Excel Data Analysis For Dummies

Appendix

Glossary of Data Analysis and Excel Terms

3-D pie charts

Perhaps the very worst way to share the results of your data analysis — and often inexcusable.

absolute reference

A cell address used in a formula that Excel doesn’t adjust if you copy the formula to some new location. To create an absolute cell reference, you precede the column letter and row number with a dollar sign ($).

Access

A database program developed and sold by Microsoft. Use Access to build and work with large, sophisticated, relational databases; you can easily export information from Access databases to Excel. Just choose the Access Microsoft Office menu’s Export command.

arithmetic operators

The standard operators that you use in Excel formulas. To add numbers, use the addition (+) operator. To subtract numbers, use the subtraction (–) operator. To multiply numbers, use the multiplication (*) operator. To divide numbers, use the division (/) operator. You can also perform exponential operations by using the exponential operator (^). See operator precedence.

ascending order

A sorting option that alphabetizes labels and arranges values in smallest-value-to-largest-value order. See also chronological order; descending order.

ASCII text file

A type of text file that in essence is just straight text and nothing else. See also delimited text file; importing.

AutoFilter

An Excel tool (available from the Data tab’s Filter command) that helps you produce a new table that’s a subset of your original table. ...