A Trivial Test Case

Now that you have installed the PowerPivot add-in and seen the new feature from within Excel, we will create a very simple test set to ensure the software is working and to prepare you for the next chapter.

With Excel open and with a blank worksheet similar to Figure 1-2, type the following into the first four rows of column A: Product, Widgets, Sprockets, Jigs. Likewise, type the following values into the first four rows of column B: Quantity, 100, 200, 300. Your finished spreadsheet should look similar to Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3. Example data

Click the PowerPivot ribbon item to see the options available for PowerPivot operations. Highlight the range of cells that contain the data you just entered. From within the PowerPivot ribbon menu, select the Create Linked Table item, which will render a dialog similar to the one shown in Figure 1-4. Ensure the “My table has headers” check box remains checked, and click the OK button.

Figure 1-4. Create Linked Table dialog

If the installation of PowerPivot was successful, Excel will quickly load a new window, specifically created for constructing PowerPivot data structures. Figure 1-5 shows that new window. The Excel worksheet window is still open, but the focus for now will be on our data, now in PowerPivot. You are now moments away from creating your first, trivial PowerPivot solution using this linked table data.

Figure 1-5. PowerPivot window

The primary purpose of this new PowerPivot interface is to create data tables and relate them for the purpose of analysis and creating custom calculations. To do any reporting and analysis of our trivial PowerPivot dataset, we will need to navigate back to the Excel worksheet. Returning to Excel from within PowerPivot is accomplished by clicking the tiny Excel icon in the upper left-hand corner of the PowerPivot window. While there are other methods, including cycling through windows using the Alt+Tab keystroke, using the Excel icon is sufficient for our test.