A pivot table usually consists of row, column, and data fields. In this example, the rows are organized by Month Name and City. The columns are organized by Campaign, and the data are the Resulting Sales and Profit figures for each campaign.
A PivotTable is a powerful tool to calculate, summarize, and analyze data that lets you see comparisons, patterns, and trends in your data. PivotTables work a little bit differently depending on what platform you are using to run Excel.
An Excel table is basically just a very simple database, consisting of one table. It has data elements (columns) and a set of members having those data elements (rows). It is detailed at the row level. A Pivot Table is a reporting and summation tool that gives you information *about* an Excel table.
Pivot Tables have three different layouts that you can choose from: Compact, Outline, and Tabular Form.
A pivot table is a statistics tool that summarizes and reorganizes selected columns and rows of data in a spreadsheet or database table to obtain a desired report. The tool does not actually change the spreadsheet or database itself, it simply “pivots” or turns the data to view it from different perspectives.
Though pivot tables are a level above absolute beginner Microsoft Excel skills, they are easy to learn. Once you've figured them out, they can be even easier to understand than the spreadsheet itself. People can also apply those same skills in Excel on a Google Sheet.
A Pivot Table is used to summarise, sort, reorganise, group, count, total or average data stored in a table. It allows us to transform columns into rows and rows into columns. It allows grouping by any field (column), and using advanced calculations on them.
If you are looking to extract more meaningful information from your data, for example to find out which products are selling best over time, you may want to use a PivotTable instead of an Excel table.
Excel users who want to create pivot tables must spend some time becoming familiar with the source data before beginning the creation process. Because pivot tables organize Excel data into a crosstab format, users must have enough familiarity with the data to properly place information in columns and rows.
Best Practices for Pivot Tables
Organize the data into rows and columns. You'll need one row for each record. The data shouldn't include any empty rows or columns. You'll need to ensure you have single-row text for the column headings to ensure the text is easy to understand once it's shown in the pivot.
The best alternatives to Pivot App are Google Sheets, HeadPhoneCharts, and Mind the Graph. If these 3 options don't work for you, we've listed a few more alternatives below.
Using Recommended PivotTables
Click any cell in your source range of cells or table. On the Insert tab, click Recommended PivotTables. Microsoft Excel will immediately display a few layouts, based on your data. In the Recommended PivotTables dialog box, click a layout to see its preview.
It depends what the Pivot Table will be used for and how. Pivot Tables are a dynamic tool, but that VLOOKUP was not. So a better approach may be to use the built-in Pivot Table lookup function called GETPIVOTDATA. To use this function, type = and then click a cell in the Pivot Table.
Click the PivotTable. This displays the PivotTable Tools tab on the ribbon. To display the PivotTable Field List, if necessary, on the Analyze or Options tab, in the Show group, click Field List. You can also right click on the PivotTable and select Show Field List.
In the PivotTable Fields List, at the top, are the fields we'll use to create the PivotTable. They are the same as the column headings in the source data. At the bottom are the four areas of a PivotTable; the fields can be added to: ROWS, COLUMNS, VALUES, and FILTERS.
Pivot tables are numerical analysis/representation of data whereas charts are graphical representation of data. A pivot chart adds value and category series by dragging the field name onto axes instead of choosing the chart wizard. @Geetha RTFQ! A 'normal' chart is usually based on a list of data in cells.