Recently, Microsoft Power BI introduced a very useful visualization, called key influencers visualization. As the name suggests, this is a chart of key parameters that effect a measure or outcome.
For example, you have customer satisfaction rating as a measure. Now you want to know which aspects of your data impact the ratings most? You can create the key influencer visual and Power BI finds all the top ranking influencers (using rules and machine learning).
The output can go like this:
How to read this chart?
Let’s look at top influencer for rating to be LOW: If role of the rating person is “Consumer” then their rating is 2.57 times likely to be low than other roles.
Likewise, if company size is <5000, then their rating is 1.48 times likely to be low than other company sizes.
As soon as I saw this chart in Power BI demo, I went…
Hot damn, that looks interesting!!! Can we get this in Excel?
Of course, Excel is a good few laps behind Power BI when it comes to data viz. But that won’t stop a data nerd, will it?
So here we go, a faked “key influencer chart in Excel”. Read on to learn how to create this yourself, from almost any data.
Key influencer chart in Excel – demo
Before we learn how to make this, let me present the chart itself.
Create your own key influencer chart in Excel…
So you are ready to make the chart? Just follow below steps and your key influencers will be identified, sorted and presented in a tidy chart.
Step 1: Arrange your data
This method works with data in one table. You can scale it to a dimensional model (star schema) with some creative pivot tables or cube formulas, but if you have gone that far, then you might as well jump to Power BI and save yourself a lot of agony.
Say your data is in a table like this. We want to investigate key influencers (from dimensions) of “Salary” column. This data is in a table named data.
Step 2: Calculate and sort influences
Now that we know our objective, let’s go ahead and crunch some numbers.
First, generate a list of all influences. This step is a bit manual, but not too hard. You can use Power Query to automate it if it gets too much.
We get something like this:
As indicated above, we need to calculate two kinds of averages.
- average of each column=criteria
- average of each column<>criteria
This is easily done by a couple of AVERAGEIFS formulas.
For example,
=AVERAGEIFS(data[salary], data[Dept], "Accounting")
for "Accounting" average pay.
=AVERAGEIFS(data[salary], data[Dept], "<>Accounting")
for all departments except "Accounting"
Let’s be smart then..,
Instead of writing formulas with manual criteria, we can tweak the column (data[Dept] for ex.) on the fly. After all, we know the column name.
So, let’s use this.
=AVERAGEIFS(data[Salary],INDEX(data,,MATCH(L5,data[#Headers],0)),M5)So what does it do? This formula calculates average of data[Salary] where M5 (Accounting for ex.) is found in the column that has the same header as L5 (Dept).
This is a powerful and elegant use of INDEX formula. Read this page if your INDEX() finger is weak.
Adding other calculations
Now that we have both averages, we can calculate the influence of something like this:
- Influence = average of criteria / average of not criteria – 1
- Order (rank) of influence = Individual influence’s rank in all influences
We can use simple arithmetic for 1 and RANK.AVG() for 2.
(Picture A) Summary of all the calculations so far…
Step 3: Start making the chart then…
Now that everything is ready, go to Insert ribbon and add Key Influencer chart.
Of course I’m kidding. There is no such button. But you can insert a 3D donut chart. Or may be not.
So let’s move on then.
The Key Influencer chart demo’d at the start is actually a scatter plot. See below anatomy.
10 Steps for creating the chart
(1) Make a scatter plot from “more by” and “influence order” columns
Select columns 3 & 4 as shown in Picture A and insert scatter plot. We get something like this.
(2) Reverse the chart by changing Y (vertical) axis order
Just select the Y (vertical) axis and go to axis format settings (CTRL+1 shortcut). Now select “Values in reverse order” option.
We get this.
(3) Limit vertical axis from 0 to 8
The scatter plot is showing all influences. We don’t need to see everything. So let’s limit the chart to top 8 influences. To do that, simply enter axis limits as 0 and 8.5 (if you put 8, then the last point will be hugging bottom border of chart and makes it hard to read).
