📊 2. Pivot Tables & Pivot Charts
Pivot Tables are one of Excel’s most powerful features for summarizing and analyzing large data sets. Here’s what you should know:
Creating Interactive Pivot Tables
Insert a Pivot Table from the “Insert” tab, select your data range, and choose where to place the pivot table. Drag and drop fields into Rows, Columns, Values, and Filters areas to generate summaries.
Insert > PivotTable > Select Table/Range
Grouping Data (Dates, Numbers, Custom Groups)
You can group date fields into months, quarters, or years. Numeric values can be grouped into ranges (e.g., 0-100, 101-200). Right-click on a field in the Pivot Table and choose Group
.
Example: Grouping dates into months to compare monthly performance.
Calculated Fields and Calculated Items
Add custom calculations without changing the source data. Go to PivotTable Analyze > Fields, Items & Sets > Calculated Field
to create new formulas using existing fields.
Example: Create a “Profit” field by subtracting =Revenue - Cost
.
Using Slicers and Timelines
Slicers provide interactive filtering options for Pivot Tables. Timelines are slicers specifically for date fields.
Insert > Slicer
or Insert > Timeline
to enable user-friendly filtering.
Drill-Down and Filtering Techniques
Double-click a value in the Pivot Table to drill down into the underlying data. Use Report Filters, Label Filters, and Value Filters to refine what’s shown.
- Use
Top 10
filter to show top-performing items - Apply
Label Filters
for text-based filtering - Use
Value Filters
to filter by totals or averages