by Michael Cropper | Jul 28, 2014 | Data and Analytics, Digital Marketing, News, Technical, Tracking |
That’s right, we’re now a Purple WiFi Authorised Reseller! You may be wondering just exactly what Purple WiFi is and why we have chosen to work with Purple WiFi. Before we go into that, let’s just look into the near future to see where the world is heading.
At some point in the near future, all business will start with some form of digital interaction. Whether this is business to business or business to consumer, or what is starting to be referred to as person to person. With smart technologies creeping into our daily lives from Google Glass, the Oculus Rift and a 3D printed mini me, we are seeing traditional online and offline areas blending into one. No longer is ‘digital’ a marketing channel that is completely separate to core business. For many businesses, ‘digital’ is becoming core business as brands start to interact with customers at every step along the way, from visiting physical stores to purchasing products on the website to connecting with customers on social media. Everything is digital.
For this reason, we predict that in the very near future, brands are simply going to have to join the dots for customers between all touch points, regardless of whether this is online or in the real world. That is why we have become a Purple WiFi Authorised Reseller, because the software is capable of joining these dots together which we believe are becoming increasingly important. Joining the online and offline worlds together in a way that has traditionally been extremely difficult for brands to do is now possible.
What is Purple WiFi?
Purple WiFi is extremely advanced and cutting edge technology that is designed to turn the current free WiFi in your premises into a marketing tool to directly increase revenue. To keep this really simple, Purple WiFi is a piece of software that is installed on your router (the ‘thing’ that connects your customers to the internet).
It is this software that gives your free WiFi the boost that is needed to which customers are in your premises, how many times they have visited before and how long they have stayed. In addition, you can see full customer demographic data including name, age, gender, email address and hometown. All of this amazing data allows you to understand who your customers are better than ever and communicate with them to increase the frequency of their visits. Get in touch with us to see a full list of the amazing demographic data you can capture with the tool or to request a demo.
Essentially, if a customer visits your venue once per month and we can turn this into them visiting once every two weeks through targeted email marketing, then this has doubled your revenue per head for that specific customer. It isn’t always about getting ‘new’ customers through the door, if you can achieve the same revenue growth from your current customers then this is also a good opportunity.
Why we have chosen to work with Purple WiFi?
Quite simply, Purple WiFi are the leading players in the market providing this software who are working extensively with global hardware manufacturers including Cisco, Linksys, NetGear, TP-Link, Cisco Meraki, Deliberant, HP, Mikrotik, Open-Mesh, Ruckus, Xirrus, Airtight Networks, Buffalo, Trendnet and Ubiquiti.
The Purple WiFi software works on the leading hardware solutions for your wireless network, meaning that you can be confident that you can start to benefit from this software sooner rather than later.
Turning Purple WiFi into our WiFi Marketing and Analytics Service
Purple WiFi on its own is great, but as with anything, if you don’t use the tool to its full advantage then you won’t get the most out of it. After speaking with a lot of businesses ranging from bars and restaurants to bowling alleys and shopping centres, one of the common themes coming from discussions is around the time it will take to manage the platform.
This is why we have created a service around Purple WiFi which we call ‘WiFi Marketing and Analytics’. It is this service that is designed for us to do look after the marketing part so you can focus on doing your job within the business. Instead of having to learn how to use another tool to maximise its potential, we will do that for you and use our expertise and knowledge of running multiple campaigns to get the best results for your business.
Whether you are simply looking to offer your own branded free WiFi solution for your customers, or whether you are looking to utilise this for a data capture tool, or even if you are looking for the full works to utilise all of the above and turn your free WiFi into a marketing tool to increase revenue. Whatever you are looking for, our WiFi Marketing and Analytics service can be tailored to your specific needs and we can talk you through how this works in practice within your own organisation.
Find out more about our WiFi Marketing and Analytics service over on our services page which talks you through how this works in more detail along with giving some ideal examples of how this new technology can be used to the full advantage. Purple WiFi only sell the software through authorised distributors like ourselves, so get in touch to find out how this can work for your business.
