4 ms·
this probably is more about specific implementations than pivot table in general, but I often find it's "lacking" when wanting to do some more advanced things w
by thrdbndndn 3y ago
this probably is more about specific implementations than pivot table in general, but I often find it's "lacking" when wanting to do some more advanced things with it.
To name a few:
The way how the "values" are generated is very limited in both Excel and Google Sheets (in different ways).
The way how filter/sorting works with pivot table isn't the most straightforward or flexible.
the "UI" elements (headers, styles, etc.) is very hard to control. I often find myself creating a pivot table, and copy it somewhere else, and manually fix bunch of stuff -- which kinda defeats the point of it (since I can no longer dynamically update it).
Disclaimer: I'm by no means a spreadsheet expert so I may just miss something.
- airstrike 3y agoAgreed, current implementations are totally brittle and far from "feature complete" relative to what an experienced / power user would expect coming in It actually bothers me so much I've decided to write my own spreadsheet engine. This is one of the pain points I want to fix
- seektable 3y agoYou may try these online pivot tables https://www.seektable.com https://www.seektable.com where you can re-order rows/columns simply with a click on the header, apply filters via simple input where you can specify which items to keep or exclude.
- conductr 3y agoI’m pretty close to a spreadsheet expert, I categorize pivot tables as just quick and dirty adhoc/disposable data visualization and never would use it as something for presentation or where styling mattered. I usually use it to quickly find unexpected values in the underlying data columns. Although with spill formulas like =unique() I’m using it less and less for this. I find often people wanting more out of it, are really asking for Power Query. Which is there, just a lot of people are intimidated by. (Maybe not HN, but general population)