Pivot Table Basics
Quick Start Guide
By using a PivotTable report, you can summarize, analyze, explore, and present a summary of your
worksheet data or an external data source. A PivotTable report is especially useful when you have a long
list of figures to sum, and aggregated data or subtotals would help you look at the data from different
perspectives and compare figures of similar data.
For example, the following PivotTable report shows how the total third-quarter Golf department sales in
cell F3 compare to sales for another sport, or quarter, or to the total sales of all departments.
Source data, in this case, from a worksheet
The source values for Qtr3 Golf summary in the PivotTable report
The entire PivotTable report
The summary of the source values in C2 and C8 from the source data
Important: Although you can also create a PivotTable report for an external data source, this quick start
guide describes how to create one for worksheet data.
How?
Define the data source for the PivotTable report
To use worksheet data as the data source, click a cell in the range of cells that contains the
data.
To use data in a Microsoft Excel table as the data source, click a cell inside the Excel table.
Note: Make sure that the range has column headings or that headers are displayed in the table, and
that there are no blank rows in the range or table.
Create the PivotTable report
1. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click PivotTable.
Tip: To create a PivotChart that is based on the PivotTable report at the same time, click the arrow
below PivotTable, and then click PivotChart.
2. In the Create PivotTable dialog box, make sure that Select a table or range is selected, and
then in the Table/Range box, verify the range of cells.
