During last one week, we had a gala time with Dashboard Week on chandoo.org. To wrap-up the week, I am sharing a list of recommended resources, websites, tutorials & ideas for making dashboards.
[Note: I will be sharing your contributions for dashboard week on Monday]
Recommended Resources on Making Dashboards:
I have broken down this post in to various sections. Click on the links to quickly access the part you want to know or just keep scrolling to get the whole thing.
- Books on Dashboards
- Websites for Learning about Dashboards
- Dashboard Training Programs
- Add-ins & Software to Make Dashboards
- Dashboard Tutorials & Downloads on Chandoo.org
Books on Dashboards
Excel Dashboards and Reports by Mike Alexander
Authored by Mike “Dick” Alexander, a specialist on Bacon, Access, Excel – this book is an excellent guide to you if you need to learn how to make excel dashboards. Mind you the book teaches you various techniques required to construct the dashboards, but the onus of putting together these ideas to come-up with jaw-dropping dashboards is on you.
Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few
Now, what can I say about this. Stephen Few’s classic book on dashboards is an eye opener for anyone making charts or dashboard reports. Few starts the book by showing what a bad dashboard is and then moves on to tell you how visual cognition works. He later shows a couple of excellent dashboard designs. This book is a must read and refer to if you design dashboards.
Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
Edward Tufte’s master piece – Visual Display of Quantitative Information is an authoritative guide on how to design charts to communicate information. He shows various examples from history and gives theoretical concepts that you can apply to any chart (or slide) you design.
Business Dashboards – Visual Catalog by Nils Rasmussen
This book, as the name suggests is a catalog of successful dashboards. Nils’ work also includes a handy guide on KPI design and 1000s of KPI examples. A good read if you design dashboards not just based on Excel but many other tools.
Balance Scorecards & Operational Dashboards using Excel by Ron Person
Ron’s book on Balance Scorecards and operational metrics & visualization is a handy guide on how to use Excel’s features to monitor your company’s performance holistically.
Excel Pivot Tables & Pivot Charts by Peter G Aitken
Anyone making dashboards using excel will have to learn how to use Pivot Tables & Pivot charts to their full potential. This book can guide you in that direction.
Excel 2007 – Power Programming by John Walkenbach
Once you set out to make a dashboard using Excel, naturally you might feel powerless but certain feature limitations in Excel. You wish you can tell Excel to do something so that you can save time and do things that are more awesome (like actually improving your business). This is when you can use John’s Excel Power Programming book. The book teaches you how to extend Excel’s capabilities using Macros & VBA.
Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams
Do not be mis-guided by the small size of this book. This book can transform your ordinary dashboards (or designs / slides etc.) in to truly world class designs. The book teaches you fundamental design concepts and a must read if your job involves visual communication – ie making presentations, excel workbooks or reports.
Websites for Learning about Dashboards
Excel Dashboards Section of our site
This section of chandoo.org site provides you valuable tips, ideas, templates, examples and other useful information on Excel dashboards.
Insightful commentary on the state of business intelligence, dashboards and charting practices.
Robert’s Site on Excel, Tableau, VBA and more
Very good examples of excel & tableau dashboards, techniques, macro code snippets and more.
Dashboard Examples & Commentary
Dashboard screen-shots, commentary and interesting links
Charting principles, commentary from Jorge
This is your bible if you want to arm twist Excel charts
Dashboard Training Programs
Excel School Dashboard Training Program
Well, I have bored you enough with Excel School already, so I will keep this short. If you wish to learn how I make my dashboards, join Excel School.
I am conducting 2 day long, intense, hands-on & practical training on Excel dashboards & data analysis in Chicago, Columbus, Washington DC in May, June 2013. If you live nearby, consider enrolling in this program to become awesome in Excel.
Add-ins & Software to Make Dashboards
Excel Sparklines Adding [highly recommended]
![Excel Sparklines Adding [highly recommended]](https://chandoo.org/img/dashboards/dw/sparklines-for-excel-snapshot.png)
Adds the capability of Micro-charts to Excel. Very powerful, extremely awesome add-in by Fabrice.
Jon Peltier’s Excel Chart Add-ins for frequently used Dashboard charts
Jon’s charting addins are a must have if you make charts like waterfall charts, panel charts, dot plots etc.
Power Pivot helps you analyze massive data and present results in instant dashboards. A free addin from Microsoft and works with Excel 2010.
Tableau Public – for visualizing data & sharing your dashboards with public
Tableau public helps you create visualizations, charts & dashboards and share them with public thru web. A very powerful data analysis and visualization platform.
Charley Kyd’s IncSight DB for making Excel Dashboards
Charley’s Dashboard maker helps you create quick dynamic dashboards using Excel.
