College of

Science and
Environment

Organizing and Basic Processing of Data in Excel

Microsoft Office Excel has a number of features
that make it easy to manage and analyze data. To
take full advantage of these features, just like
most statistical software it is important that you
organize and format data in standard database
format. Each row represents an object, unit or
individual under study. Each column represents
a variable for which we have data on the objects,
units or individuals. The first row contains the
variables’ name. At right is an example of data in
standard database format in a spreadsheet of
Microsoft Office Excel.

Named Range
This tool in Excel is useful to create a named range or a named constant that can be used and
improve your Excel formulas such that it can be easier to understand. To create a named
range, execute the following steps.
1. Select the 2. Right click 3. Enter a name, e.g.,
range to be this selected Treatment, and click
named. Like range and OK.
for example, click Define
we define Name…
name for
variable
“Treatment”, or on the Formulas tab, in the
i.e., range Defined Names group, click
A2:A19 Define Name.

There's also a quicker way of doing this TASK: Define name for all the remaining variables
by selecting the range, type the name in of the data set.
the Name box and press Enter.
The define names can be manage (Edit
or Delete) in the Name
Manager.
Now you can use this named range in your formulas. Like for example, =SUM(Stocking_BW).

From this data in standard form, you can transform it into a

desired tabular form of data or summary, which can be done
using tools or formulas of Excel. Like for example, we want to
produce a presentation of data shown here. This can be produced
using the PivotTable or using Formulas/Functions of Excel.

Pivot Table
Pivot table is one of Excel's most powerful features. It allows user to extract grouped summary
calculations in tabular from a data set in standard form.
To insert a pivot table, execute the following steps.
1. Click any single cell inside the data set.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click PivotTable.

The Create PivotTable dialog box appears. Since cursor

was position inside the data set, Excel automatically
selects the data. The default location for a new pivot
table is New Worksheet.
3. Click OK.
This will create additional worksheet with
blank (initially) PivotTable and Fields pane.
To get the desired table, drag the following
fields to the different areas.
1. Treatment field to the Rows area.
2. Replicate field to the Rows area below the
treatment.
3. Feeding_rate field to the Columns area.
4. Stocking_BW field to the Values area.
5. Final_BW field to the Values area.
6. Click of field
(Stocking_BW and
Final_BW) in Values
area to change field
value settings from
Sum to Average.
Using Functions or Formulas
The functions COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, AVERAGEIFS, and other summary calculation functions are
useful in extracting grouped summary calculations in tabular from a data set in standard form.
With the use of formulas, the summary table is being link to the data table such that any updates
of the data could right away updates the summary table.
1. Layout the summary table like as shown in this table.
2. Formulas mentioned above may be used to supply the
entries of the summary table. For this example, the
entries could be sum or averages of Stocking_BW for a
given Treatment, Replicate, and Feeding_Rate. Like for
cell C4, the formula is
=AVERAGEIFS(Stocking_BW,Treatment,$A$4,Replicate,$B4,Feeding_Rate,C$3)

The result of this formula is 663.3 which is the [Average] Stocking_BW of the experimental
unit with Treatment of A (@cell A4), Replicate 1 (@cell B4) and Feeding_Rate 1 (@cell C3).
Observe in the formula at C4 that $ is being used. This is to fix cell address or link in the
formula such that it will not change as the formula is being copied and pasted to another
cell. The letter and the number of a cell address, respectively, refers to the column and row
location of the cell. $ is placed before the letter (Ex. $B4) to fix a column location of a cell
link, and before the number (Ex. C$3) to fix row location. When both letter and number has
$ (Ex. $A$4), the cell location is being fixed.
3. With the structure of formula in cell C4, this can be copied and paste to the range of cells C4 to
E6 (C4:E6).
4. The formula in cell C4, can also be copied and paste to cell C9 but need to change $A$4 to
$A$9 in order to have Treatment of B, which results to formula
=AVERAGEIFS(Stocking_BW,Treatment,$A$9,Replicate,$B9,Feeding_Rate,C$3)

The result of this formula is 588.7 which is the [Average] Stocking_BW of the experimental
unit with Treatment of B (@cell A9), Replicate 1 (@cell B9) and Feeding_Rate 1 (@cell C3).
This formula can then be copied and paste to the range of cells C9 to E11 (C9:E11).
5. The formula in cell C4 and cell C9, can be copied and paste respectively to cell F4 and cell F9
but need to change Stocking_BW to Final_BW on each of these formulas in order to have
[Average] Final_BW, which results to formula
for F4 as =AVERAGEIFS(Final_BW,Treatment,$A$4,Replicate,$B4,Feeding_Rate,F$3) and
for F9 as =AVERAGEIFS(Final_BW,Treatment,$A$9,Replicate,$B9,Feeding_Rate,C$3)

The result of these formulas are 784.2 and 790.6, respectively. These formulas can then be
copied to the remaining cells.
6. The average at cell C7 may have a formula of =AVERAGE(C4:C6), which will result to 613.5
and its S.D. may have a formula of = STDEV.S (C4:C6), which will result to 43.7. These
formulas can then be copied and paste to the remaining summary cells.