Splitting an Excel file in to many is easier than splitting bill in a restaurant among friends. All you need is advanced filters, a few lines of VBA code and some data. You can go splitting in no time.
Context:
Lets say you have lots of data like this in a file. And you want to split this in to multiple files, one per salesperson.
Solution – Split Data in to Multiple Files using Advanced Filters & VBA
The process of splitting data can be broken down to 4 steps.
- Identify the split criteria and list down all values in a small range. In our case, we list all the salespersons names in a named range lstSalesman.
- Set up advanced filters so that we can filter the data by one salesman at a time.
- Now, for each salesman, apply advanced filters and set it to copy the filtered values elsewhere.
- Copy the filtered values
- Add a new workbook and paste the copied values there.
- Save the new workbook with a unique name
- Repeat the above 3 steps for each salesman
- That is all! You are done splitting.
Video Lesson on Splitting Data using Filters & VBA
Since splitting data in to multiple files requires a bit of macro code & advanced filter knowledge, I have created a short lesson explaining how this works. Watch it below.
[If you are not able to see the video, watch it on our Youtube Channel]
If you are new to VBA, take our crash course.
Download Split Data Example Workbook
Click here to download the split data example workbook.To use this,
- Save the downloaded file to any folder.
- Open the file and enable macros.
- Examine everything and when ready, click on “Extract” button.
- Check the folder where you saved the file and you will fine 4 new Excel workbooks named after the salespersons with the data extracted for them.
You can find the macro code in Module 1.
How do you Handle Splitting Situations?
In my work, I rarely had to split data. And whenever I had to split data, I usually copy paste the data after filtering what I want. But I can imagine many real life scenarios where you need to automate the splitting part.
How do you split data? What techniques and ideas you use to speed up the splitting process? Please share using comments.
More on Splitting & Consolidation
If you are in to splitting or combining things, we have a selection of tips & examples to help you. Check out these articles.
- Consolidating Data in Excel – a collection of techniques & tips
- Split Text on new line using VBA
- Combining Data using Excel’s Consolidate Feature
- Using 3D References to Consolidate Data
PS: Heck, we have even have an Excel tip to tell you how to split expenses among friends 😛
PPS: You can use Pivot Table Report Filters if you want to split data in to multiple sheets.
15 Responses to “Make a Bubble Chart in Excel [15 second tutorial]”
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
Whyyyyyyyy?
The idea is to tell how to make a bubble chart. I got an e-mail from a reader recently asking how the scatter bubble is made. So I thought a 15 second tutorial would be a good idea to show this.
Did that email go "Dear Chandoo, I know that you scorn bubble charts, but if I don't do one in Excel for my boss then he'll fire my sorry ass, and my children will have to be sold for medical experiments in order for me to be able to afford the upgrade path to Excel 2010"?
If so, fair enough...it's all in the greater good 😉
Chandoo,
I am using excel 2003 and it is not working. The x axis is not the one that I enter in x axis column. Please help! Thanks.
Sorry, after few attempts, I managed to get the right result. I shouldn't select the title (header) of the table and select only the data to produce the right bubble chart.
What's wrong with bubble charts? Is there a better method for displaying scatter plots with lots of overlapping data points? Don't tell me you'd rather jitter!
@Sanwijay: Cool.
@Precious Roy: There is nothing wrong with bubble charts. Infact, it is the only way to show 3 dimensional data (x,y and sizes) without confusing your audience. Jeff is worried that people might misuse the chart. As with any chart, bubbles also have a place and time for using them.
I recommend using bubble charts to show relative performance various products in several regions and similar situations.
Also, human eye is notorious in wrongly estimating the bubble sizes (as we have to measure areas). See http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/07/28/charting-lessons-from-optical-illusions/
We can partially improve bubble charts by adding data labels, but if you have too many bubbles, the labels will clutter the chart and make it look busy.
I can't seem to find a way to plot more than ten bubbles on a chart and need to know how to add more
@KW.. why would such a thing happen. I am sure you can add more bubbles that that. Can you tell us exactly what you are doing...
Example table:
A B C (size)
Me: 25 30 15%
Him: 30 22 11%
Her: 12 30 20%
I am trying to make a bubble chart where the Y axis is A, the X axis is B, and the size of the bubble is C. There should be only 3 bubbles. I keep ending up with six (with the labels being only "Me" and "Her"). My goal is to have three bubbles, one representing each person. Clearly I am doing something wrong. Can you help explain...?
Hi,
I wanted to add data labels to the bubbles. Each bubble represents a different company name. Excel allows me to add the size, legend, x axis values and y axis values. How do I add instead- Company A, B, C, D for the bubbles?
youon you have to choice every data for every company..
ex:create bubble for A company,after that click right> add data label> adjust data labels :format data labels and choose : series name.
i hop u will succeed .
[...] we create a bubble chart with 2 bubbles. 1 for the actual mustache & 1 for target [...]
If we want bubble size to be controlled by one column, but the bubble labels to be controlled by another column, how can this be achieved?
many thanks!!!!