Terminology

• "PivotTable" is a Microsoft trademark. Other spreadsheets use different names for similar tools, such as "DataPilot" in OpenOffice.org Calc or "Panorama Pivot Table" gadget for Google Spreadsheets.
  
  

Usage Example

• The following displays sales figures:
  
  Goods Month Total-Sales
  
  Shoes Jan $100
  
  Shoes Feb $140
  
  Clothing Feb $160
  
  To create a pivot table, the user will generally carry out the following
  
  1) Select data by specifying cell ranges.
  
  2) Identify columns by which data can be grouped (e.g. "Goods" and "Month" ).
  
  3) Identify numerical columns from which totals can be calculated (e.g. "Total-Sales" ).
  
  The pivot table will then contain options to filter data according to the columns selected for grouping.
  
  Examples A) and B) below are filtered views from the same Pivot Table.
  
  A)
  
  Jan Shoes $100
  
  Feb Shoes $140
  
  Total $240
  
  B)
  
  Feb Clothing $160
  
  Shoes $140
  
  Total Result $300
  
  

Extended Tools

• Microsoft Excel "PivotTable" can be extended to perform advanced BI (Business Intelligence) analysis by connecting to external Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube databases.