Data Analysis in Excel

This section illustrates the powerful features that Excel offers for analyzing data.

1 Sort: You can sort your Excel data by one column or multiple columns. You can sort in ascending or descending order.

2 Filter: Filter your Excel data if you only want to display records that meet certain criteria.

3 Conditional Formatting: Conditional formatting in Excel enables you to highlight cells with a certain color, depending on the cell's value.

4 Charts: A simple Excel chart can say more than a sheet full of numbers. As you'll see, creating charts is very easy.

5 Pivot Tables: Pivot tables are one of Excel's most powerful features. A pivot table allows you to extract the significance from a large, detailed data set.

6 Tables: Master Excel tables and analyze your data quickly and easily.

7 What-If Analysis: What-If Analysis in Excel allows you to try out different values (scenarios) for formulas.

8 Solver: Excel includes a tool called Solver that uses techniques from operations research, a field focused on optimizing decisions, to solve all kinds of problems.

9 Analysis ToolPak: The Analysis ToolPak is an Excel add-in program that provides data analysis tools for financial, statistical and engineering data analysis.

Want to learn more about data analysis in Excel? You can find related examples and features on the right side of each chapterat the bottom of each chapter.