Easily analyse big data with Connected Sheets

Google recently announced the general availability of Connected Sheets which provides the power and scale of a BigQuery data warehouse in the familiar context of Sheets. Connected Sheets enables people to analyse billions of rows and petabytes of data in Sheets without requiring specialised knowledge of computer languages like SQL. 

Everyone, not just those who specialise in writing complex queries, should be able to harness the power of data. As businesses adapt to new realities, it’s important that employees have access to useful data, so they can make informed decisions quickly and produce better business results. To help deliver on this vision, Google is making it easy for anyone to work with massive datasets in Google Sheets and they are adding new, intelligent features to help automate data preparation and analysis.

A live connection between BigQuery and Sheets means your data stays fresh and protected by Google’s security architecture unlike desktop spreadsheet applications. People across your organisation can apply familiar Sheets tools like pivot tables, charts and formulas to big data, quickly deriving insights and reducing their dependence on specialised analysts.

Google AI is built natively into Sheets, so it’s easy for everyone to quickly make data-backed decisions. For example, you can ask questions about your data in plain English or see suggested charts and pivot tables. Here are some of the upcoming new features that leverage the power of Google AI to get you to insights even faster: 

1. Automate data entry

Sheets Smart Fill will be launched later this year which detects and learns patterns between columns to intelligently autocomplete data for you. For example, you have a column of full names but you want to split it into two columns (first and last name). As you start typing first names into a column, Sheets will automatically detect the pattern, generate the corresponding formula and then autocomplete the rest of the column for you. Similar to how Smart Compose in Gmail helps you write faster with fewer mistakes, Sheets Smart Fill makes data entry quicker and less error-prone.

2. Make confident decisions with clean data

Before making critical decisions, it’s important to ensure your data is consistent and error-free. Google will soon be introducing Sheets Smart Cleanup to make data cleanup faster and more accurate. Upon data import, Sheets will surface intelligent suggestions in the side panel. It could, for example, help you identify and fix duplicate rows and number-formatting issues. You’ll also see column stats that provide a quick snapshot of your data such as the distribution of values or most frequent value in a column, helping you quickly catch potential outliers and confidently move on to analysis.

Connected Sheets is available now for G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and G Suite Enterprise Essentials customers. Sheets Smart Fill and Smart Cleanup will be available to G Suite customers later this year.