Excel Power Tools

David Onder and Alison Joseph

NCAIR 2015 Conference

• 10,382 students
• Master’s Comprehensive
• Mountain location
• Residential and Distance

2
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

3
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

4
 Displaying Data –
Pivot Tables

5
Connecting to Data

6
Connecting to Data

7
Displaying Data – Pivot Tables

8
Displaying Data – Pivot Tables

9
Displaying Data – Pivot Tables

Sum
Count
Average
Max
Min
Product
Count Numbers
StdDev
StdDevp
Var
Varp

10
Displaying Data – Pivot Tables

11
 Displaying Data –
Power Pivot

12
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Set-up

• Installed with Excel 2013

• Downloadable add-in for Excel 2010
• Not available prior to Excel 2010

13
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• The Power Pivot environment

Open Power Pivot

14
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• The Power Pivot environment

15
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Import data

16
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• How the imported data look

17
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Bringing data into Excel

18
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• PivotTable vs. Power Pivot PivotTable

19
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• DAX
– Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
– Formula language for Power Pivot
– Used to create Calculated Columns and Calculated
Fields

20
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

21
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column

22
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column

23
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column

24
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a calculated column to pivot table

25
Evaluation Contexts
• Row context

• Filter context

26
Evaluation Contexts
• Row context
• The one row being evaluated
• Automatic for calculated columns
• Can be created in other ways as well (SUMX, AVERAGEX, etc.)

• Filter context

27
Row Context

28
Evaluation Contexts
• Row context
• The one row being evaluated
• Automatic for calculated columns
• Can be created in other ways as well (SUMX, AVERAGEX, etc.)

• Filter context
• The filters being applied by the pivot table
• Filters can be explicit or implicit
• Can add additional filters only with CALCULATE

29
Filter Context

30
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

31
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a Calculated Field

32
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a Calculated Field

33
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Calculated Field in Power Pivot

34
 Displaying Data –
Power Pivot

DAX
ALL, ALLEXCEPT, CALCULATE, DISTINCTCOUNT, DIVIDE, FILTER

35
Displaying Data – Power Pivot

• DISTINCTCOUNT

DISTINCTCOUNT( <column> )

– Counts unique values in column

36
Displaying Data – Power Pivot
• Adding a Calculated Field

37
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
38
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE

First-time Freshmen Distinct Students:=

CALCULATE(

[Distinct Students],

WorkshopData[Class level]=“Freshman”,

WorkshopData[Is new student this term]=“Yes”

39
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE

40
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL
• 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

41
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL

All Distinct Enrolled Students:=

CALCULATE(

[Distinct Enrolled Students],

ALL( WorkshopData[Class level] )

42
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL

43
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX ALL

% of All Distinct Enrolled Students:=

DIVIDE( [Distinct Enrolled Students],

[All Distinct Enrolled Students] )

44
Displaying Data – Power Pivot

• DIVIDE

DIVIDE( <num>, <den>, [<alt>] )

– “Safe” divide
– Can specify alternate result for divide by zero

45
Displaying Data – Power Pivot

46
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX FILTER
• FILTER

FILTER( TableToFilter, FilterExpression )

– Returns a table filtered by FilterExpression

47
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX CALCULATE
Above Average GPA Enrolled Undergraduates:=

CALCULATE(

[Distinct Enrolled Students],

FILTER(

WorkshopData,

WorkshopData[Institutional cumulative GPA] >

[Average GPA Enrolled Undergraduates]
)

48
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX FILTER

49
Displaying Data – Power Pivot: DAX FILTER
• ALLEXCEPT

ALLEXCEPT( <table>, <column>[, <column>…])

– Similar to ALL function, but excludes the column(s)

specified from the ALL

50
 Power Query

51
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

52
Power Query
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one

53
Power Query – Advanced
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one

• In-line data
transformations

54
Power Query – Advanced
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one

• In-line data
transformations
• All transformation steps
are listed, and reversible

55
Power Query – Advanced
• Consolidate multiple
tables into one

• In-line data
transformations
• All transformation steps
are listed, and reversible
• Access to sources of
data not readily
available to Power Pivot

56
Power Query – Advanced
• SharePoint Lists

57
Power Query – Advanced
• See all available
lists
• Expand a
particular list for
fields

58
Power Query – Advanced
• Even get Active Directory names

59
Power Query – Advanced
• Connect to online faculty database
– Import active users from Digital Measures
– Merge with local data
– Export updated data to Digital Measures

60
Power Query – Advanced

61
Power Query – Advanced
• Microsoft SQL Server and Access

• An many other databases (e.g., Oracle, MySQL,

PostgreSQL)

62
Power Query – Advanced

63
Power Query – Advanced

64
Power Query – Advanced

65
 Displaying Data –
Power View

66
Displaying Data – Power View
• Power View
– Dashboard builder
– Allows synchronized filtering
– Bring together tables, graphs, maps

67
Displaying Data – Power View

68
Displaying Data – Power View

69
Displaying Data – Power View

70
Displaying Data – Power View

71
Displaying Data – Power View

72
Displaying Data – Power View

73
Displaying Data – Power View

74
Displaying Data – Power View

75
Displaying Data – Power View

76
 Displaying Data –
Power Map

77
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

78
Displaying Data – Power Map

79
Displaying Data – Power Map

80
Displaying Data – Power Map

81
Displaying Data – Power Map

82
Displaying Data – Power Map

83
Displaying Data – Power Map

84
Displaying Data – Power Map

85
Displaying Data – Power Map

86
Resources
• 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/)

87
Contact Information
David Onder, Director of Assessment
[email protected]

Alison Joseph, Business and Technology Applications Analyst

[email protected]

Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness

oipe.wcu.edu, (828) 227-7239

With the help of Tim Metz, Elizabeth Snyder, Billy Hutchings, and Henson Sturgill

88