How to change the math used for pivot table values

Numeric fields are summed, and text fields are counted.

However, you’re free to change the math used for numeric fields to several other functions.

Let’s take a look.

Lets start off by adding Product as a row label.

Now lets add Total Sales as a Value, and set the format toAccounting.

However, we can easily change from Sum to one of several other math functions.

There, you’ll see an item called Summarize Values By.

Using this menu, we can switch to COUNT.

Notice that the label for the field changes in each case.

Because each row in the source data is an order, the product table now shows orders per product.

When you are working with text values, you’ll want to use theCOUNT function.