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

Summary

In this chapter, we have applied some of the elements you can use to create your dashboard. You are now familiar with how to use mockups and layouts to set the stage for your dashboard. You learned how to use shapes and cards to project the key indicators in your dashboard. Apart from shapes, we covered how you can create sparklines, which are in-cell charts that can be used when you have limited space to present your visual.

The chapter also discussed the use of conditional formatting to apply icons to your values. We also covered some creative ways to enhance regular charts such as doughnut and area charts and how you can add slicers to add some interaction to your dashboard.

These concepts will give you a good foundation to build more complex dashboards. In the next chapter, we will add some color to what we have built so far.