Monday, March 13, 2023

Why You Should Use Excel Advanced Filter For This


Do you have complexed filtering to do on your table data? Is your boss looking over your shoulder while giving your instructions on let’s filter for this and that and include these two, three, or four other things? You’re probably thinking how am I going to do this? Put it in a Pivot Table? Write a VBA script? Hold on...there’s already something in Excel that can do this advanced filtering. It’s even been around since the late 2000s...and it’s appropriately called.... Advanced Filter. You’d be surprised what type of complex filtering can be done with a feature that’s been around since Excel 2007, but it’s there. Once you realize how useful it is, it’ll be your secret tool for complex filters. Even though Microsoft wows us with new filtering features, like the dynamic array function FILTER just know that you can still do some pretty cool stuff with the good old advance filter feature. See FILTER function at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjr5cljnvxU

Monday, March 6, 2023

Separate Text and Numbers in Excel


When you’re cleaning up some data, maybe you get something where the number and text are combined and need to be separated or split into columns. It could be something as easy as when a fixed set of numbers come after text or a little more complicated where some set of variable numbers come first. Or ...it could be something as hairy as when a bunch of numbers and text are joined together in multiple random lengths. Do you have to write complex formulas or VBA to clean this up? No way...it can be done with a few keystrokes and maybe even just one hand. I’ll show examples of how we could separate the number and text in native Excel and then with Power Query.

Monday, February 27, 2023

Dependent Drop Down List Dynamic Array in Excel


What does a dependent dropdown list do? Basically, it’s a way to select items from a list that depends on the values selected from another list. This example is going to be using the new M365 dynamic array functions like FILTER as well as cover the spill operator. I’ll also cover how you can deal with duplicate or out of order entries using the UNIQUE and SORT dynamic array functions. You’ll also find out why the table feature is a valuable part of this solution. Also, near the end I'll refer you to a previous way of doing this, if you don’t have M365 Excel with the dynamic array functions on your version. No dynamic array function on your version? Try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaPS0EqVNJY

Monday, February 20, 2023

What Excel Experts Aren't Saying about the LAMBDA Function


The Lambda function is one of those newest functions in the latest Microsoft 365 Excel subscription. What it basically does is let you combine a bunch of functions or steps into one function. For the average Excel user, you are probably not going to use this. In fact it’s said that most people use about only 10% of the features and functions of Excel. So when you hear someone mention this is one of the best new functions in Excel, you might want to think twice about that. Most people will probably not use this function on a daily basis. BUT if you are someone who creates Excel templates for others to use or just love an alternative to VBA, then this other weird sounding function is the perfect addition to your Excel toolbelt. You can see that using or creating functions with the LAMBDA function is easy. The key is that when you want to put together large combinations of functions and make it easier to call the next time, the LAMBDA function makes it much easier to use. Plus, there’s the recursion capability, so you VBA loving people may just eat that up and LAMBDA could become your new best friend.

Monday, February 13, 2023

Create a Calendar Table From Date to Today


When you’re analyzing data where you’ve got dates, sometimes it’s a good idea to create a calendar table that not only has a date, but single column fields for the year, month or day of week. It helps then to show more detailed in your data. You can create one directly in the Excel worksheet with functions or you can use Power Query to make it more dynamic like creating a rolling calendar to auto populates with the current date. Creating a calendar table is not that hard and it’s useful information to help you do some additional analysis if you’re comparing dates or want to do some date grouping in a more granular way. It’s takes little time to set up and it’ll be useful in the long run.

Monday, February 6, 2023

Combine and Unpivot Tables Multiple Worksheets Same File


You have multiple worksheets or tab to combine?  It's easy if its just 1 or 2.  It's even not that bad if you have to do some kind of transformation like to unpivot the table.  However if you have to do a LOT of tables or do it on a recurring basis, then it's becomes a hassle.  Power Query can rescue you from the mundane and laborious process of manually doing these steps.

Monday, January 30, 2023

Combine & Unpivot Tables Multiple Excel Files in Folder


Getting files from your co-worker or from a system and need to combine or join them together? Easy to do if you have a few file; it's a simple copy and paste. Even if you have to transform you data by unpivoting your table it's not a hassle. But if you've got over five files or it's a recurring process, it becomes a burden to do. Power Query can do all this in a semi automated way to solve your problem.