Round 2 begins! In this round, the goal is to understand what happens when values that are supposed to match are stored as different data types. Different data types? Cells can store many kinds of data, including numbers, text, dates, times, and so on. The format you apply to a cell doesn’t impact the data […]
It is time! In the first post, we met VLOOKUP. In the second post, we met SUMIFS. And now, the battle begins! Here is how it will work. The competition will consist of several rounds. In each round, we will use VLOOKUP and then SUMIFS to perform the same task. Then, we’ll determine who wins […]
This is the first post in a series called Battle of Heavyweights. In the series, we’ll use a boxing metaphor to compare VLOOKUP and SUMIFS. Now, as you read the next paragraph, use your best announcer’s voice and be sure to imagine the roar of a cheering crowd 🙂 “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the […]
In a previous post, we talked about how the CONCAT function joins values to create a combined text string. As a quick review, the CONCAT function is designed to replace the CONCATENATE function and supports range references as well as cell references. Well, as soon as we start playing around with CONCAT to join range […]
Quick question: how do we combine or join values from multiple cells to create one big text string? We’ve been able to use the concatenation operator (&) or the CONCATENATE function for decades. The CONCATENATE function has been a great friend over the years, and has enabled some wonderful formulas. But, now there’s a new […]
In the previous post, we learned that the SWITCH function allows us to look at a value and then return different results based on that value. But, what if instead of looking at one specific value, we need to consider multiple values in order to determine which result to return? Traditionally, we may have approached […]
For decades, Excel users have had the CHOOSE function and it has been able to power some wonderful formulas. But recently, we received the SWITCH function which provides much more flexibility. From a high level, both functions enable us to analyze a value and then return various results based on that value. But, SWITCH offers […]
In this post, we are going to use the data model to improve our reporting process. This is the fourth post in the Stop Wasting Time series, and this is where everything we’ve learned comes together. By the time we have finished this post, updating our report will be extremely easy. In fact, it will […]
We are in the middle of a series called Stop Wasting Time, where we are learning about Excel features that help us improve how we update a report. In the beginning of our journey, we were updating the report manually. Now, as we’ve learned more, we’ve been able to automate parts of it. That is, […]
This is the second post in the Stop Wasting Time series. In this post, we learn how Power Query can help us update our report in less time. After all, why would we want to spend more time than necessary updating it? That is called “wasting time” and we just don’t like wasting such a […]