Miscellaneous Excel

Miscellaneous Excel Agenda: 4/24/13

o External Datao Discuss data manipulation tools and functionso Discuss data import and linking in Excelo Sorting Datao Date and Time Functionso Grouping Worksheets

Sources of External Data

Historical data, long-term trends (text files) Current trend information (databases) Up-to-the-minute data (the Internet)

Introductions to Data Sources

Data must often be imported from other data sourceso ASCII delimited fileso Other file typeso Access databases

Excel can import data from all of these data sourceso Data must often be “massaged” to get it into a usable

formo Sometimes, the solutions are not obvious

Importing Data from Text Files

Text fileso Simple, widely used format for storing raw, unformatted

data (text and numbers)o Useful for sharing data across software programs and

computer systems Ways to structure file contents

o Use a delimiter• Columns of data are separated by a

symbolo Use fixed-width text file• Each column starts at the same location

Understanding Text File Formats

Delimited text Fixed-width text

Converting Text to Columns

Comma separated data appearing in one column can be divided into multiple columnso In 2010, click the Data tab, Text To Columns

• The Wizard guides you through the process

Converting Text to Columns (1)

Converting Text to Columns (2)

Converting Text to Columns (3)

Converting Text to Columns (Advanced)

Sorting Data Excel can sort columnar data using the SORT

dialog boxo Columnar data may or may not contain a header rowo It’s possible to sort by multiple columnso It’s possible to select the column(s) on which to sort

Sorting Data Sort data in ascending or descending order Use the Sort A to Z button or the Sort Z to A

button to sort data quickly with one sort field

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Sorting Data Use sort dialog box to sort multiple columns Primary and secondary sort fields Up to 64 sort fields possible

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Sorting Multiple Columns Using the Sort Dialog Box

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Sorting Using a Custom List

A custom list indicates sequence to order datao Four predefined custom sort lists• Two days-of-the-week custom lists• Two months-of-the-year custom lists

o Can also create a custom list to sort records in a sequence you define

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String Manipulation Functions (Introduction)

CONCATENATE – string together multiple cells into a single cell

RIGHT and LEFT get a sub string from a string TRIM removes trailing spaces SEARCH and FIND search for a sub string within a

string

CONCATENATE Concatenate takes a list of single cell arguments Maximum number of arguments is 30 =CONCATENATE(“A”,”B”,”C”) IS “ABC”

LEFT And RIGHT LEFT starts at the first character position and

returns n characters =LEFT("This is a line of text.",4) returns

“This” RIGHT starts at the last character position and

returns the rightmost n characters =RIGHT("This is a line of text.",4) returns

“ext.”

TRIM TRIM removes leading and trailing spaces The single spaces between words are preserved

o Extra spaces between words are removed TRIM takes one argument – the value to trim

SEARCH And FIND Both functions work the same way and accept the

same argumentso FIND function is case sensitiveo SEARCH function is not case sensitive

Argumentso First argument contains the search texto Second argument contains the text to searcho The third argument contains the starting character

position where searching begins• Starting character position is 1-based

Use the If function to find whether the pattern was found

SEARCH And FIND (Example)

REPLACE Replaces one string with another string based

on character positions in the original stringo First argument contains the original text stringo Second argument contains the 1-based position of the

first character to replaceo Third argument contains the number of characters to

replaceo Final argument contains the replacement text

REPLACE (Example)

SUBSTITUTE Replaces old text with new text

o First argument contains the text stringo Second argument contains the text to replaceo Third argument contains the replacement texto Final optional argument contains the instance counter

• How many times to replace one string with another string• The default value is 1

SUBSTITUTE (Example)

Other String Functions EXACT takes two arguments

o Returns TRUE if the two arguments contain identical values

o EXACT is case sensitive LEN takes one argument

o Returns the length of a stringo Spaces are counted along with special characters

CLEAN removes non-printable characters from a text stringo Tabs for example

LOWER, UPPER, PROPER

All functions accept one argument LOWER converts characters to lower case UPPER converts characters to upper case PROPER converts characters to proper case

o The first character of each work is capitalized

Working With Date and Time Values

Date values are stored in a special internal format Numbers to the left of the decimal point are days

o Day 1 is January 1, 1900o Days prior to that date are negative

Numbers to the right of the decimal point are fractional parts of days

Date Functions (Introduction)

TODAY() returns the current date It’s possible to perform arithmetic operations on

dateso Sometimes the results make no sense and have no real

use though

Other Date Functions DATE(year,month,day) returns a Date HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND return the hour, minute,

second in the date YEAR, MONTH, DAY return the year, month, and

day parts

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Grouping Worksheets Using multiple worksheets makes it easier to group

and summarize data. Worksheet groups save time and improve

consistency among worksheetso An action performed once affects multiple worksheetso Can create formulas that function across multiple

worksheets A worksheet group can contain adjacent or

nonadjacent worksheets Any formatting changes made to the active group

are applied to all sheets in the group. When worksheets are ungrouped, each one functions

independently again.

Grouping Worksheets

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Example of Multiple Worksheets

Tutorial #6: Ticket Park Sales example Four worksheets representing four quarters of

ticket sales Each worksheet with a unique name Selecting and unselecting multiple worksheets

o A “worksheet group” is the currently selected group of worksheets

o Any actions done to one worksheet will happen to all worksheets in a selected group

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Working with Multiple Worksheets

Copying worksheetso Use an existing worksheet as a starting point for creating

another oneo Duplicates all values, formulas, and formats into new

worksheet, leaving original worksheet intacto Edit, reformat, and enter new content as needed

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Cell References Absolute, Relative, Mixed Named Multi-sheet: conceptualize as “3-D”

o Rowso Columnso Sheet

A 3-D reference includes the name of the sheet. Example:o Quarter1!B6o 'Quarter 1'!B6

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