What is a Pivot Table in Excel and why is it called that?
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I think of it as a form of data magic.
When you have a big list of things in an excel sheet a pivot table is a way of sensibly grouping things by type.
For instance if you listed all your expenses with dates and a description (like groceries, travel, entertainment and so-on it) it would still be difficult to understand as a simple big list.
A pivot table “pivots” on one or more of the list’s contents (for example expenditure type and or date) to produce insights. For example total expenses by type and month gives a good picture.
In a real world example, an HR department had to produce reports on their salaries by gender. This took them three days a month until they discovered pivot tables. The task reduced to a couple of hours (based on payroll lists).
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