Pivot Tables in Excel 2010

Pivot Tables

A pivot table is essentially a dynamic summary report generated from a database. The database can reside in a worksheet (in the form of a table) or in an external data file. A pivot table can help transform endless rows and columns of numbers into a meaningful presentation of the data. Pivot tables are very powerful tool for summarized analysis of the data.

Pivot tables are available under Insert tab » PivotTable dropdown » PivotTable.

Pivot Table Example

Now, let us see Pivot table with the help of example. Suppose you have huge data of voters and you want to see the summarized data of voter Information per party, then you can use the Pivot table for it. Choose Insert tab » Pivot Table to insert pivot table. MS Excel selects the data of the table. You can select the pivot table location as existing sheet or new sheet.

This will generate the Pivot table pane as shown below. You have various options available in the Pivot table pane. You can select fields for the generated pivot table.

Column labels − A field that has a column orientation in the pivot table. Each item in the field occupies a column.

Report Filter − You can set the filter for the report as year, then data gets filtered as per the year.

Row labels − A field that has a row orientation in the pivot table. Each item in the field occupies a row.

Values area − The cells in a pivot table that contain the summary data. Excel offers several ways to summarize the data (sum, average, count, and so on).

After giving input fields to the pivot table, it generates the pivot table with the data as shown below.