further adventures in excel 20001 using lists…. further adventures in excel 20002 using lists this...

Further Adventures in Excel 2000 1

Using Lists…


Using Lists

This lesson will cover:• What is a List?• How to:

• Sort Data in a List• Find Data in a List…the Art of Filtering• Create List Subtotals • Summarize List Data…Pivot Tables

These topics are from Chapter 8 of the text...


What is a List?

A List is a series of rows that contain similar data…we’ve been using lists in many of the sample worksheets. Each row is like a record in a database; as the data in each row pertains to a specific item. Therefore, rows in a list are called records and each column is called a field, just as with databases.

Lists are used as simple databases in Excel and can be manipulated in several ways such as by sorting, filtering and summarizing (as with Pivot Tables). The next slide shows some of the guidelines that Microsoft suggests when using a List…

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/database.html


Guidelines for Creating a List* According to the Excel help system

Use only one list per worksheet - Some list features, such as filtering, can be used on only one list at a time. Put similar items in one column - Design the list so that all rows have similar items in the same column. Keep the list separate - Leave at least one blank column and one blank row between the list and other data on the worksheet. Excel can then more easily detect and select the list when you sort, filter, or insert automatic subtotals.Position critical data above or below the list - Avoid placing critical data to the left or right of the list; the data might be hidden when you filter the list. Show rows and columns - Make sure any hidden rows or columns are displayed before making changes to the list. When rows and columns in a list are not showing, data can be deleted inadvertently. Use formatted column labels - Create column labels in the first row of the list. Excel uses the labels to create reports and to find and organize data. Use cell borders - When you want to separate labels from data, use cell borders — not blank rows or dashed lines Avoid blank rows and columns - Avoid putting blank rows and columns in the list so that Excel can more easily detect and select the list.


Unique column names contained within a single cell (No merged cells) in the first row.

No Empty Cells…

No Hidden rows or columns

Only One List per worksheet

A series of rows with similar data…this must be a list.


Sorting a List

When you sort a list, Excel rearranges rows according to the contents of a column you choose. The main types of sorting are:

Ascending sort - To arrange a list alphanumerically using the data in one column, you can specify an ascending sort order (0 to 9, leading spaces, punctuation, then A to Z).

Descending sort - To sort a list in reverse order, use descending (Z to A, punctuation, leading spaces, then 9 to 0) sort order.

For example, to sort a list of sales in order from the highest to the lowest value, you would sort the Sales column in descending order.


Sorting a ListDefault sort orders

Excel uses specific sort orders to arrange data according to the value, not the format, of the data. In an ascending sort, Excel uses the following order. (In a descending sort, this sort order is reversed except for blank cells, which are always placed last.)Numbers - Numbers are sorted from the smallest negative number to the largest positive number.Alphanumeric sort - When you sort alphanumeric text, Excel sorts left to right, character by character. For example, if a cell contains the text "A100," Excel places the cell after a cell that contains the entry "A1" and before a cell that contains the entry "A11."Text and text that includes numbers are sorted in the following order:0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (space) ! " # $ % & ( ) * , . / : ; ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~ + < = > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Logical values - In logical values, FALSE is placed before TRUE.Error values - All error values are equal.Blanks - Blanks are always placed last.


To sort a list, select the Sort command from the Data menu…


This brings up the Sort dialog box. Here you can add the conditions to your list sort…this example selects a list sort by “Boat Size” in Ascending order…no other criteria were set…


Remember you can use the What’s this? help to explain any confusing items…here I selected the help for the “My List has” sort option…it seems a bit confusing, but the help explains it well, we don’t need to change this…since this list has a Header row.


When you click OK on the Sort dialog with the options set to sort by the Boat Size column in Ascending order, you get a list that is now ordered just that way…from a smaller Boat Size to a larger one as you move down the list…you can always Undo the sort by using the Undo command…


Now we can try a sort with a few more criteria…using the list as it was previously sorted, we now select sort by Year Built (descending) and Price (descending)…the first criteria Boat Size (ascending) was already selected for us…


Clicking the OK button now sorts the list:• Boat Size (ascending)• Year Built (descending)• Price (descending)

Look at the rows in the 44’ (foot) column to see how each row was sorted…

…first the rows were sorted by Year Built, and then within each Year by Price, both in descending values…


The Art of Filtering…

Filtering is a way to find and work with a subset of data in a list. A filtered list displays only the rows that meet the criteria you specify for a column. Unlike sorting, filtering does not rearrange a list. Excel provides two commands for filtering lists:

•AutoFilter - is a filter by selection, for simple criteria. Only data that matches the criteria is displayed, the rest of the list is hidden.•Advanced Filter - uses more complex criteria and can actually copy the results of the filtering process to another location.

When Excel filters rows, you can edit, format, chart, and print your list subset without rearranging or moving it.


To use the AutoFilter feature select the Filter command from the Data menu, and then the AutoFilter command…


The AutoFilter command places dropdown list boxes next to all the column headers. These dropdown lists are for selecting the filter criterion. For the first demonstration we’ll select 1981 from the Year Built column…


This criterion “filters out” all records that do not have a Year Built equal to 1981. The rest of the records are temporarily hidden.

Notice that there were 30 records found with the Year equal to 1981 out of the total of 59 records.


