Filter Sales > 60000 or Department = IT AND Sales > 60000
Filtering is one of the first techniques you'll use when exploring data.
🔟 Understand Data Types
Text: John, India, Laptop
Numbers: 100, 5000, 99.5
Dates: 18-Aug-2026, 01-Jan-2026
Percentages: 15%, 25%
Currency: ₹50,000, $2,000
Correct data types are important. If 50000 is stored as text, calculations may fail.
1️⃣1️⃣ Learn Formatting
Format: Numbers, Currency, Percentages, Dates, Decimal places, Font, Alignment, Borders, Column widths, Row heights
Remember: Formatting should improve readability, not hide poor data structure.
1️⃣2️⃣ Learn Freeze Panes
When working with large datasets, freeze headers.
Use: View → Freeze Panes
Keeps Order ID | Customer | Product | Sales | Date visible while scrolling.
1️⃣3️⃣ Learn Find & Replace
Useful for correcting inconsistent data.
Example: India, INDIA, india → standardize to India
Particularly useful when cleaning manually maintained Excel files.
1️⃣4️⃣ Learn Data Validation
Controls what users can enter into a cell.
Create dropdowns: IT, HR, Finance, Sales, Marketing
Reduces spelling inconsistencies like Finance, finance, FINANCE, Finanace
Especially useful for input templates.
1️⃣5️⃣ Learn Excel Tables
Shortcut: Ctrl + T
Benefits: Automatic filtering, Structured references, Automatic expansion, Easier formulas, Better formatting, Easier PivotTable creation
Tables are particularly useful when your dataset keeps growing.
🧪 Practice Exercise
Create a dataset with: Order ID, Order Date, Customer, Product, Category, Region, Quantity, Sales. Enter at least 20 records.
Task 1: Sort Sales from highest to lowest
Task 2: Filter only the North region
Task 3: Filter sales greater than ₹50,000
Task 4: Freeze the header row
Task 5: Convert the dataset into an Excel Table
Task 6: Create a dropdown for Region using Data Validation
🏆 Key Lesson
Good analysis starts with good data structure.
Before learning complicated formulas, learn how to organize your data correctly.
A Data Analyst should be able to look at an Excel sheet and immediately recognize:
Is this data structured properly for analysis?
That skill will help you later with SQL, Power BI, Python, and virtually every other analytics tool.
Excel Resources: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbCWL6v3mFY2BHby4y3P
Double Tap ❤️ For Part-3