Question

I’m not sure how to ask this question without illustrating it, so here goes:
I have results from a test which has tested peoples attitudes (scores 1-5) to different voices on a 16 different scales. The data set looks like this (where P1,P2,P3 are participants, A, B, C are voices)

          Aformal   Apleasant   Acool    Bformal etc
P1        2         3           1        4
P2        5         4           2        4
P3        1         2           4        3

However, I want to rearrange my data to look like this:

          formal    pleasant    cool
P1A       3         3           5
P1B       2         1           6
P1C       etc
P1D

This would mean a lot more rows (multiple rows per participant), and a lot fewer columns. Is it doable without having to manually reenter all the scores in a new excel file?

Answer 1

Sure, no problem. I just hacked this solution:

L         M          N          O         P         Q
person# voice#               formal    pleasant    cool
1         1         P1A         2         3         1
1         2         P1B         4         5         2
1         3         P1C         9         9         9
2         1         P2A         5         4         2
2         2         P2B         4         4         1
2         3         P2C         9         9         9
3         1         P3A         1         2         4
3         2         P3B         3         3         2
3         3         P3C         9         9         9

Basically, in columns L and M, I made two columns with index numbers. Voice numbers go from 1 to 3 and repeat every 3 rows because there are nv=3 voices (increase this if you have voices F, G, H…). Person numbers are also repeated for 3 rows each, because there are nv=3 voices.

To make the row headers (P1A, etc.), I used this formula: ="P" & L2 & CHAR(64+M2) at P1A and copied down.

To make the new table of values, I used this formula: =OFFSET(B$2,$L2-1,($M2-1)*3) at P1A-formal, and copied down and across. Note that B$2 corresponds to the cell address for P1-Aformal in the original table of values (your example).

I’ve used this indexing trick I don’t know how many times to quickly rearrange tables of data inherited from other people.

EDIT: Note that the index columns are also made (semi)automatically using a formula. The first nv=3 rows are made manually, and then subsequent rows refer to them. For example, the formula in L5 is =L2+1 and the formula in M5 is =M2. Both are copied down to the end of the table.