Need help with a Powerpivot formula

[cr731]

I have a data table with a listing of items (rows), years (rows), and periods of the year (columns). Something like this:

Item	Year	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
A	2014			11		10			8			5
A	2013		5		5		5		5
B	2014
B	2013		2		3		4
C	2014
C	2013				5		5

<tbody>
</tbody>

What I want to go to, or as close as possible is, return for me the most recent month (and what that cost was) for the item ... looking back UP TO 12 months. For example, pretend we are in November 2014 (P11).

For item A, the last time a cost was seen was October 2014, so return that and the value 11.

For item B, the last time a cost was seen was November 2013, which is still within 12 months, so return that and the value 2.

For item C, the last time a cost was seen was September 2013, which is more than 12 months ago, so return "No cost" and 0 value.

What would be the best way to do this? Can it be done?

 

[Tianbas]

It can be done but the best way is probably to bring the data in a format that powerpivot likes more than the table above. Try to get a table with only 4 columns (Item, Year, Month, Value). Add a calculated column to find the most recent row for each item using the EARLIER() function

 

[PentaGalCXO]

Ditto what Tianbas said, and if you can't get a better data source, use Power Query to unpivot the table you've shown. It has helped me many times. Works so well I get giddy every time I do it...