Create an Excel Pivot Table

Step-by-step instuctions for creating a pivot table in Excel 2010 or Excel 2007.

For Excel 2013 instructions, click here.

Preparing Your Pivot Table Data

Creating a Simple Pivot Table

Adding Fields to the Pivot Table

Modifying the Pivot Table

Test the Pivot Table

Download the Sample File

Preparing Your Pivot Table Data

Before you create a pivot table, make sure your data is organized correctly. There are instructions on the following pages, for setting up your source data in a table, organized into rows and columns.

Getting Started
Use a Dynamic Data Source

In this example the source data contains information about property insurance policies. Each row has the details about one insurance policy, such as the region, state, construction type and the value of the insured property.

pivot table data columns

Creating a Simple Pivot Table

Watch this short video to see the steps for creating a pivot table, after the data has been prepred. Written instructions are below the video.

This tutorial has a quick overview of creating a pivot table. For a more detailed tutorial, go to the How to Plan and Set Up a Pivot Table page.

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After your source data is prepared, you can create a pivot table. We'll create a pivot table that shows the total insured value in each of the four regions where we sell insurance.

Select any cell in the source data table.
On the Ribbon, click the Insert tab.
In the Tables group, click PivotTable.
In the Create PivotTable dialog box, the address of your source data table should be automatically entered in the Table/Range box. If not, click on the worksheet, and select the range manually.
Next, select New Worksheet or Existing Worksheet as the location for your pivot table, then click OK.

Adding Fields to the Pivot Table

An empty pivot table is created in your workbook, either on a new sheet, or the existing sheet that you selected. When you select a cell within the pivot table, a PivotTable Field List appears, at the right of the worksheet.

pivot table empty

We want to see the total insured value in each of the four regions, so we'll add the Region and InsuredValue fields to the pivot table.

In the PivotTable Field List, add a check mark to the Region field. The Region field is automatically added to the pivot table, in the Row Labels area.
Add a check mark to the InsuredValue field, and it will be automatically added to the Values area. You can now see the total insured value in each region.

Modifying the Pivot Table

After you've created a pivot table, you can add more fields, remove fields, or move the fields to a different location in the pivot table layout. We'll remove the Region field, and add the Location field, to see the value of Rural policies compared to Urban.

To remove the Region field, click on its check box, to remove the check mark.
To add the Location field, click on its check box, to add a check mark.

The pivot table now shows the totals for Rural and Urban locations.

pivot table location

Test the Pivot Table

You can see a completed version of a pivot table based on the insurance policy data, with a few more fields added to the layout.

The pivot table demonstration is interactive, so you can use the Report Filters, at the top of the pivot table, to limit the amount of data that is being summarized.