Productivity Tips, MS Excel and Inspiration

Last week, I got a call from a past participant of our Power BI training regarding an issue he was battling. We provide after training support for all our training, which is one huge value most other training providers don't provide, especially those who don't have in-house dedicated trainers with deep consulting expertise.

He has system generated reports that look like the following:

Which when you bring into Power BI, still look like that.

How then do you turn them into this:

... but in Power BI.

With help from Matt Allington's amazing blog, I got what will do the magic.

We create Custom queries to grab and store the region and company before promoting the actual header row to being the header.

Click on the fx right beside the formula edit space to add a query step.

We then add two custom queries, one to grab the region and another to grab the company name.

The first is:

= Record.Field(Source{[Item="Sheet1",Kind="Sheet"]}[Data]{0},"Column8")

Which is essentially telling Power Query to grab the first cell entry on the Column named Column8. For the part inside the Record.Field but before the {0}, just copy paste the last query in there.

We do another custom query to grab the company name.

Now that we have grabbed and stored those cell entries, we can now go back to the source table and do our normal header row promotion.

To get back to the source table, just do another add step but paste in it the exact query in the step before our first custom query.

What is left is to create Custom Columns with those saved values.

And that was it! Just move them to the beginning of the table.

Okay, that's not entirely true. That wasn't just all we did. He had many of those system generated files and already autosave them in a folder. So we needed to import the folder and have Power Query combine the files but first do these transformations before combining the files.

However, this good enough for today's post. Here's the Power BI practice file: https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Sample%20Data%20for%20Power%20Query%20custom%20cell%20entries%20grabbing.pbix

Enjoy!

The first time I was asked a question around this was in 2016 at a training I had for eHealth Africa in Kano. A couple of the finance managers wanted to be able to convert money amounts to words with Naira and kobo in appropriate places.

Then two weeks ago in Abuja, I got asked the same question by finance team at HSDF and it became obvious to me that it is a problem many people would like easy steps to accomplishing. Many people who come across solutions online still face roadblocks in implementing the solution satisfactorily.

Well, as a patriotic Nigerian, I have come in my shining armor to give every Nigerian an almost plug and play solution with easy to understand steps.

Solution (Warri style)
Download these two Excel files that I saved as add-in files: https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Numbers2Words.xlam and https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Numbers2WordsUSD.xlam

Then go to File, Options, Add-ins and click on Go in front of Manage Excel Add-ins.

Click on browse to pick the files (one at a time).

Ensure they are ticked as part of enabled/available add-ins.

And that's all! Now, go and type less henceforth.

Explanation (Brother Jero style)
What we are trying to achieve is a simple task called User Defined Function -- creating our own formulas that the Engineers at Microsoft didn't include in Excel. Unfortunately, the process is not straightforward. We would have to not get on the wrong side of Amope (VBA).

We would use a modified version of this boilerplate from Microsoft with some extra tweaks from Ablebits.

Here's the one for Naira and Kobo:

Option Explicit
'Main Function
Function SpellNumberNGN(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Naira, Kobo, Temp
Dim DecimalPlace, Count
ReDim Place(9) As String
Place(2) = " Thousand "
Place(3) = " Million "
Place(4) = " Billion "
Place(5) = " Trillion "

MyNumber = Trim(Str(MyNumber))
DecimalPlace = InStr(MyNumber, ".")
If DecimalPlace > 0 Then
Kobo = GetTens(Left(Mid(MyNumber, DecimalPlace + 1) & _
"00", 2))
MyNumber = Trim(Left(MyNumber, DecimalPlace - 1))
End If
Count = 1
Do While MyNumber <> ""
Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 3))
If Temp <> "" Then Naira = Temp & Place(Count) & Naira
If Len(MyNumber) > 3 Then
MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 3)
Else
MyNumber = ""
End If
Count = Count + 1
Loop
Select Case Naira
Case ""
Naira = ""
Case "One"
Naira = "One Naira"
Case Else
Naira = Naira & " Naira"
End Select
Select Case Kobo
Case ""
Kobo = ""
Case "One"
Kobo = " and One Kobo"
Case Else
Kobo = " and " & Kobo & " Kobo"
End Select
SpellNumberNGN = Naira & Kobo
End Function

Function GetHundreds(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Result As String
If Val(MyNumber) = 0 Then Exit Function
MyNumber = Right("000" & MyNumber, 3)
' Convert the hundreds place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1)) & " Hundred "
End If
' Convert the tens and ones place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 2, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = Result & GetTens(Mid(MyNumber, 2))
Else
Result = Result & GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 3))
End If
GetHundreds = Result
End Function

