Excel andData Analysis

Excel and Data Analysis

Excel can be a powerful tool for analysis Excel provides many tools for analyzing

data– Filtering– Sorting– Formulas– Charts– Pivot Tables– Pivot Charts

Hard Way -- Easy Way

You can fight Excel– By Formatting your spreadsheets in a

traditional report style

You can work together with Excel– By Formatting your spreadsheets in a

way Excel prefers

Traditional Way

The Way Excel Likes

Well Formed Data?

Using Excel to analyze data can be much easier if your data is well formed

Well formed Excel data follows a set of simple rules

Rules of Well Formity

One value per cell One type of data in each column No blank rows One row of column headings Be consistent

– Windhoek, WHK, WNDHK, Whoek, The Hoek… Avoid separating similar data across tabs

One Value Per Cell

One Type Per Column

No Blank Rows

Be Consistent

Well Formed Data

Its easy for a computer to process Excel is designed to help you

analyze such data

Summary

Microsoft Excel can be a powerful tool for data analysis

Microsoft Excel works best with well formed data

Following a set of rules can help your data be well formed

The Rules

One value per cell One type of data in each column No blank rows One row of column headings Be consistent

– Windhoek, WHK, WNDHK, Whoek, The Hoek… Avoid separating similar data across tabs

Final Note

Using Excel to create well formed data can result in the duplication of some information

This duplication is necessary, because Excel is not a relational database