You will end up with this.
(4) Replace dots with bubble
Now draw a bubble shape in the spreadsheet. Copy it (Ctrl+C). Select the dots in the chart and hit paste (CTRL+V). We get nice bubbles instead of dots in the chart. See this quick tut to understand the concept.
(5) Add data labels
Select the bubbles and add data labels. Show either X value or calculated labels from cells. Center align and adjust font settings if needed. At this point our key influencer chart looks like this:
(6) Add a dummy series with values just 1 or 2% less than influence
Now that our bubbles are ready, we need to show an arrow from 0 to the influence amount. To do this, we will use error bars, specifically 100% negative x error bars. Try saying that three times in a row.
This is easy to get. Simply add a new column to the calculations area. Write =influence – 2% and you get “Dummy for arrows” column.
Add this column to the chart. Remember, the Y values will be same as “Influence order” (Column 4 in Picture A)
(7) Add 100% negative x-error bars to the dummy series and format them
Wait a second. You can’t simply do that. So just add error bars and then,
- Remove vertical (Y) error bars
- Select horizontal (X) error bars
- Format them (CTRL+1 shortcut)
- Set bar direction to “Minus”
- Error amount to Percentage, 100%
- And end style to “No cap”
We end up with this chart.
While you are at error bar formatting screen, also adjust the bar color and begin arrow type so we get this nice arrowed error bars.
(8) Add another dummy series at -20% for axis labels
We know that top influencer increases average salary by 8.8%, but we don’t know what that is. Time to fix the problem.
Let’s create our own axis labels. Start by adding a dummy column with =-20% in the calculations area.
Also, create the label we want (this can be column & ” is ” & criteria or something else).
You need data like this.
Once that is ready, add a new series to the chart (from Select Data screen) and set X as “Dummy x for axis label” and Y as Influence Order (column 4 in picture A).
At this stage, our key influencer visual looks like this:
(9) Add the labels
Select this new dummy series, add data labels to it. Change label settings so that you can get values from cells (works only Excel 2013 or above). Point to the cells with calculated axis labels.
When everything is set up and formatted, we will have this chart:
(10) Nearly there, just clean up and format the chart
Can you feel the rush of creating something beautiful, fun and interesting in Excel? We are almost done. Just clean up the chart. Remove markers from any dummy series that are not needed. Get rid of grid lines. Add background if you want. Color things and our key influencer chart in Excel is ready.
Final touches – Form control to see positive and negative influences
Of course, the chart is nearly done. But if you want, you can dynamically show either positive or negative influencers. To do that, simply multiply the “More by” column (Column 3 in Picture A) with +1 or -1. +1 for positive influence, -1 for negative. Everything else works just as expected. You can link this to a form control and you will have a dynamic influencers chart.
Key Influencer Chart in Excel – Video tutorial
As this is a fairly complex chart, I made a video tutorial explaining all the nuts and bolts. Watch it if you need a hand with the construction.
You can also see this is on my YouTube channel.
Download Key Influencers Chart template
Click here to download the key influencer chart template.
This file contains detailed instructions, sample data and calculations. Use it to learn or modify for your needs.
What next?
If this is the first time you made a complex Excel chart, pat yourself on the back, go for an extra round of your favorite beverage and hug your loved ones.
And oh yeah, continue the journey with these other examples. You will be richly rewarded.
Budget vs. Actual Chart 
Sixty sports in 6 charts 
Dynamic chart in Excel 
Commonwealth games in a chart 
Interactive pareto chart 
Salary increases in scatter plot
How do you like the Key Influencer Chart?
I love the original thing in Power BI. Faking (recreating) it in Excel was fun but not scalable for large or split out data sets. I enjoyed the process immensely and immediately wanted to share it with all.
