Excel: Tabular Data and Excel Tables

Region SalesRep Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21

East James Smith $8,183 $9,391 $7,696 $7,425
East Julie Smith $6,296 $6,038 $9,552 $6,218
West Jason Smith $7,167 $9,873 $9,119 $5,305
West Jennifer Smith $5,514 $6,656 $6,093 $6,668
South Phil Jensen $7,168 $7,938 $8,076 $5,958
South Bob Dole $7,517 $5,591 $9,211 $8,484
North Jack Bush $7,212 $9,796 $9,374 $7,714
North Julie Pendergraph $9,344 $8,357 $7,696 $7,732

Region SalesRep Month Amount

East James Smith 1-Jan-21 $5,811
East Julie Smith 1-Jan-21 $5,165
West Jason Smith 1-Jan-21 $8,397
West Jennifer Smith 1-Jan-21 $7,591
Paul Barnhurst
South Phil Jensen 1-Jan-21 $7,208
Contact: Pbarnhurst@TheFPandAGuy.com South Bob Dole 1-Jan-21 $9,032
Website: TheFPandAGuy.com North Jack Bush 1-Jan-21 $8,650
North Julie Pendergraph 1-Jan-21 $8,812
LinkedIn: Paul Barnhurst
East James Smith 1-Feb-21 $6,499
 Table of Contents
1. What is tabular data

2. Differences between summarized and tabular data

3. What are Excel Tables

4. Loading summarized data to a pivot table and why it is an issue

5. Converting summarized data to tabular data using Power Query

6. Resources for learning more about Excel tables and tabular data
 Tabular Data in Excel
Excel works best with a tabular data format saved in an Excel table. In Finance and FP&A we regularly
need to analyze data and the best way to do that in Excel is with tabular data stored in Excel tables.
Creating tabular data makes working with pivot tables or creating Excel dashboards much easier.

The Data format for analyzing data in excel should be structured as follows (Tabular Data):

1. Column headers in one row

2. Each data record is in one row and each row contains a complete record set
3. No blank rows in the data
4. No subtotals throughout the data or totals at the end
5. Each field/column houses its own type of data (i.e. Month, Product, amount, geographic region,
etc.)

Note: Tabular data needs to follow the above principles if your data is not in this format you will need
to fix it and then put it in an Excel table. This can be done with Excel formulas or with Power Query.
Strongly recommend learning POWER QUERY for cleaning and converting your data to a tabular data
format. This should be done before conducting data analysis on your data set. One of the most com-
mon need is to convert the data from a summarized format to a tabular format and we will cover that
later on in this guide
 Summarized vs. Tabular Data
East West North South
Jim 223 228 104 143
Peter 226 238 225 149
Total 449 466 329 292
Image of Summarized Data

Summarized Data—Summarized data has the following features:

• Includes totals and subtotals
• Columns include summarized data
• Summarized data aggregates individual records of data by combining multiple records
Name Region Amount Period
Jim East 223 1/1/2022
Jim West 228 1/1/2022
Jim North 104 1/1/2022
Jim South 143 1/1/2022
Image of Tabular Data

Tabular Data—Summarized data has the following features:

• Each row is a unique record set
• Tabular data does not include totals or subtotals
• Each column only contains one type of data
Excel Tables
Excel Tables Layout

Table Properties: This includes the
nae of your table. Default is
Table1,Table2, etc. You should give it
a meaningful name. You can also
resize your table to increase or
decrease # of rows or columns.
Tools: The tools section is where you
can summarize the table by using a
pivot table or filter certain elements
using data slicers. You can also
quickly remove duplicates by the
click of a button or covert your table
back to a normal range of data.
Table Design Menu
Table Design Menu: The table design
menu is a special menu bar that
comes up in Excel when you create a
table. It provides a variety of
options for working with your excel
tables.
External Table Data: This is to
work with the data externally
you can export the data to a
SharePoint list or if your table is
connected to an external data
source you can refresh the data
with the refresh button.
Table Style Options: This is where
you can add a header row, total row,
or filtered button to your table. You
can create banded rows or columns
and highlight the first or last column
of your table.
Table Styles: Table styles are
predefined styles in Excel that
can be applied to the table
layout. You can use different
color schemes and apply
various patters to your data.
 Table Nomenclature

1. Tables are similar to named ranges in that they can have no spaces in the name but can have _and . in the
name. For the example, this table is named Data.CP. Similar to named ranges you can reference table names
in your excel formulas throughout your workbook.

2. Table Headers – Table headers use the nomenclature of the table name so in this case = Data.CPG[Headers] in
a cell would reference all six header rows in the above example. If I wanted to reference the first column
header Sku # I would write =Data.CPG[[#Headers],[skuname]].

3. If I want to reference the data in a specific column, I can type the table name =Data.CPG followed by the
column name so if I wanted to reference the column period, I will write Data.CPG[Period].