Dashboard Tutorials & Downloads on Chandoo.org
- KPI Dashboard using Excel – 6 part tutorial
- Project Management Dashboard in Excel
- Dynamic Dashboard using Excel – 4 part tutorial
- Website Dashboard in Excel
- Sales Dashboards Examples
- Travel Website Dashboard
- Customer Service Dashboard
- Executive Review Dashboard
- Healthcare Dashboard
- Dynamic Dashboard using Excel 2010 – Pivot Tables & Slicers
- Personal Expenses & Finance Dashboards – 7 Examples
What do you recommend for someone learning about Dashboards?
The above links are what I usually rely on when it comes to dashboard education. What about you?
What books, websites, software & training programs do you recommend? Please share using comments.
PS: Links to Jon Pelteir’s Addins, Charley’s Dashboard Kit and Dashboard Books are affiliate links. It means, when you click on the links and purchase these awesome products, I get a small commission. I recommend these products because I genuinely think they are awesome. So go ahead and get your dashboards to awesome level.
40 Responses to “Looking up when the data won’t co-operate (case study)”
Nice Trick.. Clever use of cell references
Here is a formula I tried to create:
=SUMPRODUCT(((NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH(L5,B4:H14))))*1),(B5:H15))
It takes care of Caveat #1 (can handle text), but Caveat #2 remains.
In situations like this, I will often use VBA to restructure the data (2 columns: dates and values) on to a new worksheet. I can then use this 'clean' source for data analysis (formula or pivot table).
=SUMPRODUCT(((NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH(L5,B4:H14))))*1),(B5:H15)) and complex formulae in general are all very well but when you come back to them in a few weeks / months time, it is not at all easy to see what they do and what the limitations are.
Hi Chandoo,
I had used this type of cell ref. various times while calculating average.
But for the situation here try below formula . Note this is an array formula and must be confirmed with Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
=SMALL(IF(MMULT((L5=B4:H14)*IF(ISNUMBER(B5:H15),B5:H15),{1;1;1;1;1;1;1}),MMULT((L5=B4:H14)*IF(ISNUMBER(B5:H15),B5:H15),{1;1;1;1;1;1;1})),1)
Regards,
Hi, I think Using SEARCH in here will create a problem say there is a text like SUN and another text SUNLIGHT both result will be added by SUMPRODUCT.
Regards,
Array option.
=SUM(IF(MOD(ROW(B4:B14),2)=MOD(ROW(B4),2),IF(B4:H14=L5,B5:H15)))
Regards
@Elias,
Nice approach.
Although not requested - the formula I suggested closes all possibilities.
Criteria: _____ Value to retrieve:
Date__________ Numeric
Date__________Textual
Textual________Numeric
Textual________Textual
While your formula copes with only the 3 first combinations.
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
ISRAEL
@Michael,
Sorry but I don’t understand your point. I believe the challenge was to return the summary of a given date. What is your really volatile formula doing that mine is not?
Regards
@Elias,
I didn't say that the challenge differs from what you just mentioned/aimed to nor that your formula doesn't provide the requested result.
Please read my previous comment again and focus on the last combination (TEXT / TEXT).
I, myself, always try to provide a global Formula that is capable to handle all sorts of data.
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
ISRAEL
@Michael,
I see your point, but you are missing the below points if you are trying to cover all sorts of data.
What happened if the lookup value does not exist?
Do you want the first, second, summary, concatenation of the values if the look value is repeated?
See they are too many possibilities to be cover with just one formula.
Regards
1) The range: B4:H15 was named: RNG.
2) The following Array Formula was "retrieved from my sleeve" and I hope it can be shorten.
3) The formula seems to take care of BOTH(!) caveats.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=OFFSET(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(SMALL(IF(RNG=L5,ROW(RNG),""),1),MOD(SMALL(IF(RNG=L5,(ROW(RNG))+COLUMN(RNG)/10),1),1)*10)),1,)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
ISRAEL
@Michael,
Check what happened with your result if you type 41927 in D5.
Regards
Correct. Didn't predict that.
Will find time to work something out.
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
ISRAEL
@Elias,
Let's hope the following Array Formula "closes all open doors".
Again - it has nothing to do with your formula which works fine as long as the 3 first mentioned combinations are concerned.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=INDEX(RNG,LARGE(IF(RNG=L5,MOD(ROW(RNG)-1,2)*(ROW(RNG)),""),1)-2,(MOD(SMALL(IF(RNG=L5,(ROW(RNG))+COLUMN(RNG)/10),1),1)*10)-1)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
ISRAEL
Ok, if you insist. The following will cover all the scenarios you listed. However, I’ll never recommend/use such of formula.