Function GetTens(TensText)
Dim Result As String
Result = "" ' Null out the temporary function value.
If Val(Left(TensText, 1)) = 1 Then ' If value between 10-19...
Select Case Val(TensText)
Case 10: Result = "Ten"
Case 11: Result = "Eleven"
Case 12: Result = "Twelve"
Case 13: Result = "Thirteen"
Case 14: Result = "Fourteen"
Case 15: Result = "Fifteen"
Case 16: Result = "Sixteen"
Case 17: Result = "Seventeen"
Case 18: Result = "Eighteen"
Case 19: Result = "Nineteen"
Case Else
End Select
Else ' If value between 20-99...
Select Case Val(Left(TensText, 1))
Case 2: Result = "Twenty "
Case 3: Result = "Thirty "
Case 4: Result = "Forty "
Case 5: Result = "Fifty "
Case 6: Result = "Sixty "
Case 7: Result = "Seventy "
Case 8: Result = "Eighty "
Case 9: Result = "Ninety "
Case Else
End Select
Result = Result & GetDigit _
(Right(TensText, 1)) ' Retrieve ones place.
End If
GetTens = Result
End Function

Function GetDigit(Digit)
Select Case Val(Digit)
Case 1: GetDigit = "One"
Case 2: GetDigit = "Two"
Case 3: GetDigit = "Three"
Case 4: GetDigit = "Four"
Case 5: GetDigit = "Five"
Case 6: GetDigit = "Six"
Case 7: GetDigit = "Seven"
Case 8: GetDigit = "Eight"
Case 9: GetDigit = "Nine"
Case Else: GetDigit = ""
End Select
End Function

You will copy this. Open an empty/new Excel file, press Alt + F11. The VBA Editor will open. On the menu, select Insert and click on Module. Then paste the code above in it.

Save (CTRL + S), but choose Excel Add-in as the save as type. Importantly, do not change the default folder Excel will automatically change to for saving for the file. If you do this, then you are OYO.

Now we are almost there.

Repeat same steps for dollar and cents (if you need it). Here is the code for that:

Option Explicit
'Main Function
Function SpellNumberUSD(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Dollars, Cents, Temp
Dim DecimalPlace, Count
ReDim Place(9) As String
Place(2) = " Thousand "
Place(3) = " Million "
Place(4) = " Billion "
Place(5) = " Trillion "

MyNumber = Trim(Str(MyNumber))
DecimalPlace = InStr(MyNumber, ".")
If DecimalPlace > 0 Then
Cents = GetTens(Left(Mid(MyNumber, DecimalPlace + 1) & _
"00", 2))
MyNumber = Trim(Left(MyNumber, DecimalPlace - 1))
End If
Count = 1
Do While MyNumber <> ""
Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 3))
If Temp <> "" Then Dollars = Temp & Place(Count) & Dollars
If Len(MyNumber) > 3 Then
MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 3)
Else
MyNumber = ""
End If
Count = Count + 1
Loop
Select Case Dollars
Case ""
Dollars = "No Dollars"
Case "One"
Dollars = "One Dollar"
Case Else
Dollars = Dollars & " Dollars"
End Select
Select Case Cents
Case ""
Cents = ""
Case "One"
Cents = " and One Cent"
Case Else
Cents = " and " & Cents & " Cents"
End Select
SpellNumberUSD = Dollars & Cents
End Function

Function GetHundreds(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Result As String
If Val(MyNumber) = 0 Then Exit Function
MyNumber = Right("000" & MyNumber, 3)
' Convert the hundreds place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1)) & " Hundred "
End If
' Convert the tens and ones place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 2, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = Result & GetTens(Mid(MyNumber, 2))
Else
Result = Result & GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 3))
End If
GetHundreds = Result
End Function

Function GetTens(TensText)
Dim Result As String
Result = "" ' Null out the temporary function value.
If Val(Left(TensText, 1)) = 1 Then ' If value between 10-19...
Select Case Val(TensText)
Case 10: Result = "Ten"
Case 11: Result = "Eleven"
Case 12: Result = "Twelve"
Case 13: Result = "Thirteen"
Case 14: Result = "Fourteen"
Case 15: Result = "Fifteen"
Case 16: Result = "Sixteen"
Case 17: Result = "Seventeen"
Case 18: Result = "Eighteen"
Case 19: Result = "Nineteen"
Case Else
End Select
Else ' If value between 20-99...
Select Case Val(Left(TensText, 1))
Case 2: Result = "Twenty "
Case 3: Result = "Thirty "
Case 4: Result = "Forty "
Case 5: Result = "Fifty "
Case 6: Result = "Sixty "
Case 7: Result = "Seventy "
Case 8: Result = "Eighty "
Case 9: Result = "Ninety "
Case Else
End Select
Result = Result & GetDigit _
(Right(TensText, 1)) ' Retrieve ones place.
End If
GetTens = Result
End Function

Function GetDigit(Digit)
Select Case Val(Digit)
Case 1: GetDigit = "One"
Case 2: GetDigit = "Two"
Case 3: GetDigit = "Three"
Case 4: GetDigit = "Four"
Case 5: GetDigit = "Five"
Case 6: GetDigit = "Six"
Case 7: GetDigit = "Seven"
Case 8: GetDigit = "Eight"
Case 9: GetDigit = "Nine"
Case Else: GetDigit = ""
End Select
End Function

And now you do the steps I put under the solution section, except that you'll see the add-ins there without needing to browse to them. Ensure they are ticked.