Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning [Paperback]

Marco Russo (Author), Alberto Ferrari (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2010

Transform your skills, data, and business—with the power user’s guide to PowerPivot for Excel. Led by two business intelligence (BI) experts, you’ll learn how to create and share your own BI solutions using software you already know and love: Microsoft Excel. Discover how to extend your existing skills, using the PowerPivot add-in to quickly turn mass quantities of data into meaningful information and on-the-job results—no programming required. The book introduces you to PowerPivot functionality, then takes a pragmatic approach to understanding and working with data models, data loading, data manipulation with Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), simple-to-sophisticated calculations, what-if analysis, and PowerPivot patterns. Learn how to create your own, “self-service” BI solutions, then share your results effortlessly across your organization using Microsoft SharePoint®.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

We have been working with PowerPivot since its early releases and, as all the new products, it requires some training to be used to its full potential. We wrote a book for end users who want to master PowerPivot, providing many examples and patterns to solve the typical business problems, which sometimes require solutions that are not easy to implement. You will be able to use this book both as a quick reference for common patterns and to learn how PowerPivot works and how to model your data in the good way.

About the Author

MARCO RUSSO is a software consultant and trainer based in Italy who focuses on Windows development and Business Intelligence solutions, including data warehouse relational and multidimensional design. He is the coauthor of Introducing Microsoft LINQ and Programming Microsoft LINQ (Microsoft Press), along with several other books about Microsoft .NET and SQL Server Analysis Services.

ALBERTO FERRARI is a consultant and trainer for the BI development area with the Microsoft suite for Business Intelligence. His main interests are in the methodological approaches to the BI development and works as a trainer for software houses that need to design complex BI solutions.

Alberto and Marco recently co-authored "Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 Analysis Services" published by Packt Publishing and the "SQLBI Methodology". They are also the founders of SQLBI (sqlbi.com).

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; Pap/Dvdr edition (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735640580
• ISBN-13: 978-0735640580
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Spreadsheets
  • #35 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Data Mining

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leaf-Level Book Review: `Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010', October 12, 2010

By 

Derek Comingore (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning (Paperback)

Being a member of the Analysis Services Insiders group is one of my favorite parts about being a Microsoft SQL/BI MVP. The Insider forums are locked down to select individuals and provide Microsoft experts with a venue to exchange ideas, thoughts, and technical solutions among one another. As a result, overtime I have begun to know both Marco & Alberto, and when I learned they were both working on a collaborative PowerPivot book it peaked my interest. Furthermore, when I learned that the book would have a focus on DAX my interest increased yet again. I received an early copy of the printed manual and over the past 24 hours I have torn thru the book's newly printed pages eager to see what my fellow colleagues across the pond created.

Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot is an extremely powerful and yet diverse Self-Service BI (SSBI) toolset. There are aspects of PowerPivot that are more slanted towards information workers (PowerPivot for Excel) while other aspects are intended purely for IT Pros (PowerPivot for SharePoint). The key decision for software-centric book authoring "is it better to drill down on a subset of a larger software product's features or provide complete coverage with less details" still applies today. Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari have clearly decided to focus on the PowerPivot for Excel experience with an advanced exploration of DAX, PowerPivot's best in class information worker expression language.

The book's key driver for purchase is that it is authored by seasoned Microsoft BI experts who exploit PowerPivot for Excel's analytical capabilities to the max. Who better to teach information workers about the advanced analytical capabilities of PowerPivot for Excel (which is driven internally by the in-memory Analysis Services Vertipaq engine) than those who've used past incarnations of similar technology for similar purposes? While I agree that PowerPivot for Excel 100% does not require information workers to be familiar with Analysis Services concepts, the author's background serves them well for the aspects of PowerPivot they choose to attack.

The manual begins with a nice introduction on classic Excel Pivot Tables and then demonstrates how PowerPivot for Excel clearly overcomes the limitations of the older pivot table & VLOOKUP technology. In chapters two and three the book explores PowerPivot for Excel introductory features including an introduction to DAX. The authors then introduce you to the concept of PowerPivot data models in chapter four with the loading of PowerPivot data models being covered in chapter five. Chapter six is where the authors expertise really begins to shine with a treatment of DAX's Evaluation Context and specifically the CALCULATE function.

Chapter seven hones in on using DAX for common time intelligence calculations. Date and time calculations are the crux of any analytical solution. Common expressions such as year-to-date, year-over-year, and beginning/closing balances are covered in detail. You are then taken into a chapter that shows you how to master Excel 2010 Pivot Tables including Classic Pivot Tables, OLAP Pivot Tables, and PowerPivot Pivot Tables.

Chapters nine and ten focus on DAX and data model patterns. SSBI users will find both of these chapters are extremely well tailored for them addressing common analytical challenges such as ratio calculations, ranking calculations, banding, and even a demonstration of how to overcome unsupported relationships with DAX. The manual concludes with chapter eleven covering the publishing of PowerPivot for Excel workbooks including a primer on PowerPivot for SharePoint via SharePoint data refresh settings & configuration.

Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010 is without question the best book on PowerPivot for Excel I've read to date. The authors have executed well on a no-holds-barred approach to exploiting PowerPivot for Excel and everything that the client-experience can provide users. Both information workers and business intelligence professionals alike who use or intend to use PowerPivot for Excel should consider the book as required reading. Additionally, due to the sheer volume of DAX coverage, readers should retain the book as a must-have DAX reference.

Bravo!
Derek Comingore, Microsoft SQL/BI MVP

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on PowerPivot and DAX, June 28, 2011

By 

6K - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning (Paperback)

I like the book for two reasons.
First, while explaining how PowerPivot works, it also explains many BI concepts (OLAP cubes, sql joins, normalization) which are not necessarily known to every excel user. However, these help to maximize the usefulness of PowerPivot.
Second, it also shows what you can do with DAX, the new formula language of PowerPivot, which is quite impressive but not so easily mastered, especially here the book is a tremendous help.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but sometimes it is hard to use, May 29, 2011

By 

MAD - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning (Paperback)

Most of the book is well written, it would be nice to have some application exercises so you could do the process step by step and later check the answer. Otherwise it is too much theory.