Excel Pivot Table Tutorial for Beginners | Step-by-Step Course, by Data Universe on YouTube. 19 min 18 s.
- Video length
- 19 min 18 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 10
What you need
Steps
Click any cell inside your data range, then press Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on Mac) and confirm the range. This converts your list into an Excel table so the Pivot Table updates when data changes.
With a cell in the table selected, go to Insert and click PivotTable. Choose New Worksheet and click OK to place the report on a fresh sheet.
Drag a field such as City into the Rows area. The Pivot Table lists each unique city as a row.
Drag a number field such as Sales Amount into the Values area. Excel sums it by default, so you see total sales per city.
To count customers per city, drag Customer ID into Values and change the summary to Count instead of Sum.
Drag Weekday into Rows and Sales into Values to compare which day sells most. Swap fields in and out to answer each question.
Add a field to the Filters area, or insert a Slicer from PivotTable Analyze, to filter the whole report by device or region with one click.
Right-click a value and choose Show Values As to display percentages of the total instead of raw numbers.
Use PivotTable Analyze, then Insert PivotChart, to turn the summary into a chart that updates with the table.
To show only the best sellers, right-click a row label, choose Filter, then Top 10 Items and set the number you want.
Tips and common mistakes
Make sure every column has a single header row with no blank cells, or Excel may misread your fields.
If a number field sums when you wanted a count, open Value Field Settings and switch the calculation.
Refresh the Pivot Table with Alt+F5 after you add or edit rows in the source data.
Use Tabular Form in PivotTable Design, Report Layout if you want each field in its own column.
Questions
Do I need to convert my data to a table first?
No, but it helps. A table expands automatically when you add rows, so the Pivot Table picks up new data after a refresh.
Why does my Pivot Table show Count instead of Sum?
Excel counts when the field contains blanks or text. Check the column for empty cells or numbers stored as text, then change the setting in Value Field Settings.
Can I use this in Google Sheets?
The steps are similar. In Google Sheets choose Insert, then Pivot table, and drag fields into Rows, Columns, Values and Filter.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
