1. Pivot Table Values
Now that you have seen how to add rows and columns, the next step is to add values to your pivot table. The values that you select will make up the body of the pivot table.
2. How to add values to your pivot table
For example, if our pivot table shows the Industries of the top ten companies, we might wish to see the revenue for each. You would do this by clicking Add in the Values section, and selecting Revenue.
You may notice that when you select Revenue, it appears in your pivot table as Sum of Revenue. This means that the pivot table is adding the revenue for every entry that falls under each industry. Let's look at the Automotive Industry, which equals 495. You can think of this as the pivot table subtotaling all of the Revenue for that Industry. In fact, if you go back to your original data source and add up all of the Revenue for the Automotive Industry, it will equal that same total of 495.
You can choose other calculations besides SUM, and we will discuss those options in Chapter 3. For now, it's only important to understand the basic mechanics of how the values are calculated.
3. How to add multiple values to your pivot table
Now, what if you want to see the profit for each industry as well? All you have to do is click on Add again, and select Profit, which lets you see multiple values at once. This allows you to gain additional insight, since the industry with the highest revenues does not necessarily have the highest profit.
4. Let's practice!
While the rows and columns are often the first things you want to select, the Value field will often be the primary consideration for your pivot table, as it contains the mathematical calculations that help you analyze the data. Time to put this into practice. Let's try a few examples.