15. Using Pivot Tables to Analyze Data

A pivot table enables you to summarize thousands or millions of records of data to a one-page summary in just a few clicks.

Suppose you have 400,000 records of transactional data. It is easy for some people to look at this and figure out that it represents $x million. But to learn some things about the data, you need to do some more analysis to spot trends in the data. A pivot table enables you to analyze trends in data without having to worry about formulas.

By using a pivot table, it is possible to create a number of views of your data, including the following:

Image Breakdown of sales by product

Sales by month, ...

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