Beginning Microsoft Excel 2010

Chapter 8. PivotTables and Pivot Charts

There's that word again—Tables. They're back, but this time we're going to look at tables from a different angle—almost literally—by subjecting all those columns and rows to a new and more informative way of presenting their data—the PivotTable.

PivotTables are a most powerful and nimble way to aggregate data—but that introduction calls for a bit of...well, introduction. After all, adding a column of numbers is a form of data aggregation, too, but you wouldn't bother to apply a PivotTable to that task (though you could). PivotTables do something else, something more. A lot more.

It's one thing to be able to total a range of numbers—even a very large range—and that can be a most important capability. ...