{"id":93,"date":"2010-07-10T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-10T14:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/10\/spreadsheet-add-ins-star-schemas-in-powerpivot\/"},"modified":"2019-10-18T15:52:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T19:52:45","slug":"spreadsheet-add-ins-star-schemas-in-powerpivot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/10\/spreadsheet-add-ins-star-schemas-in-powerpivot\/","title":{"rendered":"Spreadsheet Add-Ins: Star Schemas in PowerPivot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d942c2121bfbd137a3b44056a000f09c\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Responsive Top -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9531091850463532\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"6574318169\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>A powerful new add-in for Excel 2010, <a title=\"PowerPivot official site\" href=\"http:\/\/www.powerpivot.com\/\">PowerPivot<\/a> allows users to quickly analyse huge datasets, while staying in the familiar environment of Excel. It&#8217;s an easy way to create reports, using pivot tables and pivot charts, and new Excel 2010 features, like Slicers and Sparklines.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border: 0px;\" title=\"PPivotLab19\" src=\"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/PPivotLab19.png\" alt=\"PPivotLab19\" width=\"402\" height=\"413\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the Gob\u00e1n Saor (Country Datasmith) blog, Tom Gleeson describes the role that <a title=\"Star Schemas in PowerPivot\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.gobansaor.com\/2010\/07\/09\/star-schemas-to-boldly-go-where-no-excel-spreadsheet-has-gone-before\/\">Star Schemas play in PowerPivot<\/a>, and outlines their advantages. First, he explains a Star Schema in simple terms as, &#8220;a central fact table with links back to a \u201csurrounding\u201d set of dimensional tables, hence the star name.&#8221; The fact table holds most of the data, and provides the links between all the other tables.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re used to creating pivot tables in Excel, but don&#8217;t have a data warehouse background, you might not realize why Star Schemas can add value. Tom explains that Star Schemas add new potential to your data analysis:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It is true that the same flattened table model as used to backend a PivotTable can be used within PowerPivot. But doing so would limit the potential of the <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ee835613.aspx\">DAX language<\/a> to construct measures such as average sales spread over potential customers (rather than actual customers that would typically be represented on a flattened table). Also, by creating \u201cconformed dimensions\u201d (single cross-business views of Customer, Product etc.) and using such tables as dimensional sources for multiple fact tables, \u201cvirtual cubes\u201d that combine values from multiple fact tables can be built.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Learn More About PowerPivot<\/h2>\n<p>You can explore <a title=\"PowerPivot in the virtual lab\" href=\"http:\/\/www.contextures.com\/PowerPivot-for-Excel-2010-Lab.html\">PowerPivot in the virtual lab<\/a>, as I did, or download a free copy and try it for yourself, in Excel 2010 (not available for earlier versions).<\/p>\n<p>__________________<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/star01b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-722\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/star01b.jpg\" alt=\"Spreadsheet Add-Ins: Star Schemas in PowerPivot\" width=\"450\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/star01b.jpg 450w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/star01b-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A powerful new add-in for Excel 2010, PowerPivot allows users to quickly analyse huge datasets, while staying in the familiar environment of Excel. It&#8217;s an easy way to create reports, using pivot tables and&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,4],"tags":[11,10,12],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spreadsheet-add-ins","category-spreadsheet-day","category-spreadsheets","tag-dax","tag-powerpivot","tag-star-schemas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":723,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions\/723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}