1. @PaulBradshaw
Leanpub.com/u/paulbradshaw
Birmingham City University, City University London
Online Journalism Blog, HelpMeInvestigate
Saturday, 10 May 14

2. Show of hands. Who has...
- Calculated a proportion
- Used a function like SUM
- Used pivot tables
- Used a function like
VLOOKUP
Saturday, 10 May 14

3. PART ONE:
BASICS.
Saturday, 10 May 14

4. Saturday, 10 May 14

5. https://
pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk/
search/searchintro.aspx
http://www.eib.org/projects/loans/list/
Download this data:
Donations or EIB loans
Saturday, 10 May 14

6. - Make a copy, work on that
- Use CTRL+arrow keys to skip to
edges of data
- Clean first few rows to create single
heading row
- Remove grand total row
- Remove empty rows (Open Refine)
Speed: keyboard shortcuts for
checking the data
Saturday, 10 May 14

7. Numbers Strings Calculations
10 John Smith =10+20+30
20 Kate Brown =A2+A3+A4
30 Mike Moore =SUM(A2:A4)
N/A Kim Smith =COUNT(A:A)
50 =COUNTA(B:B)
Row 1
Column A Column B Column C
Row 3
Row 4
Row 5
Row 6
Row 2
Saturday, 10 May 14

8. Granular data has row for every
payment, person, crime etc.
Aggregate has rows for total crimes,
payments, etc.
Granular always better - can calculate
your own aggregates
Two types of datasets:
Aggregate and granular
Saturday, 10 May 14

9. Aggregate data:
- put the focus in Rows
- numbers (money, crimes) in Values
Granular: pivot tables
Saturday, 10 May 14

10. Saturday, 10 May 14

11. = indicates this is a formula
SUM is the function to be applied
( contains the ingredients for that formula
D2:D300 this is a range (array) of cells*
, separates each ingredient
) ends the list of ingredients
Using functions - and
arguments
Saturday, 10 May 14

12. =SUM(D:D) ignores any text/empty cells
=MAX(D:D)
=MIN(D:D)
=AVERAGE(D:D)
More speed: use column
ranges
Saturday, 10 May 14

13. =AVERAGE(D:D)
=MEDIAN(D:D)
=MODE(D:D) - for ‘most common’: useful
for ordinal ratings which shouldn’t be
averaged.
Sense-checking:
misleading averages
Saturday, 10 May 14

14. =MAX(D:D)/SUM(D:D) - how much of
the total is accounted for by the biggest
value?
=SUM(D35:D64)/SUM(D:D) - what
proportion from one entity?
=SUM(D:D)/365 - how much per day?
(for annual data)
Combining functions to quickly
make numbers meaningful
Saturday, 10 May 14

15. Org spending £X per day
Company receives X% of spending
Org spent £X on Y
Stories you can report quickly
Saturday, 10 May 14

16. Saturday, 10 May 14

17. Data
health
warning!
Remember the context: e.g. spending over £500, inflation
Saturday, 10 May 14

18. PART TWO:
CHECKING
Saturday, 10 May 14

19. Saturday, 10 May 14

20. =COUNT(D:D)
=COUNTA(D:D)
=COUNTBLANK(D2:D15000) - have to
use specific range or blank cells
underneath table are counted
=COUNTIF(D:D, “Other”)
COUNT functions:
Checking data coverage
Saturday, 10 May 14

21. =COUNTIF(D:D, “Individual”)
=COUNTIFS(D:D, “Individual”,
B:B,”<10000”)
=SUMIF(D:D, “<10000”)
=IF(This, then that, otherwise this)
IF functions:
Drill down further
Saturday, 10 May 14

22. =COUNTIF(D:D, “*hire*”)
=COUNTIF(D:D, “Scottish*”)
=COUNTIF(D:D, “* hire*”)
COUNTIF:
Use wildcards - and spaces
Saturday, 10 May 14

23. Saturday, 10 May 14

24. =COUNTIF(D2, “*adidas*”)
=COUNTIF(D3, “*adidas*”)
=COUNTIF(D4, “*adidas*”)
...
Then sort to bring the 1s to the top
COUNTIF:
Test free text data
Saturday, 10 May 14