We don’t simply build websites. We work with your business to increase revenue through digital technologies, which just happens to include things like web design, search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising and now WiFi Marketing & Analytics. Get in touch if you would like to know more about how we can support the growth of your business through digital marketing and new technologies.
by Michael Cropper | Jun 7, 2014 | Developer, Technical |
Within our daily work we use Excel an awful lot, so naturally we like to use Excel to its full potential using lots of exciting formulas. One of the major challenges within Excel is trying to use a VLOOKUP function within a VLOOKUP function. In summary, this isn’t possible. The reason this isn’t possible is due to the way the VLOOKUP function works. Let’s remind ourselves what the VLOOKUP function actually does;
=VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup)
What this means in basic terms is “find me a specific cell within a table of data where a certain criteria is met”. This is such a powerful function that can be used to speed up work in so many different ways. But we aren’t going to look at why this is so great here, we are going to look at the main limitation and most importantly how to get around this with more clever magical Excel formulas.
Solutions
The solution to this is quite a complex one and one that involves many different Excel formulas including;
- =ROW()
- =INDEX()
- =SUMPRODUCT()
- =MAX()
- =ADDRESS()
- =SUBSTITUTE()
- =MATCH()
- =CONCATENATE()
Throughout this blog post we’ll look at what each of these mean and how they can all be used in conjunction to perform a function what is essentially equivalent to a VLOOKUP within a VLOOKUP.
The Data
Before we jump into how to solve the problem of performing a VLOOKUP within a VLOOKUP, here is the data that we will be working with. Let’s assume that we have a large list of products which are associated with multiple different categories as can be seen below;
Data Sheet – Prices
You may be wondering why apples and bananas are classed as snacks in the data. Don’t worry about that. Just go with it. There are many different situations whereby you may be presented with this type of data so this is purely to illustrate the example in a simple way.
Now let’s say that you want to visualise this information a little easier. The above table of only 8 entries is reasonably straight forward. Although one example we’ve been recently working with had over 35,000 rows of data which was a little more challenging to view in this format and we wanted a simpler way of looking at this information within Excel. So let’s say we want to look at the data in the following way;
Data Sheet – Summary Prices
This is the data that we will be working with so you can clearly see how this technique can be implemented. To keep things easier to understand, these two pieces of data are kept on two separate sheets within the Excel worksheet.
Quick Answer
Looking for the quick answer to this complex formula? Then here is the answer;
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A2, INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“‘Prices’!”, SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(MATCH(B$1, Prices!$A$1:$A$100, 0), 1), “A”, “B”), “:”, SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(ROW(INDEX(Prices!$A$2:$A$100,SUMPRODUCT(MAX((Prices!$A$2:$A$100=B$1)*ROW(Prices!$A$2:$A$100))-1))), 1), “A”, “D”))), 2, FALSE), 0)
You may be a little confused with the above, so this post will explain exactly what each part of this means and why it is contained within the rather large and complex formula above. Most importantly, you will be able to understand how to perform the equivalent of a VLOOKUP inside a VLOOKUP.
Steps
The individual steps within the above formula can be broken down into much smaller and easier to understand steps as can be seen below;
Steps for how to perform a VLOOKUP inside a VLOOKUP
Below we will talk through each of the above steps so you can understand why it is important.
Find the Sub-Table
Firstly if you are wanting to perform a VLOOKUP within a VLOOKUP then you need to find where the sub-table starts and ends. While you could manually enter this in for very small data sets, this is simply not practical for large data sets.
To perform this action we need to define search for the first and last occurrence of when ‘something’ is found. A note on this point, you will need to ensure that your lookup data, in this case the ‘Prices’ sheet, is ordered by the column you are looking up, in this case the ‘Category’ column. Since if this isn’t the case, then data will be included within this sub-table which shouldn’t be.
To do this, we need to find both the first occurrence and the last occurrence. What we are looking to achieve is identify the sub-table for ‘Fruit’ which can be seen below;
The sub-table we are looking for
Once this has been identified, then we can use the standard =VLOOKUP() function on this sub-table to find the data we would like.
Find the First Occurrence
There are a few different formulas included to find the first occurrence of data within a column which are outlined below.
