Excel is widely used by analysts, consultants, marketers, bankers, and accountants. You might even come across other experts using Excel’s complex formulas and charts, such as graphic artists and engineers who are maximizing Excel’s formulas and charts.
If you don’t have any educational background, developing Excel skills is a powerful way to start analyzing data as the experts do.
Upon completing the right training, you automatically make yourself more valuable in the modern-day workforce. Let’s take a ride into these top Excel sheets;
#1. Pivot Tables
A Pivot Table is a user-friendly approach to summarizing vast volumes of data rapidly. It is used to thoroughly analyze numerical data and respond to unexpected questions about it.
A Pivot Table was created specifically for;
- Querying vast volumes of data in a variety of user-friendly methods.
- Subtotaling and aggregating numeric data, summarizing data by categories and subcategories and developing custom computations and formulas are all things that may be done using Excel.
- Expanding and collapsing data levels to focus your results, as well as diving down to details from the summary data for areas of interest to you.
- To display alternative summaries of the source data, move rows to columns or columns to rows (also known as “pivoting”).
#2. Excel Macros
An Excel macro is a sequence of activities that you may record, name, save, and run several times whenever you need.
Macros allow you to save time on repetitive operations such as data manipulation and data reports that must be completed on a regular basis. You’re recording your keystrokes and mouse clicks when you make a macro.
The keystrokes and mouse clicks are executed in the same order as they were captured when you run a stored macro.
#3. Graphs and Charts
Graphs and charts help you make sense of your data by visualizing quantitative numbers in an easy-to-understand way. Despite the fact that the names are sometimes used interchangeably, they are distinct.
Graphs are the simplest basic visual representation of data, and they often show data point values across time while Charts are more complicated because they allow you to compare parts of a data set to other data in the same set.
#4. Iferror
The IFERROR function is used to catch and manage problems in formulas and calculations. IFERROR verifies a formula and returns another value you specify if it evaluates to an error; otherwise, it returns the formula’s result.
#5. Sparkline
To demonstrate data trends, use sparklines. A sparkline is a little chart that displays data in a worksheet cell.
Use sparklines to emphasize maximum and lowest values or to show trends in a series of values, such as seasonal spikes or declines, economic cycles, or to illustrate trends in a series of values. For maximum impact, place a sparkline next to its data.
#6. Conditional Formatting
One of the most basic yet powerful capabilities of Excel spreadsheets is conditional formatting. When you want to highlight cells that meet a specific criterion, you can use conditional formatting in Excel, as the name suggests.
It allows you to quickly overlay a visual analysis layer on top of your data set. Conditional formatting in Excel may be used to;
- Quickly discover duplicates
- Highlight cells in a database with values less/greater than a number
- Highlight Top/Bottom 10% values in a database
- Highlight errors/blanks
- Build Heat maps
- Highlight every Nth Row and column
Highlight and search are just a few examples.
#7. Filters
The filter in Excel aids in the display of pertinent data by temporarily removing unnecessary elements from the screen. The data is filtered according to the specified criteria.
The goal of filtering is to concentrate on the most important aspects of a dataset. For example, an organization’s city-level sales data can be filtered by location.
As a result, the user can see the sales of several cities at any one time. Working with a large database necessitates the use of a filter.
#8. Countif
The COUNTIFS belongs to the Excel Statistical functions category. COUNTIFS will count the number of cells in the same or separate ranges that fulfill single or multiple criteria.
COUNTIF and COUNTIFS vary in that COUNTIF is meant for counting cells in a single range with a single condition, whereas COUNTIFS can evaluate several criteria in the same or other ranges.
COUNTIF is a tool that aids in the quick study of financial data. For instance, we may be given a list of tasks that must be done by a department, as well as the due dates and priority of each work.
In this case, we can use the COUNTIFS function to create a table that shows the date, the number of tasks, and their priority.
#9. Slicers
Slicers are a type of visual filter. By picking on the type of data you desire, you can filter your data (or pivot table, pivot chart) using a slicer. In a pivot report, let’s suppose you’re looking at sales by client occupation.
You also want to know how sales are in a specific region. You have two options for drilling down to a certain region level;
- Add a region as a report filter and select the desired region.
- Add a slicer to the region and select the desired region.
You’ll have to click numerous times with a report filter (or any other filter) to select one store. With slicers, it’s just a matter of clicking.
#10. Power Pivot
Power pivot is a great add-on feature that allows you to create models and do advanced data analysis.
A huge volume of data from various sources can be mashed together with power pivot to quickly analyze and share insights.
A data model which is essentially a collection of tables with relationships, can be generated in no time in both power pivot and excel. Any data imported in excel can also be used in Power Pivot.
Conclusion
Gaining competence in these skills will give you an edge in the tech world. If you want to Segue into a tech career, acquiring knowledge in Excel skills will be a perfect first step to take.