2. Introduction to Excel Tables
An Excel table (previously known as an Excel list) is a
rectangular range of data that has been defined and named
in a particular way.
Why Use Tables?
Ease of styling and formatting. Once you format your data
as a table, Excel automatically formats the data into a
stylish table.
Table Auto Expands when new Data is entered
Tables auto-fill the formulas until the last cell
Filter with slicers
Using structured references
3. Create Excel table
To make managing and analyzing a group of related data easier, you can turn a range of cells into an Excel
table. You can create as many tables as you want in a spreadsheet.
To quickly create a table in Excel, do the following:
Select the cell or the range in the data.
Select Home > Format as Table. (Ctrl + T).
Pick a table style.
In the Format as Table dialog box, select the checkbox next to My
table as headers if you want the first row of the range to be the
header row, and then click OK
4. Excel table features
Excel has some features that enable you to work efficiently with your table data:
Using structured references: Instead of using cell references, such as A1 and R1C1, you can use structured
references that reference table names in a formula.
Ensuring Data Integrity: You can use the built-in data validation feature in Excel. For example, you may choose
to allow only numbers or dates in a column of a table
5. Structured References
When you create an Excel table, Excel assigns a name to the table, and to each column header in the table.
When you add formulas to an Excel table, those names can appear automatically as you enter the formula
and select the cell references in the table instead of manually entering them.
Here's an example of what Excel does:
Instead of using explicit cell references Excel uses table and column names
=SUM(C2:C100) =SUM(TableName[Column Name])
Note: That combination of table and column names
is called a structured reference.
6. Excel table slicers
Slicers provide buttons that you can click to filter tables. In addition to quick filtering, slicers also indicate the current
filtering state, which makes it easy to understand what exactly is currently displayed.
To create a slicer to filter a Table, do the following:
Click anywhere in the table.
On the Insert tab, select Slicer
In the Insert Slicers dialog box, select the check boxes for
the fields you want to display, then select OK.
A slicer will be created for every field that you selected.
Clicking any of the slicer buttons will automatically
apply that filter to the linked table.
Notes:
• To select more than one item, hold Ctrl, and then select the items
that you want to show.
• To clear a slicer's filters, select Clear Filter icon in the slicer.
7. Activity
1. Open the file “Excel_Tables_Activity.xlxs”.
2. Format the data as Table with a style you like.
3. Add as many as meaningful slicers as you want that may
help you to efficiently filter the data.
4. Filter your data with multiple selection (using slicers).
5. Do some statistics
