Master Excel Pivot Tables with our easy guide. Learn to prepare data, create, customize, analyze, and unlock advanced features step-by-step.
by Mihir Kamdar / Last Updated:
In this comprehensive guide to Pivot Tables, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills needed to revolutionize your data analysis workflow. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to:
Understand the fundamentals of Pivot Tables and how they can be applied in real-world scenarios
Prepare your data for Pivot Table analysis, following best practices for structure and formatting.
Create your first Pivot Table from scratch, choosing the right fields for rows, columns, and values.
Customize your Pivot Table for professional results, including organizing field labels, adjusting column widths, and applying styles and formatting.
Perform powerful data analysis with Pivot Table, exploring various calculation methods, summarizing values, and utilizing filters and slicers.
Whether you’re a business professional, data analyst, or simply someone looking to enhance their Microsoft Excel Pivot Table skills, this tutorial will provide you with the foundation you need to become a Pivot Table pro. So, let’s dive in and start unlocking the power of data with Pivot Table!
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Welcome to the world of Excel Pivot Tables, where data analysis becomes a breeze! In this comprehensive beginner’s guide, you’ll learn how to create, customize, and analyze data using one of the most powerful tools in Microsoft Excel. Whether you’re a business professional, data analyst, or simply looking to enhance your Excel skills, this tutorial will provide you with the foundation you need to become a full Pivot Table creation pro. So, let’s dive in and unlock the power of data with Excel Pivot Table!
Before we start creating Pivot Table, it’s essential to understand what they are and how they work. A Pivot Table is a powerful tool that allows you to summarize data, and analyze data by dynamically rearranging and aggregating it into tables group together based on various criteria. It enables you to explore different perspectives on your data and uncover patterns, trends, and relationships with other data that might not be immediately apparent.
The key components include:
Row fields: These are the categories or dimensions that you want to analyze, such as products, regions, or customer segments.
Column fields: These are the values or measures that you want to calculate, such as sales, profits, or quantities.
Values area: This is where the actual calculations happen, based on the selected row and column fields.
Filters: These allow you to narrow down your data to specific subsets, such as a particular time period or a specific product category.
To better understand how Pivot Tables can be applied in real-world scenarios, let’s consider a few examples:
1. A sales manager can use a this excel function to analyze sales performance by region and product category identifying top-performing areas and potential growth opportunities.
2. A human resources professional can leverage Pivot Tables to summarize employee data, such as employee count, average annual salary, by region to gain insights into workforce trends and make informed decisions.
3. A financial analyst can utilize Pivot Tables to consolidate and analyze financial data by department and project that provide a clear overview of the company’s financial health.
Now that we have a solid understanding of what Pivot Tables are and how they can be used, let’s move on to preparing our data for analysis.
Before creating a Pivot Table, it’s crucial to ensure that your underlying data itself is structured and formatted correctly. Follow these step-by-step instructions to prepare your data:
This can quickly be done by clicking anywhere on the Data tab → Go to Insert → Click Table → Select My table has headers → Click OK.
Ensure that the order data is the ‘Date’ data type and that the Country column is the proper case. Also, check all the other column such as Name, Region, Item Type, Sales Channel and Order Priority are all proper case.
Go to Home → Select Find & Select → Click Go To Special → Click Blanks → Click OK. If you find any blank rows or blank columns then delete those.
Select the appropriate data type for each column based on below screesnhot.
Once your first data set is properly structured and formatted, it’s time to select the appropriate data range for your Pivot Table analysis.
Now that your data is prepared let’s walk through the process of creating your first Pivot Table in Microsoft Excel:
1. Go to the Data tab → Select all the Data → Go to Insert → From Table/Range.
2. Table1 is the range you selected → Select Existing Worksheet → Location should be Output tab in Cell A1 → Press OK.
3. In the Pivot Table Fields pane, drag and drop the desired fields into the Rows, Columns, Values, and Filters areas.
Filters – This will filter data based on selected data.
Columns – Fields to be displayed at the column level.
Row – Fields to be displayed at the row level.
Values – Contain the summary data, which sum, average, count, etc can summarize.Add Region in Rows and Total Revenue in Values areas.
4. Format the Pivot Table to enhance readability and visual appeal.
Congratulations! You’ve now created your first Pivot Table. In the next section, we’ll explore how to customize your pivot table in excel, for professional results.
Now that you’ve created a basic Pivot Table, let’s dive into customization options to make pivot table for your analysis more professional and visually appealing.
By taking the time to customize your Pivot Table, you’ll create a more polished and professional look for existing table that enhances the readability and impact of your analysis.
With your Pivot Table created and customized, it’s time to harness its power for data analysis:
Click on Value Field Settings for Average of Total Revenue → Change the Column Name to Rank → Select Rank Largest to Smallest → Click OK.
Remove Total Units Sold and below is the result.
Slicers and filters are interactive filtering tools that allow you to quickly and easily adjust the data displayed in your Pivot Table. Slicers provide buttons that you can click to filter data, while filter allows you to filter data based on the value selected.
To add a filter:
Drag and drop fields into the Filters area to create interactive filters that allow you to focus on specific subsets of your data.
For example, you can filter by item type to analyze performance within those specific parameters.
1. Drag the Item Type column in the Filter area.
2. Select the desired filter criteria (e.g., specific values, date ranges, top/bottom values).
3. Click OK to apply the filter.
You can apply multiple filters to a Pivot Table, allowing you to create highly targeted analysis.
To add a slicer:
1. Click on your Pivot Table to activate it.
2. Go to the Analyze tab and click on the Insert Slicer button.
3. Select the field(s) you want to use as slicers and click OK.
4. Click on the slicer buttons to filter your data.
By leveraging these powerful analysis features, you’ll be able to uncover valuable insights from new data and make data-driven decisions with confidence.
PivotTable basics involve understanding how to summarize and analyze large datasets by dynamically rearranging and aggregating data based on various criteria. The key components of a PivotTable include row fields (categories or dimensions), column fields (values or measures), values area (where calculations happen), and filters (to narrow down data to specific subsets).
The four main areas of a PivotTable are:
The three layouts for a PivotTable in Microsoft Excel are:
To categorize data in a PivotTable, use the row and column fields:
The main difference between a pivot chart and a PivotTable is their visual representation:
To create three rows in a PivotTable:
In this comprehensive tutorial, you’ve learned the fundamentals of Pivot Tables and how to leverage their power to create Pivot Tables for data analysis in Microsoft Excel.
You’ve learned how to:
Understand the fundamentals of Pivot Tables and how they can be applied in real-world scenarios
Prepare your data for Pivot Table analysis, following best practices for structure and formatting.
Create your first Pivot Table from scratch, choosing the right fields for rows, columns, and values.
Customize your Table for professional results, including organizing field labels, adjusting column widths, and applying styles and formatting.
Perform powerful data analysis with Pivot Table, exploring various calculation methods, summarizing values, and utilizing filters and slicers.
As you continue to practice and explore Pivot Tables, you’ll discover more ways to streamline your data analysis workflows and uncover valuable insights. Keep experimenting with the layouts for different data sets, using updated data, asking new questions, and seeking opportunities to apply your Pivot Table skills in your day-to-day work. With dedication and curiosity, you’ll soon become a pro, equipped to tackle any data challenge that comes your way.
