Hello, Namaste & Kia Ora. Welcome to Chandoo.org.
My name is Chandoo. My mission is to make you awesome in Excel and Power BI.
I do this by sharing Excel & Power BI tutorials, examples, tips, videos and articles on this website. I live in Wellington, New Zealand with my beautiful wife Jo & our twins Nishanth & Nakshatra. Take a minute to browse various topics of the site to see how I can help you.
Thank you and welcome.
This new series introduces a new author to Chandoo.org, Jeff.
Jeff will pose a number of Excel based Formula Challenges and then explain how some of the solutions work in a manner similar to the Formula Forensics series.
In this first post of the series we look at how to extract a string from the right of a block of Numbers in a larger string.
Pop quiz: What is wrong with above report?
At first glance, it looks alright. But if you observe closely, you realize that it is not telling the entire story. Just looking at regional sales numbers, you have not much clue what is going on with them.
So how to improve it?
What do you use Excel Tables for?
I will go first, I use them for,
1) Maintaining all my raw data, so that I can use structural references
2) Maintaining various trackers, for example I am tracking all our expenses in USA in a table.
3) For quick formatting of data (zebra lining, filters, sorting etc.)
What about you? What kinds of data are you holding in tables and how are you using them. Please share using comments
Have you ever been in a VLOOKUP hell?
Its what happens when you have to write a lot of vlookup formulas before you can start analyzing your data. Every day, millions of analysts and managers enter VLOOKUP hell and suffer. They connect table 1 with table 2 so that all the data needed for making that pivot report is on one place. If you are one of those, then you are going to love Excel 2013’s data model & relationships feature.
As an analyst (or manager), I bet a good portion of your Excel time is spent writing formulas and getting the results.
So today, let us learn 5 important keyboard shortcuts that will save you a lot of time and help you write better formulas.
Ever seen a formula like =SUMIFS(Sheet1!B2:B3923, Sheet1!C2:C3923, A1, Sheet1!D2:D3923, A2) and wondered what it is really doing?!?
If so, you are not alone.
Formulas written with cell references tend to look complicated and clunky. What if we could write formulas in plain English?
That is what Structural References do. When using structural references in formulas, your focus will be on your data, not on which cell ranges the data takes up.
For example, you can write formulas like these:
1) SUM(mySales[no. of customers]) to find how many customers we had.
2) SUMIFS(mySales[no. of customers], mySales[product], “FastCar”) to find how many customers bought “FastCar”
Here is a question someone asked me in a class recently.
“I know how to use VLOOKUP to find a value based on search term. But I have a slight variation to it. I need to extract value below the cell VLOOKUP finds.”
This is simpler than it sounds.
We can use INDEX + MATCH formulas to do this.
Finally my Excel classes in USA are over. It was a lot of fun traveling to new cities, teaching Excel & dashboards to enthusiastic crowds and making new friends. As if that is not fun enough, we (Jo, kids & I) are going on a 2,000 mile, 2 week road trip starting today.
Although I am enjoying all this, I also feel bad for not taking enough time to share new tricks, ideas & techniques with you here. So, I have a wacky, wild & awesome plan for you. Join us on our road trip.
That is right. You can join me on our road trip and see what I see, learn some pretty cool Excel tricks, all while sipping coffee and stretching legs in the comfort of your office cubicle.
for more videos…
Everything from Power Query to Dashboards, Shortcuts to Formulas, Pivots to Charts in one course.
BeginnerTables & Structural Referencing
Cell referencing
Excel operators
IF
IntermediateSUMIFS, COUNTIFS
XLOOKUP NEW
VLOOKUP
INDEX + MATCH lookups
AdvancedMulti-condition lookups
Array Formulas
OFFSET
INDEX
Lists100+ Excel Formulas list
Top 10 formulas
15 Everyday formulas
Challenges & Home workExcel Homework
BeginnerExcel Pivot Table Tutorial
Multi-table pivots with data model
Advanced
Advanced Pivot Tables
Distinct count in Pivots
Ranking values in Pivots
GETPIVOTDATA
How to use slicers
Lists35 shortcuts & tricks for data analysis
Top 10 pivot table tricks
15 quick & powerful ways to analyze business data
ResourcePivot Tables Page
BasicsHow to pick right charts
Why bar charts should start at 0
Add a line to column chart
Correlation vs. Causation
ExamplesHand-drawn charts
Budget vs. Actual chart
Interactive charts
Chart typesHistograms & Pareto charts
Forecasting with charts
Gantt chart
Funnel chart
5 star chart
Indexed charts
Panel charts - Small multiples
AdvancedTarget vs. Actual progress - Biker on a hill chart
Stacked chart with indicators
Cropped chart - when some values are too big
Jitter plot
Joy plot
Step chart
Dynamic chart with check boxes
Lists & TricksCharting shortcuts & tricks
Using shapes in charts
Awesome chart titles with this trick
Use chart themes and styles
Use selection pane to work with charts faster
If you are new to Excel or have never used it, use below links to come up to speed.
Have been using Excel for a while? Check out these tutorials to learn more and become awesome.
Work with Excel a lot and know your game well? We have some very-advanced topics for you too.
Check out:
Excel challenges
Advanced Charting
Data Tables & Simulations
Power BI
Power BI is the most exciting thing to happen for your data since spreadsheets. If you are looking for a new skill to learn this year, I highly recommend Power BI. Check out below tutorials and get started today.
Learn how to work with data, make calculations, pivots, create amazing charts and powerful dashboards from scratch using Excel School + Dashboards program. Suitable for analysts, managers or professionals who need to use Excel often.
Use VBA to automate your tasks and build powerful spreadsheet based apps. In this course, learn all about how to program with VBA, how to use the language and object model to your advantage. Suitable for people who build a lot of things with Excel.
