Solutions for Data Science

3D Maps ( Power Map) is available in the Office 365 versions of Excel 2013 and all versions of Excel 2016. Using 3D Maps, you can build a pivot table on a map. You can fly through your data and animate the data over time. 3D Maps lets you see five dimensions: latitude, longitude, color, height, and time. Using it is a fascinating way to visualize large data sets. 3D Maps can work with simple one-sheet data sets or with multiple tables added to the Data Model. Select the data. On the Insert tab, choose 3D Map. (The icon is located to the right of the Charts group.) If you have Excel 2013 you might have to download Power Map Preview from Microsoft to use the feature. Next, you need to choose which fields are your geography fields. This could be Country, State, County, Zip Code, or even individual street addresses. You are given a list of the fields in your data set and drop zones named Height, Category, and Time. Hover over any point on the map to get details such as last sale date and a...

Excel 2013 added a new data-cleansing tool called Flash Fill. In the figure below, you see full names in column A. You want to get the person’s first initial and last name in column B. Rather than try to puzzle out  =PROPER(LEFT(A2,1)&" "&MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,50)) , you simply type a sample of what you want in B2. Type the first initial in B3. Excel sees what you are doing and “grays in” a suggested result. Press  Enter  to accept the suggestion. Bam! All of the data is filled in. Look carefully through your data for exceptions to the rule. Two people here have middle initials listed. Do you want the middle initials to appear? If so, correct the suggestion for Dennis P. Jancsy in cell B4. Flash Fill will jump into action and fix Martha K. Wendel in B9 and any others that match the new pattern. The status bar will indicate how many changes were made. In the above case, Excel gurus could figure out the formula. But Flash Fill is easier. In the example shown b...

Sometimes, you want to see many different results from various combinations of inputs. Provided that you have only two input cells to change, the Data Table feature will do a sensitivity analysis. Using the loan payment example, say that you want to calculate the price for a variety of principal balances and for a variety of terms. Make sure that the formula you want to model is in the top-left corner of a range. Put various values for one variable down the left column and various values for another variable across the top. From the Data tab, select What-If Analysis, Data Table.... You have values along the top row of the input table. You want Excel to plug those values into a certain input cell. Specify that input cell for Row Input Cell. You have values along the left column. You want those plugged into another input cell. Specify that cell for the Column Input Cell. When you click OK, Excel repeats the formula in the top-left column for all combinations of the top row and left colum...

Have you ever found yourself plugging in successively higher and lower values into an input cell, hoping to arrive at a certain answer? A tool that is built in to Excel does exactly this set of steps. Select the cell with the Payment formula. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, look for the What-If Analysis dropdown and choose Goal Seek…. The figure below shows how you can try to set the payment in B5 to $425 by changing cell B1 Goal Seek finds the correct answer within a second. Note that the formula in B5 stays intact. The only thing that changes is the input value typed in B1. Also, with Goal Seek, you are free to experiment with changing other input cells. You can still get the $425 loan payment and the $25,995 car if your banker will offer you a 71.3379-month loan!