What about you? How do you like the key influencers chart in Excel? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
42 Responses to “Prevent Duplicate Data Entry using Cell Validations”
Hi Chandoo, I need you help in the following problem.
I'm trying to get a direccion from a found result. With this dirreccion I will want the before cell value. For example, If result of a find is 38 localized in cell $C$2, I need to get previus value (cell $B$2 ), maybe Andrés.
Do you know some way to do that?
Thank you for you help.
Hi Chandoo
Thanks for this. One thing though: In my pre-2007 version of Excel, the COUNTIF function doesn't recognise a semicolon (;), but requires a comma.
Is the semicolon an Excel 2007 thing?
Jair... I am not sure I understand what you want. what do you mean by Dirreccion?
@Lincoln: I am sorry, often I forget that I am using European version of excel where the delimiter is ; instead of ,. I have corrected the formula now.
Thanks for this nice tip, i used to do a find all after filling every new items which was cumbersome.
Do you know a way to extend this validation search to other tabs/sheets ?
Thanks for you attention. I'm trying to get of value continue from a found value. Let me show a example:
Name Years
John 35
Maria 28
Teresa 32
If I search the max years, the result is 35, but I need that result to be John. Do you know how I can do it?
@Subbu.. you can easily extend the validation to other sheets by pasting the data validations. See the latest article here: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/10/28/copy-data-validations/
@Jair.. you can use the large() or small() formulas to do this. for eg. =index(A1:A3,large(B1:B3,1)) will get you the name of the person with highest "years". More help here: http://chandoo.org/excel-formulas/large.html
Hi, I don't know if I'm using bad the formula or its performance is diferent for my Office version. Large() formula return the value in the cell, in my example 35. The index() formula use a range, row and column. I'm using the large() as number of row, and it is bad because into the range don't have row 35. This is my perception. What do you think?
Hi, I going to prove, with this solution by JLD http://jldexcelsp.blogspot.com/2008/07/extraer-direccion-de-celda-en-matriz.html
Hello,
I am trying to attempt data validation in Excel Mobile, but the DV tool isnt available. I want to prevent duplicates is all, any advice on acheiving this in Excel Mobile? Thanks..
@Jair... my french aint that good. it starts at "merci" and ends at "beau coup".
Anyhow, you need to merge the large with vlookup to do this. I am not sure if you have solved the problem. Otherwise let me know with details and I can write the formula in comments.
@Chad... I have never used excel mobile, so I have no idea. May be they have not implemented data validations in excel mobile.
Any excel mobile users out there?
Hi Chandoo, the proposed solution by JlD is interesting. He created a macro to get values when the matrix is not one dimensional, how on my problem. This fuction for me.
I would like to share you my work, how can I upload?
@Jair.. sorry for such a delayed reply.. you can upload the files to skydrive and link them here. Or you can email them to me at chandoo.d @ gmail.com and I will upload them somewhere. But it could take forever if you email files to me as I am a bit lazy.
[...] Day 31: Advanced Data Validation Tricks in Excel – Part 2 [...]
Hi,
Can you help me in Microstrategy?
Br,
Moin
really wonderful article. I feel it is implementing Primary Key concept into spreadsheets.
Hi article on data validation. Excel is a very versatile platform to work with and we use it for all kinds of data tabulation. In fact this must have been the most rudimentary data management tools I must have worked with and knowing such tips only adds functuionality to our user experience. Great article. looking forawrd to read more.
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for such a nice idea.
I tried copy paste the data into the validated area, but the pop-up msg (warning msg) doesn't came. Is it something that we need to update the data manually each time,.
Do we have any option where we can bulk upload the number and it throws a warning message that the data already exits and do we want to continue with this ?
Please do reply me.
Thank you.
Regards,
Vasanth.
It was really useful chandoo...thanks a lot...
Tried this in excel 2010 and it did not work?
Could the newer excel have changed that much?
@Leo
It works fine in Excel 2010
The formula used above =COUNTIF($B$4:$B$11,B4)<=1
only applies to the range B4:B11
Did you adjust the range to your data?
