Trust Peltier to come up with solutions for even the most impossible looking charts. Today he shares a marimekko chart tutorial.
What in the name of unindented VBA code is a Marimekko Chart ?
It is a variable width stacked chart. It is a good way to depict how various segments have performed wrt a set of products, essentially a market segmentation chart. See a sample chart that Jon created to the right.
I couldn’t sit still after seeing his post. So here comes market segmentation charts or marimekko charts using, <drum roll> conditional formatting.
See it for yourself, a market segmentation chart drawn in a 20×20 range of cells.
Here is a brief tutorial on how I created this. With little time and a strong coffee you can build a market segmentation chart too.
1. Adjust the data of your market segments and products
While Jon’s data (image) is oriented such that products are in columns and segments are in rows, I created the below structure as it directly maps to how the chart is drawn (segments in columns and products in rows)
I have derived the below table using formulas. It uses the number 20 (which is the size of one side of our conditional chart) and some rudimentary formulas to derive the numbers 0,8,14,18 from 40%,30%,20%,10% and so on. How ? Now would be the good time to take a sip of that strong coffee and think hard looking out of the window.
2. Create a simple 20X20 grid and start writing formulas
Ok, this is the tricky part. Ideally when the chart is ready we want to have 4 colored regions in each of the 4 segments (this can change if you have more products or more segments). Imagine you were to just write numbers in that grid such that for first product we write number “1” in each segment cells and second product, number “2” so on. Then, color all 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s differently using conditional formatting, then this is how it would look.
Now, we need to just figure out a simple formula that can automatically determine whether to output 1 or 2 or 3 or 4. ENTER THE STRONG COFFEE (or your favorite drink), slurp, slurp…
Ok, did you see those running numbers in the first column and row ? Good, We need to use those numbers to figure out certain things for us.
I have written the following formula in first cell in the 20×20 grid and copy pasted it all over the range.
=CHOOSE(MATCH(I$4,$C$13:$F$13,1), MATCH($H24,$C$14:$C$17,1), MATCH($H24,$D$14:$D$17,1), MATCH($H24,$E$14:$E$17,1), MATCH($H24,$F$14:$F$17,1))
What is it doing ? It is checking which segment the current cell belongs to by matching the top-row number with derived table’s first row (0,8,14,18). So for cell 1 this would be 1, for cell 12 this would be 3. Then, CHOOSE formula uses this information to determine which MATCH formula to run, there are 4 match formulas, each for one segment. All of them check the first-column running number with product-wise start numbers derived in the table 2 above. Slightly lost? Well, me too. Sip once more and read from beginning until it makes some sense.
3. Finally, apply the conditional formatting
Ok, now select the 20×20 grid and apply conditional formatting. Since I have created this in Excel 2007, I could define 4 rules, one for each number. But You can do similar using Excel 2003 (just define 3 rules, one for each number and apply 4th color to the entire range)
Also, hide the cell contents in the 20×20 grid by applying custom format code like this.
Thats all, you are now all set to show off your market segment chart. Go flaunt.
Download the market segment charts template and play around. [Excel 2007 File]
8 Responses to “Pivot Tables from large data-sets – 5 examples”
Do you have links to any sites that can provide free, large, test data sets. Both large in diversity and large in total number of rows.
Good question Ron. I suggest checking out kaggle.com, data.world or create your own with randbetween(). You can also get a complex business data-set from Microsoft Power BI website. It is contoso retail data.
Hi Chandoo,
I work with large data sets all the time (80-200MB files with 100Ks of rows and 20-40 columns) and I've taken a few steps to reduce the size (20-60MB) so they can better shared and work more quickly. These steps include: creating custom calculations in the pivot instead of having additional data columns, deleting the data tab and saving as an xlsb. I've even tried indexmatch instead of vlookup--although I'm not sure that saved much. Are there any other tricks to further reduce the file size? thanks, Steve
Hi Steve,
Good tips on how to reduce the file size and / or process time. Another thing I would definitely try is to use Data Model to load the data rather than keep it in the file. You would be,
1. connect to source data file thru Power Query
2. filter away any columns / rows that are not needed
3. load the data to model
4. make pivots from it
This would reduce the file size while providing all the answers you need.
Give it a try. See this video for some help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u7bpysO3FQ
Normally when Excel processes data it utilizes all four cores on a processor. Is it true that Excel reduces to only using two cores When calculating tables? Same issue if there were two cores present, it would reduce to one in a table?
I ask because, I have personally noticed when i use tables the data is much slower than if I would have filtered it. I like tables for obvious reasons when working with datasets. Is this true.
John:
I don't know if it is true that Excel Table processing only uses 2 threads/cores, but it is entirely possible. The program has to be enabled to handle multiple parallel threads. Excel Lists/Tables were added long ago, at a time when 2 processes was a reasonable upper limit. And, it could be that there simply is no way to program table processing to use more than 2 threads at a time...
When I've got a large data set, I will set my Excel priority to High thru Task Manager to allow it to use more available processing. Never use RealTime priority or you're completely locked up until Excel finishes.
That is a good tip Jen...