242 248
243 249
244 250
245 251
246 252
247 253
248 254
249 255
250 256
251 257
252 258
253 259
254 260
255 261
256 262
257 263
258 264
259 265
260 266
261 267
262 268
263 269
264 270
265 271
266 272
267 273
268 274
269 275
270 276
271 277
272 279
273 280
274 281
275 282
276 283
277 284
278 285
279 286
280 287
281 288
282 289
283 290
284 291
285 292
286 293
287 294
288 295
289 296
290 297
291 298
292 299
293 300
294 301
295 302
296 303
297 304
298 305
299 306
300 307
301 308
302 309
303 310
304 311
305 312
306 313
307 314
308 315
309 317
310 318
311 319
312 320
313 321
314 322
315 323
316 324
317 325
318 327
319 328
320 329
321 330
322 331
323 332
324 333
325 334
326 335
327 336
328 337
329 338
330 339
331 340
332 341
333 342
334 343
335 344
336 345
337 346
338 347
339 348
340 349
Introduction
The world is bursting at the seams with data. It’s on our computers, it’s in our networks, it’s on the web. Some days, it seems to be in the very air itself, borne on the wind. But here’s the thing: No one actually cares about data. A collection of data — whether it resides on your PC or some giant server somewhere — is really just a bunch of numbers and text, dates and times. No one cares about data because data doesn’t mean anything. Data isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Knowledge is cool. Insight is cool.
So how do you turn data into knowledge? How do you tweak data to generate insight? You need to organize that data, and then you need to sort it, filter it, run calculations on it, and summarize it. In a word, you need to analyze the data.
Now for the good news: If you have (or can get) that data into Excel, you have a giant basket of data-analysis tools at your disposal. Excel really seems to have been made with data analysis in mind, because it offers such a wide variety of features and techniques for organizing, manipulating, and summarizing just about anything that resides in a worksheet. If you can get your data into Excel, it will help you turn that data into knowledge and insight.
This book takes you on a tour of Excel’s data-analysis tools. You learn everything you need to know to make your data spill its secrets and to uncover your data’s hidden-in-plain-sight wisdom. Best of all, if you already know how to perform the basic Excel chores, you don’t need to learn any other fancy-schmancy Excel techniques to get started in data analysis. Sweet? You bet.
About This Book
This book contains 16 chapters (and a bonus appendix), but that doesn’t mean that you have to, as the King says gravely in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: Then stop.” If you’ve done a bit of data-analysis work in the past, please feel free to dip into the book wherever it strikes your fancy. The chapters all present their data-analysis info and techniques in readily digestible, bite-sized chunks, so you can certainly graze your way through this book.
However, if you’re brand spanking new to data analysis — particularly if you’re not even sure what data analysis even is — no problem: I’m here to help. To get your data-analysis education off to a solid start, I highly recommend reading the book’s first three chapters to get some of the basics down cold. From there, you can travel to more advanced territory, safe in the knowledge that you’ve got some survival skills to fall back on.
What You Can Safely