Imagine you have aggregated data by a combination of parameters, such as marital status and education. Can you focus on the response rates for a specific subgroup, like self-employed single and tertiary-educated or self-employed divorced and tertiary-educated?
This is where filters come into play in Pivot Tables. Filters allow you to narrow down the data to only the groups you want to analyse. Watch the video below to see how this can be done efficiently.
Applying Multiple Filters in Pivot Tables
In the previous video, you observed how combining filters with conditional formatting helps highlight patterns in your data, making trends and outliers easier to spot.
Next, let’s explore how to apply multiple parameters in Pivot Table filters to focus on more specific subsets of data.
In the previous video, you saw how to apply a filter to the entire Pivot Table using the Filters section. This method allows you to focus on specific data, such as particular regions, time periods, or categories. By checking the Select Multiple Items option in the filter drop-down, you can filter for multiple items within the same field.
Slicers provide a visual way to select multiple parameters. Use the Ctrl key to select multiple items and notice how the Pivot Table values update automatically. In the next section, we will explore how to effectively use Slicers.
In the previous video, you explored Slicers — visual filters in Excel that can be applied to regular tables, Pivot Tables, and Pivot Charts. Slicers make data filtering faster and more intuitive, especially when working with dashboards or summary reports due to their interactive visual interface.
You might wonder when to use slicers versus standard filters. Use Slicers when creating a visual, interactive interface for users, and use Filters when preparing static reports.
In the next section, we will explore practical use cases for Pivot Tables.
After exploring data with Pivot Tables, it’s important to understand their practical applications. In this section, we will discuss scenarios where using Pivot Tables is most effective and how they can simplify data analysis tasks.
Pivot Tables are most useful when you need to aggregate data or answer questions such as:
- Who are the top ten performers?
- Which values are exceptions to a general trend?
In the next section, we will explore another powerful Excel function: VLOOKUP. VLOOKUP helps combine and analyse data from multiple sources efficiently.