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