In technical parlance, the Pivot Table aggregates our data. It counts how many of each property type is found in our dataset and then totals up the sales prices, to give a total sales price value for each property type category.įor example, the seven rows of data for Apartments are combined together into a single line in our Pivot Table (click to enlarge): This Pivot Table summarizes the data for each property type. This took me eight mouse clicks and I didn’t have to write a single formula (in a few paragraphs I’ll show you those exact 8 clicks so you can build your own version). Now, this would be easy to do with formulas, using a COUNTIF function and a SUMIF function, but if you change our mind and now want to summarize “Condo” you have to modify all your formulas, which is a pain. You want to summarize the data and answer questions like: how many apartments are there in the dataset? What’s the total cost of all the apartments?

Let’s see a super simple example, to demonstrate how Pivot Tables work. An Introduction to Pivot Tables in Google Sheets What are Pivot Tables?

An Introduction to Pivot Tables in Google Sheetsġ.

This tutorial will (attempt to) demystify Pivot Tables in Google Sheets and give you the confidence to start using them in your own work. If you use Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet application for that matter, but don’t use Pivot Tables, then you’re missing out on one of the most powerful and useful features available.

Google docs for beginners