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!
Today, I'll be sharing with you the amazing Group By feature in Power Query, and the DAX equivalent I typically use.

I have a database of stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, tracking their daily price among other important investment analysis metrics going as far back as 1998. BTW, don't ask me for the data 'cos I won't give it away. It's at the core of our www.nigeriamarketdata.com app and Nigerian Market Data office app.



I want to see the range of performance (volatility) of the stocks over the last 3 years. I have pulled the last 3 years data into Power BI.



How do I get the minimum price and maximum price of each stock in that 3 year period?

Very easy. I click on Transform menu and Group By. Easily, using the user interactive window that comes up, I set the very group by transformation I want.


And voila! It is done.



How about achieving same using DAX?



Then meet SUMMARIZE. It does it nicely.

I click on Modeling menu and New Table. I then type in SUMMARIZE formula

Group_By_Table = SUMMARIZE(Stocks,Stocks[Company],"Minimum Price",MIN(Stocks[Price]),"Maximum Price",max(Stocks[Price]))


Now I can do further analysis like check which has been the most volatile stock and which has been the least volatile stock.


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.





And from now on, you'll have the two formulas that can convert numbers to words (naira/kobo and dollars/cents). 




Again, I say to you: enjoy!