How Excel is Used in Real-World Data Analysis
Excel is a spreadsheet application made up of row and columns. It helps the user to organize, analyze and visualize their data. Excel has inbuilt formulas which assist the user in handling complex data. It’s also an interactive application where the user can play around with the data to produce the desired results which in turn can be used to make organizational/business decisions.
Ways Excel is Used in Real-World data Analysis.
- Forecasting trends With data in excel, it has become easier to study market performance. For instances, in a case where a business has been making loses, by studying the market performance an analyst is able to tell the future whether the business will make profits or more loses. Also with sales, a business or an investor can know which product is selling best in the market and giving him/her an advantage of investing right.
- Monitoring inventory. Store/supermarkets can list all the items they have in stock. Using excel they can track what selling and know when best to restock. This avoids running out of stock. Also with the same you can know what’s not selling and be able to put the right measures to trigger the sales.
- Managing budgets. Governments, organizations and even families use excel to monitor their income and expenditure. This improves the allocation and accountability of resources. For example, with excel the government can see whether it has been putting more resources on liabilities or income generating assets. With such understanding, it can have a better ground of solving the emerging and growing issues like unemployment, food insecurity, etc.
- Tracking performance of employees. With the use of excel, a business can track the performance of its employees. It can track the employees who made most sales and vice versa. In case it wants to get the top 10 best performing employees, it is easier with excel.
Feature of Excel
Excel has many features and among them include;
- Cells, Row and Column- Excel is made of boxes which are called cells where you can fill numbers, texts and formulas. The cells are then organized in horizontal way (which is the Row) and vertical way (column)
- Sorting – this feature helps in arranging the data from the smallest to largest or the other way round. Also you can arrange the data alphabetically.
- Data validation – This feature controls/restricts the data which can be entered in a cell.
- Charts and Graphs – This are the visualization features where data can be visualized into line chart, bar graph, pie chart, etc.
Personal Reflection on Excel
Excel is such a necessary tool in handling data. With Excel, it has changed the way I view data as now I understand there’s much information about performance, a person, a good, etc. that can be extracted from a simple data. Finally, it’s easy to make right decisions with data and excel.
Top comments (2)
Awesome
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