Can you imagine building a complex worksheet without formulas? I can’t. While no one can dispute the usability of formulas, we all know how painful it is when an excel formula returns a mysterious error and we don’t know what is causing it.
When I learned IF() formula for the first time, I have spent a whole Sunday morning debugging a stupid error in a grade calculation formula.
So as part of our spreadcheats series, we will learn a handy trick you can use to debug formulas and fix the errors quickly.
Assuming we have a moderately lengthy formula like this
=IF(AVERAGE(B2:B6)<=AVERAGE(C2:C6),MAX(B2:B6),MAX(C2:C6))
and we want to know where the error is occurring
- Select the cell with formula.
- Now click on the formula bar
- Just select the parts the formula and press F9 (for eg: the first average() formula)
- This will evaluate only the selected part and replaces it with the result. Like this:
- Using this technique you can narrow down the errors to particular range or values causing it.
- Now that you know where the error is occurring you can wrap that part of formula with an ISERROR() formula to avoid unpleasant surprises.
What is your favorite way of handling errors?
PS: If you have mailed me or commented here and waiting for a response, please give me some more time. I am having trouble getting internet connection in Chennai and visiting browsing center to respond to mails is not a pleasant experience either. I really appreciate your patience. Meanwhile if you know any free wi-fi hot spots in Chennai do let me know through comments. 🙂
7 Responses to “Extract data from PDF to Excel – Step by Step Tutorial”
Dear Chandoo,
Thank you very much for this and it is very helpful.
However, all the Credit Card Statements are now password protected.
Please advise how can we have a workaround for that
Hello sir,
How to check two names are present in the same column ?
Thanks and Regards
Hi, Thank you for the great tip. One problem, when I click on get data >> from file, I don't see the PDF source option. How can I add it?
I tried to add it from Quick Access toolbar >>> Data Tab, but again the PDF option is not listed there.
I am using Office 365
Hi, Thank you for your video. I see you used the composite table, but I when I load my pdf, it does not load any composite table. It has 20 tables and 4 pages for one bank statement. I have about 30 bank statements that I want to combine. Your video would work except that I can't get the composite table and each of the tables I do get or the pages does not have all the info. what to do?
Dear Chandoo,
How do we select multiple amount of tables/pages in one PDF and repeat the same for rest of the PDF;s in the same folder and then extract that data only on power query.
Thank you
Hi, Thank you for your video. I see you used the composite table, but I when I load my pdf, it does not load any composite table. It has 20 tables and 4 pages for one bank statement. I have about 30 bank statements that I want to combine. nice share
One bank statement takes up 20 tables and four pages in this document. I need to consolidate roughly thirty different bank statements that I have. Your video would be useful if I could only get the composite table, which I can't for some reason, and each of the tables or pages that I can get is missing some information.