Excel table or PivotTable?

In Excel, there are tables and pivot tables. You'll wonder why you would need to create a table when the entire worksheet already looks like one. And did you hear about pivot tables and complex as they are. To be able to work effectively, it helps to know what each one does and when to use one or the other.

An Excel table is simply a set of rows and columns in a worksheet that contains data related and is displayed in a table format. If you have a large list of data, it is often useful to display the data in that table. Not only as a guide to related data table is to organize, is also useful for calculating values and totals and grand totals.

Using a table, you can more easily:

Manage and analyze data independently of data outside of one of the many table formats to make it easier to view data and scanAdd calculated columns to calculate instantly valuesUse a total row to calculate and display data from totalsFilter in the columns of the table to display only the data that you want to quickly parse the tableApply

If you're trying to extract meaningful information from data, for example, to find out which products are selling best over time, you can use a PivotTable report instead of an Excel table. A pivot table is an interactive table that summarizes large amounts of data quickly, that can then be analyzed in detail.

By using a PivotTable, you can more easily:

Display the exact data that you want to analyzePivot data for display by different data anglesFocus on specific details by expanding or collapsing the data or by applying templates to filtersMake data comparisonsDetect data, reports and trends data

For more information about Excel tables or PivotTables, see the video or the following articles:

Video: create an Excel table

Create or delete an Excel table in a worksheet

Video: Create a PivotTable report

Create or delete a PivotTable or PivotChart view

--Frederique Klitgaard

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