ComputerGaga challenge: Convert Columns into Normalized Rows

Alam Murray at ComputerGaga postd a challenge that someone had asked him to help with. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alanmurray-computergaga_excel-powerquery-activity-6621158742408867840-lhby

Data containing meal selections came in looking like rosters, and weren’t helpful to anyone. So, the data needed to be converted 2 ways.
– A count of requests for each offered meal
– Each person on a row with the 3 meals they selected
This was a fun challenge. My solution is in Power Query. 2 Things were key for my solutuon:
– Transpose in Excel. This made it so much easier to work with the data in rows instaed of columns.
– Keep Rows. WOW! This let me easily pull the data apart, then put it back together with left outer joins.

Ultimately, this solution may be considered to have a lot of moving parts and could be simplified. But … it works.

#ComputerGaga
#ExcelChallenge
#KeepRows

For an intro to Get & Transform (Power Query) try my Lynda/LinkedIn course:
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/oz-du-soleil?trk=insiders_28299411_learning
Website: https://ozdusoleil.com

My book: Guerrilla Data Analysis 2nd Edition

My old blog: http://datascopic.net/blog-2-2