Microsoft Office

Part V
Analyzing Data with Excel
This example used Excel’s Grouping dialog box to create the groups automatically. If you don’t
want to group in equal-sized bins, you can create your own groups. For example, you may
want to assign letter grades based on the test score. Select the rows for the first group and then choose
Group from the shortcut menu. Repeat these steps for each additional group. Then replace the default group
names with more meaningful names.
NOTE
Creating a Calculated Field or Calculated Item
Perhaps the most confusing aspect of pivot tables is calculated fields versus calculated items. Many pivot
table users simply avoid dealing with calculated fields and items. However, these features can be useful, and
they really aren’t that complicated once you understand how they work.
First, some basic definitions:
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A calculated field: A new field created from other fields in the pivot table. If your pivot table
source is a worksheet table, an alternative to using a calculated field is to add a new column to the
table, and create a formula to perform the desired calculation. A calculated field must reside in the
Values area of the pivot table. You can’t use a calculated field in the Column Labels, Row Labels,
or in a Report Filter.
A calculated item: A calculated item uses the contents of other items within a field of the pivot
table. If your pivot table source is a worksheet table, an alternative to using a calculated item is to
insert one or more rows and write formulas that use values in other rows. A calculated item must
reside in the Column Labels, Row Labels, or Report Filter area of a pivot table. You can’t use a calculated
item in the Values area.
The formulas used to create calculated fields and calculated items aren’t standard Excel formulas. In other
words, you don’t enter the formulas into cells. Rather, you enter these formulas in a dialog box, and they’re
stored along with the pivot table data.
The examples in this section use the worksheet table shown in Figure 35.13. The table consists of five fields
and 48 rows. Each row describes monthly sales information for a particular sales representative. For example,
Amy is a sales rep for the North region, and she sold 239 units in January for total sales of $23,040.
ON the CD-ROM
A workbook demonstrating calculated fields and items is available on the companion
CD-ROM. The file is named calculated fields and items.xlsx.
Figure 35.14 shows a pivot table created from the data. This pivot table shows Sales (Values area), crosstabulated
by Month (Row Labels) and by SalesRep (Column Labels).
The examples that follow create
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A calculated field, to compute average sales per unit
Four calculated items, to compute the quarterly sales commission
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