=MATCH()
To find the first occurrence of ‘something’ within a range of data then we use the =MATCH() function. To remind ourselves of what the MATCH() function is, here is the official description from Microsoft;
The MATCH function searches for a specified item in a range of cells, and then returns the relative position of that item in the range. For example, if the range A1:A3 contains the values 5, 25, and 38, then the formula
=MATCH(25,A1:A3,0)
returns the number 2, because 25 is the second item in the range.
Use MATCH instead of one of the LOOKUP functions when you need the position of an item in a range instead of the item itself. For example, you might use the MATCH function to provide a value for the row_num argument of the INDEX function.
MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type])
Source
Looking back at our example, this translates into the formula;
=MATCH(B1, Prices!$A$1:$A$100, 0)
What this means is;
- Find the contents of B1, which is ‘Fruit’ in our example
- Within the range of data Prices!$A$1:$A$100
- And make sure it matches exactly (0)
This has now found the first occurrence of this information within the column of data. Now we need to translate this into something that a VLOOKUP formula can use.
=ADDRESS()
The next bit we need to look at is turning the row & column numbers into an ‘Address’ which Excel can understand. To do this we simple create the formula;
=ADDRESS(E2, E3)
The =ADDRESS() function takes a Row Number and a Column Number and turns that into an Address. In this case, the row number is generated from the previous function, =MATCH() and the value of E3 in the example above is 1. We use 1 because for this we are only interested in starting on the first column of data. Once we know we are starting here we can always move the cells along accordingly.
In our example, this address at this point in the large formula is set to $A$2.
=SUBSTITUTE()
Now we know we have created an Address in the previous step which was within column 1, this is also the same as column A. This makes life easy for us as we know where this is. The next step is to nudge the sub-table over so the =VLOOKUP() function can easily lookup the data in the later step.
To do this, we simply nudge the starting Address over to the right by one column using the following formula;
=SUBSTITUTE(E4, “A”, “B”)
Where E4 is the cell which contains the Address from the previous step.
The cell that has been identified as part of this step is the first occurrence as can be seen below;
Find the first occurrence of data within the column
Now we want to nudge this over using the above function which will mean this item is now set to $B$2 which is the starting point of our sub-table.
Ok, so we now have the starting point for the sub-table for the VLOOKUP to use. We now need to calculate the end point so the sub-table can be used within the VLOOKUP.
Find the Last Occurrence
Finding the first occurrence of data in column is a lot easier than finding the last occurrence as you can see from the formula below that we need to do this;
=ROW(INDEX(Prices!$A$2:$A$100,SUMPRODUCT(MAX((Prices!$A$2:$A$100=B1)*ROW(Prices!$A$2:$A$100))-1)))
The key functions we need here are;
- =ROW() – Which takes a reference and calculates which row number this is on
- =INDEX() – Which returns a value or the reference to a value from within a table or range.
- =SUMPRODUCT() – This is used to tell Excel the calculations are an array and not an actual number
- =MAX() – This is used to find the largest row number in the array where the lookup value occurs
- =ROW() – This, as before, is pulling out the Row Number from the data retrieved
Unlike previously, it is not simple to break this out into sub-sections to explain the different points as the formulas don’t work when breaking them our separately due to the way the =SUMPRODUCT() function works. As such, I’ll talk through what each of the different parts of the formula mean and what they do.
=SUMPRODUCT(MAX((Prices!$A$2:$A$100=B1)*ROW(Prices!$A$2:$A$100))-1)
This formula is identifying the last occurrence of the data that is in cell B1 within the range of data $A$2:$A$100, which in our example is ‘Fruit’. We then wrap this in the =INDEX() function to get the cell reference then wrapping this in the =ROW() function which will identify the row number where this data is found;
=ROW(INDEX(Prices!$A$2:$A$100, SUMPRODUCT(MAX((Prices!$A$2:$A$100=B1)*ROW(Prices!$A$2:$A$100))-1)))
You may have spotted the -1 in the formula above. This is to ensure that the data is pulling back the correct row number. If this isn’t there, then you will notice that the data that is pulled back is a row below where you would expect.
To get a good understanding of the above part of the formula, then I’d recommend reading the fantastic guide over at Excel User.
