Content
Introduction
If you prefer watching video,
here
is a 45 recording of my "Modern Excel webinar" session of January 2020
A lot of the data you use in Excel is laid out as a table. Since Excel
2007 there is handy functionality for this called Format As Table. Contrary
to what you might expect from this name however, the format bit is irrelevant
or at best a nice side-effect.
This article introduces you into the concepts of working with Tables
in Excel and shows you how they may help you in your everyday Excel use.
Creating Your Table
Creating a table in Excel is easy. Of course you already have some data
available somewhere on your sheet. Select the cells that contain the data:
Figure 1: Select the table area
Next, on the Home tab of the ribbon, find the group called "Styles".
Click on the button that says "Format as Table" (see figure 2):
Figure 2: "Format as Table" button on the Styles group of the Home tab.
After clicking this button, Excel shows a new user interface element
called a gallery, with a number of formatting choices for your table, see
figure 3:
Figure 3: Table format gallery.
Select one of the predetermined formats. After clicking one of the formats,
Excel will ask you what range of cells you want to convert to a table (see
figure 4). If your table contains a heading row, make sure the checkbox
is checked. Click OK to convert the range to a table.
Figure 4: Dialog asking what range of cells has to be converted to a table.
After you’ve finished these steps, your table will look like figure 5.
Figure 5: Range of cells, after converting to table
Together with fellow Excel MVP Frederic Le Guen I devised a
small add-in to make your table life a little simpler.
The tool adds a tab to the ribbon called Table Tools:
And a right-click menu which differs whether you right-click within a
table or outside of a table:
- Within a table it shows the columns names so you can quickly goto
a column
- Outside of a table it shows a list of tables in the active workbook
- If you use the Table Name editbox on the TableTools ribbon tab,
it will not only rename the table, but also automatically update all
queries which use this table with the new name
- If you edit a column name in a table, the tool will update all PowerQuery
queries with this new name.
- Note that the tool has an improved interface to convert a range
to a table, which enables you to name the table right when you define
the table
- In addition, you can add a comment to the table right there, which
appears when you type a formula:
Special functionality of a Table
After defining a table, the area gains special functionalities:
1. Integrated autofilter and sort functionality
If your Table has a header row, it will always have filter and sorting
dropdowns in place on the header row. See figure 6:
Figure 6: sorting and filtering dropdowns
2. Easy selecting
Selecting an entire column or row is simple: move your mouse to the top
of the table until the pointer changes to a down pointing arrow (figure
7) and click. The data area of that column is selected. Click again to include
the header and total rows in the selection.
Figure 7: selecting an entire column of data within your table
You can also select the entire data area or the entire table by clicking
near the table’s top-left corner (the mousepointer changes to a south-east
pointing arrow, see figure 8).
Figure 8: selecting all data within your table or the whole table is just
one or two clicks away.
3. Header row remains visible whilst scrolling
If your table is larger than fits on a screen and you scroll down, Excel
2007 has a nice new feature: the column letters are temporarily replaced
with the table’s column names (but only whilst you’re inside the table!).
See figure 9.
Figure 9: Table header names on Excel’s column header when scrolling
4. Automatic expansion of table
If you type anything next to a table, Excel assumes you want to expand
the table and automatically increases the table size to include your new
entry. Of course you can undo this expansion too, or switch off this behavior
entirely.
5. Automatic reformatting
When you insert or remove a row (or column) in your table, Excel will
automatically adjust the formatting: alternate shading is kept nicely in
place.
6. Automatic adjustment of charts and other objects source range
If you add rows to your table, any object that uses your table’s data
will automatically include the new data.
Table Options on the Ribbon
Once you have selected any of the cells within the table, you will see
a new tab appear on the ribbon, called Table Tools, Design. Figure 10 shows
you what the ribbon will look like after you click this tab.
Figure 10: Ribbon after clicking the Table Tools tab.
Each group on this tab is discussed in the following paragraphs.
Properties group
The properties group (see figure 11 below) enables you to do two things:
Figure 11: properties group on Table Tools tab
1. change the Name of the table
The name of a table is used when you refer to cells within the table
in a formula.
2. Change the size of the table
Click this control to change the size of your table.
Tools group
This group (see figure 12) has three controls:
Figure 12: Tools group on Table Tools tab
1. Summarize with PivotTable
It is obvious what this control does. After you have created the pivot
table, you don’t need to worry about updating the sourcerange of the pivot
table anymore. If you add data to your table, Excel automatically expands
the source range of the Pivot table to reflect your changes. Of course you
still have to refresh the Pivot table to see the results.
2. Remove Duplicates
Another new feature which has been added to Excel 2007. After clicking
this control, you are presented with a dialog with which you can select
the columns that you want to use to determine whether a row in the table
is unique. (see figure 13)
Figure 13: Remove Duplicates dialog
3. Convert to Range
By pressing this button you demote the table back to a normal range.
Beware if you do this when you’ve based e.g. a pivot table on the range,
the Pivot table’s source range will not be updated and the pivot table cannot
be refreshed anymore.
