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Techniques
In recent back-to-back webinars, two different attendees asked how to check to see if a user entered a text string with all caps. Specifically, they asked how to set up a data validation rule to determine if all letters are capitalized. So, I figured I would write a quick post about the technique. Objective Let’s just take a moment…
In this post, we’ll create a drop-down that contains a unique list of choices derived from a column that contains duplicate values. This may sound familiar as we previously accomplished this with a PivotTable. However, the Power Query feature that’s built-in to Excel 2016 makes this process easier. Objective We have a data table that contains RepID,…
When you need to perform a lookup, your instinct tells you to use VLOOKUP. But, when your lookup uses multiple conditions and columns, you may be inclined to use SUMIFS. However, when the value you need to return is a text string, rather than a numeric value, you are precluded from using SUMIFS since it only…
The terms Moving, Rolling, and Trailing are commonly used to describe the same calculation idea…that we want to operate on the previous say 3, 6, or 12 data rows. In this post, we’ll allow the user to define the number of rows to include and use the OFFSET function to dynamically define the desired range. Objective…
Beginning with Excel 2013 for Windows, we can use Slicers to filter table data. In this post, we’ll explore how to use Slicers as a relatively easy alternative to conditional drop-downs. Objective When we want to allow a user to select a choice from a list of items, we often consider using the Data Validation feature to…
In this post, we’ll examine a couple of ideas for computing income tax in Excel using tax tables. Specifically, we’ll use VLOOKUP with a helper column, we’ll remove the helper column with SUMPRODUCT, and then we’ll use data validation and the INDIRECT function to make it easy to pick the desired tax table, such as single or married…
In this post, we’ll recreate a heat map presented in Stephen Few’s Information Dashboard Design, 2nd Edition, using an Excel PivotTable and a bit of conditional formatting. Objective Before we get too far, let’s take a look at our objective. We are trying to create a heat map that uses variation in color intensity to…
In this post, we’ll explore a method to allow a user to select an item from a drop-down list and then use formulas with the VLOOKUP function to retrieve multiple values from the related item table. Objective Before digging into the mechanics, let’s review our objective with an example. We would like to allow our…
In this post, we’ll create two data validation drop-down cells that provide the ability to select From and To dates based on the transaction dates stored in the source data. This will ensure that the date selections fall within a valid range of dates, that is, those months with data in the table. This technique…
In this post, we’ll explore a method for generating a drop-down that contains a unique list of choices derived from a table column with duplicate values. Objective Before we get started on the mechanics, let’s take a look at what we are trying to achieve. We have a data table that is exported from our…