................................................... 206

                                Strategy for Dealing with AutoLayout of Slicers ................................................................... 208

                Adding a Pivot Chart to an Existing Layout ................................................................................. 208

                                Hooking the New Pivot Chart Up to the Existing Slicers........................................................ 210

                                Moving the Pivot Table to a Back Worksheet ....................................................................... 211

                Adding a Pivot Table to an Existing Layout ................................................................................. 212

                                Can the PowerPivot Layout Be Skipped Entirely? ................................................................. 213

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 215

10 Using DAX for Aggregate Functions ...........................................................217

                DAX Measures Are Calculated Fields for the Values Area of a Pivot Table ................................... 218

                                Five of the Six Pivot Table Drop Zones Are Filter Fields! ........................................................ 219

                                DAX Measures Respect the Home Table Filters ..................................................................... 220

                Generate a Count Distinct ........................................................................................................... 220

                                Using the DISTINCT Function ............................................................................................ 220

                                Using COUNTROWS as a Wrapper Function .......................................................................... 221

                                Entering a DAX Measure ....................................................................................................... 222

                                DAX Measures Are Calculated Only on Demand .................................................................... 225

                                DAX Measures Can Reference Other DAX Measures .............................................................. 225

                Using Other DAX Functions That Respect Filters ......................................................................... 226

                Denominators Frequently Need to Ignore the Filters .................................................................. 228

                                DAX Calculate Function Is Like the Excel SUMIFS Function ................................................... 228

                                In DAX, a Filter Might Give You More Rows Than You Started With! .................................... 230

                                ALL Function Says to Ignore All Existing Filters ................................................................... 231

                                CALCULATE Is So Powerful, There Is a Shortcut .................................................................. 234

                Using the FILTER Function ....................................................................................................... 234

                The Double Negative of AllExcept ......................................................................................... 237

                Other DAX Functions ................................................................................................................... 238

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 240

11 Using DAX for Date Magic .........................................................................241

                Using Time Intelligence Functions .............................................................................................. 242

                                Fiscal Quarters and Calendar Quarters .................................................................................. 244

                                Using Period-to-Date Calculations ........................................................................................ 245

                                Comparing Today’s Sales to Yesterday ................................................................................. 245

                                Comparing Today’s Sales to One Year Ago ............................................................................ 245

                                Reporting Sales for the Full Month ....................................................................................... 246

                                Calculating Sales for the Previous or Next Month, Quarter, Year .......................................... 247

                                Sales for the Last 30 Days ..................................................................................................... 247

                Using Date Functions for Data Reported at a Monthly Level ....................................................... 248

                                Use Care with ParallelPeriod ...................................................................................... 248

                                Opening and Closing Balances .............................................................................................. 249

                Skip the CALCULATE Function in Three Cases ......................................................................... 249

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 250

12 Named Sets, GetPivotData, and Cube Formulas .........................................251

                Defining Territories with Named Sets ......................................................................................... 251

                                Correcting the Grand Total Row in Named Sets .................................................................... 254

                Using Named Sets for Asymmetric Reporting ............................................................................. 256

                Preserving Report Formatting Using GetPivotData .............................................................. 258

                                Producing a Perfectly Formatted Shell Report ...................................................................... 259

                                Evaluating the Formula Built by Excel .................................................................................. 261

                Converting Live Pivot Table to Cube Formulas ............................................................................ 263

                                Customizing the Formatted Report ...................................................................................... 265

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 266

13 Final Formatting: Making the Report Not Look Like Excel ...........................267

                Charts Should Have Less Ink, More Information ......................................................................... 267

                                Component Charts Make Great Pie Charts ............................................................................ 268

                                Time Series Charts Should Be Columns or Lines .................................................................... 268

                                Category Charts Make Great Bar Charts ................................................................................ 269

                                Use Descriptive Titles ............................................................................................................ 269

                                Single-Series Column and Bar Charts Do Not Need Legends! ................................................ 271

                                Reduce the Number of Zeros on the Values Axis ................................................................... 271

                                Slicers Make the On-Chart Controls Obsolete ........................................................................ 272

                                Replace Pie Chart Legends with Labels ................................................................................. 273

                                Gridlines, Tick Marks, Axis, and Column Widths ................................................................... 273

                Trying to Tame the Slicers........................................................................................................... 276

                                Change the Slicer Color ......................................................................................................... 278

                Remove Excel Interface Elements ............................................................................................... 279

                                Hide the Gridlines ................................................................................................................. 279

                                Hide Other Interface Elements .............................................................................................. 279

                                Hide the PowerPivot Field List .............................................................................................. 280

                Making a Report Look Like a Dashboard ..................................................................................... 280

                                Change the Background Color .............................................................................................. 280

                                Contrast Color and Title in Row 1.......................................................................................... 280

                                Minimize the Ribbon ............................................................................................................ 281

                                Micro-Adjust the Zoom Slider ............................................................................................... 281

                                Add a Row of Color at the Bottom of the Dashboard ............................................................ 281

                                Hide the Cell Pointer Behind a Slicer..................................................................................... 281

                Adding a Picture as a Top Banner ............................................................................................... 282

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 284

14 Upgrading to PowerPivot Server ...............................................................285

                Requirements to Run the Server Version of PowerPivot ............................................................. 285

                Benefits of the PowerPivot Server .............................................................................................. 286

                How the Report Looks in the Server ............................................................................................ 287

                The Report Gallery Is Slick ........................................................................................................... 288

                Why the IT Department Will Embrace PowerPivot ..................................................................... 291

                Mistakes to Avoid When Publishing Reports to SharePoint ........................................................ 292

                                Always Add Interactivity ....................................................................................................... 293

                                Always Select Cell A1 Before Saving a Workbook ................................................................. 293

                                Pictures Will Not Render on the Server ................................................................................. 293

                                Hide All but the Main Worksheet.......................................................................................... 293

                                Whatever Is Not Hidden in Excel Shows Up in SharePoint .................................................... 294

                                Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 294

Appendix A: More Resources .........................................................................295

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