How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel

Excel is on the face of it a simple tool however you can do some advanced data analysis with it, one of the things that would help is understanding how to do a pivot table. 

A pivot table is a powerful tool that allows you to summarize large amounts of data in a concise, easy-to-read format. Creating a pivot table in Excel is a snap! Just follow these simple steps:

1. Select the data you want to include in your pivot table. This can be done by clicking and dragging your mouse, or by using the Shift or Ctrl keys to select multiple cells.

2. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon, then click PivotTable in the Tables group.

3. In the Create PivotTable dialog box, choose where you want to place your pivot table. The default option is to create a new worksheet, but you can also choose to place it on an existing worksheet if you prefer.

4. Click OK to continue.

5. In the next dialog box, choose whether you want to use an existing range of cells or have Excel select the data for you automatically. If you choose the latter option, all of the data in your workbook will be selected by default. You can deselect any ranges of cells that you don't want to include in your pivot table by clicking the checkbox next to them.

6. When you're finished selecting/deselecting data ranges, click OK to continue.

7. The next dialog box allows you to choose which fields from your data you want to include in your pivot table. By default, all fields are selected, but you can deselect any that you don't want to include by clicking the checkbox next to them. You can also choose how you want your data summarized by selecting one of the options in the "Summarize Values By" drop-down menu. The options are: Count, Sum, Average, Max, Min, Product, Count Numbers (distinct), StdDev (standard deviation), StdDevp (population standard deviation), Var (variance), Varp (population variance) 

8. When you're finished choosing fields and summarization options, click OK to continue.

9. Your pivot table will now be generated! To change how it looks, click any cell within the pivot table, then click the Design tab on the ribbon. From here, you can change things like the layout, styles, and Totals & Filters settings for your pivot table.

10. That's it! You've now successfully created a pivot table in Excel!