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:
- SUM(mySales[no. of customers]) to find how many customers we had.
- SUMIFS(mySales[no. of customers], mySales[product], “FastCar”) to find how many customers bought “FastCar”
Learn how to use Structural References and why they can change you life
Introduction to Structural References
[Watch this on our YouTube channel]
Download Example File
Click here to download example workbook and play with Structural References to learn more.
Learn more about Tables & Structural Refs
- Introduction to Tables in Excel
- Using Tables with VLOOKUP formulas
- How to preserve table column references
- Customizing table formatting
Do you use tables & structural references ?
I use tables all the time. They help me stay focused on analysis & visualization instead of cell addresses.
What about you? Do you use tables & structural references? Please share your experiences, tips & ideas using comments.
Bonus Video: Here is a video I did with Bill Jelen (MrExcel) about this topic.
Personal update: We are at beautiful Woodbury Inn on Blue Ridge Pkwy and loving our stay. See this video.
3 Responses to “CP049: Don’t do data dumps!!!”
Your title got me nervous because I'm all about data dumps, but not for attaching graphics to data dumps. My reason for using data dumps is when someone is trying to do analysis and their starting point is a report that's formatted in a way for a human to read. I instruct them to stop with the report and go get a data dump: just rows and columns and rows and columns.
Agreed, nearly all of my reports start with 100+ lines of simple table data.
That way you can build your functionality around pulling information from that tabled information.
Yes yes!