PowerPivot for the Data Analyst

Bill Jelen , Excel MVP and the host of MrExcel.com, has been using spreadsheets since 1985, and he launched the MrExcel.com website in 1998. Bill was a regular guest on Call for Help with Leo Laporte and has produced more than 1,200 episodes of his daily video podcast, Learn Excel from MrExcel. He is the author of 30 books about Microsoft Excel and writes the monthly Excel column for Strategic Finance magazine. You will most frequently find Bill taking his show on the road, doing half-day Power Excel seminars wherever he can find a room full of accountants or Excellers. Before founding MrExcel.com, Jelen spent 12 years in the trenches working as a financial analyst for finance, marketing, accounting, and operations departments of a $500 million public company. He lives near Akron, Ohio, with his wife, Mary, Ellen and his sons, Josh and Zeke.

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1

“There’s Row 20 Million” ................................................................................................................ 2

“The PivotTable Field List Has Fields from Both Tables” ................................................................. 2

Now, I Love VLOOKUPs ............................................................................................................. 3

“How Much Will This Cost? Well, the Client Is Free” ................................................................. 4

This Book Was Pitched Eight Hours Later ................................................................................. 4

There Could Be Five Titles for This Book .......................................................................................... 4

Who Are Those Other People in the Room? .................................................................................... 5

This Book Is For The Excel People.............................................................................................. 6

How This Book Is Organized ............................................................................................................ 7

Conventions Used in This Book ....................................................................................................... 7

Text Conventions ...................................................................................................................... 7

Special Elements ....................................................................................................................... 8

Cross References ....................................................................................................................... 8

1 Downloading and Installing PowerPivot .................................................... 9

System Requirements ..................................................................................................................... 9

32 Bit or 64 Bit? ........................................................................................................................ 9

Not Excel Starter Edition ......................................................................................................... 11

Not Excel Web Apps ................................................................................................................ 11

Installing PowerPivot.................................................................................................................... 11

The Many PowerPivot Tabs .................................................................................................... 11

Ribbon Tabs in the PowerPivot Application ............................................................................ 12

Uninstalling PowerPivot ............................................................................................................... 16

Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 16

2 The Promise of PowerPivot .........................................................................17

Preparing Your Data for PowerPivot ............................................................................................. 17

Getting Your Data into PowerPivot ............................................................................................... 18

Decide on a Sequence for Importing ....................................................................................... 19

Import a Text File ................................................................................................................... 19

Add Excel Data by Copying and Pasting .................................................................................. 22

Define Relationships ..................................................................................................................... 23

Add Calculated Columns Using DAX .............................................................................................. 25

Build a Pivot Table ........................................................................................................................ 26

World-Class Data Compression ..................................................................................................... 31

Asymmetric Reporting with PowerPivot ....................................................................................... 33

Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 34

3 Why Wouldn’t I Build Every Future Pivot Table in PowerPivot? .....................37

Great Reasons to Use PowerPivot ................................................................................................. 38

Create One Pivot Table from Multiple Tables .......................................................................... 38

Use Massive Data Volumes ..................................................................................................... 39

Fit More Data into Memory .................................................................................................... 39

Use Named Sets to Build Asymmetric Pivot Tables ................................................................. 39

Join Four Pivot Tables Together Using a Single Set of Slicers .................................................. 40

PowerPivot Slicer AutoLayout Runs Circles Around Regular Excel Slicers................................ 41

PowerPivot Allows for Standalone Pivot Charts ...................................................................... 42

Convert Your PowerPivot Pivot Table to Formulas.................................................................. 43

Measures Created by DAX Run Circles Around Calculated Fields ............................................. 43

The Downside of PowerPivot ........................................................................................................ 44

You Lose Undo ........................................................................................................................ 44

PowerPivot Is Not Smart Enough to Sort Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr ................................................... 44

It’s Hard to Change the Calculation in the Pivot Table ............................................................ 46