What we have achieved using the above combination of formulas can be seen below as the last occurrence of data in the column;
Find the last occurrence of data in the column
Once we have this data we then wrap this in an =ADDRESS() function then a =SUBSTITUTE() formula which first turns the result into an Address that Excel can understand, opposed to standard text, then moves the data over several columns from column A to column D. This is needed, since we will be creating a sub-table that includes several columns. In this case, 3 columns which are column B, C and D. If you are working with data with more columns, then you will need to replace the D with a higher column.
SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(ROW(INDEX(Prices!$A$2:$A$100,SUMPRODUCT(MAX((Prices!$A$2:$A$100=B$1)*ROW(Prices!$A$2:$A$100))-1))), 1), “A”, “D”)))
Move the column to the end so we can create a sub-table that contains all the required data
So now the end of the sub-table is set to $D$4 which means that we have a starting point and an end point for our sub-table which can be used in the =VLOOKUP() function as outlined below.
Lookup Data in the Sub-Table
Now we have the sub-table defined using all of the above formulas, we can use the standard =VLOOKUP() function once we have joined all of the above data together.
Create the lookup table
Now we have all of the above points, we need to create the lookup data using the standard =CONCATENATE() formula as can be seen below;
=CONCATENATE(“‘Prices’!”, E5, “:”, E11)
The data within E5 is the starting point of the sub-table, and the data within E11 is the end point within the sub-table. In our example, this gives us the answer of ‘Prices’!$B$2:$D$4.
Lookup data
Now we have the sub-table to lookup the data we want, we can simple use the standard =VLOOKUP() function to find the data that we require as follows;
=VLOOKUP(A2, INDIRECT(E13), 2, FALSE)
We wrap the concatenate function within the =INDIRECT() function so that the data is treated as a reference, opposed to text. The data within E13 is the result of all of the work previously in this post, I’ve just left this in here to make this easier to read and understand. For the full formula, this would be replaced with the individual parts. Now the data that is brought back is exactly what we want.
Sub-table of data based on initial criteria
What this final =VLOOKUP() function is doing is saying “find the value in A2 within the sub-table we have identified, then bring back the second column of data. So in our example, the long formula in column B1 is bringing back the data £1.50 as can be seen below;
Result of a VLOOKUP inside a VLOOKUP
Summary
So there you have it, how to perform the equivalent of a VLOOKUP within a VLOOKUP using a few different formulas within Excel. You may be a little scared of such a huge formula at first, but you will see that when you do need to use this, I would always recommend breaking this out into the different parts before trying to create one monolithic formula as you will be able to put this together much easier.
Also, in the formula below, you will notice that it is all wrapped in an =IFERROR() function which simply sets the data to 0 if nothing can be found. You can set this to whatever you like, I just chose 0 since this was about prices.
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A2, INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“‘Prices’!”, SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(MATCH(B$1, Prices!$A$1:$A$100, 0), 1), “A”, “B”), “:”, SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(ROW(INDEX(Prices!$A$2:$A$100,SUMPRODUCT(MAX((Prices!$A$2:$A$100=B$1)*ROW(Prices!$A$2:$A$100))-1))), 1), “A”, “D”))), 2, FALSE), 0)
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP({Main-Lookup-Value}, INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“‘{Sheet}‘!”, SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(MATCH({Sub-Table-Lookup-Value-First-Occurrence}, {Sheet}!{Sub-Table-Lookup-Range}, 0), 1), “A”, “B”), “:”, SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(ROW(INDEX({Sheet}!{Sub-Table-Lookup-Range},SUMPRODUCT(MAX(({Sheet}!{Sub-Table-Lookup-Range}={Sub-Table-Lookup-Value-Last-Occurrence})*ROW({Sheet}!{Sub-Table-Lookup-Range}))-1))), 1), “A”, “{Column-Letter-For-End-Of-Table}“))), 2, FALSE), 0)
Simple really!
Ok, so this isn’t for the faint hearted. But for those advanced Excel users around I’m sure you will have come across times when you really needed to perform a VLOOKUP inside a VLOOKUP and found that after a long time researching how to do this online that it isn’t a simple task. So hopefully you can see the clear steps included above and this will help in the future. The beauty of the above formula is that you can now drag this into new rows and new columns without having to update anything, all thanks to the $ signs throughout the formula.