This page helped me accurately to find solution of my question. thanx
we want to prevent duplicate entries in three columns combined, using data validation, i.e. say, column A has first name and Column B has middle name, Column C has last name. the first name can be duplicate, middle name can be duplicate, last name can be duplicate, but not all three at the same time.
I want to prevent duplicate entries in three columns combine, using data validation, i.e. say, column A has first name and Column B has middle name, Column C has last name. the first name can be duplicate, middle name can be duplicate, last name can be duplicate, but not all three at the same time.
Hi, I've tried above validation method to prevent duplicate value from entering into the cells. It's work, when user key in the data into the selected range. However, it's not working when user copy-&-paste the info into the same range.
Please advice. Thanks.
Hi Chandoo,
Does it work in Excel 2007?
Please Reply
thanks chandoo........
it does not work when data is copy pasted...any solution for this??
hi i m shaloo and i want to know in excel if i write duplicate no.then it says or show about we are write duplicate no.
Hi Chandoo
I've tried using this with a Named Range, which is actually a column in a Table as DV wont accept a table reference, and it wont work.
Also tried using Offset to specify the Named Range, but that wont work either.
Is it possible to use Named Ranges with DV?
Thanks
Kris
I have tried the above formula on a table column. The Error box does not pop up, there is only the small ! next to the cell with the duplicate. The column I am working with is formulas that produce a date. Is the reason it doesn't work that the cells contain formulas rather than data?
The formula works but only if I enter data in cell above it. So for example, if I have "123" in B11 it does not allow me to enter "123" in B10, B9, B8, etc. But I can still enter "123" in B12. Please help! 🙂
Great tip.. thanks a lot
I have 21 years of experience working as data entry assistant. I constantly read several blogs to keep myself up-to-date with the advances in data entry profession. I really enjoyed this blog post. From my several years of experience, I agree with you 100% when you say, “ We all know that data validation is a very useful feature in Excel. You can use data validation to create a drop-down list in a cell and limit the values user can enter. ”
Keep blogging. I will come here again.
--data entry assistant
Hi,
This is really very helpful.
Thank you
how can i assign two validation on a single cell
one is for list validation (means the data should be from that range)
second i want to prevent them from repetition
how can i do this ?
P7 to P506 have GR# which are for list
i want to prevent C column to not to repeat and should be from the P column
@Junaid
Can you please post the question in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
You have to register to be able to post questions
Please attach a file so that a specific answer can be delivered.
i made an account but there is no option available to post questions ??
where can i ??
@Jubaid
Goto http://forum.chandoo.org/
Goto Ask an Excel Question
Post New thread
Type your question
Attach a file
Please attach a file so that a specific answer can be delivered.
friend can any one tell me the formula
exname location qty
gaurav 1 1
rofan 2 5
sandeep 3 6
gaurav 4 3
rofan 5 4
sandeep 6 8
gaurav 7 9
If this is a data.
if i want a formula by which if i type gaurav then all the location and qty should be shown in a new page.
i had 5,00,000 sku so if i punch one name i can get the entire details
@Gaurav
Can you please post the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Please attach a sample file for a quicker more targeted response
IF(ISERROR(INDEX($B$3:$C$9,SMALL(IF($B$3:$B$9=$B$12,ROW($B$3:$B$9)-ROW($C$2)),ROW(A1:C1)),2)),"",INDEX($B$3:$C$9,SMALL(IF($B$3:$B$9=$B$12,ROW($B$3:$B$9)-ROW($C$2)),ROW(A1:C1)),2))
please explain
YOUR COUNTIF FORMULA IS REALLY HELPFUL AND WORKS. I TRIED SEVERAL SITES BUT THEIR FORMULA DOES NOT WORK. ONLY YOU HAVE GIVEN A RIGHT FORMULA!
THANK YOU!!!!!