Excel 2010 Bible

715

CHAPTER

Analyzing Data with

Pivot Tables

IN THIS CHAPTER

How to create a pivot table

from non-numeric data

How to group items in a pivot

table

How to create a calculated

field or a calculated item in a

pivot table

How to create an attractive

report using a pivot table

T

he previous chapter introduces pivot tables. There, I present several

examples to demonstrate the types of pivot table summaries that you

can generate from a set of data.

This chapter continues the discussion and explores the details of creating

effective pivot tables. Creating a basic pivot table is very easy, and the exam-

ples in this chapter demonstrate additional pivot table features that you may

find helpful. I urge you to try these techniques with your own data. If you

don’t have suitable data, use the files on the companion CD-ROM.

Working with Non-Numeric Data

Most pivot tables are created from numeric data, but pivot tables are also

useful with some types of non-numeric data. Because you can’t sum non-

numbers, this technique involves counting.

Figure 35.1 shows a table and a pivot table generated from the table. The

table is a list of 400 employees, along with their location and gender. As you

can see, the table has no numeric values, but you can create a useful pivot

table that counts the items rather than sums them. The pivot table cross-

tabulates the Location field by the Sex field for the 400 employees and shows

the count for each combination of location and gender.

On the CD
A workbook that demonstrates the pivot table created from non-numeric data
is available on the companion CD-ROM. The file is named employee list.
xlsx.