Introduction to Power Pivot
1. Introduction to Power Pivot
Hello! Welcome to Power Pivot in Excel.2. Your instructor
My name is Nick Edwards, and I am excited to be your instructor! I have over 7 years of experience working in FinTech. I've used data to trade billions of dollars in bonds, and drive strategy on portfolios worth billions. I've made many courses with DataCamp, and I believe harnessing the power of data analytics will empower you to make better choices, which is why I teach.3. Course overview
This is an intermediate course as we introduce more complex topics within Power Pivot, so I recommend that you've completed these prerequisite courses to ensure you will have a good learning experience with me.4. What is Power Pivot?
Power Pivot is an Excel add-in that enables users to analyze large amounts of data from various sources. Users can create data models, perform complex calculations, and generate interactive reports all from Power Pivot.5. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
But how do you know if Power Pivot is the right tool for your analysis? Let's compare it to some similar Microsoft tools: Pivot Tables and Power BI.6. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
First, Pivot Tables and Power Pivot both live in Excel. Power Pivot seamlessly integrates with Excel, making this a great option for people who don't want to use anything else but Excel.7. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
Second, Pivot Tables can only reference one data range, whereas Power Pivot can handle many different sources, much like Power BI.8. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
In addition, Power Pivot can store up to 4GB in the worksheet, which is far more than a Pivot Table.9. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
Both Pivot Tables and Power Pivot lack data transformation capabilities on their own.10. Power Query + Power Pivot = Powerful!
However, using Power Query in combination with Power Pivot to load and transform data in Power Pivot gets around this limitation and puts Power Pivot on par with Power BI.11. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
Power Pivot also uses Data Analysis Expressions, or DAX, to create calculations, which is the same language as Power BI.12. Is Power Pivot the right tool?
This allows Power Pivot and Power BI to make more complex calculations and analysis than Pivot Tables. So, Power Pivot is a good middle-ground between PivotTables and Power BI. It seamlessly integrates into Excel, which makes it great for people who are familiar with Excel features, but don't want to learn the complexity of Power BI or use another application.13. Exploratory data analysis
Power Pivot is a great tool for exploratory data analysis, or EDA. EDA is the process of understanding data and extracting insights from it. The first step in EDA is to prepare the data. This looks like making sure it's in a usable format, clean and ready for analysis.14. Exploratory data analysis
Then we can explore the data to understand what it looks like, its structure and relationships.15. Exploratory data analysis
Finally, we analyze the data to extract insight and test hypotheses. For example, you might hypothesize that sales should increase over time, then you would analyze the data to find if this is true.16. Welcome to Pivotal!
So, you will follow the steps of exploratory data analysis throughout this course as you play the role of an analyst for Pivotal Mortgage, a lender specializing in mortgage loans in the United States. Pivotal Mortgage wants you to build a report that summarizes their sales data for 2021.17. Let's practice!
Alright, let's get to some practice. But first, it's time for a pop quiz.Create Your Free Account
or
By continuing, you accept our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and that your data is stored in the USA.