Excel® 2007 Bible

Chapter 35. Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables

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• 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

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The previous chapter was an introduction to pivot tables. I presented 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 examples 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. ...