SubscribePivot Table Tricks to Make You a Star
We, data junkies, love pivot tables. We think pivot tables are solution for everything (except for may be global warming and that broken espresso machine down stairs).
Today, we are going to learn 5 awesome pivot table tricks that will make you a star.
Click on these links to jump to tips.
Drill down pivot tables | Change Summary from Total | Slice & Dice Pivots | Difference from last month | Calculated Fields in Pivots
(If you are not familiar with basic pivot tables, you should check out this excellent pivot tables tutorial)
1. Drill down on your Pivots with Double click
This is by far the simplest and most powerful pivot table trick I have learned. Whenever you want to see the values behind a pivot field just double click on it.
Lets say, the sales of Lawrence in Middle region is $5,908 and you want to know which items contribute for this total, when you double click on the number $5,908 excel will show a list of all the records that add up to this number, neatly arranged in a new worksheet. Instant drill down.
See this magical trick in action.
2. Summarize Pivot Data by “Average” or some other formula
By default excel summarizes pivot data by “sum” or “count” depending on data type. But often you may want to change this to say “average”, to answer questions like “what is the average sales per product”. To do this, just right click on pivot table values (not on row or column headings) and select “summarize data by” and select “Average” option.
(In excel 2003, you have to do this from “field settings” menu option)
3. Slice & Dice your Pivot Tables with Grace
Re-arranging pivot table layouts is as easy as shuffling a pack of cards. Just drag and drop the fields from row areas to column areas (vice-a-versa) and you have the pivot table rearranged.
Here is a simple screencast explaining the secret
4. Show difference from last month (or year) without bending backwards
We all know that you can show monthly summaries using Pivots. But what if your boss wants you to also include “difference from previous month” as well? Now, dont rush back to source data and add new columns. Here is the right trick to make you a star.
- Just use field settings to tell excel how you want the data to be summarized.
- Right click on any pivot table value, select “value field settings”
- Now go to “Show value as tab” and Change “Normal” to “Difference from”
- Select “Previous” from Base-item area. Leave Base field as-is.
Now, your pivot is updated to show difference from previous column.
Bonus: There are quite a few value field settings you can mess with. Go play and discover something fun. 
5. Add new dimensions to your Pivot Reports with Calculated Fields
Let us say you have both “sale” and “profit” values in your source data. Now, your boss wants to know “profit %” in the pivot report (defined as Profit/Sales). You need not add any extra columns in your source data, instead you can define custom calculated fields with ease and use them in pivot reports.
- To do this, Go to pivot table options ribbon, select “formulas” > “calculated field”
- Now define a new calculated field by giving it a name and some meaningful formula.
- Make sure you adjust the cell formatting so that output of calculation can be displayed (for eg. change number to % format)
(In excel 2003, the formula option is available from Pivot menu in toolbar)
See this tip in action:
What is your favorite pivot table trick?
Do you like pivot tables? What are your favorite tricks? What areas do you face difficulties? Tell me using comments.
Learn More about Pivot Tables:
- Excel Pivot Table – Tutorial (there is a video too)
- Authentic Resource on Pivot Tables from Debra
- Grouping Data in Pivot Tables
Now if you excuse me, I will go check that espresso machine and see if the beans need a refresh.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Pingback by Profit & Loss Reporting using Microsoft Excel - Accounting & Excel - Part 1 of 6 | Pointy Haired Dilbert: Learn Excel Online - Chandoo.org on March 2, 2010 @ 9:45 pm
- Pingback by Exploring Profit & Loss Reports [Part 4 of 6] | Pointy Haired Dilbert: Learn Excel Online - Chandoo.org on March 3, 2010 @ 9:49 am
Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
If you have a question, please ask in the forums
At Pointy Haired Dilbert, I have one goal, "to make you awesome in excel and charting". PHD is started in 2007 and today has 300+ articles and tutorials on using excel, making better charts. 
I like to go to the last blank column in my data and then put in a few extra dummy headers to include in my tables. If you need to make up a column of something calculated from the rest of the data, you don’t need to recreate the whole table. Just rename the column header and refresh the table.
I love Pivots.
One thing few people don’t like is the subtotals, and hiding them is not easy in 2003.
The only option I found was in PivotTable Toolbar.
One option I like is that the row fields or column fields can be dragged and dropped either on another side or can re rearranged too using dragging.
I recently figured the importance of “Show Value As” where I wanted to show the row totals as % of Grand Total of all the rows.
Pivots is a bless
good one, I knew all except 4th which is really helpful, thanks chandoo!
I was confused by your #1 example because the animation (screencast) did not match what you wrote:
“….the sales of James in North is $23,012…when you double click on the number $23,012 excel will show a list of all the records that add up to this number, neatly arranged in a new worksheet.”
Instead, I believe it should read, “The sales of Lawrence in the Middle Region is $5908, and when you double-click on the number $5908, Excel will show a list of all of the records that add up to this number, neatly arranged in a row (i.e. $2460 + $1896 + $1552 = $5908).”
@Steve M: Good tip. I do that often to save some trouble during report generation.
@Nimesh… Good tips about hiding sub-totals. Areas like these were made readily available (and accessible in 2007)
@Jas: You are welcome Jas…
@Lee: I corrected the sentence now. I didnt mean the screencast to convey the same. I wrote a simpler example, but showed a more complicated case in the animation. Thanks for pointing it out.
Cheers, didn’t know the first one, will come in very handy
Yes, that’s one thing I like about 2007
And I would like to add one more benefit of using Pivot – Creating chart from Pivot is just a one click job.
I like all the tips , but what I am sad about excel 2007 is we cannot put the same field in value area if it is already there in either row or column area. For example: I have name in row and marks in columns. Now if i want the count of all marks I cannot drop the marks filed in value as it is already there in column. Whereas, in Excel 2003 we can do it.
Can you pl. find some check on this and publish the solution for this.
thnks
@priyanka: I don’t know about 2007, but it’s present in 2010.
This might be one of those features where MS became mad and removed them from 2007, and then added back in 2010, just like the file menu
Group
PivotTables will group numerical fields (e.g. Age into age bands) and date/time fields (into months etc), although it won’t like it if there is a blank record in the field.