You Cannot Create PowerPivot Pivot Tables with VBA ........................................................... 49

You Cannot Edit a Single Cell in the PowerPivot Window....................................................... 49

GetPivotData Is Harder to Use with PowerPivot .............................................................. 49

Show Items with No Data Is Grayed Out ................................................................................. 51

Calculated Fields and Calculated Items Are Grayed Out .......................................................... 52

You Cannot Double-Click to Drill Through............................................................................... 52

Grouping Does Not Work with PowerPivot ............................................................................. 53

Certain On-Worksheet Typing Adjustments Do Not Work in PowerPivot ............................... 55

Greatest Pivot Table Trick of All Time: Show Pages Does Not Work ........................................ 57

Other Minor Annoyances ........................................................................................................ 58

Bottom Line ................................................................................................................................. 58

Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 60

4 Getting Your Data into PowerPivot .............................................................61

Getting Excel Data into PowerPivot .............................................................................................. 61

Converting Your Data to a Table and Linking ......................................................................... 62

Add Excel Data by Copying and Pasting .................................................................................. 67

Adding Excel Data by Importing ............................................................................................. 76

Importing Data from SQL Server ................................................................................................... 79

Importing a Text File ..................................................................................................................... 80

Importing from Atom Data Feeds ................................................................................................. 83

Importing from Other Sources ...................................................................................................... 83

Next Steps .............................................................................................................................. 84

5 Creating and Managing Relationships .........................................................85

Trying to Autodetect Relationships ............................................................................................... 85

Manually Defining a Relationship ................................................................................................. 88

Calculating Between Tables .......................................................................................................... 89

Defining a Difficult Relationship ................................................................................................... 91

Unwinding a Lookup Table ..................................................................................................... 91

Building a Concatenated Key Relationship ................................................................................... 95

Is This Harder Than a VLOOKUP? .................................................................................................. 98

Questions About Relationships ..................................................................................................... 98

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 100

6 Using Data Sheet View .............................................................................101

Working with Data in the PowerPivot Window .......................................................................... 101

Applying Numeric Formatting .............................................................................................. 102

Sorting Data in the PowerPivot Window .............................................................................. 104

Filtering in the PowerPivot Window..................................................................................... 104

Rearranging Columns ........................................................................................................... 106

Hiding Columns at Two Levels .............................................................................................. 108

Using PowerPivot Undo and Redo ........................................................................................ 109

Deleting Columns ................................................................................................................. 109

Using the Context Menu ....................................................................................................... 109

Adding New Columns Using DAX Formulas................................................................................. 110

Operators in the DAX Language ............................................................................................ 110

Building Formulas in the PowerPivot Grid ............................................................................ 111

DAX Function Reference.............................................................................................................. 112

Date and Time Functions ...................................................................................................... 112

Using YEARFRAC to Calculate Elapsed Time........................................................................ 119

Using TIMEVALUE to Convert Text Times to Real Times ..................................................... 123

Examples of Math and Trigonometry Functions ................................................................... 123

Examples of Text Functions .................................................................................................. 130

Examples of Text Functions .................................................................................................. 132

Examples of Logical Functions .............................................................................................. 139

Examples of Information Functions ...................................................................................... 142

Grabbing Values from a Related Table ........................................................................................ 142

Using One Value from a Related Table .................................................................................. 143

Getting Multiple Values from a Related Table ...................................................................... 143

Filtering Multiple Values from a Related Table ..................................................................... 144

Using the Recursive Functions .................................................................................................... 145

Using Other Functions................................................................................................................. 146

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 147

7 Building Pivot Tables ...............................................................................149

Elements of a Pivot Table............................................................................................................ 149

Arranging Field Headings to Build a Report .......................................................................... 150

Using the PowerPivot Field List to Create Reports ................................................................ 150

Building a Pivot Table ................................................................................................................. 152

A Look at the Underlying Data .............................................................................................. 152

Defining the Pivot Table ....................................................................................................... 153

Using the Report Filter .......................................................................................................... 159

