How to Effectively Analyze Data with Microsoft Excel?
You can learn some basics to effective data analysis in this blog post.
Can you imagine the headache when you are given the assignment to provide insights based on an extensive data set and when you look at it, you realize it is totally unformatted?
Oh no! Where do I start? Where can I start? How can I start?
Well, rest assured; Excel Daily is here to provide a few tips on some of the basic things you can do to analyze the data. Remember, as the saying goes:
How to eat an elephant? One bite (step) at a time.
I hope you enjoy learning about how to simplify a complex set of data.
Understand the Data
First things first, it is imperative for you to understand what you are looking at. You need to try your best and understand what kind of data is displayed. Try to find out what type and category of data it is. Is it a sales performance record? Is it a goal and an actual data set? Is it a list of expenses? Once you know what kind of data it is, it will be easier for you to think about what you could possibly draw insight from. You can try to think of ways to analyze and simplify the data. Here are some tips on what you can do!
Sort
One of the most important things you can do is to sort the data. You can sort the data alphabetically or numerically and in ascending or descending order. You can also sort different categories or columns of data all at once, such as according to their names, regions, sales, etc. It can be done hierarchically so that it follows a certain pattern that makes the most sense.
Filter
Similar to sorting, you can filter your data. If there is too much data being displayed, you can always choose to hide some of the data that is unnecessary to be shown by adding filters to the data and selecting the data you want to be shown. You can also group columns together and hide or unhide them with one click, or you can hide the columns in a way that people would not recognize.
Conditional Formatting
Turn the data green if it is above 200; turn the data red if it is below 50. Yes, this is something you can do with Microsoft Excel! It is called conditional formatting. Conditional formatting enables you to highlight cells with a certain color, depending on the cell's value. There are several types of conditions such as greater than or less than, containing certain criteria, in between a range, top 10%, etc. You can customize the effects you want based on any formulas or conditions you set. That way, you can easily display how certain data is performing well or achieving a certain result you want by making them stand out from the rest of the data.
Pivot Tables
According to SimpliLearn, pivot tables are known for being the most purposeful and powerful feature in Excel. (https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/excel-tutorial/data-analysis-excel) You can use them in summarizing the data stored in a table. They organize and rearrange statistics (or "pivot") to bring crucial and valuable facts to attention. It helps take an extremely large data set and see the relevant data you need in a crisp, easy, and manageable way. In other words, a pivot table allows you to extract the significance from a large, detailed data set. Thus, you should definitely use a Pivot Table to simplify your detailed data set for easy data analysis and to draw insights from it.
Here is an example of a large set of data made simple through pivot tables so you can offer insight based on the data analysis.
Charts
A picture is worth a thousand words.
A simple Excel graphic may convey more information than a page of statistics. When you use charts, complex data results can be easily understandable at one glance. You do not have to imagine the data in your head. On top of that, charts can even help you remember the data results better than just merely looking at the numbers. Thus, this is a great tool for data analysis and for gaining insights.
Formulas
There are over 300 excel formulas and most of them, if not all, can help you with data analysis. Some of them include the lookup functions, IF functions, calculation functions, etc. You can use formulas to return calculation results such as the sum total or average of a set of data. You can also do those calculations based on certain criteria such as using the AVERAGEIF formula to calculate the average of a set of data if only they are more than 10. It is up to your creativity in how you would like to analyze the data, but usually, you would create a dashboard or a separate sheet where you will display all those information in one location for easy lookup.
Analyze Data
Last but not least, there is a tool called “Analyze Data” that you can use for data analysis with Excel. You have several options such as asking questions, selecting your fields of interest, or viewing the analysis results. Sandy Writtenhouse from How-To-Geek has provided these tips on how to use the analyze data feature on Microsoft Excel. You can check it out here at https://www.howtogeek.com/729675/how-to-use-the-analyze-data-feature-in-microsoft-excel/ for more information about it!
Conclusion
Remember, you can do hard things, and that includes simplifying a large set of complex data to be easily understandable, or even better, it helps in your decision-making. Good luck!