What is a Pivot Table in Excel and why is it called that?

Question

What is a Pivot Table in Excel and why is it called that?

In: 11

Answer 1

Let’s say I have a basket of fruit and vegetables. Apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, broccoli, etc..

I want to know how many green apples I have. So I talk to my friend Excel and she tells me she has a sorting machine that can give me the answer. I tell Excel what types of things I want to sort (in this case apples) and Excel runs the basket through the machine and gives me the answer.

In this case, a basket is your Excel spreadsheet and the pivot table is the result given by Excel’s fancy sorting machine.

I can’t remember why exactly it’s called a Pivot Table but I think it’s because it let’s you “Pivot” (I.e. turn) from one view of your data to another.