4. This type of structured referencing makes creating calculated columns easy within tables say I wanted to add a
new column called ASP and I wanted to multiple the Quantity column x the Price column in a new column
labeled ASP I write =[Quantity]*[Price] and it will automatically calculate the answer in every row within that
column.
 Loading Summarized Data to a Pivot Table
Region SalesRep Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 May-21
East James Smith $8,183 $9,391 $7,696 $7,425 $5,088
East Julie Smith $6,296 $6,038 $9,552 $6,218 $8,647
West Jason Smith $7,167 $9,873 $9,119 $5,305 $5,409
West Jennifer Smith $5,514 $6,656 $6,093 $6,668 $9,341
South Phil Jensen $7,168 $7,938 $8,076 $5,958 $9,661
South Bob Dole $7,517 $5,591 $9,211 $8,484 $5,462
North Jack Bush $7,212 $9,796 $9,374 $7,714 $5,500
North Julie Pendergraph $9,344 $8,357 $7,696 $7,732 $5,551
The above data set is a summarized or pivoted data data set. It is summarized because the dates are in individual
columns vs rows. Summarized data sets are great for looking at data but bad for analyzing data. Lets take this data
set and see what happens when you put it into a pivot table.
1. Highlight the data set and convert it to a table by pressing Control T.

2. Load the newly created table into a pivot table. This is done by selecting Insert, Pivot Table, From Table/Range
on the excel Menu.
 Summarized Data in a Pivot Table
Below is a view of the summarized data into the pivot table This view highlights why summarized data is very
user unfriendly for Pivot Tables. Instead of having one amount in the values section you have 12 dates. This
makes any analysis that you will want to do very difficult.

In the above example you will see the PivotTable Fields window on the right and the Pivot Table on the left. In the
example I have added SalesRep to the rows section, Region to the columns, and Jan-21 & Feb-21 to the values. The
problem with the below example is if I want to see all months of the year I have to add every date to the values sec-
tion, that is 12 separate dates each added individually to values. This issue would not exist if the data was in a tabu-
lar format. You would just add months to the column and amounts to the values, two fields instead of 12.
Next we will walk through how to convert this data to tabular data in a few simple steps.
 Converting Summarized Data to Tabular Data
1. Highlight the summarized table. Go to the menu and select the data section and click on from within sheet, in
some earlier versions of Excel you will click on From Table/Range.

2. Once you have completed this the data will be loaded to Power Query. Power Query will load in a separate
screen from Excel. Power Query has its own ribbon menu and it will look like the below image once loaded.
 Converting Summarized Data to Tabular Data
3. In order to convert the data from a summarized or pivot format to a tabular format you will use one of my favor-
ite Power Query functions the unpivot data function. First you need to highlight the columns you want to unpivot
which are Jan through Dec-21. Note: When you highlight a column it will show in green.

4. Once all columns are highlighted you will select Unpivot Columns from the transform menu bar.

Once you have clicked on the Unpivot Columns the data will convert all the columns to rows thus putting our data
in a tabular format, as shown on the next screen.
 Converting Summarized Data to Tabular Data

The data has been converted to a tabular format by Power Query. All that remains are a few simple steps and you
will have your data in a tabular format for loading directly into a Pivot Table.
5. To rename a column highlight the column you want to rename, right click and select rename from the menu. This
will highlight the column and you can then type in the new name. You will change Attribute to Date and Value to
Amount.
 Converting Summarized Data to Tabular Data
6. Once you have renamed the files you will right click on the date field and select change type and
convert the date column to a date, data type. This will ensure your pivot table recognizes this column
as a date.
 Converting Summarized Data to Tabular Data
7. The final step will be to click on file, Closed & Load To. When you click Close & Load To it will bring up
the import data menu and you will select the PivotTable Report Option and load your data to a new work-
sheet. Your data will then be loaded to the new worksheet in Excel.
 Converting Summarized Data to Tabular Data
Once you have loaded the data to the worksheet you will see the PivotTable Fields on the right and the Piv-
ot Table on the left. In the below example I have added Date to the rows, added Region to the columns,
and Amount to the values. Noticed that Excel automatically grouped the data field into months for easy
viewing.

Note: The key difference between this and the first one is tabular data is designed to be summarized in piv-
ot tables and you only need one field (Amount) in values vs. 12 like in the first example.
Resources for learning about Excel Tables & Normalized Data

• Excel Tables | Exceljet - https://exceljet.net/excel-tables

• Excel Tables | How To Excel - https://www.howtoexcel.org/excel-tables/

• Overview of Excel tables (microsoft.com) - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/overview-of-

excel-tables-7ab0bb7d-3a9e-4b56-a3c9-6c94334e492c

• Amazon.com: Excel Tables: A Complete Guide for Creating, Using and Automating Lists and Tables
eBook : Barresse, Zack, Jones, Kevin: Kindle Store

• https://www.excelcampus.com/pivot-tables/structure-pivot-table-source-data/

• Excel Tabular Data • Excel Table • My Online Training Hub

• Unpivot Excel Data - Excel University (excel-university.com)

 This guide was brought to you
by Paul Barnhurst (aka The FP&A Guy)

Data format for analyzing data in excel:

1. Column headers in one row

Paul Barnhurst
Contact: Pbarnhurst@TheFPandAGuy.com
Website: TheFPandAGuy.com
LinkedIn: Paul Barnhurst
2. Each data record is in one row and each row
contains a complete data set
3. No blank rows in the data
4. No subtotals throughout the data
5. Each field/column houses its own type of
data (i.e. Month, Product, amount, geo-
graphic region, etc.)