Excel - Consolidate

If you have several data sources but the data structure is more or less same. Then you can use "Consolidate" tool to merge multiple data sources into one.

Now imagine you own 3 stores, which sells more or less same items, and you have the quarterly sales data for the last year.

Data of Store 1:


Data of Store 2:


Data of Store 3:


Notice that the column headers are same, however, the row headers are not same across the 3 stores.

1. Open all the 3 workbooks containing the sales data of 3 stores.

2. Open a new workbook. Then Click Data > Consolidate
Note: If data of the 3 stores are in separate worksheets of the same workbook, then you can just work in this Workbook. No need to create a new workbook.


3. Select "Sum" since we want to add up the sales amount


4. In the "Reference" field, go to the workbook and select the data range, then click "Add". Do it for store 1, 2 and 3. Check "Top row" and "Left column". This makes sure that data of all the 3 stores are matched by the row and column headers. If they are not checked, the data will be matched by position only, which will cause error in this example, since the column headers are not identical across all 3 stores.

Note: Check "Create links to source data" will create links to the data source so that when the source data changes, the consolidated data will also update. It also creates an outline.


4. The consolidated data is shown below.


5. If you click the "1" or "2", or "+" or "-", the data table will expand or collapse.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Excel - IF function

Image
If function is a logic function. It does two things: Whether the criteria is met Return a value based on whether the criteria is met or not. If the criteria is met, it returns one value; if the criteria is not met, it returns a different value. The reason IF function is confusing for some Excel users is that it does two things: a logical test, AND a return value depending on the logical test result, while the name of "IF" implies it only does a logical test. If this function only returns TRUE or False, it would be much easier to understand. In the following example, there are 5 employees, each having his own budget. Column C records the exact amount of money they spent. If the actual spending is greater than budget, we call it "Over budget", otherwise, we call it "Within budget". The IF function is: =IF(C2>B2,"Over budget","Within budget") The first part, "C2>B2", is a logical test. If this is TRUE, then the IF function
Read more

Excel - VLOOKUP function

Image
This post is written by Yisong Geng, PhD at Calc LLC. If you need consulting services with Excel, please  contact us . VLOOKUP is one of the most commonly used Excel functions. VLOOKUP function asks for 4 things: The value you want to look up, such as name of a person The data range you want to search If the value is found in the data range, which column contains the value you want the function to return? Whether it is a approximate match or not. The default option is approximate match. This argument is optional and let's ignore it for now. The following table contains first name, last name and age of 4 people. Your task is to find the age of Jan Doe. It can be easily done using VLOOKUP function. The value you want to look up is "Jane", which is at cell "A3" The range of data you want to search, which is "A2:C5" Which column contains the value you want to retrieve? The "Age" is column C, so this argument is 3. The 4th argument is optional and
Read more

Excel - Hierarchical chart (Treemap)

Image
If you have hierarchical data, you can create beautiful hierarchical charts. For example, in a university, there are students of different majors in departments, and departments in schools. Suppose we have data below, showing number of students in each school, department and major. In this example, we show you how to make treemap chart. The other type of hierarchical chart is sunburst chart. The data is equivalent if all the cells are filled. I like the following format better. 1. Select the data, then click Insert > Charts > Other Charts > Hierarchical . Select Treemap .  2. A nice-looking treemap chart is shown. The blue area shows all engineering students. The orange area shows all business students. Size of each rectangle is proportional to the number of students in each major.
Read more