To remove the AutoFilter uncheck the box next to the command, or, to restore all the records and use another filter on them, all click the Show All command…


After returning to the original recordset (or list) by selecting the Show All option, we’ll try a Custom AutoFilter…select Custom from the dropdown menu in Price…


Using the Custom AutoFilter dialog you can select from all of the the comparison operators on the left…


…and select the valid values for comparison from the list on the right…


Here the completed Custom AutoFilter says:

Select all of the records with Prices that are less than $260,000 and greater than $65,000…


The filter is complete (38 records selected), but it is hard to see that the records were selected as mentioned in the previous slide…


…so we sort the records…now you can see that the lowest Price is $69,900 which is the first Price greater than $65,000…the highest Price is not displayed in the window, but trust me it is correct…


Creating List Subtotals…

Excel can automatically summarize data by calculating subtotal and grand total values in a list. To use automatic subtotals, your list must contain labeled columns and the list must be sorted on the columns for which you want subtotals. Basically you need to have a correctly designed list that is sorted according to your desired “sub” categories.

For example, if you have a list of sales by salespeople that have a region as a field in each record; and, you want the region’s sales subtotals with a listing of the salespeople you would sort by region before applying any subtotals. This groups all of the records by region and is necessary for Excel to provide subtotals.

When you insert automatic subtotals, Excel outlines the list by grouping detail rows with each associated subtotal row, and grouping subtotal rows with the grand total row.


…so we first need to sort the records…for this demonstration will we use the yacht’s location…it doesn’t matter for the subtotals, but we will sort in ascending order.


…now that the records are sorted (or grouped) we can apply the subtotals to them…from the Data menu select the Subtotal command…this displays a dialog box like the one to the left.

We need to subtotal by Location, so we select that for the “At each change in” option (which means subtotal when there is a new group).

Then we want to see the Sum (“Use function”) of Prices (“Add subtotal to”)…now click OK…


…the subtotals have been added, but the worksheet layout has a slight problem with the column widths, however…


…which is easily remedied…now you can see there are subtotals at the end of every change in the yacht location groupings…at the end of the list there is also a grand total. To view a brief listing of locations and their subtotals click on the 2 button in the upper left corner.


…now you have a brief listing…subtotals by location…you can expand this listing to the full version by clicking the 3 button to expand all the locations or just expand one location at a time by clicking the + buttons to the left of each location.

To view the grand total only, click the 1 button…


…this is the highest level of calculation, thus the number 1 designation on the button, each lower level shows more detail…clicking on the + button expands the detail to the next level (again)…


…and back and forth you can go…a subtotal view can be printed if need be, and makes a good Ad Hoc report…


…to remove the subtotals, select Subtotals from the Data menu and click the Remove All button at the bottom of the dialog box…


Summarizing List Data…Pivot Tables

A PivotTable report is an interactive table that you can use to quickly summarize large amounts of data. You can rotate its rows and columns to see different summaries of the source data, filter the data by displaying different pages, or display the details for areas of interest. You can create a PivotTable report from an Excel list, an external database (Access or Oracle, for example), multiple Excel worksheets, or another PivotTable report.

But you really need to see one to understand it…


…to create a Pivot Table select the Pivot Table and PivotChart Report command from the Data menu…this action will display the Pivot Table and PivotChart Wizard as shown here…for this example we’ll choose to use an Excel List or Database as the source data…and select the PivotTable option for the “Kind of Report”…then we click Next…


…Step 2 of the wizard asks for the data to be analyzed…since it has already selected all of our list (note the list data is surrounded by the dotted line) we click Next…

…selected data lies within this boundary…


…Step 3 of the wizard asks for the location of the new PivotTable…a new worksheet is always a safe bet…so, we click Finish to display the PivotTable …there are other features that can be accessed from this step (such as Layout and Options), but they are not needed for this example, and do require a little more skill to use efficiently…


…we now have been moved to a new worksheet (named Sheet1) that has a PivotTable layout on it. The PivotTable toolbar is now displayed…from the toolbar you drag fields to the appropriate locations on the PivotTable’s layout…for example dragging the Boat Size field to the “Drop Column Fields Here” cell and the Location field to the “Drop Row Fields Here” cell will change the layout to…


…a skeleton of the PivotTable… you can tell from this layout that the table rows will represent the Locations data and the columns will represent Boat Sizes data. What we are setting up is a view of the list’s data from another perspective…


…the arrows (which look suspiciously like AutoFilter arrows) are actually AutoFilter dropdown lists, just as are displayed when you use the AutoFilter feature…you select and deselect those field entries you want to view in the PivotTable. Here we have a list of every unique Location entry…


…now drag the Price field to the corner cell between the Location and the Boat Size…once you have dropped the Price field into place you have a Pivot table that shows the Prices of each Boat Size by Location, or you could look at it as what Boat Sizes are at what Location and what are their Prices…it all depends…

…but the number format is not right, so we need to format the cells…


…as usual there is more than one way to access the Field Settings dialog box…

…you could right-click on the cell (Sum of Price) and select Field Settings from the shortcut menu….


…or click the PivotTable button on the toolbar…either way you get the Field Settings dialog box…


…from here you can change the settings of the currently selected field…here the Sum of Price field was selected so you can change the calculation for that field…say from Sum to Count…or Average…you can also change the number format, which really needs to be done for this example…to do this click the Number button to see the Format Cells “Number” dialog box…change the format to currency in dollars and its done…


…you can add fields (like the Year Built field) to add new dimensions to the table…pay attention to the layout lines…they tell you whether the field you are placing will be a row or column item…Year Built has been added here as a new row.

These blue lines are the table layout borders…


…selecting a cell that is a header for a group of cells and clicking the Hide Detail button on the PivotTable toolbar will cause the detail lines to condense into one summary line for the grouping…


…as shown here.

There are many ways to view the data with PivotTables, and some are worthless, just as with charts. The trick is to know what ideas you want your data to convey, and create a table to that end.

further adventures in excel 20001 using lists…. further adventures in excel 20002 using lists this...

Documents

list slide

list subtotals

list of sales

list separate

list features

sort data

list default sort orders

descending sort