COUNTA is an unsung hero. It’s not likely to show up on anyone’s Top 10 Excel functions or features. Yet, COUNTA does a lot!

In this video I show multiple ways that COUNTA continues to be a favorite of mine–even with the glamorous features like XLOOKUP, Power Query, Dynamic Arrays, etc. You’ll see:
– COUNTA helps determine the size of a job before we get started.
– COUNTA helps measure progress.
– COUNTA in conjunction with the new dynamic array function, UNIQUE, gives us insight into our customers.
– COUNTA and RANDARRAY help create fake data for use in training or exploration.

Join the party! Let’s celebrate COUNTA!

#COUNTA
#ExcelCelebration

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

Mr. Excel, Bill Jelen, was presented with a challenge where someone’s data was twisted in a weird sort of way and needed to be untwisted; e.g. the data needed to be flattened.

Here is the challenge: https://youtu.be/S9ow-1Jq_rE

Bill asked for other solutions than his own. Here’s mine. This is one of those examples where it helped me most to bring the data into Power Query and then Transpose it. This may not have been the most efficient solution. However, after the Transpose, I could see a clear bath to the end.

The solution involves:
– Transpose
– Unpivot
– Pivot

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

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

This video revisits a challenge from a few years ago. 3 siblings needed a simple way to reconcile who owed what to whom after all the Christmas gits had been purchased. For example:

If Bo agreed to chip in $200 on gifts that Jay bought, and Jay agreed to chip in $90 on gifts purchased by Bo, what’s an easy way to see that Bo owes Jay $110? But there’s a 3rd sibling, Tanya who needs to be considered.

I solved this a few years ago when Power Query wasn’t available. I decided to revisit this and us Power Query but it proved to complicated. I had multiple queries, joins, custom and conditional columns … the Power Query solution was overkill.

This showed that it’s important to look at what’s at stake and use what’s appropriate. For this challenge, I did use Power Query’s unpivot, but the real work was done by SUMIFS, IF, and good layout.

Here is the 26 Best Microsoft Excel Tips of 2019 podcast
https://www.myexcelonline.com/podcast/026-the-best-microsoft-excel-tips-tricks-in-2019/
#SUMIFS
#UNPIVOT
#PowerQuery

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