Facoltà di Economia - Management

a.a. 2022/2023

ADVANCED EXCEL

Recap and Pivot Charts

Prof. Georgia C. Maurer

April 2023
 Agenda

1. Recap Content
2. Recap Chart Types
3. How to create Pivot Charts
 Create a New Name

A good practice for names creation is to start from the list to be created,
then click “Define Name”

Name of the List

Usage, comments, …
Shortcut
Range
 Manage Names

In order to change the list, get to Name Manager and Edit (the range or
other attributes) or Delete
 Database best practices

Design: plan in advance for the information required to be

analyzed, all possible references and attributes of data and
specially their correlations (1:1; 1:n; n:m)

Data Integrity: guarantee that data collected or treated is

consistent with the labels provided, that data is complete and
cleansed before start analyzing

Normalization: data normalization requires the organization of

the columns (attributes) of a database to ensure that their
dependencies are properly enforced by database integrity
constraints. We will cover only the first normalization form (1N1),
that requires that each column of a table must have a single value

1 - Codd, E. F. "Further Normalization of the Data Base Relational Model"

 Basic Formulas

CONCATENATE : Joins several text strings into ROUND (UP/DOWN) : Rounds a number to a
one text string specified number of digits.
Attention to spaces to make text still readable! By default all formulas round to next
approximation decimal either up or down
TRIM : Removes all spaces from a text string
except for the single spaces between words In case specific rounding is requested (always
Up or Down) specific formulas can be used
Why is it so important?? For data/text used as
lookup key empty spaces are considered
different characters, that need to be reviewed LEFT / RIGHT : Returns the specific number of
when data is not found characters from the start of a string, counted
onwards. Same for the end of a string for RIGHT,
MIN / MAX : Returns the smallest number in counted backwards
a set of values. Ignores logical values and text
REPLACE : Replaces a text string with a different
text string. Useful for massive replacement of
codes syntax that change throughout time
 Intermediate Formulas

COUNT : Calculates the number of records IF / AND / OR : Logical formulas are mostly used to
found in a range of values combine the analysis of more than one record or
condition
Watch out for blanks / zeroes = blanks do not
count in the total number, but zeroes do! Attention to the decimal numbers hidden in the
format!

SUMIF / COUNTIF : Used to sum or count the

VLOOKUP : The vertical lookup formula is used to
records that belong to a category that is used as
gather information related to a single key in
condition for the sum/count
different sheets or workbooks
SUMIFS / COUNTIFS : Sum or count based not 1. In order to use it properly – the key (unique
only in a single condition / category but several identifier) needs to be positioned in the first
column of the data set to be analyzed

SUBTOTAL : Provides the required calculation 2. Even if not in the first column, only data on
of different functions applied to a subset of the right side of the key can be referenced
data that works with the filters 3. Data used as key needs to be EXACTLY the
Subtotal can be used with a variety of same in all referenced places (same length, no
mathematical functions that are listed as soon empty spaces, no initial spaces or defined in a
as it is typed in the cell different format – text/number)
 Regular Graphs – Recap

CHART TYPE SHAPE USAGE

1 PIE CHART Pro-quota shares

2
Behaviour, performance
HISTOGRAM comparison

3 LINE Trends

Combine 2 observations
4,5
4
3,5
3

4 for perfomance
2,5

COMBINED 2
1,5
1
0,5
0
Q1 Q2

S1 S2
Q3 Q4
indication
 Regular Graphs – Recap

CHART TYPE SHAPE USAGE

5 X, Y SCATTER Distribution and

correlations

xxx yyy zzz kkk

6 1 2 3 4 Flat information
TABLE
a b c d

Multidimensional
7 RADAR comparisons between
multiple values

Composition of data /
8 WATERFALL categories and totals
How to compose the
PivotTable

0 Before starting ask “what do I

want to know from the data”?

1 Click in the field and drag it to the

corresponding area (usually we
start with ROW as the main key
for the analysis)
Pivot Charts

When working with

Pivot Tables, Excel
proposes the best fit
for the chart on data
selected
 Homework

▪ Practice the use cases in the dataset for Pivot Tables provides and create a
single chart for each one in a separated sheet