Why Do We Need Pivot Tables?
Raw data can be intimidating especially when there is a lot of rows and columns of numbers, dates, and names. That is where Pivot Tables come in to help us out! Chapter 10 introduces Pivot Tables and its importance. Pivot Tables are a dynamic tool on Microsoft Excel that helps to quickly summarize large sets of data. You can organize information into categories, calculate averages, compare values, and rearrange data view. It is a way to "pivot" your perspective on data to rotate fields around until it is the way you want. Most people do not need more data, but they need more clarity. Once you understand how to use them, you will never look at data the same way again.
Figure 8.1
Why Pivot Tables Matter
They save us a lot of time. Instead of writing out formulas or manually sorting through data, pivot tables can do that for you. With a few clicks, you can calculate goals, averages, counts, percentages, sums, and more. Pivot Tables also reveal any trends in the data you may have missed. You may not see which person made the highest total revenue over a certain period of time compared to another person who that same amount in their first year. This also shows which categories if any need improvement.
Row Labels | Average of Score | How Many Tests Taken In This Subj. |
English | 84.83333333 | 6 |
Alex | 78 | 1 |
Ashley | 96 | 1 |
Bella | 85 | 1 |
Chris | 74 | 1 |
Dana | 93 | 1 |
Evan | 83 | 1 |
Math | 85.5 | 6 |
Alex | 85 | 1 |
Ashley | 87 | 1 |
Bella | 92 | 1 |
Chris | 78 | 1 |
Dana | 95 | 1 |
Evan | 76 | 1 |
Science | 88.5 | 6 |
Alex | 88 | 1 |
Ashley | 93 | 1 |
Bella | 88 | 1 |
Chris | 81 | 1 |
Dana | 89 | 1 |
Evan | 92 | 1 |
Grand Total | 86.27777778 | 18 |
Figure 8.2
This is a pivot table I created to represent student test scores. The categories used were subjects and grade levels which included Math, Science, and English in grades 9-11. The pivot table calculated the total average in that class for each subject and overall.
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