This is a Guest Post by Robert on Visualization Techniques for KPI Dashboards using Excel.
This 6 Part Tutorial on Management Dashboards Teaches YOU:
Creating a Scrollable List View in Dashboard
Add Ability to Sort on Any KPI to the Dashboard
Highlight KPIs Based on Percentile
Add Microcharts to KPI Dashboards
Compare 2 KPIs in the Dashboards Using Form Controls
Show the Distribution of a KPI using Box Plots
As you all know dashboards provide “Information at a glance” with often the power to “deep dive to analyze”. Most dashboards succeed in providing information. But the exceptional ones succeed in “at a glance” part of it while maintaining the deep diving capabilities. In this and next post we will discuss 2 powerful visualizations that can be added to your dashboards to provide better insights at a glance. If you are not familiar with excel based dashboards we recommend reading the dashboards using excel.
The challenge
Part 3 of the series already displays parts of the relationships within the 5 KPI data sets by highlighting the 10% best and 10% poorest performers of the 4 KPI that are not selected as the sort criteria. But what if we want to have a closer look on how the KPI are related to each other? We need another analytical feature that enables the user to compare the complete data sets at a glance in a graphical visualization.
The solution
An XY scatter chart is the best way to analyze and visualize the relationship and correlation between two sets of quantitative data.
An XY scatter chart, however, is 2-dimensional and therefore limited to compare only two data sets.
Since we have 5 different KPI, we would need 10 different charts to display all possible combinations of KPI pairs on our dashboard. This would need too much real estate on the dashboard and it would probably be too complex and unclear for the users of the dashboard.
Again we need an interactive, flexible way to display the data in one single chart and let the user decide which 2 KPI to display (see above). Additionally we want to highlight the data points that are displayed on the dashboard table and of course we want to do this without VBA.
The implementation
Download Excel Dashboard Visualization Techniques [part 1] workbook and read on how this is implemented.
- Create an input list form control with the names of the 5 KPI (calculation!E10:E14)
- Define two cells to store the results of the combo boxes to select the displayed KPI (calculation!E16:E17)
- Insert two combo boxes (from the forms control toolbar) on the dashboard and link the input lists and the cell links accordingly.
Add 4 extra columns (calculation!AS:AT and calculation!AV:AW) and create OFFSET formulas to fill these new cell ranges with the values of the selected KPI (i.e. using the values in calculation!E16:E17, see 2.).- Create an XY scatter chart with two data series (data source: the 4 new cell ranges, see 4.). Format the first series as circles without fill colors and the second series as circles with a grey fill color, add a legend to the chart and bring the chart to the dashboard.
- Reposition the chart on the dashboard (remember this trick: keeping the ALT-key pressed during resizing and repositioning makes the chart auto-fit to the cell grid underneath) and position the combo boxes.
- If you want to, you could easily add a trend line to the chart and display the equation and/or the R-squared value for deeper analysis of the correlation between the two KPIs.
That’s it. Play around with the new analytical feature: change the selected two KPIs, change the sort criteria, toggle the sort order or scroll up and down the dashboard table and watch the changes on the XY scatter chart.
What’s next? – Last Part of the KPI Dashboards using Excel
Make sure you have downloaded the Excel Dashboard Visualization Techniques [part 1] workbook
Go to next post: Part 6: Show the Distribution of a KPI using Box Plots
Also, Checkout our Excel Dashboards Page for more examples and resources.
Chandoo’s note: Thanks Robert for another excellent post.
Please leave your comments, questions and love here, Robert is a regular reader of this blog he will be happy to respond to you as early as possible.
20 Responses to “Untrimmable Spaces – Excel Formula”
Hi Chandoo,
First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Wish you and your family another fruitful year ahead.
To answer your question: Power Query is the best way to trim. 🙂
Btw, if Power Query is not available, then formula would absolutely do... but did you forget to mention also Char 32?
One more question: Is the trailing minus meant to be a negative number? Maybe only the sender knows... 🙂
Cheers,
I just see your PQ way, it is amazing, I think it is the most simple way.
No idea how it did it?
I know these spaces can be a real pain but these days I advise Excel users to learn and use Flash Fill and that will learn what to do pretty quickly.
Highlight range to be cleaned. Then, in Replace, hold down the Alt key and type 0160. Replace with nothing.
I accomplished this by writing a macro to go through all the possible unprintable characters. Looped through the range.
@Steve
Brute force works just as well, its just slower
I use a different method here. First, I will copy the data from Excel and paste it in a notepad. In Notepad, I will do a Find Blanks (Space " ") and Replace (Empty) with nothing.
Then you can copy the data from Notepad and paste it back to Excel which will be a perfect number as you desire.
