Excel Power Pivot - Overview

Excel Power Pivot is an efficient, powerful tool that comes with Excel as an Add-in. With Power Pivot, you can load hundreds of milpons of rows of data from external sources and manage the data effectively with its powerful xVelocity engine in a highly compressed form. This makes it possible to perform the calculations, analyze the data, and arrive at a report to draw conclusions and decisions. Thus, it would be possible for a person with hands-on experience with Excel, to perform the high-end data analysis and decision making in a matter of few minutes.

This tutorial will cover the following −

Power Pivot Features

What makes Power Pivot a strong tool is the set of its features. You will learn the various Power Pivot features in the chapter − Power Pivot Features.

Power Pivot Data from Various Sources

Power Pivot can collate data from various data sources to perform the required calculations. You will learn how to get data into Power Pivot, in the chapter − Loading Data into Power Pivot.

Power Pivot Data Model

The power of Power Pivot pes in its database- Data Model. The data is stored in the form of data tables in the Data Model. You can create relationships between the data tables to combine the data from different data tables for analysis and reporting. The chapter − Understanding Data Model (Power Pivot Database) gives you the details about the Data Model.

Managing Data Model and Relationships

You need to know how you can manage the data tables in the Data Model and the relationships between them. You will get the details of these in the chapter − Managing Power Pivot Data Model.

Creating Power Pivot Tables and Power Pivot Charts

Power PivotTables and Power Pivot Charts provide you a way to analyze the data for arriving at conclusions and/or decisions.

You will learn how to create Power PivotTables in the chapters − Creating a Power PivotTable and Flattened PivotTables.

You will learn how to create Power PivotCharts in the chapter − Power PivotCharts.

DAX Basics

DAX is the language used in Power Pivot to perform calculations. The formulas in DAX are similar to Excel formulas, with one difference − while the Excel formulas are based on inspanidual cells, DAX formulas are based on columns (fields).

You will understand the basics of DAX in the chapter − Basics of DAX.

Exploring and Reporting Power Pivot Data

You can explore the Power Pivot Data that is in the Data Model with Power PivotTables and Power Pivot Charts. You will get to learn how you can explore and report data throughout this tutorial.

Hierarchies

You can define data hierarchies in a data table so that it would be easy to handle related data fields together in Power PivotTables. You will learn the details of the creation and usage of Hierarchies in the chapter − Hierarchies in Power Pivot.

Aesthetic Reports

You can create aesthetic reports of your data analysis with Power Pivot Charts and/or Power Pivot Charts. You have several formatting options available to highpght the significant data in the reports. The reports are interactive in nature, enabpng the person looking at the compact report to view any of the required details quickly and easily.

You will learn these details in the chapter − Aesthetic Reports with Power Pivot Data.