I am very pleased today to write about an incredibly awesome Dodeca capability: dynamically built groups based on relational data. This capability is interesting and useful for a variety of reasons. Using Dodeca’s spreadsheet/data/magic build paradigm, we can organize plain relational data into beautifully formatted, insightful, and dynamic views. Just to forecast where I’m headed with this, what we’re going to do is transform this plain relational data:

Some raw forecast related data

Into this dynamic, grouped, and formatted view:

Dodeca dynamic grouping opened up in Excel

And further, we’re going to do it without writing a single line of code (save for the simple SQL Select statement). This post will assume that you’re up and running already with Dodeca’s SQL Passthrough DataSets, which I have written about before, so head over for a refresher if you need it. Also, I’ll be recycling a simple SQL table with forecast data by employee that I also used in an earlier Dodeca relational database input article, so you can read that if you want to know more about the data in play and how it relates to Sample/Basic. Continue Reading…