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

Common DAX functions (time intelligence, FILTER, CALCULATE, and so on)

There are over 250 DAX functions. We will not be covering all these functions in this book, but we will use and apply the most common functions to our sales dashboard.

Earlier, we calculated our first DAX formula using SUM. SUM falls under the category of DAX functions called aggregation functions. They are responsible for computing scalar values, such as sums, averages, minimums, maximums, and counts, across all rows within a column or table in our data model.

Here are some other categories of DAX functions and what they can be used to calculate:

  • Filter functions: These functions assist in fetching specific data types, searching for values in related tables, and applying filters based on associated values. Lookup functions operate by utilizing tables and their relationships. Filtering functions provide the ability to modify the data context, enabling the creation of dynamic calculations. This includes...