Hello everyone. My name is Luke M, and I’ve been coming to Chandoo’s site for about a year now.
I love solving problems, and helping people out on the forums.
Due partly to Hui’s challenge about submitting articles, and 3G’s comment the other day about this particular formula, I decided to try my hand at writing an article.
I Hope it helps explain some cool Excel tricks that I like to use. 🙂
The Problem
Often, I see a request from an individual asking for a formula that will be able to generate a list based off of some criteria, with no spaces/blanks.
As Chandoo & Hui have often pointed out, there’s not much Excel can’t do if you know the right functions to use.
Today, we’ll take a look at how we can accomplish this particular task.
Suppose I want to be able to generate a list of all the Vegetables.
In cell E2, I put this array formula:
=IF(COUNTIF(A:A,$D$2) < ROWS($E$2:E2), “”, INDEX(B:B, SMALL( IF($A$2:$A$10 =$D$2, ROW( $A$2:$A$10)), ROW(A1))))
Remember, array formulas need to be confirmed using Ctrl+Shift+Enter, and will have curly brackets { } around the formula if done correctly.
I then copy the cell downward as far as I think will ever be necessary to display all the records (i.e. E7).
Lets Look Inside
Let’s take a closer look at how the formula works.
Front Half
First, let’s look at the IF function’s logic check.
=IF(COUNTIF(A:A,$D$2)<ROWS($E$2:E2),””, INDEX(B:B, SMALL( IF($A$2:$A$10 = $D$2, ROW($A$2:$A$10)), ROW(A1))))
We’re using the COUNTIF function to determine the total number of records that meet our criteria. We’re then comparing this to a ROWS function. The ROWS function simply returns the number of rows given in the argument. Note that the first part of the range callout uses an absolute reference and will not change, while the latter part is relative and will change as the formula is copied down. Thus, in the first cell, the ROWS function evaluates to 1. The next cell, it will evaluate to 2, then 3, and so on. So, the IF statement is checking to see if the number of records returned so far (i.e., formula used) is greater than the total number of possible records. If this is true, return a blank (i.e., “”).
Back Half
The latter half of the formula is where things get tricky.
For this part, let’s work our way from the inside out.
We start off with another IF function:
INDEX(B:B,SMALL(IF($A$2:$A$10=$D$2, ROW($B$2:$B$10)), ROW(A1))))
This section compares A2:A10 with our criteria given in cell D2. So, the array if A2:A10 starts off looking like this:
{Fruit, Fruit, Vegetable, Vegetable, Fruit, Vegetable, “”, “”, “”}
When we compare it with the criteria, it becomes this:
{False, False, True, True, False, True, False, False, False}
Looking at the return values in our IF function, we see that only a True result is stated, the ROW.
INDEX(B:B,SMALL(IF($A$2:$A$10=$D$2, ROW($A$2:$A$10)), ROW(A1))))
So, each True value from the array above will be replaced with the corresponding Row value.
This causes the array to become this:
{False, False, 4, 5, False, 7, False, False, False}
Now that we have a nice array with some numbers in it, this gets fed into the SMALL function.
INDEX(B:B,SMALL(IF($A$2:$A$10=$D$2, ROW($A$2:$A$10)), ROW(A1))))
The ROW function at the end will serve as a type of counter.
In E2, where we initially place the formula, this will evaluate to 1, thus telling the SMALL function to return the 1st smallest number.
In E3, it will evaluate to 2, and the SMALL function will return the 2nd smallest number, and so.
So, taking the 1st smallest number from our array, we get the number 4.
We then take this to the INDEX function
INDEX(B:B,SMALL(IF($A$2:$A$10=$D$2, ROW($A$2:$A$10)), ROW(A1))))
Note that we need to callout the entire column, since we are plugging in row numbers.
The 4th row in column B leads us to the value “Broccoli”.
The next formula will return the 5th row, “Spinach”.
The 3rd formula will return the 7th row, “Peas”.
This method can be adapted for use with multiple criteria. We would just need to expand the IF function logic checks so that only the correct rows are returned.
PS. If it gets too confusing, the first part of the formula can be omitted.
=IF(COUNTIF(A:A,$D$2)<ROWS($E$2:E2),””, INDEX(B:B, SMALL( IF($A$2:$A$10 = $D$2, ROW($A$2:$A$10)), ROW(A1))))
It is just there to hide any unwanted #NUM errors after all the pertinent records have been displayed.
EXTENSION
To see how this technique can be extended to use multiple criteria please read the follow up post at:
http://chandoo.org/wp/2014/11/10/formula-forensics-no-003b-lukes-reward-part-ii/
DOWNLOAD
You can download a copy of the above file and follow along, Download Here.
OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES
You can learn more about how to pull Excel Formulas apart in the following posts
Formula Forensic 001 – Tarun’s Problem
Formula Forensic 002 – Joyce’s Question
THANK-YOU and a CHALLENGE
Firstly a Congratulations to Luke M on taking up the challenge and on your First Post at Chandoo.org.
Thank-you for explaining to us all how this formula, which has appeared a number of times on the Chandoo.org Forums, works.
The contents of the Post are published as Luke submitted it with only minor formatting changes.