The External Table Data Group
This group (shown in figure 14) is all about the source data of a table
and only applies if the data in the table has been imported into Excel using
a database- or webquery or a sharepoint list.
Figure 14: External Table Data group on the Table Tools tab of the ribbon
This group has 5 buttons:
1. Export Data
This is in fact a combobutton. If you press it you’re offered two options,
"Export Table to SharePoint List" and "Export Table to Visio PivotDiagram".
What these are exactly is beyond the scope of this article.
2. Refresh
Use this combobutton to refresh the external data in your table. If you
click the arrow beneath the button, you’re offered a menu which amongst
others also includes "Refresh All", with which you can refresh all external
data ranges in your file.
3. Data Range Properties
This button can be used to change the properties of the external data
you have based your table on.
4. Open in Browser
If your table is a sharepoint list, this button enables you to open a
browser window with that list.
5. Unlink
If your table is a sharepoint list, this button disconnects the table
from the list.
Table Style Options Group
This group houses the controls which determine how table styles are applied
to your table (see figure 15).
Figure 15: Table Style Options group on the Table Tools tab of the ribbon
1. Header Row
When this box is unchecked, Excel removes the header row from your table.
The cells of the header row are cleared, but Excel does remember the header.
If you type anything into any cell in that now empty row, Excel will not
overwrite that information when you check the box again. Instead, Excel
will insert a new row to show the header. Cells below the table are then
moved down.
2. Total Row
Check this box if you want a total row below your table. Excel will automatically
add a sum function below the last column in your table.
3. Banded Rows
Check this box to get alternating shading for the rows in your table.
4. First Column
If you check this box, the first column of your table will be formatted
differently from the other columns.
5. Last Column
Formats the last column of your table differently from the other columns.
6. Banded Columns
Check this box to get alternating shading for the columns in your table
Table Styles Group
The last group on the Table Tools tab enables you to quickly change the
style of your table (see figure 16).
Figure 16: Table Styles group on the Table Tools tab of the ribbon
Click the dropdown button to the right of the gallery to see all choices
available to you. Hover over a particular style to see what your table would
look like when you click it. At the bottom of the gallery there are two
extra choices:
1. New Table Style
This option enables you to create your own table style.
2. Clear
Use this to remove the table style from your table entirely. Number formats
are retained.
Referencing
cells in a table (structured referencing)
Excel 2007 introduces a new syntax to refer to cells inside a table.
To see how this works, click in a cell to the immediate right of the table,
hit the = sign, type SUM( and then click on any cell with data within the
table. You’ll get a formula like this one:
Excel 2007: =SUM(Table3[[#This Row];[Discount]])
This syntax has been simplified in later Excel versions (2010 and up):
=SUM(Table3[@Discount])
The new naming convention to refer to the cells in your table works as
follows:
Table3: The name of your table
[#This Row] in Excel 2007, @ in Excel 2010 and later: Denotes the data
comes from the same row your formula cell is in
[Discount] : The column inside the table
Some other examples:
Description
Excel 2007
Excel 2010 and up
The entire table
=Table1
=Table1
The same row in the table
=Table1[[#This Row][Discount]]
=Table1[@Discount]
Heading of table
=Table1[#Headers]
=Table1[#Headers]
Entire table (2)
=Table1[#All]
=Table1[#All]
Table total row
=Table1[#Totals]
=Table1[#Totals]
Because of this naming convention, you are not allowed to have more than
one column inside a table with a specific heading. As soon as you try to
type a new heading that duplicates an existing one, Excel will automatically
correct the duplication by appending a number to the new column name.
A nice feature of tables is immediately shown as soon as you hit enter:
your table is automatically resized to include your formula (Excel has also
made up a column heading for you) and the formula is automatically copied
down to fill the entire column alongside your data! Both actions may be
undone by using the smart tag that appears.
Referring to a table
from another workbook
Even though I mentioned that a table is also stored as a range name there
is a peculiarity. The range name points only to the data rows of the table.
The header row is NOT included. This means that if you want to create a
pivot table on data that is in a table in another workbook you need to use
a syntax that differs from the old days.
Normally you would refer to a range name "TableName" in workbook "WorkbookName.xls"
using: [WorkbookName.xls]!TableName
But although a table is represented by a range name, you should not use
the range name syntax as the source. Rather you must use this:
WorkbookName!TableName
This will convince Excel that you are pointing to a table and then includes
the header rows.
Other table advantages
Using a table is advantageous on Excel for Android as well. It will enable
you to edit records in the table by going into Card view, which makes it
a LOT easier to work with the records in the table:
Conclusion
As you have seen, Tables are a great addition to Excel’s features. Most
of these features were already part of Excel 2003's List feature. But Excel
versions 2007 and up builds upon that feature, significantly improving it.
The most important benefits are:
- Integrated autofilter and sort functionality
- Easy selecting
- Header row remains visible whilst scrolling
- Automatic expansion of table
- Automatic reformatting
- Automatic adjustment of charts and other objects source range
Links
If you're interested in VBA, read about
Excel Tables and VBA here.
Ron de Bruin has written
a nice add-in to
ease working with tables.
