PowerPivot in Excel (Table of Contents)
Introduction to PowerPivot in Excel
PowerPivot is a popular Add-In under Microsoft Excel which can be used to import the data sets with millions/trillions of rows from different sources and help us do quick data analysis with large data sets under excel in a jiffy. This add-in was first introduced under Microsoft Excel 2010 and made as a native feature under 2013 onwards versions of Excel and Office 365 as well. The power that PowerPivot posses lies in the data models of its own which can be considered as databases. The data models are nothing but the data tables similar to those we use in SQL. We can slice and dice with these data tables. Create relationships between them, combine different data tables, create calculated columns for advanced analysis and obviously, the advanced reporting as well. We can consider it as a pocket database under Microsoft Excel and ideally in the hands of users as well.
How to Activate PowerPivot Add-ins Under Excel?
Power Pivot is a feature in Excel which enables you to import millions of rows of data from multiple data sources into a single Excel workbook. Let’s look at the below steps.
Step 1: Open an excel file. Click on File tab present at the upper ribbon in excel worksheet. Go to Options there.
Step 2: Once you click on Options button you will be able to see a new window “Excel Options” with a list of different excel options. You have to click Add-ins option from that list which allows you to access all the add-ins present in excel.
Step 3: On the below side of this window, you’ll see Manage: section dropdown. In that dropdown select COM Add-ins and click on GO button.
Step 4: A COM Add-ins dialog box will open up. There, select Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel and click on OK button.
Once you enable this add-in, you can see a new option added up in excel ribbon called PowerPivot as shown in the image below:
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In order to launch the PowerPivot, you can click on Manage option under the Data Model section in the PowerPivot tab. PowerPivot window looks like the one in the image below:
Importing Datasets Under PowerPivot
We can import data from multiple resources under power pivot and that is what makes it awesome to work on. It allows you to import data from SQL, ORACLE DB, MongoDB, Azure, Access, Teradata, Sybase, etc. At the same time, you can import data through .xls/xlsx and .txt files as well. We will try to import a text data file under PowerPivot.
Step 1: Under PowerPivot for Excel sheet, click on From Other Sources button present in the Get External Data section. It will open up a series of external sources from where you can fetch the data under PowerPivot.
Step 2: Navigate till the end through scroll bar and there you can see an option to import data from a text file. Click on that option and hit Next button.
Step 3: On the next screen, you need to provide the path on which the text file containing data is physically located. I will mention the path where I saved the data file to import under File Path option. Click on Browse… button and navigate through the path.
Make sure you select Tab as a Column Separator as well as check the option for Use first row as column headers options.
The first one will allow the data to spread across different columns and the second one will consider the first row from your data as a column header. Click on the Finish button after this and you will be able to see data loaded under PowerPivot as below.
Adding Calculated Column under PowerPivot Data
We can also add a calculated column under PowerPivot. Like in our example, we have Sales and Margin values using which we can compute the Margin% achieved and store it in the new column under PowerPivot. This happens the same way we do it in excel.
Step 1: You can see a blank column with name “Add Column” under PowerPivot after all your data columns. This column allows you to add some computed data in it.
Step 2: Rename this blank column as Margin% by double-clicking the row containing “Add Column”. See the screenshot below.
Step 3: Now, in the first cell of column Margin%, use the formula as Margin/Sales using Equals to sign. The formula structure in PowerPivot is somewhat different as it is nothing but a pivot table. See the screenshot below.
=’PowerPivot in Excel Data'[Margin]/’PowerPivot in Excel Data'[Sales]
Step 4: Press the Enter key and you can see all the active rows will be added with the same formula and Margin% will be calculated.
Step 5: Now, format the Margin% column as % using the formatting tab in PowerPivot.
This is how we can add calculated columns under PowerPivot. This is same as adding computed column under Microsoft Excel.
Adding Pivot Table under PowerPivot
We can add a pivot table under PowerPivot.
Step 1: Under Home tab present on the upper ribbon at the PivotTable. There is one tab called PivotTable. Click on that and select PivotTable option.
Step 2: Once you click on PivotTable option, you’ll be able to see the Create PivotTable window. You’ll have two options to create a pivot table. Either on the same worksheet or on a new worksheet. If you create on the same worksheet, you need to mention the cell reference. Click OK once you choose the option of your choice. See the screenshot below.
Step 3: Now, you can select the columns as of your interest under pivot table from PivotTable Fields option pane at the right-hand side of the excel file. I would like to check what is the quarter-wise Margin%. Therefore, I will select Years in Rows, Margin% in Values and Quarters in the column.
This is it from this article on PowerPivot. Let’s wrap the things with some points to be remembered:
Things to Remember About PowerPivot in Excel
- It is mandatory to clean the data before you import it under PowerPivot. Use some excel formulae which are used to clean the excel data. Ex. TRIM, LEFT, RIGHT, etc. Also, remove duplicates and convert numbers and dates into a proper format.
- When you import two or more tables in PowerPivot, it automatically creates the Data Model.
- You also can add calculated columns fields in PowerPivot as same as those in Excel. PivotTable can also be added under PowerPivot.
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