WORKING WITH LIST

MANAGEMENT
Excel Lesson 3

GEADLITE
Microsoft Excel
No. 2

Pasewark & Pasewark Microsoft Office 2010 Introductory

 Objectives
By the end of this lesson, the student
should be able to:
• Apply data validation settings to control
data entry.
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•  Identify and use database functions

to perform calculations using multiple
database fields.

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 VALIDATING THE DATA
• Data validation is a feature in Excel used
to control what a user can enter into a
cell. For example, you could use data
validation to make sure a value is a
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number between 1 and 6, make sure a

date occurs in the next 30 days, or
make sure a text entry is less than 25
characters.

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 WORKING WITH NAMES AND
RANGES
Data validation can simply display a
message to a user telling them what is
allowed as shown below:
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 Data validation can also stop invalid user
input. For example, if a product code fails
validation, you can display a message like
this:
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 In addition, data validation can be used to
present the user with a predefined choice in
a dropdown menu:
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This can be a convenient way to give a user

exactly the values that meet requirements

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 Data Validation Controls
Data validation is implemented via rules
defined in Excel's user interface on the Data
tab of the ribbon.
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 Defining Data Validation Rules

Data validation is defined in a window with 3

tabs: Settings, Input Message, and Error Alert:
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 The settings tab is where you enter validation
criteria. There are a number of built-in
validation rules with various options, or you
can select Custom, and use your own
formula to validate input as seen below:
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 The Input Message tab defines a message to
display when a cell with validation rules is selected.
This Input Message is completely optional. If no
input message is set, no message appears when a
user selects a cell with data validation applied. The
input message has no effect on what the user can
enter — it simply displays a message to let the user
know what is allowed or expected.
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 The Error Alert Tab controls how validation is
enforced. For example, when style is set to
"Stop", invalid data triggers a window with a
message, and the input is not allowed. 

The user sees a

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message like
this:

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 When style is set to Information or Warning, a
different icon is displayed with a custom message,
but the user can ignore the message and enter
values that don't pass validation. The table below
summarizes behavior for each error alert option.

ALERT
BEHAVIOR
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STYLE
Stops users from entering invalid
data in a cell. Users can retry, but
Stop must enter a value that passes data
validation. The Stop alert window
has two options: Retry and Cancel.
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 Warns users that data is invalid.
The warning does nothing to stop
invalid data. The Warning alert
Warnin
window has three options: Yes (to
g
accept invalid data), No (to edit
invalid data) and Cancel (to
remove the invalid data).
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Informs users that data is invalid.

This message does nothing to stop
Informa
invalid data. The Information alert
tion
window has 2 options: OK to accept
invalid data, and Cancel to remove it.
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 Data Validation Options
When a data validation rule is created,
there are eight options available to
validate user input:

Any Value - no validation is performed.

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Note: if data validation was previously

applied with a set Input Message, the
message will still display when the cell is
selected, even when Any Value is selected.

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 Whole Number - only whole numbers are
allowed. Once the whole number option is
selected, other options become available to
further limit the input. For example, you can
require a whole number between 1 and 10.
Decimal - works like a whole number option,
but allows decimal values. For example,
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with the Decimal option configured to allow

values between 0 and 3, values like .5, 2.5,
and 3.1 are all allowed.

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 List - only values from a predefined list are
allowed. The values are presented to the
user as a dropdown menu control. Allowed
values can be hardcoded directly into the
Settings tab, or specified as a range on
the worksheet.
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Date - only dates are allowed. For

example, you can require a date between
January 1, 2018 and December 31 2021,
or a date after June 1, 2018.

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 Text length - validates input based on number
of characters or digits. For example, you
could require code that contains 5 digits.
 
Custom - validates user input using a custom
formula. In other words, you can write your
own formula to validate input. Custom
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formulas greatly extend the options for data

validation. For example, you could use a
formula to ensure a value is uppercase, a
value contains "xyz", or a date is a weekday
in the next 45 days.

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 The Settings Tab also Includes Two Checkboxes:

Ignore blank - tells Excel to not validate cells

that contain no value. In practice, this setting
seems to effect only the command "circle
invalid data". When enabled, blank cells are
not circled even if they fail validation.
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Apply these changes to other cells with the same

settings - this setting will update validation
applied to other cells when it matches the
(original) validation of the cell(s) being
edited.
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 Simple Drop Down Menu
You can provide a dropdown menu of
options by hardcoding values into the
settings box, or selecting a range on the
worksheet. For example, to restrict entries
to the actions "BUY", "HOLD", or "SELL"
you can enter these values separated with
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commas as seen below:

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 When applied to a cell in the worksheet, the
dropdown menu works like this:
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 Another way to supply values to a dropdown
menu is to use a worksheet reference. For
example, with sizes (i.e. small, medium, etc.)
in the range F3:F6, you can supply this
range directly inside the data validation
settings window:
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 You can also use named ranges to specify
values. For example, with the named range
called "sizes" for F3:F7, you can enter the
name directly in the window, starting with an
equal sign:
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 Named Ranges are automatically absolute, so
they won't change as the data validation is
applied to different cells.
Excel ignores data validation formulas that
return errors. If a formula isn't working, and
you can't figure out why, set up dummy
formulas to make sure the formula is
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performing as you expect. Dummy formulas are

simply data validation formulas entered directly
on the worksheet so that you can see what
they return easily. The screen below shows an
example:
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 Once you get the dummy formula working like
you want, simply copy and paste it into the
data validation formula area.
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 Find cells with data validation
To find cells with data validation applied, you an
use the Go To > Special dialog. Type the
keyboard shortcut Control + G, then click the
Special button. When the Dialog appears, select
"Data Validation."
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 Copy data validation from one cell
to another
To copy validation from
one cell to other cells.
Copy the cell(s)
normally that contain
the data validation then
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use Paste Special +

Validation. Once the
dialog appears, type "n"
to select validation, or
click validation with the
mouse.

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 Clear all Data Validation
To clear all data validation from a range of
cells, make the selection, then click the Data
Validation button on the Data tab of the ribbon.
Then click the "Clear All" button:
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