||Data validation in Excel can help in the accurate
and planned data
entry which is the starting point for every good analysis of data later
on. If you have 20 employees in a company, why not create a list of
first and last names once and use them again and again without having
to remember each name. Also the list can be edited once an employee
leaves or a new one joins the team. Most companies have a policy on
salaries and perks. The perks may be different for differently
designated employees. Here again you can create a calculated least or
percentages. You can now define the minimum and maximum salaries and
also define that the person entering the data in the worksheet is
warned if he mistakenly enters a salary lower than the lowest value or
higher than the highest value. Another useful examle: Let's say you are
working in the financial year 2009. Now you wish to ensure that only
dates for the year 2009 and between 1st January
December are entered. You can ensure this by using 'dates' validation
and define appropriately in the data validation window. You can also
define a maximum value for phone expenses per month or year and if this
is exceeded in the total then Excel will warn you that you have already
exceeded the budget! In this manner data validation can help plan your
work and help avoid important mistakes.
In summary data validation helps the user as follows:
- You avoid errors during the entry of data in
- The data entry is quicker.
- The validation can be applied to text, numbers,
and custom data.
- You can provide hints during the data entry so
validation criteria are not violated.
- If wrong data is entered then the data
warns the operator as shown in the Excel training video.