25. THE
BLACK CROSS
DOUBLE
CLICK
Saturday, 10 May 14

26. Saturday, 10 May 14

27. PART THREE:
CLEANING
Saturday, 10 May 14

28. Saturday, 10 May 14

29. =TRIM(D2)
=SUBSTITUTE(D2,“ ”, “”)
(Target cell, what you want to substitute,
what you want to replace it with)
=SEARCH(“Wales”,A2)
Gives a position of the first match
Cleaning text:
TRIM, SEARCH, SUBSTITUTE
Saturday, 10 May 14

30. mr SMITH
=UPPER(D2) = MR SMITH
=LOWER(D2) = mr smith
=PROPER(D2) = Mr Smith
Cleaning text:
UPPER, LOWER, PROPER
Saturday, 10 May 14

31. =LEFT(E2,3) = first 3 characters in E2
=RIGHT(E2,3) = last 3 characters in E2
=MID(E2,10,3) = the 3 characters in E2
starting from position 10
Cleaning text:
LEFT, RIGHT, MID
Saturday, 10 May 14

32. =LEN(E2) = how many characters in E2
=LEFT(E2,LEN(E2)-3) = Length of E2 -
3. Grab that many characters. i.e.
- If E2 is 5 characters, it will grab the first
2 (5-3=2)
- If E2 is 7 characters it will grab the first
4 (7-3=4)
Combine with
LEN
Saturday, 10 May 14

33. =SEARCH(“ ”,E2) = which position is the
first space
=LEFT(E2,SEARCH(“ ”,E2)) = Grab all
characters up to (and including) that
space
Combine with
SEARCH
Saturday, 10 May 14

34. =SEARCH(“ ”,E2) = which position is the
first space
=LEFT(E2,SEARCH(“ ”,E2)) = Grab all
characters up to (and including) that
space
=TRIM(LEFT(E2,SEARCH(“ ”,E2)))
Combine with
SEARCH
Saturday, 10 May 14

35. =ISERROR(D2) = TRUE or FALSE
See also:
ISNUMBER, ISTEXT, ISNONTEXT,
ISLOGICAL, ISEVEN, ISODD
ISERR (all but N/A)
Finding errors:
ISERROR, ISNA, ISBLANK
Saturday, 10 May 14

36. PART FOUR:
ADDING
Saturday, 10 May 14

37. Saturday, 10 May 14

38. Save time typing search URLs
Saturday, 10 May 14

39. "https://www.duedil.com/beta/search/
companies?name="&B2
Generate URL
Saturday, 10 May 14

40. "https://www.duedil.com/beta/search/
companies?name="&B2
"https://www.duedil.com/beta/search/
companies?
name="&SUBSTITUTE(B2," ","%20")
Generate URL
Saturday, 10 May 14

41. =VLOOKUP(What you’re looking for,
what range contains a match & what you
want back, which column you want back,
nearest match?)
=VLOOKUP(D2,Sheet1!D:E,2,false)
Merging data:
VLOOKUP
Saturday, 10 May 14

42. =TEXT(D2, “dddd”)
=YEAR(D2)
=MONTH(D2) = 1
=TEXT(D2, “mmmm”) = ‘January’
=TEXT(D2, “mmm”) = ‘Jan’
If not formatted as date, use LEFT
Convert dates to years:
TEXT functions
Saturday, 10 May 14

43. =IF(B2>2500,“High”,“Low”)
Convert amounts to
categories: nested IF functions
Saturday, 10 May 14

44. =IF(B2>2500,“High”,“Low”)
=IF(B2>2500,“High”,IF(B2<1000,“Low”
,“Mid”))
Convert amounts to
categories: nested IF functions
Saturday, 10 May 14

45. =IF(COUNTIF(B2, “*dropped*”),
“Dropped”, “Not dropped”)
Can’t use wildcard. Combine
with COUNTIF
Saturday, 10 May 14

46. 1. Save time.
2. Check your data.
3. Clean your data.
4. Add to your data.
5. Feel clever. But don’t be
too clever.
Saturday, 10 May 14

47. Thank you
Leanpub.com/u/spreadsheetstories
@paulbradshaw
Saturday, 10 May 14