Report Filters Versus Slicers .................................................................................................. 161

Explanation of Column B ............................................................................................................ 162

Returning the Column Labels to Sanity ................................................................................ 164

New Trick with Column Labels.............................................................................................. 164

Is There a Way to Permanently Sack the Compact Layout? .................................................. 165

Two Important Rules with Pivot Tables ...................................................................................... 166

Pivot Tables Do Not Recalculate When Underlying Data Changes ........................................ 166

You Cannot Move or Change Part of a Pivot Table ................................................................ 167

Working with Pivot Charts .......................................................................................................... 169

Behind the Scenes with PowerPivot Field List and Add-In.......................................................... 172

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 173

8 Cool Tricks Native to Pivot Tables ..............................................................175

Applying Sorting Rules to Pivot Tables ....................................................................................... 175

Presenting Customers with the Largest Sales at the Top ...................................................... 175

Adding a Custom List to Control Sort Order .......................................................................... 179

Showing the Top Five Customers ................................................................................................ 182

Notes About the Top 10 Filter ............................................................................................... 183

Changing the Calculation in the Pivot Table ............................................................................... 184

Easiest Way to Force a Count ................................................................................................ 184

Using Sum, Count, Min, Max, or Average ............................................................................. 185

Changing the Show Values as Drop-Down ........................................................................... 187

Base Fields and Base Items ................................................................................................... 188

Pivot Table Formatting ............................................................................................................... 190

Change the Numeric Formatting for a Field .......................................................................... 190

Formatting Changes on the Design Tab ................................................................................ 192

Not Enough Styles? Multiply by 20 ....................................................................................... 194

Applying Data Visualizations and Sparklines .............................................................................. 195

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 197

9 Cool Tricks New with PowerPivot ..............................................................199

Building a Report with Two Pivot Charts .................................................................................... 200

Chart Formatting Changes .................................................................................................... 202

Adding Slicers and Understanding Slicer AutoLayout ................................................................. 203

Cannot Directly Change the Size of Slicers ............................................................................ 204

Controlling the Size of the Bounding Rectangle ................................................................... 206

Strategy for Dealing with AutoLayout of Slicers ................................................................... 208

Adding a Pivot Chart to an Existing Layout ................................................................................. 208

Hooking the New Pivot Chart Up to the Existing Slicers........................................................ 210

Moving the Pivot Table to a Back Worksheet ....................................................................... 211

Adding a Pivot Table to an Existing Layout ................................................................................. 212

Can the PowerPivot Layout Be Skipped Entirely? ................................................................. 213

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 215

10 Using DAX for Aggregate Functions ...........................................................217

DAX Measures Are Calculated Fields for the Values Area of a Pivot Table ................................... 218

Five of the Six Pivot Table Drop Zones Are Filter Fields! ........................................................ 219

DAX Measures Respect the Home Table Filters ..................................................................... 220

Generate a Count Distinct ........................................................................................................... 220

Using the DISTINCT Function ............................................................................................ 220

Using COUNTROWS as a Wrapper Function .......................................................................... 221

Entering a DAX Measure ....................................................................................................... 222

DAX Measures Are Calculated Only on Demand .................................................................... 225

DAX Measures Can Reference Other DAX Measures .............................................................. 225

Using Other DAX Functions That Respect Filters ......................................................................... 226

Denominators Frequently Need to Ignore the Filters .................................................................. 228

DAX Calculate Function Is Like the Excel SUMIFS Function ................................................... 228

In DAX, a Filter Might Give You More Rows Than You Started With! .................................... 230

ALL Function Says to Ignore All Existing Filters ................................................................... 231

CALCULATE Is So Powerful, There Is a Shortcut .................................................................. 234

Using the FILTER Function ....................................................................................................... 234

The Double Negative of AllExcept ......................................................................................... 237

Other DAX Functions ................................................................................................................... 238

