1. Creating Interactive Reports Using Excel Pivot Tables
Brandon Aragon, Research Technician
CSUSB Office of Institutional Research
November 2016

3. Our Fall 2016 Student Population 20,767

4. CSUSB Colleges and Departments
There are 6 colleges
Arts & Letters
Business and Public Admin.
Education
Natural Science
Social & Behavioral Sciences
University Studies
Over 60 departments between all colleges.

5. Why Create Interactive Reports?
Self-study material
Grant applications
Year-round reporting
Customized to specific colleges or departments
Easily create subsets for analysis
Data-informed decision making
Continual campus improvement

6. Original Current Student Survey Results

7. Reformatted:

8. Preparing Your Data First, prepare your raw data for restructuring.
Copy identifier field and response variables into new sheet.
Drop fields that will later be used as filters (gender, college, etc.) →

9. Pivot Table Wizard
To open the Pivot Table Wizard, use shortcut method:
Hold Alt then press D, then P
In Excel 2003 and earlier, the Pivot Table Wizard is available under the Data tab.
In Excel 2007 and later, the Pivot Table Wizard can be accessed by the shortcut method or by adding it to your ribbon:
File → Options → Customize Ribbon → Choose from: All Commands → PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard

10. Pivot Table Wizard (Cont’d)
Select “Multiple consolidation ranges” → “I will create the page fields” → Select range of cells then click “Add” → New worksheet → Finish
→ →

11. Restructured Data
Double click the grand total at the bottom right to access the restructured data. Each student has a row for each of their responses. →

12. Merge in Demographic Data
Rename Rows to ID, Column to Question, and Value to Response
Once your data is restructured, merge in your demographic data by using VLOOKUP’s:
=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup]
Lookup_value: Identifier variable (ID, SSN, , etc.)
Table_array: the table you are pulling data from
Col_index_num: Column you want returned from table_array
[Range_lookup]: ALWAYS enter FALSE for exact matches

13. Pivot Table with Restructured Data
Create a regular Pivot Table using the restructured data.
Place Question under ROWS, Response under COLUMNS, and ID under VALUES
Change Sum of ID to Count of ID
Set Question and Response to “Show items with no data”
Field Settings → Layout & Print → Check “Show items with no data”
The size of Pivot Table will not change even when filters are applied.

14. Interactive Tables
First, design your interactive tables in a format you wish to present
Let’s assume Q1 is a question regarding students’ plan for graduate school, where 1 is “Yes” and 2 is “No”

15. VLOOKUP within Interactive Table
Use VLOOKUP’s to pull data from the Pivot Table
VLOOKUP formula for “Yes”
=VLOOKUP(Q:Q,I:P,2,FALSE)/(VLOOKUP(Q:Q,I:P,8,FALSE)-VLOOKUP(Q:Q,I:P,7,FALSE))
The 2nd column within the table_array is “Yes” response, 8th is grand total, 7th is blanks
The numerator takes the count of those who responded “Yes”
The denominator takes the total minus blanks (excludes no responses)

16. VLOOKUP within Interactive Table (Cont’d)
Let’s create another table for Q2_1 to Q2_4.
Assume these questions regard to students’ satisfaction with academic services offered throughout campus
1 = “Strongly Agree”, 2 = “Agree”, … 5 = “Strongly Disagree”
Strongly Agree
=VLOOKUP($V:$V,$I:$P,2,FALSE)/(VLOOKUP($V:$V,$I:$P,8,FALSE)- VLOOKUP($V:$V,$I:$P,7,FALSE))
Agree
=VLOOKUP($V:$V,$I:$P,3,FALSE)/(VLOOKUP($V:$V,$I:$P,8,FALSE)- VLOOKUP($V:$V,$I:$P,7,FALSE))

17. VLOOKUP within Interactive Table (Cont’d)
In this case, each row within the table is a different question. Each reponse (strongly agree, agree, etc.) requires a slightly altered VLOOKUP formula where the col_index_num is altered in the numerator.
The “$”s anchor the formula, allowing you to copy and paste.

18. Insert Slicers
Click anywhere within the Pivot Table where data is being pulled from.
Under the Insert Tab, select Slicer and check the box for each demographic variable you want to filter by. →

19. Insert Slicers (Cont’d)
For each slicer, change the settings to “Hide items with no data”
Right click on slicer → Slicer Settings
This will remove slicer options with
no data.
The slicers will now take effect and
filter data for both tables

20. Cleaning Up Hide raw data, pivot table, and VLOOKUP reference columns
View → Show → Uncheck Formula, Gridline, and Headings
Hide Sheets that contain the raw data and the ones that were created in the process of restructuring data
Add introduction and table of contents sheets
Set Print Area on each sheet
Insert Footer, Logos, etc.

21. Securing Workbook Student level data is hidden throughout the workbook
Need to secure personal student information (recode ID’s)
Review → Protect Sheet → Check the following boxes
Select Locked Cells
Select Unlocked Cells
Use PivotTables & PivotChart
Edit Objects
This will allow users to select filters without altering any formulas, unhiding columns, or editing other cells
Be sure to include a password

22. Securing Workbook (Cont’d)
Review → Protect Sheet → Add Password
This prevents users from unhiding sheets that contain sensitive information

23. You’re Done!

24. What Now? Keep reports handy for ad-hoc requests
Post reports to website for easy access
Create Dashboards that drill down to grad/retention rates
Provide reports to:
Upper Management
Departments conducting self-reviews
Grant writers

25. Thank you!
California State University, San Bernardino Office of Institutional Research Brandon Aragon Research Technician