Complete Introduction to Excel Power Pivot and DAX (Udemy.com)
Build Excel data models with millions of rows, write DAX measures and KPIs, and answer business questions fast.
Created by: Ian Littlejohn
Last updated September 2026
What you will learn
- Load millions of rows into the Excel Data Model, then browse, filter and sort them inside Excel
- Create relationships between tables so one PivotTable can report across your whole dataset
- Write DAX calculated columns for dates, week days and categories using IF and SWITCH
- Build DAX measures with CALCULATE, ALL and ALLEXCEPT so a number is filtered by exactly what you intend
- Compare one period against another with Time Intelligence measures
- Rank and segment your customers using RANKX, SUMX and SWITCH
- Add KPIs, sets and hierarchies to the model, and build a four-chart dashboard in the practical activities
How it compares
Against the other 459 rated Udemy courses in Office Productivity on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 45% of them
- Reviews2,778#72 of 460 by number of reviews
- Length3.7 hoursshorter than 54% of them
- Last updatedSeptember 2026more recently than 91% of them
Course Description
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
Every lesson in this course is written, created and recorded by me. AI is used only to help produce supporting images and written materials around the lessons.
Your sales are in one table, your customers in another and your calendar in a third - and the PivotTable will only look at one of them.
That is the wall every Excel user eventually hits, and Power Pivot is the way through it. It loads millions of rows into Excel, joins your tables with relationships, and lets you write measures that stay correct however anyone slices them. There is nothing to buy - it is already built into Excel for Windows, switched off by default, and the first section shows you how to turn it on.
I teach the analysis, not the tool. Every section starts with a question a manager actually asks - which customers are growing, how does this quarter compare with last year, who are my top ten accounts - and then shows you the Power Pivot method that answers it.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Loading data into the Excel Data Model, then browsing, filtering and sorting it
Building PivotTables and PivotCharts on the model, with slicers and multi-chart layouts
Calculated columns: year, month, week day, a proper date table, IF and SWITCH
Measures: aggregations, CALCULATE, ALL and ALLEXCEPT, so a number is filtered by exactly what you intend
Time Intelligence measures for comparing one period against another
SUMX, RANKX for ranking your customers, and SWITCH for customer segmentation
Relationships between tables, and calculations that cross them
KPIs, sets and hierarchies in the data model
Two case studies, including loading from Power Query and building summary tables
HOW IT IS TAUGHT
Short lessons of four to ten minutes in HD, with all the training data files provided. Every section has a Practical Activity - a written brief and the data - followed by a walkthrough of the completed answer, so you build the model yourself rather than watch me build it. There is a four-chart dashboard to construct in the Relationships section.
A NOTE ON COPILOT
Copilot in Excel is very good at answering a question about one table you already have. It does not build a data model, join tables or write DAX. That is what this course teaches, and it is the part that does not go away - a model is the thing an AI assistant needs before it can give you a trustworthy answer about more than one table.
ABOUT THE TRAINER
I am a Udemy Instructor Partner. I have been training business people to work with data since 2008 and publishing on Udemy since 2013. Across 16 courses I have taught more than 398,000 learners and hold a 4.6 average from more than 139,000 reviews.
This course is rated 4.6 from more than 2,700 ratings. I specialise in training business users in Microsoft Excel, Copilot in Excel, Power Query, Microsoft Power BI, Looker Studio and Amazon QuickSight.
WHERE THIS COURSE SITS
This course assumes you can already build a basic PivotTable. If you cannot, take Complete Introduction to Excel Pivot Tables first. If your problem is getting messy data into Excel rather than modeling it once it is there, that is Complete Introduction to Excel Power Query. And Power Pivot uses DAX, the same formula language as Power BI - so this is also the least expensive way to learn DAX before you move across.
Ready to get past the one-table limit? Let's get started.
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
2,778 Reviews
Ian Littlejohn
I specialise in training business users to learn powerful methods and techniques to transform data into useful information and intelligence as well as learning strong data analysis methodology.
I completed my university degree in economics and emerged keen and eager to change the world. I spent the first half of my career working for multinational companies, on projects of various sizes, in different sectors, all revolving around analysing data of some sort and working with different software products, including Microsoft Excel.
I found that so many Excel users had a very basic understanding of how Excel works, and instead of using Excel to do the work for them, were doing all the work themselves, using old spreadsheet technology like macros instead of embracing technology like Pivot Tables. Pivot Tables were actually introduced into Excel in 1994 but many Excel users have avoided using them because they seem complicated and difficult to use.
In 2008 I decided to start my own training company and this was borne out of the passion I had to teach Excel users how to work smarter, not harder. As technology evolved, and new systems developed, I continuously expanded my training to include Power BI, Amazon QuickSight, Looker Studio, and most recently Copilot in Excel and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
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Reviews
By Dag Chyou on 6/19/2026
The instructor is able to make every sub-topic easy to learn and comprehend Data files are organized well to use for practicing The video and audio quality are great for watching and listening
By Michael Hendrickson on 4/17/2026
Going well so far.
By David Stevenson on 12/15/2025
yes - good for my skills on pivots
By Desramault Matthew on 12/9/2025
Clear explanation with good examples. Thanks a lot.
By Anonymized User on 11/26/2025
I took a course in DAX a few weeks ago and was lost. This presenter made it very easy to learn functions which I had trouble with before like CALCULATE, SUMX, and nesting functions within CALCULATE.
By Eli LAZAROWITZ LAZAROWITZ on 11/18/2025
practical use cases with clear examples of how and what the formulas are doing
By Anonymized User on 10/2/2024
It is really help me to learn new things in this course. I would like say thank you so much for who has designed this course for learning students. Once again thank you so much ☺️☺️☺️☺️.
By Simeon Shapiro on 5/19/2022
I think it could have been clearer on the more abstract concepts, however, I understand there are time constraints. It was well prepared and important tasks highlighted. I certainly learnt a lot and I am sure to review some of the topics again.
By James Aust on 8/11/2020
The update made a lot of difference for me, raised the grade to 4.5 but if I could would have been 4.8. Also I had some trouble saving the various section work. Had placed notes in the workbooks, this is probably the operator.
By Anonymized User on 4/11/2020
A great set of content about DAX functions & Power Pivot. Easy to learn content & great way of explaining the Excel formulas.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 90 / 100