But Thanks for the formula. Its probably the 2nd out of 8 tricks as Chandoo mentioned. Waiting for the rest among 8 from other users 🙂
Hi....
You don't always need notepad for that. I use the Find/Replace is Excel works just fine.
I don't understand the x's. Why weren't they removed in the formula? Or are they part of some sort of numeric formatting that I'm not familiar with? I saw how you handled the non-breaking spaces and the dashes, but am confused about what role the x's played in all this.
Thanks!
Hi Andrew ,
The xs have been used solely to demarcate the actual data text ; thus , without the x in place at the end of text , as in :
x 4,124,500.00 x
it would be impossible to know that there are unwanted trailing characters , in this case , after the last 0.
These xs are not part of the original data text , nor are they used in the formulae ; they are put in only so that readers can visualize the individual items of data as they are in practice. Think of them as imaginary delimiters.
Oh, that makes sense! Thank you for the explanation. I had a feeling it was something along those lines.
You can type this character using the Keys Alt+0160.
Very useful to replace this Character using Find and Select resource.
For many years, my jobs have included ETL tasks and I built this macro to help long, long ago. I tweak it every now and again. Many co-workers, past and present, have it wired to a button on their toolbar.
Sub Clean_and_Trim()
'CAUTION: Strips leading zeroes -- do not use on zipcodes, etc.
If Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic Then
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
Revert = 1
ElseIf Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual Then
Revert = 0
End If
For Each Cell In Selection
For x = Len(Cell.Value) To 1 Step -1
If Asc(Mid(Cell.Value, x, 1)) = 160 Then
Cell.Replace What:=Chr(160), Replacement:=" ", LookAt:=xlPart, MatchCase:=True
End If
If Asc(Mid(Cell.Value, x, 1)) = 32 Then
Cell.Replace What:=Chr(32), Replacement:=" ", LookAt:=xlPart, MatchCase:=True
End If
Next x
If Cell.Value "" Then
Cell.Value = Application.Clean(Application.Trim(Cell.Value))
End If
Next
If Revert = 1 Then
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
ElseIf Revert = 0 Then
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End If
End Sub
This is awesome! What if you have several characters you need to have removed? What would be the easiest way as I can imagine there are several ways.?
# - 35
$ - 36
- 62
/ - 47
, - 44
. - 46
" - 34
: - 58
This is typical case of a Fitbit data export to Csv file. Each number has CHAR160 as thousand separator.. how smart Fitbit, thank you 😉
By the way, i prefer to copy the character, and use find and replace.
Sometimes it happens if you copy a table from outlook and paste it in excel. When you apply formula on those cells you will get error. What i use to do is
copy one character that looks like space,
select the entire range,
go to Find and replace,
Paste the copied character in Find option
Leave the replace option unfilled..
click on replace all..
All the errors shall be converted in to proper values..
Process looks lengthier.. but it is one of the simplest method
If Clean, Trim, and Substitute, or Find and Replace does not complete the job, I usually enter a value of 1 in an empty cell. Copy the Value of 1, Highlight the range of text numbers, and Paste Special, Values, Multiply. This site is great!
You can use Dose for Excel Add-In that can quickly clean huge data with one click besides more than +100 new functions and features to add to your Excel to save time and effort.
https://www.zbrainsoft.com
Hi,
I have a problem in excel. The sheet attached herewith.
TABLE CONFIG 2/6
A B C D E F G H
1 WEIGHT1 43,599 WEIGH2 62500 WEIGHT3 77000 WEIGHT4 66,500
2 DEDUCTION1 15,000 DEDUCTION1 15,000 TEMP 0 DEDUCTION2 11,005
3 RESULT 58,599 RESULT-1 77,500 RESULT-2 77,000 RESULT-3 77,505
4 RESULT SUBSTRACT 0 0 0
5 REQUIRED VALUE 77,500 77,000 77,505
Note: 1- RESULT (58599) IS TO BE DEDUCTION EITHER FROM D4 OR F4 OR H4 WHICHEVER IS MOST
LEAST CELL AMONG RESULT-1 OR RESULT-2 OR RESULT 3.
2-HENCE, RESULT VALUE $B$3 IS TO BE PRESENTED ON CELL EITHER D4 OR F4 OR H4 WHICHER IS
MOST LEAST VALUE
3-FORMULA =IF(E8<H8,$B$9,IF(E8<J8,$B$9,IF(H8<J8,$B$9,IF(H8<E8,$B$9,IF(J8<H8,$B$9))))))
CREATED ON CELL D4,F4 & H4 DID NOT WORK.
PLS FOR YOUR HELP.
THANK YOU
@R
Why not ask the question in the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
You can attach a file there