Joining should be chosen instead of blending whenever possible. However, there are exceptions, two of which are discussed here. First, data blending is advantageous (and usually necessary) when there is no common key shared between two tables. The following example demonstrates an occasion when cross-joining will not work and a data blend is required.
Advantages of blending
Exercise: necessary blending
This example uses a small secondary dataset with quota information and no unique row-level keys. It illustrates a use case in which it's easier to create and maintain a local spreadsheet than to properly model the same information in a database:
- In the workbook associated with this chapter, navigate to the Necessary Blending...