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 240

11 Using DAX for Date Magic .........................................................................241

Using Time Intelligence Functions .............................................................................................. 242

Fiscal Quarters and Calendar Quarters .................................................................................. 244

Using Period-to-Date Calculations ........................................................................................ 245

Comparing Today’s Sales to Yesterday ................................................................................. 245

Comparing Today’s Sales to One Year Ago ............................................................................ 245

Reporting Sales for the Full Month ....................................................................................... 246

Calculating Sales for the Previous or Next Month, Quarter, Year .......................................... 247

Sales for the Last 30 Days ..................................................................................................... 247

Using Date Functions for Data Reported at a Monthly Level ....................................................... 248

Use Care with ParallelPeriod ...................................................................................... 248

Opening and Closing Balances .............................................................................................. 249

Skip the CALCULATE Function in Three Cases ......................................................................... 249

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 250

12 Named Sets, GetPivotData, and Cube Formulas .........................................251

Defining Territories with Named Sets ......................................................................................... 251

Correcting the Grand Total Row in Named Sets .................................................................... 254

Using Named Sets for Asymmetric Reporting ............................................................................. 256

Preserving Report Formatting Using GetPivotData .............................................................. 258

Producing a Perfectly Formatted Shell Report ...................................................................... 259

Evaluating the Formula Built by Excel .................................................................................. 261

Converting Live Pivot Table to Cube Formulas ............................................................................ 263

Customizing the Formatted Report ...................................................................................... 265

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 266

13 Final Formatting: Making the Report Not Look Like Excel ...........................267

Charts Should Have Less Ink, More Information ......................................................................... 267

Component Charts Make Great Pie Charts ............................................................................ 268

Time Series Charts Should Be Columns or Lines .................................................................... 268

Category Charts Make Great Bar Charts ................................................................................ 269

Use Descriptive Titles ............................................................................................................ 269

Single-Series Column and Bar Charts Do Not Need Legends! ................................................ 271

Reduce the Number of Zeros on the Values Axis ................................................................... 271

Slicers Make the On-Chart Controls Obsolete ........................................................................ 272

Replace Pie Chart Legends with Labels ................................................................................. 273

Gridlines, Tick Marks, Axis, and Column Widths ................................................................... 273

Trying to Tame the Slicers........................................................................................................... 276

Change the Slicer Color ......................................................................................................... 278

Remove Excel Interface Elements ............................................................................................... 279

Hide the Gridlines ................................................................................................................. 279

Hide Other Interface Elements .............................................................................................. 279

Hide the PowerPivot Field List .............................................................................................. 280

Making a Report Look Like a Dashboard ..................................................................................... 280

Change the Background Color .............................................................................................. 280

Contrast Color and Title in Row 1.......................................................................................... 280

Minimize the Ribbon ............................................................................................................ 281

Micro-Adjust the Zoom Slider ............................................................................................... 281

Add a Row of Color at the Bottom of the Dashboard ............................................................ 281

Hide the Cell Pointer Behind a Slicer..................................................................................... 281

Adding a Picture as a Top Banner ............................................................................................... 282

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 284

14 Upgrading to PowerPivot Server ...............................................................285

Requirements to Run the Server Version of PowerPivot ............................................................. 285

Benefits of the PowerPivot Server .............................................................................................. 286

How the Report Looks in the Server ............................................................................................ 287

The Report Gallery Is Slick ........................................................................................................... 288

Why the IT Department Will Embrace PowerPivot ..................................................................... 291

Mistakes to Avoid When Publishing Reports to SharePoint ........................................................ 292

Always Add Interactivity ....................................................................................................... 293

Always Select Cell A1 Before Saving a Workbook ................................................................. 293

Pictures Will Not Render on the Server ................................................................................. 293

Hide All but the Main Worksheet.......................................................................................... 293

Whatever Is Not Hidden in Excel Shows Up in SharePoint .................................................... 294

Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 294

Appendix A: More Resources .........................................................................295

TOC, 9780789743152, 5/14/10