3 Excel Dataset Examples to Analyze and Share

Choose an Excel dataset by the task you want to practice: calculating totals, summarizing business measures, or comparing numerical observations. Start with the six-row sales example below if you want a result you can check by hand; use the downloadable sources for a larger exercise.

Dataset	Input	Practice task	Shareable result
Synthetic sales	Copyable tab-separated text	Formulas, sorting, regional totals	Six sales records with calculated revenue
Microsoft Financial Sample	Excel workbook	Sales and profit summaries	A clearly labeled practice summary, subject to reuse terms
UCI Iris	Comma-delimited text	Group averages and scatter plots	A sourced measurement table with units and attribution

1. Copy a small sales dataset into Excel

This is invented practice data, not actual transactions. Each row represents one sale of one product; prices are in US dollars. Copy the tab-separated block and paste it into cell A1 of a blank worksheet.

sale_id sale_date   region  product units   unit_price_usd
S001    2026-01-05  North   Notebook    10  4.50
S002    2026-01-07  South   Pen 20  1.25
S003    2026-01-09  North   Pen 12  1.25
S004    2026-02-03  South   Notebook    8   4.50
S005    2026-02-08  North   Folder  6   2.00
S006    2026-02-10  South   Folder  9   2.00

The expected range is A1:F7: one header row and six records. If everything lands in one column, save the block as a .txt file and import it with a tab delimiter rather than editing each row manually. Check that units and prices are numeric; the example uses a period as the decimal separator. Microsoft’s text-file import guidance explains delimiter selection and data-format controls.

Add revenue_usd in G1. In G2, enter:

=E2*F2

Fill the formula down through G7. Then check:

• =SUM(E2:E7) returns 65 units.
• =SUM(G2:G7) returns 151, or $151.00.
• Revenue grouped by region is $72.00 for North and $79.00 for South.

These checks give you a known answer before you try a PivotTable or chart. For a grouped summary, follow the clean-data PivotTable workflow, using region for Rows and the sum of revenue_usd for Values.

For publication, keep the six records separate from any totals. A total row mixed into the dataset could be mistaken for another sale.

2. Download Microsoft’s Financial Sample workbook

Microsoft provides a downloadable Financial Sample Excel workbook containing sales and profit data organized by market segment and country/region. Use the download link on its official sample page; you do not need to retrieve it through Power BI Desktop.

A useful exercise is to summarize sales and profit by country/region, then calculate:

profit margin = total profit / total sales

Calculate that ratio from the grouped totals rather than averaging individual row margins. Leave the margin undefined if total sales are zero. Check that the grouped sales and profit totals match the corresponding source totals.

Treat the output as a sample-data exercise, not evidence about real markets or company performance. Before republishing source rows or a derived summary, check the applicable reuse terms; a downloadable workbook is not, by itself, confirmation of unrestricted republication rights.

3. Import UCI’s Iris measurements

The UCI Iris dataset contains 150 observations, four numerical measurements in centimeters, and three plant classes with 50 observations each. UCI reports no missing values and licenses the dataset under CC BY 4.0.

The original iris.data file is comma-delimited and has no header row. Save it locally as a text file and import it using commas. Preserve the first observation as data, then add these headers in order:

sepal_length_cm, sepal_width_cm, petal_length_cm, petal_width_cm, species

In Excel versions with Data → From Text/CSV, select the delimiter and inspect the preview before loading. Microsoft documents this text-file import workflow. Check that all four measurement columns load as numbers.

Try comparing mean petal length by species or plotting petal length against petal width. Before sharing, verify 150 records and 50 each for Iris-setosa, Iris-versicolor, and Iris-virginica.

For provenance, note that UCI documents differences between this file and Fisher’s published data in observations 35 and 38. Keep the downloaded values for this exercise; if you apply UCI’s listed corrections, disclose them and identify the file version used. The dataset documentation gives the affected values.

Credit R. A. Fisher’s Iris dataset via UCI, link to the CC BY 4.0 license, and disclose changes such as added headers or calculated summaries. The license allows sharing and adaptation under its terms, including attribution.

Prepare the example for a public page

Keep an analysis workbook, then make a separate release copy containing only the reviewed table. Use one header row, consistent units, and no merged cells or embedded subtotal rows. Replace formulas with their calculated values in that release copy.

If you export CSV, only the current worksheet is saved, and workbook features may not survive; Microsoft explains these limits in its export guidance. See CSV versus XLSX for choosing the release format.

TablePage accepts CSV, TSV, XLSX and XLS files and generates a public dataset page with a filterable table. Upload only material cleared for public release—never sensitive records.

For the synthetic example, a useful accompanying description is:

Six invented sales records for January–February 2026. One row per sale. Prices and revenue are in USD; revenue equals units multiplied by unit price. No missing values. Created for spreadsheet practice, not real business reporting.

Before sharing the link, compare the published table with the release file: six records, seven columns, and total revenue of $151.00.