My Challenge to you is this:
If you have a neat formula that you would like to share and explain, try putting pen to paper and draft up a Post as Luke Did above.
If you have a formula that you would like explained but don’t want to write a post also send it in to Chandoo or Hui.
29 Responses to “Customer Service Dashboard using Excel [Dashword Week]”
Looks good, Mara. Keep up the good work!
Thx Mara, your work is great, congratulations...
wow ! Great stuff Mara !!
I am amazed on the work you did !
What I like about your dashboard
1. The first impression is the colors used. Very smart use of colors that matches each other, easy on the eye - make people wants to find out more !
2. Clear message shown for the tweetboard for Quick overview on the state of situation.
3. Use of creative titles for your charts "Information Desk".
4. Clear and uncluttered charts. Gives reader a clear perspective with good use of charts colors too.
5. Good use of Legend to describe what color meant "Highest Sales out of the three months"
6. Of course, good use of Check boxes and Slider bar to offer interactiveness on your charts.
Suggestions
1. You may want to consider formatting your Y and X axis labels to show thousands, in $500K format instead of $500,000, so you can even made your chart look much neater.
2. Budget Variant Chart - This one is special...I took a second look and try to understand it. I am not sure if this is the best chart to visualize Sales VS Budget and Variances. And the Variance of 16.19% is positive, so u may want to use conditional formatting to make it green color, red if negative.
Overall is Great Work and Great Effort !!! Keep it up and I am so proud of you !
Francis Chin
http://www.francischin.com
Great Work Maya, just wondering if "5" Scrollable list of various gift shop items, can compare the previous 2 and current month selected in the above picklist, just one more suggestion if we can use top 5 gift category by using donut and bar mix chart to show sales mix for different months
Chandoo I would like to thank you for posting such helpful tricks for creating dashboards, I have learned a lot from your KPI Dashboard demo, I have created one dashboard to compare performce of Sales Associates, thaks a lot again
Thanks for the idea! Great job! You are giving me a lot of inspiratons!
Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I'm such a novice at this so I was so grateful for Chandoo's class and for everyone who submits ideas on his blog.
Francis: Thanks so much for your comments. You're an inspiration. For the budget variance chart, I actually got that idea from one of Chandoo's post on budget vs actual. There was one that was simple and easy to read so I learned how to do that and made it dynamic. I'm open to any other ideas you have for budget vs actual. I'm always looking for ways to improve.
Sabrina: Thank you for you for your suggestion on the top 5.
Dear Mara,
Great work.
But i one suggestion regarding the INFORMATION DESK graph is consist of month but which year it belong is not there if it would be there it would be great.
Warm Regards
Bhushan Sabbani
+91 98208 26012
Thanks for this idea... Great Stuff !!
Excellent dashboard Mara.
The best I like about the dashboard is the choice of colors. They are cool and not distracting. Thanks for sharing the file.
@Chandoo
Thanks for the dashboard week Chandoo. I am learnt a lot in the last 2 days. I am excited over the next 3 days! 🙂
Regards,
Ravi.
Great work Mara ! Thanks for sharing .
Mara, I liked the line, "Need to be more helpful." Our government needs to print this line, laminate it and post it in all government offices for the staff to see.
Hi there, i have been recently visiting this blog it is really great, the best one for Excel, wish Chandoo great success ahead.
I have one query, if you protect the data sheet the chart with the checkbox gives and error saying the data is protected and cannot be modified, is there a way around. This is cause if we want to publish this to someone who should only see it and do no changes to the data, is it possible please guide.
This could be a silly but bear me i am novice to excel 🙂
Thanks.
nice work.
inspired me a lot, working on few dashboard projects...
[...] Customer Service Dashboard in Excel 14,326 [...]
[...] Customer Service Dashboard Example [...]
dear mara
looks great .any reason why you have not used the bullet chart for the actual vs target chart.on the whole it is simple and elegant .jay.
Dear Chandoo,
The word Dashboard in the heading is misspelt.
Wow. Very Nice work Mara. Next week I am going to take the Course, I will try to post my work here.
Thank you so much for your helpful blog. Always appreciated your tips and tricks.
I am proud that you belongs to our Vizag City.
The above comment, I forgot mentioned about Chandoo, those two paras is about Chandoo. 😀
Thank you Mara!
Thx Mara, your work is great, congratulations…
Great Work Mara!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Chandoo,
I had been following your blogs for tips and tricks on excel. I am working with Media agency and we collect the data. Now this data has several parameters based on several legends. For eg Class A - legend color red, classB - legend color green and so on. Class A has several characteristics and parameters and heading etc. Now everytime we gather data and make pivot then based on the data in the pilot tables - top 10 we need to insert those in charts manually and also need to change the colors of legends and also. We create nearly 300 slides every month sector wise and it takes nearly our 4-5 days in doing that. Do you have any sample dashboard which will be helpfull to us and we can create it in a day.
Thanks really amazing one,
it helped me in desgining OTACE report
Regards
Gowravan M
9980651792
Awesome Job done here .............
very good master piece but wont to know if you can design KPI's for a financial institution. Thank you
I need help to make performance for our company
we have about 10 products from 5 years old