Microsoft Office

Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables 35
After you create the calculated field, Excel adds it to the Values area of the pivot table (and it also appears in
the PivotTable Field List). You can treat it just like any other field, with one exception: You can’t move it to
the Row Labels, Column Labels, or Report Filter areas. It must remain in the Values area.
Figure 35.16 shows the pivot table after adding the calculated field. The new field displayed Sum of Avg
Unit Price, but I changed this label to Avg Price. I also changed the style to display banded columns.
FIGURE 35.16
This pivot table uses a calculated field.
TIP
The formulas that you develop can also use worksheet functions, but the functions can’t refer
to cells or named ranges.
Inserting a calculated item
The preceding section describes how to create a calculated field. Excel also enables you to create a calculated
item for a pivot table field. Keep in mind that a calculated field can be an alternative to adding a new field to
your data source. A calculated item, on the other hand, is an alternative to adding a new row to the data
source — a row that contains a formula that refers to other rows.
In this example, you create four calculated items. Each item represents the commission earned on the quarter’s
sales, according to the following schedule:
n
n
n
n
NOTE
Quarter 1: 10% of January, February, and March sales
Quarter 2: 11% of April, May, and June sales
Quarter 3: 12% of July, August, and September sales
Quarter 4: 12.5% of October, November, and December sales
Modifying the source data to obtain this information would require inserting 16 new rows,
each with formulas. So, for this example, creating four calculated items may be an easier task.
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