Working with Cross-Tabular Data: A Step-by-Step Guide

When working with cross-tabular data, it is often necessary to extract values from the body of a cross-tab in order to analyze and manipulate the data. In this article, we will explore the process of extracting values from a cross-tab and how to represent the range of the body as a named range.

Representing the Range of the Body

If you prefer not to name the range as 'CrossTab,' you can instead use an absolute cell reference range of the body of the cross-tab, such as $G$2:$I$6. This allows you to refer to the range without having to specify the exact cells.

Generating a List of Column/Row Combinations

The next step is to extract the values from the body of your cross-tab. To do this, you need to generate a list with C×R rows containing all the possible column/row combinations. You can use either a hardcoded value of R (e.g., 5 if you have 5 rows) or as an absolute cell reference (i.e., using $ signs) containing R.

Populating the List

Copy the range A3:B3 downwards until you have the final pair with values C and R at the end of your list in columns A and B, respectively. Put these two values in say cells A2 and B2, with cells A1:C1 having labels 'Column', 'Row' and 'Value', respectively.

Understanding the Starting Point

The starting point is column 1 and row 1 which is written in shorthand as (1,1). If you have C columns and R rows in the body of your cross-tab, the first step is to generate a list of all possible column/row combinations. There are a variety of ways you can approach this, some slicker (but more difficult to understand) than others.

By following these steps, you should now be able to extract values from the body of your cross-tab and represent the range of the body as a named range. This will allow you to easily manipulate and analyze your data.

Cross tabular data