Pivot tables in Microsoft Excel - Michael Milton's Blog

Pivot tables in Microsoft Excel March 24, 2010 Michael Milton [email protected] Author of Head First Excel and Head First Data Analysis

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The most important things you need to learn in Excel IMHO

The most important things you need to learn in Excel IMHO

2. Pivot Tables

The most important things you need to learn in Excel IMHO

1. Formulas 2. Pivot Tables

What we’re about to do 1. Make a pivot table 2. What sort of data do I use in pivot tables? 3. A closer look at pivot table elements 4. Pivot table failure 5. How to present pivot tables 6. Taking pivot tables into another dimension 7. Clean up

A note on versions of Excel Windows versions Excel 97 Excel 2000 Excel 2002 Excel 2003 Excel 2007 Excel 2010

Mac versions

Excel 2001 Excel v.X Excel 2004 Excel 2008

’t n es o d it , n io at t n se re p is h t For matter what you’re using.

Let’s make a pivot table

Problem: Who’s running for Congress, and how much money have they raised? The original data

http://www.fec.gov/data/CandidateSummary.do?format=html My polished data

http://tinyurl.com/PivotTableWebinarData

What, generally, are pivot tables for?

Pivot tables are for summarizing and grouping data

Suggestions for using pivot tables

Suggestions for using pivot tables Use pivot tables to explore!

Suggestions for using pivot tables Use pivot tables to explore!

Use pivot tables to everywhere you can!

What sort of data do I use in pivot tables?

The shape of pivot table data

The shape of pivot table data

The data needs to be tabular (in a 2D grid).

The shape of pivot table data

The data needs to be tabular (in a 2D grid).

Each row needs to be about the same sort of thing.

A simple way to think about your fields Summarize with numeric data

Group with categorical data

Numeric versus categorical data Numeric data 132 20.83 999999 3.2e34

Categorical data

AL, TX, FL Mike, Jessica, John House, Senate

Another simple answer Use pivot tables for raw (rather than summarized) data.

Raw data is the most basic data you can get.

r o ed z ri a m m su n ee b ’t sn a h It . b jo ur o y ’s at h t . .. et y ed up o r g

The complex answer You’ll usually follow the simple answers, but you can also summarize with numeric data and group with categorical data. Plus, the data doesn’t have to be raw.

A closer look at pivot table elements

Basic pivot table elements Summarize Group Filter Format Formula Refresh

Pivot table failure Watch what I do, see if you can spot the problem.

Remember what each row of your data means

How to present pivot tables

What does it mean to “pivot” the data?

What does it mean to “pivot” the data?

Not a whole lot.

You can handle complex pivot tables better than your audience

Send your pivot tables to a new spreadsheet for presentation

Let’s take pivot tables into another dimension

What if your data doesn’t have the categories you need for grouping?

Let’s look at the money raised by politicians who live in the same ZIP codes as the people watching this webinar!

Roll your own categories with formulas

Use what’s implicit in the data.

Clean up

Thank you! twitter.com/michaelmilton [email protected] michaelmilton.net