Working with Bulky data sets becomes Easy with Pivot Table

You wish to quickly analyze, summarize and explore your data. There is nothing more powerful than Microsoft Excel's Pivot Table.

Pivot Tables require only a few clicks: create interactive reports, highlight trends, and grasp insights immediately without a single formula.


What is a Pivot Table?

A Pivot Table is an interactive summary tool that allows you to reorganise and analyse selected data from a worksheet. 

Inside it, you can:

  • Group data

  • Sum or average values

  • Filter huge tables

  • Create cross-tab reports


How to Make a Pivot Table (Stepwise)

Step 1: Select your dataset (with headers)

Step 2: Go to the Insert tab > PivotTable

Step 3: Choose to put the Pivot Table in either an existing or a new worksheet

Step 4: Using the PivotTable Fields pane, drag items there:

  • Rows: e.g., Product Names

  • Columns: e.g., Region

  • Values: e.g., Total Sales

  • Filters: e.g., Year

Your Pivot Table will update automatically to display the summarized data.


Common Reasons for Pivot Tables

  • Summarize sales by region or product

  • Count customers by status

  • Analyze expenses by category

  • Filter and drill down into specific time periods


Quick Pivot Table Tips

  • Right-click on the Pivot Table for all sorts of refreshing and things after the data gets updated.

  • Under Value Field Settings, change summary from SUM to COUNT, AVERAGE, and others.

  • Format your source data as a Table so it expands dynamically.


Add Pivot Charts for Visualization

  • To make your Pivot Table even more powerful:

  • Click anywhere in the Pivot Table

  • Navigate to Insert -> PivotChart

  • Select your desired chart type, e.g., Bar, Line, Pie

When you master Pivot Tables, your time spent analyzing data will be drastically reduced, and you will have a detailed view of insight discovery!


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