Excel University Blog
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Tables
John asked if there was a way to create a list of all table names in the workbook, along with the underlying table reference. In this post, I’ll demonstrate how this can be accomplished with Power Query and an Excel formula. Objective Before we get into the mechanics, let’s confirm our goal here. We have…
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In this post, I’ll answer a question I received from Sara about how to create a drop down with each worksheet name and reference it in a formula to retrieve values from the selected sheet. As this is Excel, there are a variety of alternatives to accomplish this. In this post, I’ll demonstrate one such…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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This is the first post in a series that shows how to transform a monthly report from being updated manually to automatically. Along the way, we’ll see how classic Excel features like tables and SUMIFS can help somewhat, and then how modern Excel features like Power Query and the data model can help even more.…
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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,…
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In this post, we’ll perform a two-dimensional lookup with Excel’s VLOOKUP function. Objective Let’s begin by clarifying our objective and what is meant by the term two-dimensional lookup. We have stored our price list in a table, and the price for each item varies based on the region. This is illustrated in the screenshot below. To…
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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…
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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…
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