Conclusion

Ben Lee

Building with performance in mind also sets you up with a more efficient and user-friendly doc, so it’s a win-win.

Making use of lookup columns and aggregating everything that was in common into one column meant adding an additional data point only required 1,000 calculations whereas the original setup in strategy one required 1,000,000 calculations for every additional column.

The TL;DR is consolidate and re-use and you’ll end up setting yourself up on an easy path that’s open to more options moving forward.

Calculations total with each additional column

Calculations total with each additional column

⁠

Strategy one

Filter in place: filtering every row in the table every time

Total calculations: 5,000,000

Adding an additional data point adds 1,000,000 calculations

⁠

Strategy two

Aggregate common data points: creating a lookup summary table

Total calculations: 925,000

Adding an additional data point adds 189,000 calculations

⁠

Strategy three

Re-use instead of repeat: creating a worker column to outsource repeated parts of formulas

Total calculations: 189,000

Adding an additional data point adds 1,000 calculations

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