Here is a problem we face very frequently. You have a list of values by months. And you want to find out the totals by Quarter. How do you go about it?
There are 2 options:
- You can make a pivot report from the data and then group dates in that to find totals by quarter
- You can write formulas to find the totals by quarter
While option 1 is good for knowing the values, we need option 2 if you want the values to be fed to another report, chart or dashboard.
Writing Formulas to Get Quarterly Totals from Monthly Data:
First, understand a little math formula called ROUNDUP():
ROUNDUP formula takes a number and rounds it up to the nearest fraction as specified by you. So for eg.,
ROUNDUP(1.234,1) = 1.3ROUNDUP(1.234,2) = 1.24ROUNDUP(1.234,0) = 2ROUNDUP(1.0,0) = 1
Now, assuming your monthly data is in cells B4:C15,
Our objective is to find Quarters from dates and then add up all items in Q1 against Quarter 1.
We can get the month from a date using MONTH() formula. If we divide the month by 3 and then round the value up to nearest integer we will get the Quarter.
So, A formula like =ROUNDUP(MONTH(B4)/3,0) should tell us the quarter for the month in the cell B4.
So the final formula for calculating sum of all the sales in Q1 is =SUMPRODUCT((ROUNDUP(MONTH(B4:B15)/3,0)=1)*(C4:C15)).
How this formula works?
Well, the portion ROUNDUP(MONTH(B4:B15)/3,0)=1 gives a bunch of 1 and 0s, one where the month belongs to Q1 and zero where it is not. When you multiply these ones and zeros with actual sales values in C4:C15, you get the total sales in Q1.
Since SUMPRODUCT has magical powers, it just processes all these ranges of data without batting an eyelid.
Download the example worksheet and play with this formula
Go ahead and download the example workbook and play with SUMPRODUCT formula to understand this better.
How do you calculate Quarterly Totals from Monthly Data?
Do you know a better way to do such calculation? How do you usually do it? Please share your tricks and ideas using comments.
12 Responses to “Analyzing Search Keywords using Excel : Array Formulas in Real Life”
Very interesting Chandoo, as always. Personally I find endless uses for formulae such as {=sum(if(B$2:B$5=$A2,$C$2$C$5))}, just the flexibility in absolute and relative relative referencing and multiple conditions gives it the edge over dsum and others methods.
I've added to my blog a piece on SQL in VBA that I think might be of interest to you http://aviatormonkey.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/lesson-one-sql-in-vba/ . It's a bit techie, but I think you might like it.
Keep up the good work, aviatormonkey
Hi Chandoo,
You might find this coded solution I posted on a forum interesting.
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming/680810-create-tag-cloud-in-vba-possible.html
[...] under certain circumstances. One of the tips involved arranging search keywords in excel using Array Forumlas. Basically, if you need to know how frequent a word or group of keywords appear, you can use this [...]
@Aviatormonkey: Thanks for sharing the url. I found it a bit technical.. but very interesting.
@Andy: Looks like Jarad, the person who emailed me this problem has posted the same in excelforum too. Very good solution btw...
Realy great article
"You can take this basic model and extend it to include parameters like number of searches each key phrase has, how long the users stay on the site etc. to enhance the way tag cloud is generated and colored."
How would you go about doing this? I think it would need some VB
Hi,
I found the usage very interesting, but is giving me hard time because the LENs formula that use ranges are not considering the full range, in other words, the LEN formula is only bringing results from the respective "line" cell.
Using the example, when I place the formula to calculate the frequency for "windows" brings me only 1 result, not 11 as displayed in the example. It seems that the LEN formula using ranges is considering the respective line within the range, not the full range.
Any hint?
@Thiago
You have to enter the formula as an Array Formula
Enter the Formula and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Not just Enter
Thank you, Hui! I couldn't work out how this didn't work
is there a limit to the number of lines it can analyse.
Ie i am trying to get this to work on a list of sentances 1500 long.
@Gary
In Excel 2010/2013 Excel is only limited by available memory,
So just give it a go
As always try on a copy of the file first if you have any doubts
Apologies if I am missing something, but coudn't getting frequency be easier with Countif formula. Something like this - COUNTIF(Range with text,"*"&_cell with keyword_&"*")
Apologies if I missed, but what is the Array Formula to:
1. Analyze a list of URL's or a list of word phrases to understand frequency;
2. List in a nearby column from most used words to least used words;
3. Next to the list of words the count of occurrences.