Pivot tables are very powerful analysis tools. They can summarize vast amounts of data with just few clicks. But they are lousy when it comes to output. Imagine the horror of putting a pivot table right inside your beautiful dashboard. One refresh could ruin the layout and create half-an-hour extra work for you.
How to combine the power of pivot tables with elegance of your dashboards?
The answer is: GETPIVOTDATA()
What is GETPIVOTDATA?
As the name suggests, GETPIVOTDATA gets pivot table data. The best way to understand GETPIVOTDATA is by looking at an example.
Let’s say, you have a pivot table like the one below. And you want to know what is the Amount for Cust Area = Middle & Prod Category = Biscuits combination.
The below GETPIVOTDATA formula should work.
=GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,”Middle“,”Prod Category”,”Biscuits“)
As you can see GETPIVOTDATA has below syntax.
GETPIVOTDATA(value field name, any cell reference in pivot table, [field name 1, value1, field name 2, value 2 …])
Few more examples of GETPIVOTDATA:
Check out below examples to understand how various parameters of the GETPIVOTDATA function behave:
| GETPIVOTDATA function | What it does | Value |
|---|---|---|
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,”South”,”Prod Category”,”Biscuits”) | Gets Amount for South & Biscuits combination | $609.50 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Prod Category”,”Biscuits”) | Gets grand total for Biscuits | $5,251.10 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,”South”) | Gets grand total for South | $4,342.20 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3) | Gets grand total of all amounts | $41,828.00 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$1,”Cust Area”,”West”,”Prod Category”,”Snacks”) | Gives an error as $A$1 is not part of the pivot | #REF! |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,$P$2,”Prod Category”,$P$3) | Gets Amount for cust area = P2 and pro category = P3 cell values. | depends on variables |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Prod Category”,category_name) | Gets grand total for category = category_name value | depends on variables |
| =GETPIVOTDATA($P$4&””,$A$3,”Cust Area”,$P$2,”Prod Category”,$P$3) | Gets P4 value field for Cust Area = P2 and Prod Category = P3. Note: $P$4 &”” is used to convince GPD that P4 is a string not number. |
depends on variables |
Using GETPIVOTDATA in dashboards
The idea is simple. Since GETPIVOTDATA can be parameterized with variable cells or named ranges, we can use it in dashboards to get relevant data based on user input.
Sample this:
Or this dashboard powered with GETPIVOTDATA
Things to note when working with GETPIVOTDATA:
GETPIVOTDATA is a very useful function, but it does have a few quirks.
- If your pivot table has slicers linked to them, GPD will reflect the results based on slicer selection.
- If your pivot table has any items filtered (say category Biscuits is filtered out), then GPD will return #REF error when you try to get any value corresponding to Biscuits.
- If you change the pivot table structure, your GETPIVOTDATA functions may not work as you expect.
- If you turn off grand totals or sub-totals, you can no longer get them thru GPD.
- GPD requires that your original pivot tables remain intact and visible all the time.
- If you want to completely get rid of pivot tables and still get answers to questions, then you should use CUBE formulas along with Workbook data model feature (more on this in a future post).
- The best & easiest way to write GPD is by pressing = and referencing a cell inside the pivot. This will automatically write the GPD for you. You can then customize the parameters as you need.
- You can turn-off GPD by going to Pivot Table Analyze ribbon tab & unchecking “Generating GETPIVODATA” option from PivotTable options area.
Download GETPIVOTDATA Examples workbook
Please click here to download the GETPIVOTDATA example workbook. Refer to various tabs & formulas to learn more. Don’t forget to play with the dashboard powered by GETPIVOTDATA.
Learn more about Pivot Tables
If you are new to Pivot Tables, it’s high time you started using them. Check out below pages and get started.
- Introduction to Excel Pivot Tables – article , Podcast
- Comprehensive guide to Excel Pivot Tables
- Slicers – Introduction, what are they, advanced scenarios
- Building dashboards with Pivot Tables + Slicers
- Convert regular pivots to GETPIVOTDATA – 3 part tutorial from Mike Alexander, part 2 & part 3
How do you use GETPIVOTDATA?
Let me be honest. For my dashboards, I usually write direct cell references (=A7) instead of GPD. This keeps my formulas short. For dynamic / parameterized setups, I usually write INDEX / MATCH formulas that talk to Pivot Table data. But occasionally I use GETPIVOTDATA because it is very easy to setup and does what it says on the sticker.
What about you? How do you use GETPIVOTDATA? Please share scenarios in the comments section.
8 Responses to “Pivot Tables from large data-sets – 5 examples”
Do you have links to any sites that can provide free, large, test data sets. Both large in diversity and large in total number of rows.
Good question Ron. I suggest checking out kaggle.com, data.world or create your own with randbetween(). You can also get a complex business data-set from Microsoft Power BI website. It is contoso retail data.
Hi Chandoo,
I work with large data sets all the time (80-200MB files with 100Ks of rows and 20-40 columns) and I've taken a few steps to reduce the size (20-60MB) so they can better shared and work more quickly. These steps include: creating custom calculations in the pivot instead of having additional data columns, deleting the data tab and saving as an xlsb. I've even tried indexmatch instead of vlookup--although I'm not sure that saved much. Are there any other tricks to further reduce the file size? thanks, Steve
Hi Steve,
Good tips on how to reduce the file size and / or process time. Another thing I would definitely try is to use Data Model to load the data rather than keep it in the file. You would be,
1. connect to source data file thru Power Query
2. filter away any columns / rows that are not needed
3. load the data to model
4. make pivots from it
This would reduce the file size while providing all the answers you need.
Give it a try. See this video for some help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u7bpysO3FQ
Normally when Excel processes data it utilizes all four cores on a processor. Is it true that Excel reduces to only using two cores When calculating tables? Same issue if there were two cores present, it would reduce to one in a table?
I ask because, I have personally noticed when i use tables the data is much slower than if I would have filtered it. I like tables for obvious reasons when working with datasets. Is this true.
John:
I don't know if it is true that Excel Table processing only uses 2 threads/cores, but it is entirely possible. The program has to be enabled to handle multiple parallel threads. Excel Lists/Tables were added long ago, at a time when 2 processes was a reasonable upper limit. And, it could be that there simply is no way to program table processing to use more than 2 threads at a time...
When I've got a large data set, I will set my Excel priority to High thru Task Manager to allow it to use more available processing. Never use RealTime priority or you're completely locked up until Excel finishes.
That is a good tip Jen...