Excel® 2016 Pivot Table Data Crunching

1. Pivot Table Fundamentals

In This Chapter

Defining a Pivot Table

Why You Should Use a Pivot Table

When to Use a Pivot Table

Anatomy of a Pivot Table

Pivot Tables Behind the Scenes

Pivot Table Backward Compatibility

Defining a Pivot Table

Imagine that Excel is a large toolbox that contains different tools at your disposal. The pivot table is essentially one tool in your Excel toolbox. If a pivot table were indeed a physical tool that you could hold in your hand, a kaleidoscope would most accurately represent it.

When you look through a kaleidoscope at an object, you see that object in a different way. You can turn the kaleidoscope to move around the details of the object. The object itself doesn’t change, and it’s not connected to the kaleidoscope. ...