Tips to Get New Data Types in Excel

How Did Excel Revolutionize Its Operations?

In one of our articles, we put emphasis on new features of Excel software, but we did not go deeper into how we can execute the functions. In May 2018, Microsoft launched a new feature for those using Excel 2016. It allows you to get geographic and stock data in Excel. Therefore, your task is to insert or type the text and convert it into Geography or Stock data type. These data types are connected to an online data source meaning you have access to a rich amount of information. In addition, this advantage helps you to refresh the available data any time. Here is an overview of the functions.

Stocks & Geography Data Types

When visualizing the data on a spreadsheet, you can distinguish the information referred to Stocks or Geographic points because of the building icon. That icon shows that the information from the cell is connected to an online source. Specifically, in the case of stocks data type, we can extract values of the price and changing price. In the case of geography, we can get access to the population, subdivisions and gasoline price of a particular country.

How To Implement the New Data Types?

1. Insert some text
2. Create a table
3. Select some cells
4. Pick Stocks/Geography data type
5. Icons pop up
6. Add columns

Note: If you do not see an icon but a question mark, it means Excel has troubles connecting you to the online source. You have to review the spelling mistakes otherwise use the Selector function to look for the keyword and data you need.

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How To Leverage The Reference Data Types in Excel?

You can expose more information about a particular data type by using formulas that reference data types in Excel. For example, we see column A containing Stock data and B/C extracting data from column A. However, we can change that renaming cell B2 with =[@Company].Price and cell C2 with =[@Company].Change so that it copies down the rest of the cells.

As additional tips, you can also reference the cell as =A2. Price because it is not a sensitive case. Moreover, Excel will insert the brackets when you try to add a name in the space (=A2.[Post Holdings Inc]. We also recommend using the Field Value for creating calculations with conditions and based on linked data types.

If you want to learn using the feature faster and more efficient, try our simulation based learning with keySkillset. It will help to train your muscle memory as well as test your knowledge in Excel.

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