Defined names:
rDat = $B$4:$H$15
rRow =ROW(rDat)-MIN(ROW(rDat))+1
rCol =COLUMN(rDat)-MIN(COLUMN(rDat))+1
rInc =MOD(rRow,2)=MOD(MIN(rRow),2)
L6=INDEX(rDat,MAX(IF(rInc,IF(rDat=L5,rRow)))+1,MAX(IF(rInc,IF(rDat=L5,rCol))))
Array Enter
Regards
@Michael,
unfortunately, your array formula still seems to return wrong results (eg 3-Nov).
If data are organized like in the example, ie. looks like a calendar, the INDEX formula seems quite simple:
=INDEX($B$4:$H$15,ROUNDDOWN((L5-B4)/7,0)*2+2,MOD((L5-B4),7)+1)
Yours is effectively the same as what I just came up with, and I believe this is the optimal answer to this particular problem.
My solution, before I saw yours:
=OFFSET(B5,QUOTIENT(L5-B4,7)*2,MOD(L5-B4,7))
OFFSET will work for an arbitrary list size, but INDEX might be easier to read.
QUOTIENT does the round and division in a single step.
If there's an improvement over Elias's solution then I for one can't see it.
Perhaps a non-CSE version which would also mean that only two references (B4:H14 and B5:H15), as opposed to three (B4, B4:B14 and and B5:H15), would require manually amending should the data range change, i.e.:
=SUMPRODUCT((ISEVEN(ROW(B4:H14)-MIN(ROW(B4:H14)))*(B4:H14=L5)*B5:H15))
I suppose we could make it a single, uniform range reference:
=SUMPRODUCT((ISEVEN(ROW(B4:H14)-MIN(ROW(B4:H14)))*(B4:H14=L5)*OFFSET(B4:H14,1,,,)))
which might be more appropriate should we e.g. wish to use a Defined Name for our range, i.e.:
=SUMPRODUCT((ISEVEN(ROW(Rng)-MIN(ROW(Rng)))*(Rng=L5)*OFFSET(Rng,1,,,)))
though whether that compensates for the extra, volatile function call is something to be debated.
Regards
I have tried something and then my Excel workbooks got shut down. Maybe that was too much?
Anyway here is what I've tried:
=SUMPRODUCT(INDEX(B5:H15;IF(ISEVEN(ROW(B5:H15));ROW(B5:B15)-ROW(B5)+1);{1\2\3\4\5\6\7}))
Guess that was wrong? Would this approach work anyway?
Looking forward to learn something from you Excel Experts.
Sorry, I haven't took notice of XOR LX's answer. I guess that's kind of what I was looking for.
@Michael Avidan
As it stands that is not a very rigorous construction.
You say "I, myself, always try to provide a global Formula that is capable to handle all sorts of data", which is a wonderful philosophy, but isn't it at least as important that we ensure that our formulas are independent of the row and column references of the data range in question, so that, should that range change, we do not have to re-work our solution?
What happens with your formula, for example, if RNG is instead re-located one row down, from B4:H15 to B5:H16?
When a formula is reliant upon the addition/subtraction of certain constants within the formula, which themselves are necessarily dependent upon the specific rows/columns in which the data lies at any given time (e.g. the -1 in MOD(ROW(RNG)-1,2)), then that formula is not a very flexible one.
Hence the reason for my choice of a slightly longer construction:
ROW(B4:H14)-MIN(ROW(B4:H14))
which ensures that this part of the calculation is not dependent upon the precise location of the data range within the worksheet, and so will give correct answers even if that range is re-located.
Regards
{=OFFSET(B4,MAX((B4:H15=L5)*ISODD(ROW(1:12))*ROW(1:12)),MAX((B4:H15=L5)*ISODD(ROW(1:12))*COLUMN(A:G))-1)}
Non-array formula:
=INDEX(B4:H15,SUMPRODUCT((B4:H15=L5)*(ROW(B4:H15)-ROW(B4)+1)*ISODD(ROW(B4:H15)-ROW(B4)+1))+1,SUMPRODUCT((B4:H15=L5)*(COLUMN(B4:H15)-COLUMN(B4)+1)*ISODD(ROW(B4:H15)-ROW(B4)+1)))
Using one range (B4:H15), one reference (B4), one lookup value (L5) and no INDIRECT or OFFSET.
My trial with defined names:
DateRange
=$B$4:$H$4,$B$6:$H$6,$B$8:$H$8,$B$10:$H$10,$B$12:$H$12,$B$14:$H$14
Position
=RANK('lookup problem'!$L$5,DateRange,1)
L6
=OFFSET(B4,ROUNDUP(Position/7,0)*2- 1,IF(MOD(Position,7)=0,6,MOD(Position,7)-1))
I'd probably just run with something like:
=SUMPRODUCT((B4:H14=L5)*(MOD(ROW(B4:H14),2)=MOD(ROW(B4),2))*B5:H15)
...which is basically the same as Elias' but without the IFs
The opposite of elegant but it works...
