Microsoft Excel Pivot Table Data Crunching (Office 2021 and Microsoft 365)

CHAPTER 1. Pivot table fundamentals

In this chapter, you will:

• Learn why you should use a pivot table

• Learn when to use a pivot table

• Get to know the anatomy of a pivot table

• Peek at pivot tables behind the scenes

• Examine pivot table backward compatibility

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 camera zoom lens would most accurately represent it.

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