So back in 2015 when I was trying to write a book, I took time out to rant that despite every version of Excel since 2013 having the Data Model baked in as standard, it wasn’t a heck of a lot of use to you in the event that:
- You wanted to mash together say a UnitPrice from one Table with a SalesQuantity from another, in order to display the derived Total Revenue in a PivotTable; and
- You were a tightwad that didn’t happen to have one of the premium PowerPivot SKUs installed.
Because while you could create a relationship between two Tables without PowerPivot:
…the option to create a calculated field to multiply Qty against Price was greyed out.
Disheartened with the lack of functionality in the non-Premium-Excel space (and sternly talked-to by my wife about the need to shave and go out earn a crust) I flushed the nearly-finished manuscript down the toilet in disgust. But now that I’m flush again, I’ve dusted off that manuscript (it wasn’t really down the toilet) and am updating it, so that I can nearly-finish it all over again.
Anyways, I was subsequently looking at this DataModel thing again, and rewriting the bit that said how sucky it is that you need to pay a premium in order to do a pretty standard thing, when I came across this:
Wow…It IS possible. Tight-wad analysts of the world: You too can do PowerPivoty stuff, without paying a cent more. You heard it hear first. Or second, rather.
Thanks, Mike Girvin, from the bottom of my wallet. 🙂
Look Ma…no PowerPivot:
I wonder what limitations this PowerPivot back door has, if any?