Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Excel 2013's Data Model Feature

Excel is turning into a scaled-down version of Microsoft Access.
The new Data Model feature lets you build out tables and relationships in your spreadsheet.  No more vlookups!

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-a-data-model-in-excel-HA102923361.aspx

I have highlighted a new option in the create PivotTable dialog which is to “Add this data to the Data Model”. So what is this Data Model I speak of?


“A Data Model is a new approach for integrating data from multiple tables, effectively building a relational data source inside the Excel workbook. Within Excel, Data Models are used transparently, providing data used in PivotTables, PivotCharts, and Power View reports“. Read more here…

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2012/08/23/introduction-to-the-data-model-and-relationships.aspx
Data models utilize the features of PowerPivot, now embedded into Excel.  They are managed by the PowerPivot add-in, and more structured than Excel tables.

It would be nice to see if there is some way of 'upsizing' or linking these data tables to SQL Server, as we had with Access.  Being able to give users the ability to store large datasets on the server without admin intervention could change the way they work with Excel.




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