Book Image

Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel

By : Bernard Obeng Boateng
5 (1)
Book Image

Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel

5 (1)
By: Bernard Obeng Boateng

Overview of this book

Microsoft Excel's BI solutions have evolved, offering users more flexibility and control over analyzing data directly in Excel. Features like PivotTables, Data Model, Power Query, and Power Pivot empower Excel users to efficiently get, transform, model, aggregate, and visualize data. Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel offers a practical way to demystify the use and application of these tools using real-world examples and simple illustrations. This book will introduce you to the world of data modeling in Excel, as well as definitions and best practices in data structuring for both normalized and denormalized data. The next set of chapters will take you through the useful features of Data Model and Power Pivot, helping you get to grips with the types of schemas (snowflake and star) and create relationships within multiple tables. You’ll also understand how to create powerful and flexible measures using DAX and Cube functions. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to apply the acquired knowledge in real-world scenarios and build an interactive dashboard that will help you make important decisions.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: Overview and Introduction to Data Modeling in Microsoft Excel
6
Part 2: Creating Insightful Calculations from your Data Model using DAX and Cube Functions
9
Part 3: Putting it all together with a Dashboard

Understanding the different types of schemas (snowflake and star)

When you create a data model, the arrangement of the dimension and fact tables can help you understand how the data flows from the dimension tables to filter the fact tables containing our key measures.

At the heart of our analysis are the key measures we will calculate from our fact tables. These fact tables are normally placed at the lower section of the data model, and our dimension tables are placed on top.

In certain layouts, you can also place the fact tables in the middle surrounded by dimension tables. This type of layout where several dimension tables are connected to one or multiple fact tables placed below or at the center of the dimension tables is called a star schema.

Figure 4.17 – Star schema in a data model

Figure 4.17 – Star schema in a data model

This is a common layout or schema for most data models. It ensures that your calculations are well optimized because it has only dimension tables of one level...