Chapter 8: Analyzing OLAP Data with Microsoft Excel

Overview

In the last chapter, you learned about how OLAP databases structure data. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the features in Microsoft Excel that make accessing and analyzing data stored in OLAP data cubes as straightforward as analyzing other types of data. Importing and linking to data; sorting, filtering, and querying data; and examining data in PivotTable reports and PivotChart reports—all these techniques and approaches are available with OLAP data sources.

Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn how to

• Use the features of Excel to connect to, query, and analyze data in OLAP databases.

• Use Excel to take portions of OLAP data off line for use “on- the-road” or at other times when you aren’t connected to your network.