Putting all the pieces together

1. Putting All the Pieces Together

Now that you have learned what each field in the pivot table editor does, let's put it all together. Many pivot tables are structured to have one Row label, one Column label, and one Value. Let's use that guideline to build a full pivot table which shows the number of days that it rains in each City and Month.

2. Creating a complete pivot table

Here is the data source again, showing average rainfall across 50 US cities. You can click within the data source, then click within the Data tab on the ribbon to create the pivot table. Now that you are at the pivot table editor, you can select the row label "City". Next, you'll select the Column Label "Month". Then you'll select "Days" as the Value.

3. Analyzing the pivot table

Taking a quick scan through, you can begin your analysis of the data and look for interesting data points. Here you can see two of the extreme outliers. Riverside, California has very few days of rain, whereas Rochester, New York has a lot of rain in almost every month! Do you see any other outliers? How about Portland, Seattle, and San Diego?

4. Narrowing down the pivot table

To help you narrow down your analysis, you can apply a filter, such as City. Then you can filter by a text value, such as "California", "New York", or "Texas". And here is your completed pivot table!

5. Let's practice!

Time to put this into practice.

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