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Most are "tough luck" ones, a few are expert-help required. The most common way to solve a pivot table problem is to add a column to the underlying data. Kind
by function_seven 8y ago
Most are "tough luck" ones, a few are expert-help required.
The most common way to solve a pivot table problem is to add a column to the underlying data. Kind of a "manual pre-pivot" in a lot of cases. There aren't direct solutions to the list of problems, but there usually is a workaround.
Some of the problems (like being unable to format dates when grouping by days) are just "tough luck"
I don't know what's going on with the inability to filter out the last item of a pivot table. One of these days I'll chase that down. I can't be the only one.
- shostack 8y agoOr, if you're fairly confident the pivot is fairly static and you just need to tack something on, then don't be afraid to do it if a custom calculation isn't solving it for you. It surprises people but there's really no reason you can't do that if you just need it to work and/or look a certain way.
- function_seven 8y agoI often end up doing that, but it feels “dirty”, you know? And I also underestimate how long-lived my report will be, and get stuck having to move those sideline calculations out of the way when I need to refresh the pivot (“This will overwrite existing data.”) Which brings up another gripe: why can’t the Pivot allow me to push those rows or columns down/over instead of clobbering them?
- shostack 8y agoIt absolutely feels dirty. Every. Single. Time. It has likewise bitten me more than once when I formatted everything identically, but then forgot that I had tacked something on that isn't updating. And yeah, one feature on my wishlist would be "It looks like you're about to overwrite a ton of data! Rather than make you cut/paste it elsewhere, how about we just shift them!" There's probably some repercussions I'm not considering for why that is problematic, but its a problem worth solving.