• leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    Pivot tables.

    Excel is one of my favourite games, but I’ve never been able to completely grok those things.

    They seem like a waste of time when it’s much easier to use formulas to construct indirect ranges and work on those.

    • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      Excel is like grind, grind, grind. You can level up a little and then it’s even more work. One column after another, then, row, row, row.

      I like the sql better.

      • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        SQL is nice, but it gets a bit tricky once you get into recursive queries, especially when you’re trying to beat your fastest time record…

    • bstix@feddit.dk
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      5 days ago

      Pivot tables are great because they force people to put their data into tables.

      Formulas suck. You only need sum. Everything is a sum, if you enter your data correctly in a table.

      Want to substract? yes, that is a sum in which one of the numbers are negative. Multiply? Yes that is more sums.

      What about IF statements then? No, no, no. Conditions are simply factors in a sumproduct.

      Learn the keyboard shortcut for sum. It’s the straight edge and compass of excel math.

    • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Pivot tables are quick. If used properly you can summarize data much quicker than any excel formula. When I use them it pretty much always takes under 30 seconds to get what I want. Imo, there are 2 things every user of excel should learn to use. Vlookup (edit: or xlookup, see below) and pivot tables. Once you learn to use both, you will use them all the time.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        5 days ago

        Vlookup

        Please use xlookup instead.

        Forget about lookup, vlookup, hlook-up or index(match()).

        Only use xlookup.

        • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          No place I have ever worked has had a version of excel with xlookup, so I can’t really comment on it. Im not on 365 or a newer desktop version. We are on Office 2019, as I suspect many offices still are.

          • bstix@feddit.dk
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            5 days ago

            Ok, xlookup is better because it doesn’t return false positives and it also doesn’t require the data to be sorted.

            It almost does the same as index(match()), only better, easier and faster.

    • qevlarr@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Anyone else constantly looking up tactics with AI? This game is so difficult, you have to memorize a lot of combos and the strategy to use them really takes time to click. I’m getting into this one again after a long hiatus