Excel Power Tools
David Onder and Alison Joseph
NCAIR 2015 Conference
• 10,382 students
• Master’s Comprehensive
• Mountain location
• Residential and Distance
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Why Pivot Tables
• Summarize large datasets
• Quickly add, remove, rearrange elements
• (Little to) No formula-writing
• Can be a basis for self-service data
• Can connect to a refreshable data source
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Limitations of Pivot Tables
• Connected to only 1 table
• Formatting not maintained
• Calculated fields need to be created for each Pivot
Table
• Can’t count the way universities usually want to count
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Displaying Data –
Pivot Tables
Connecting to Data
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Connecting to Data
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Displaying Data – Pivot Tables
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Displaying Data – Pivot Tables
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Displaying Data – Pivot Tables
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Sum
Count
Average
Max
Min
Product
Count Numbers
StdDev
StdDevp
Var
Varp
Displaying Data – Pivot Tables
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Displaying Data –
Power Pivot
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Set-up
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• Installed with Excel 2013
• Downloadable add-in for Excel 2010
• Not available prior to Excel 2010
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• The Power Pivot environment
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Open Power Pivot
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• The Power Pivot environment
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Import data
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• How the imported data look
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Bringing data into Excel
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• PivotTable vs. Power Pivot PivotTable
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• DAX
– Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
– Formula language for Power Pivot
– Used to create Calculated Columns and Calculated
Fields
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Calculated Columns
– Used to add an additional column to data table
– Can be a column added from a related table (like a
VLOOKUP) or new data, derived from existing data
(sum to combined SAT, length of name, substring of
longer string, etc.)
– Column can be used in any area of the pivot
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column to pivot table
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Evaluation Contexts
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• Row context
• Filter context
• Row context
• Filter context
Evaluation Contexts
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• The one row being evaluated
• Automatic for calculated columns
• Can be created in other ways as well (SUMX, AVERAGEX, etc.)
Row Context
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• Filter context
• The filters being applied by the pivot table
• Filters can be explicit or implicit
• Can add additional filters only with CALCULATE
Evaluation Contexts
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• Row context
• The one row being evaluated
• Automatic for calculated columns
• Can be created in other ways as well (SUMX, AVERAGEX, etc.)
Filter Context
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Calculated Fields
– Used to add a calculated element
– Aggregate function that applies to whole table,
column, or range
– Something that needs to be recalculated
– Fields can only be used in the VALUES section
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a Calculated Field
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a Calculated Field
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Calculated Field in Power Pivot
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Displaying Data –
Power Pivot
DAX
ALL, ALLEXCEPT, CALCULATE, DISTINCTCOUNT, DIVIDE, FILTER
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• DISTINCTCOUNT
DISTINCTCOUNT( <column> )
– Counts unique values in column
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a Calculated Field
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE
• CALCULATE
CALCULATE( expression, <filter1>, <filter2>… )
– Supercharged SUMIFS
– Allows filtering (IFs) on any aggregate function
(imagine “MAXIFS”, “MEDIANIFS”, etc.)
– Operators for filters: =, <, >, <=, >=, <>
– Can also use || in filter on same column
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First-time Freshmen Distinct Students:=
CALCULATE(
[Distinct Students],
WorkshopData[Class level]=“Freshman”,
WorkshopData[Is new student this term]=“Yes”
)
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE
• ALL
ALL( table_or_column, <column1>, <column2>, …)
– Returns all the rows in a table, or all the values in a
column, removing any filters that might have been
applied
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL
All Distinct Enrolled Students:=
CALCULATE(
[Distinct Enrolled Students],
ALL( WorkshopData[Class level] )
)
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL
% of All Distinct Enrolled Students:=
DIVIDE([Distinct Enrolled Students],
[All Distinct Enrolled Students] )
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• DIVIDE
DIVIDE( <num>, <den>, [<alt>] )
– “Safe” divide
– Can specify alternate result for divide by zero
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX FILTER
• FILTER
FILTER( TableToFilter, FilterExpression )
– Returns a table filtered by FilterExpression
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Above Average GPA Enrolled Undergraduates:=
CALCULATE(
[Distinct Enrolled Students],
FILTER(
WorkshopData,
WorkshopData[Institutional cumulative GPA] >
[Average GPA Enrolled Undergraduates]
)
)
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE
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Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX FILTER
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX FILTER
• ALLEXCEPT
ALLEXCEPT( <table>, <column>[, <column>…])
– Similar to ALL function, but excludes the column(s)
specified from the ALL
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Power Query
Power Query
• Retrieve data from a variety of external sources
• Pull in external data from the Internet
• Limit the data you bring into your model (filter
on rows and columns)
• Keep you model to a reasonable size (< 1M records)
to prevent processing problems
• Bring in only what you need
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Power Query
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one
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Power Query – Advanced
• In-line data
transformations
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• Consolidate multiple
tables into one
Power Query – Advanced
• All transformation steps
are listed, and reversible
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• In-line data
transformations
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one
Power Query – Advanced
• Access to sources of
data not readily
available to Power Pivot
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• All transformation steps
are listed, and reversible
• In-line data
transformations
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one
Power Query – Advanced
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• SharePoint Lists
Power Query – Advanced
• See all available
lists
• Expand a
particular list for
fields
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Power Query – Advanced
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• Even get Active Directory names
Power Query – Advanced
• Connect to online faculty database
– Import active users from Digital Measures
– Merge with local data
– Export updated data to Digital Measures
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Power Query – Advanced
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Power Query – Advanced
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• Microsoft SQL Server and Access
• An many other databases (e.g., Oracle, MySQL,
PostgreSQL)
Power Query – Advanced
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Power Query – Advanced
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Power Query – Advanced
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Displaying Data –
Power View
Displaying Data – Power View
• Power View
– Dashboard builder
– Allows synchronized filtering
– Bring together tables, graphs, maps
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data – Power View
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Displaying Data –
Power Map
Displaying Data – Power Map
• Power Map
– Automated way to map geographic data
– Doesn’t require geo-location information like
longitude and latitude (just country, state, or county
names)
– Can add elements to look at aggregate function on
variables across physical space
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Displaying Data – Power Map
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Resources
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• Rob Collie (http://powerpivotpro)
– DAX Formulas for PowerPivot, 2013
• Bill Jelen (http://mrexcel.com)
– PowerPivot for the Data Analyst: Microsoft Excel 2010, 2010
• Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo
– Microsoft Excel 2013: Building Data Models with PowerPivot
• Chris Webb (http://cwebbbi.wordpress.com)
• Kasper de Jonge (http://www.powerpivotblog.nl)
• Purna Duggirala (http://www.chandoo.org/)
Contact Information
Alison Joseph, Business and Technology Applications Analyst
Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness
oipe.wcu.edu, (828) 227-7239
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David Onder, Director of Assessment
With the help of Tim Metz, Elizabeth Snyder, Billy Hutchings, and Henson Sturgill
