Working with PivotTable & PivotChart

Kingston TagoeTechpreneur & IT

Consultant

Pivot Table

A Pivot table report is an interactive table that can be used to quickly summarize, analyze and present large amounts of data by categories and subcategories.

You might want to use a Pivot Table report if you wish to compare related totals, especially when you have a long list of figures to summarize and you want to compare several facts about each figure

Pivot Table

Projects Data

Pivot Table

More about Pivot Table

• It’s a dynamic summary report generated from a database.

• It automatically extracts, organizes, and summarizes your data, allowing you to see the big picture – Instantly converts a mass of data into a nicely summarized table.

• Most innovative aspect: its interactivity – can rotate (i.e., pivot) the table’s row and column headings around the core data area to give you different views of your summarized data.

Advantages of Pivot Table

• Creating a pivot table takes only a few seconds and doesn’t require a single formula.

• A single button click is all it takes to convert the data into an interactive pivot chart – Provides a graphical representation of the data in the pivot table.

• You can use either or both reports to analyze the data, make comparisons, detect patterns and relationships, and discover trends, all while customizing the summary, layout, format, and detail of each report.

Drawbacks on Pivot Table

Minor drawback: Unlike a formula-based summary report, a pivot tables does not automatically update when you change the source data.

Solution does exist: A single click of the Refresh button on the PivotTable toolbar forces a pivot table to update and use the latest data.

Pivot Table Labs

Using sample data to understand need for Pivot Tables

Understanding elements of the Pivot Table

Creating and working with Pivot Table

Creating a Pivot Chart

Case study: projects under each successive Gov’t

Summary: tips, skills and tricks

Working with Sample Data

Go to this link: bit.ly/data-j

Download Projects in Ghana.xlsx

Open this workbook in MS Excel

Have a look around this data

Creating a Pivot Table

You create a pivot table using the PivotTable Wizard.

Access the wizard by highlighting your data range, select data drop menu and go to Tables

Select PivotTable from the options available

Data drop-menu

Creating a Pivot Table

Also you can use the Insert menu to create a PivotTable.

Go to the Insert tab menu in the ribbon, then choose PivotTable under Tables

Pivot Table sub-menu

Elements of the Pivot TableYear Filter

Item Filter

Column Fields

Data Items

Row Fields

Data Visualization & PivotCharts

Data Visualization

Helping people to make meaning of data by giving it a visual context.

It helps see patterns, trends and correlations that might be missed in text-based reports and which can be recognized easily with data visualization

Data Visualization

Word Cloud

Heat Map

Creating a Pivot Chart

You create a pivot table using the PivotChart Wizard.

Go to Insert, then proceed to PivotChart under the Charts sub-menu

Pivot Chart sub-menu

In Summary

Here’s a helpful outline to follow when creating pivot tables and pivot charts: 1. Organize your data

2. Know what you want to do with your data o What story am I looking to tell?

3. Use the PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard and assemble the Pivot Table

4. Keep experimenting until you’ve got something good enough. Reworking your data is actually the secret to creating good pivot tables and pivot charts