Module 7

Visualizing Data in Excel

Module Overview

• Using PivotCharts
• Using Cube Functions
• Creating Charts for Cube Functions
Lesson 1: Using PivotCharts

• Understanding Dashboards
• Why Use PivotCharts?
• Creating PivotCharts
• Demonstration: Creating a PivotChart
• Filtering and Drilling Into Data in a PivotChart
• Demonstration: Adding a Slicer to a PivotChart
• Using Key Performance Indicators
• Demonstration: Creating a Key Performance
Indicator
Understanding Dashboards

• A good dashboard provides:

• A clear view on the current business status
• Access to historical trends

• Use a data model as the basis for a dashboard

• Data can come from many sources
• The data model can be refreshed easily

• Design the dashboard carefully

• Use PivotCharts to summarize data, with Slicers to dig
down
• Use PivotTables and Hierarchies to drill deeply into
data
Why Use PivotCharts?

• A PivotChart makes significant data more

immediately visible
Creating PivotCharts

• Use the PivotChart command on the Insert

ribbon
• Specify the source(s) for:
• Axis
• Legend
• Values
• Any optional filters

• The default layout is a column graph

• You can change this using Change Chart Type
command
• The chart contains default filters for the axis and
legend data
Demonstration: Creating a PivotChart

In this demonstration, you will see how to create a

simple PivotChart
Filtering and Drilling Into Data in a PivotChart

• PivotTable filters are not always intuitive

• There are no obvious prompts as to which filters are set
when viewing a report or chart
• It is easy to forget that data is being filtered

• Slicers provide a more visible means to filter data

• Add hierarchies to a table to enable drill-down

• Only define hierarchies where it is meaningful
• Excel creates a slicer for each field in a hierarchy
• The slicers are synchronized with each other
Demonstration: Adding a Slicer to a PivotChart

In this demonstration, you will add slicers to the

product sales chart created in the previous
demonstration
Using Key Performance Indicators

• A KPI indicates how close a value is to a specific

target that is important to your business
• You define KPIs using Power Pivot
• You can add a KPI to a PivotTable to provide a
visual cue as to whether targets are being met
Demonstration: Creating a Key Performance
Indicator

In this demonstration, you will add a key

performance indicator to the product sales
dashboard
Lesson 2: Using Cube Functions

• What Is a Cube Function?

• Why Use Cube Functions?
• Demonstration: Using Cube Functions in a
Dashboard
What Is a Cube Function?

• A cube function returns a value from a cube

• Arguments can include MDX expressions, Excel
worksheet references, and slicers
• Functions:
• CUBEMEMBER, CUBEMEMBERPROPERTY,
CUBEVALUE, CUBESET, CUBESETCOUNT,
CUBERANKEDMEMBER, CUBEKPIMEMBER
• Example:
=CUBESET("ThisWorkbookDataModel",
"[Manufacturer].[Manufacturer].Children",
"Manufacturer", 2, "[Measures]."[Total Sales])
Why Use Cube Functions?

• Use cube functions to:

• Build dashboard-style layouts
• Reproduce legacy-style reports
• Integrate data from multiple data models
• Overcome limitations of PivotTables and PivotCharts

• Don’t use cube functions if you can achieve the

same result using PivotTables and PivotCharts
Demonstration: Using Cube Functions in a
Dashboard

In this demonstration, you will see how to

incorporate cube functions into a dashboard
Lesson 3: Creating Charts for Cube Functions

• Converting a PivotTable to Cube Functions

• Creating Treemap Charts
• Demonstration: Creating a Treemap Chart
• Creating Sunburst Charts
• Demonstration: Creating a Sunburst Chart
• Creating Histogram Charts
• Demonstration: Creating a Histogram Chart
Converting a PivotTable to Cube Functions

• Treemap, Sunburst, and Histogram charts work

with cube functions rather than PivotTables
• You can convert a PivotTable to cube formulas
using OLAP tools in Excel
• Before converting:
• Make sure that all of the data you want to include is
currently displayed
• Convert the PivotTable to tabular form
• Repeat all item levels to avoid missing data
• Remove any subtotals and grand totals
Creating Treemap Charts

• Use a Treemap to display data as a hierarchical

set of blocks
• This chart is useful for comparing data
• The size of each block relative to the others indicates
its comparative value (not the absolute value)
• Blocks can contain subblocks

• The data must be sorted before creating the

graph
• Do not use a Treemap for deep hierarchies
Demonstration: Creating a Treemap Chart

In this demonstration, you will see how to create a

Treemap chart to display sales information broken
down by country and state
Creating Sunburst Charts

• A Sunburst chart provides another means of

illustrating hierarchical data
• The hierarchy is represented as a series of rings,
broken into segments
• The inner ring depicts the top level data
• Outer rings show the data for child levels
• The sizes of the segments in a ring indicate the relative
values at that level of the hierarchy
• A Sunburst chart is excellent for showing
hierarchical data that spans more than two levels
Demonstration: Creating a Sunburst Chart

In this demonstration, you will see how to create a

Sunburst chart to display sales information by
year, quarter, and month
Creating Histogram Charts

• Use a Histogram chart to display the frequency

of values that fall within specified ranges
• Data is sorted into bins
• The size of each bin indicates the number of items in
the corresponding range
• You can add overflow and underflow bins to handle
outlier data
• Use a Pareto chart to display an ordered
histogram with a line that indicates the
cumulative total for bins
Demonstration: Creating a Histogram Chart

In this demonstration, you will see how to

construct a Histogram chart and a Pareto chart to
display product volume sales by manufacturer
Lab: Data Visualizations in Excel

• Exercise 1: Generate a Tabular Report for the Sales

Data
• Exercise 2: Create Part-to-Whole Charts for the
Sales Data
• Exercise 3: Create Charts to Detect Sales Trends

Logon Information
Virtual machine: 20779B-MIA-CLI
User name: Student
Password: Pa55w.rd

Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Lab Scenario

VanArsdel is a company that manufactures and

sells sporting goods. The company has offices in
the United States and several other countries. Its
sales comprise of US sales and international sales.
VanArsdel’s sales come from its owned
manufactured products, in addition to other
manufacturers’ products.
The information used by VanArsdel comes from a
variety of databases, files, and other reports. You
have already constructed a data model, including
various dimension and fact tables.
Lab Scenario (Continued)

You have also created measures that abstract much

of the raw data by using DAX functions.
You have arranged for the most recent data to be
imported into the data model on a regular basis.
You have been asked to create several visualizations
that can be incorporated into reports to help
business analysts study the sales figures.
Lab Review

• In this lab, you created several reports to enable

business analysts to examine VanArsdel's sales
data. These reports enable a user to scrutinize the
data by month and manufacturer, answer
common business questions about the level of
sales, and can help to spot trends in the popularity
of products from each manufacturer.
Module Review and Takeaways

• Review Question(s)