Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications

    Excel Casts a Wider Net for Data in August Update

    By
    Pedro Hernandez
    -
    August 29, 2016
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Microsoft Excel

      Microsoft has tweaked some of its Excel connectors, allowing users to gather more data for their business intelligence and analytics efforts with fewer steps.

      This month’s update includes an improved connector for SAP HANA, allowing users to select more than one value for a variable or parameter in the Navigator window. HANA, the in-memory analytics platform from German software maker SAP, has gathered its share of big-name supporters in recent months.

      Dell, in partnership with SAP, recently announced that it plans in April to open up an innovation lab intended to help businesses pit their business analytics workloads—30 terabytes—against the technology. “The lab environment for SAP HANA offers our customers the ability to test their current and future SAP applications and benchmark their performance to facilitate rapid adoption within their organization,” remarked Simon Spence, global director of the Dell SAP division at Dell Services, in an Aug. 2 announcement.

      In May, during SAP’s Sapphire Now conference, Microsoft pledged to make more room on its cloud for HANA workloads. Among the new HANA on Azure options are multimode deployments with up to 32TB of memory and a high-performance virtual machine option with 448GB of memory, 32 cores and over 6.5TB of SSD-based storage.

      Meanwhile, the Access Database connector for Excel features a new Select Related Tables button that, as its name suggests, selects all the tables with a direct relation to selected tables when clicked. And the OData connector gains a new way of gathering data.

      “The OData connector now supports importing Open Type columns from OData feeds. Prior to this update, such columns were not supported in Power Query,” blogged Microsoft’s Excel team. “This option is exposed under the Advanced Options section in the OData connector dialog.”

      In addition, Query Editor users can now get on the same page with colleagues who create new Query Steps while working on Excel reports with localized editions of Excel. Steps are data acquisition and transformation activities performed in the Get & Transform tool or Power Query for Excel plug-in for Excel 2013 and 2010.

      Previously, the software would label Steps like SplitColumns and FilteredRow according to the user’s language settings. Now, by digging into their regional settings, users can keep the English labels and make them more recognizable to all contributors, claims Microsoft. A new description field in the Query Steps dialog allows users to optionally add comments or added documentation to each Step.

      Query Editor also gains time- and date-based abilities. Once this month’s update is applied, users can extract Week, Day or Month names from Date/Time columns from the Query editor ribbon. Users can also select a Date and Time column and merge them into a single Date/Time column. Finally, the software can now extract the start or end of an hour from Time and Date/Time columns.

      The new capabilities are being rolled out to Office 365 subscribers using Excel 2016 as an automatic update. Excel 2010 or 2013 users can access the new features by downloading the most recent Power Query for Excel add-in.

      Pedro Hernandez
      Pedro Hernandez is a contributor to eWEEK and the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×