Book Image

Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel

By : Bernard Obeng Boateng
5 (1)
Book Image

Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel

5 (1)
By: Bernard Obeng Boateng

Overview of this book

Microsoft Excel's BI solutions have evolved, offering users more flexibility and control over analyzing data directly in Excel. Features like PivotTables, Data Model, Power Query, and Power Pivot empower Excel users to efficiently get, transform, model, aggregate, and visualize data. Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel offers a practical way to demystify the use and application of these tools using real-world examples and simple illustrations. This book will introduce you to the world of data modeling in Excel, as well as definitions and best practices in data structuring for both normalized and denormalized data. The next set of chapters will take you through the useful features of Data Model and Power Pivot, helping you get to grips with the types of schemas (snowflake and star) and create relationships within multiple tables. You’ll also understand how to create powerful and flexible measures using DAX and Cube functions. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to apply the acquired knowledge in real-world scenarios and build an interactive dashboard that will help you make important decisions.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: Overview and Introduction to Data Modeling in Microsoft Excel
6
Part 2: Creating Insightful Calculations from your Data Model using DAX and Cube Functions
9
Part 3: Putting it all together with a Dashboard

Inserting conditional formatting and sparklines

In this section, we will learn how to add sparklines and conditional formatting to our dashboard.

Sparklines

In the previous chapter, we learned that sparklines are mini charts placed in single cells, each representing a row of data in your selection.

In our dashboard, we want to use a sparkline to determine the seasonality or pattern of revenue for our branches during the twelve months of the year. Instead of using a bulky chart, the sparkline will allow us to fit a mini 12-column chart in a selected cell.

To do this, we have to create the PivotTable that will provide the data.

We will insert a new PivotTable in the calculation sheet that will break down revenue by the months of the year using the following steps:

  1. Select cell B10 of the Calculation sheet.
  2. Go to Insert > PivotTable > From Data Model > Existing Worksheet.
  3. Drag the Revenue measure to the Values section.
  4. On the Calendar Table,...