When you are a “work from home” dad, you can see a lot of patterns. Here is one.
My kids come home from school by noon (they are too young for full day school). Right after lunch they watch their favorite cartoon program, Team Umizoomi, in which few fictional characters go about solving problems in the Umi city using maths. Milli, one of the characters is an expert with patterns. She solves problems by identifying patterns and unleashing pattern power.
Here is a fun example of the pattern power. (It has Chef Gordan Ramsey too, which is sweet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JTxJiCQEMc
Team Umizoomi & Excel Fill – How do they link up?
Here is how they link up.
Imagine you have a workbook where you need to follow a pattern, like one of these:
You too can unleash the pattern power. What more… you needn’t break in to a song sequence every-time you unleash the power.
How to use Excel’s pattern fill?
Here is an example. Let’s say you want 2 different formulas & 1 blank cells in a sequence.
- Write the first formula in cell 1
- Second formula in cell 2
- Leave the 3rd cell blank
- Select all 3 cells
- Drag to fill
See the screencast aside to understand this concept.
Bonus tip: You can use this technique horizontally too.
Where to use this pattern power?
Here are few uses for pattern fills:
- Dashboards & reports where you need to show some information but space it with blanks for readability
- Apply different formatting to different rows / columns
- Set conditional formatting only to every nth cell
- Format (or write formulas for) weekdays & weekends differently
I use pattern power often when designing dashboards or complex reports.
What about you?
Do you use pattern power? Tell us in the comments where you would use them.
I must go now, I hear the umi alarm. Looks like the kids are back from school.
One Response to “SQL vs. Power Query – The Ultimate Comparison”
Enjoyed your SQL / Power Query podcast (A LOT). I've used SQL a little longer than Chandoo. Power Query not so much.
Today I still use SQL & VBA for my "go to" applications. While I don't pull billions of rows, I do pull millions. I agree with Chandoo about Power Query (PQ) lack of performance. I've tried to benchmark PQ to SQL and I find that a well written SQL will work much faster. Like mentioned in the podcast, my similar conclusion is that SQL is doing the filtering on the server while PQ is pulling data into the local computer and then filtering the data. I've heard about PQ query folding but I still prefer SQL.
My typical excel application will use SQL to pull data from an Enterprise DB. I load data into Structured Tables and/or Excel Power Pivot (especially if there's lot of data).
I like to have a Control Worksheet to enter parameters, display error messages and have user buttons to execute VBA. I use VBA to build/edit parameters used in the SQL. Sometimes I use parameter-based SQL. Sometimes I create a custom SQL String in a hidden worksheet that I then pull into VBA code (these may build a string of comma separated values that's used with a SQL include). Another SQL trick I like to do is tag my data with a YY-MM, YY-QTR, or YY-Week field constructed form a Transaction Date.
In an application, I like to create a dashboard(s) that may contain hyperlinks that allow the end-user to drill into data. Sometimes the hyperlink will point to worksheet and sometimes to a supporting workbook. In some cases, I use a double click VBA Macro that will pull additional data and direct the user to a supplemental worksheet or pivot table.
In recent years I like Dynamic Formulas & Lambda Functions. I find this preferable to pivot tales and slicers. I like to use a Lambda in conjunction with a cube formula to pull data from a power pivot data model. I.E. a Lambda using a cube formula to aggregate Accounting Data by a general ledger account and financial period. Rather than present info in a power pivot table, you can use this combination to easily build financial reports in a format that's familiar to Accounting Professionals.
One thing that PQ does very well is consolidating data from separate files. In the old days this was always a pain.
I've found that using SQL can be very trying (even for someone with experience). It's largely an iterative process. Start simple then use Xlookup (old days Match/Index). Once you get the relationships correct you can then use SQL joins to construct a well behaved SQL statement.
Most professional enterprise systems offer a schema that's very valuable for constructing SQL statements. For any given enterprise system there's often a community of users that will share SQL. I.E. MS Great Plains was a great source (but I haven't used them in years).
Hope this long reply has value - keep up the good work.