1. Adding or Changing Data
Occasionally you will have a pivot table that is already created, but you will want to add or change some of the data within it. This is easy to do with Google Sheets.
If you want to change data, all you have to do is navigate back to the original dataset, and make whatever changes you need. The pivot table will automatically update to reflect the changes. Let's test this out.
2. Changing data
In this example, we have a dataset that contains the top ten companies in the Fortune Global 500 for 2015, 2016, and 2017. In our original dataset, we notice an error; Apple's 2015 financials are incorrectly labelled as 2014. When we look at our pivot table, we can see that there are 4 columns listed, one for each year. Let's go back to the dataset, and change the year from 2014 to 2015. Once we do, we'll immediately go look at our pivot table, and you can see that the pivot table updated. Now 2014 is no longer listed, and Apple has their financials correctly reported in 2015.
3. Adding data pt 1
That's all there is to it. Now let's say you want to add additional data to your pivot table. This will require one additional step. In this example, we forgot to add data for Exxon Mobil in 2015. Look in the pivot table editor, and you can see that the source is listed as Sheet1 cells A3 through F32. Let's go to Sheet 1, and look at those cells; this is the dataset that the pivot table is using to pull its data. When we look at our dataset, we can see that row 33 is blank. This is where the missing data should be.
4. Adding data pt 2
The missing data is listed below for reference. Let's copy and paste that data into row 33 below the dataset. Now if we look back at our pivot table, we'll see that it hasn't been added yet. Remember the pivot table source? We need to update it to include row 33. Let's make that change now, by changing F32 to F33. Then, when we hit enter, we'll see that the new data automatically appears.
5. Changing or adding data to a Pivot Table
To wrap up, when you change data, you only need to change the actual dataset. But when you are adding new data, you will need to adjust the pivot table source range as well.
6. Let's practice!
Now let's try some examples.