=INDEX(B4:H15,IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:B14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,C4:C14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,D4:D14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,E4:E14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,F4:F14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,G4:G14,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,H4:H14,0),0)+1,IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:H4,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B6:H6,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B8:H8,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B10:H10,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B12:H12,0),0)+IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B14:H14,0),0))
=INDEX(B4:H15,
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:B14,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,C4:C14,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,D4:D14,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,E4:E14,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,F4:F14,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,G4:G14,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,H4:H14,0),0)+1,
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B4:H4,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B6:H6,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B8:H8,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B10:H10,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B12:H12,0),0)+
IFERROR(MATCH(L5,B14:H14,0),0))
Named Range
rownum = SUMPRODUCT(('lookup problem'!$B$4:$H$14='lookup problem'!$L$5)*ROW('lookup problem'!$B$4:$H$14)*ISEVEN(ROW('lookup problem'!$B$4:$H$14)))
Formula
=OFFSET($A$1,rownum,MATCH(L5,INDIRECT("$B"&rownum&":$H"&rownum),0))
How about SUM(IF(B4:H14=L5,B5:H15)) with array..it should work
Sorry, Chandoo, you can't find stuff this way in every possible scenario.
What if 2014-10-01 sales would equal 41.927 ? Which is serial number for 2014-10-15 ? SUMIF would fail to retrive correct answer. And your example data suggest that such number is possible in your table.
It's better not to search through dates and numbers at the same time.
If I'd solve a problem like this, it'd reformat table first so I get one column with dates and the other with numbers.
In this case, formula to form date column would be:
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS((INT((ROW()-4)/COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+1)*2+2;MOD(ROW()-4;COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+2;4;1))
and numbers would be the same formula with sight adjustment (+3 instead of +2 at the end of first argument):
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS((INT((ROW()-4)/COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+1)*2+3;MOD(ROW()-4;COUNT($B$4:$H$4))+2;4;1))
And now you got two columns that you can safely use for searching!
Oops, sorry, you actually mentioned that it doesn't work if number=date! I missed that part 🙁
={OFFSET(A1,SUM((B4:H14=L5)*ROW((B4:H14))),SUM((B4:H14=L5)*COLUMN((B4:H14)))-1)}
Works for all data... the solution I got for indirect looks little lengthy
I want to count last 20 records of a person, whose marks is greater than 2 and grade "manager". ....
Assume A1 has got names (James, John...etc...)
A2 "Manager"
A3 "2"
Someone please reply
I want to count last 20 records of a person, whose marks is greater than "2" and grade "Manager"
Assume A1 "geroge" A2 "Michael" A3 "George" etc...name can found anywhere in the rows
B1 "Manager" B2" clerk"
C1 "2" C2, "4"
please reply
Simplest I can come up with. No limitations for either 1 or 2. This does assume dates are an ordered list with 7 per row, and 2 rows per set. Assuming this is always true this will work for an arbitrary long list of dates.
=OFFSET(B5,QUOTIENT($L$5-$B$4,7)*2,MOD($L$5-$B$4,7))
@Marc,
Nice approach - however, as there are no "Negative Dates" - try:
=OFFSET(B5,INT(L5-B4)/7)*2,MOD(L5-B4,7))
——————————————————————————-
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answer” – Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2015)
ISRAEL
=OFFSET(B4,ROUNDUP((L5-41911+1)/7,0)*2-1,MOD(L5-41911,7))
B4 has been used as reference cell for OFFSET().
FOR ROWS:
ROUNDUP(....,0) gives the integer value of a division. In case of presence of a remainder, ROUNDUP will add 1 to the Quotient.
As opposed to ROUNDUP(), the INT() or QUOTIENT() functions eliminate the remainder.
41911 = 01-Sept-2014, the first date in the data.
*2 has been used because there are 2 columns per set of data.
/7 has been used because there are 7 columns per set of data.
For columns
MOD(L5-41911,7))
Vijaykumar Shetye,
Panaji, Goa, India
This is how i did it
{=INDEX(B4:H15, MAX((L5=B4:H15)*ROW(B4:H15))-2, MAX((L5=B4:H15)*COLUMN(B4:H15))-1 )}
Here's my solution:
=INDEX(B4:H15,MATCH(1,MMULT(--(B4:H15=L5),TRANSPOSE(COLUMN(B4:H15)^0)),0)+1,MATCH(1,MMULT(TRANSPOSE(--(B4:H15=L5)),ROW(B4:H15)^0),0))
Sorry, forgot to mention Ctrl Shift Enter is needed.