Talk:Pivot table/Archive 1

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Seriously, after reading this article, I still don't have the faintest idea what a pivot table is, and I'm a technical user with over a decade of programming experience. Perhaps the article could be adjusted to contain a little more discussion of what pivot tables are, and a little less hype about how awesomely powerful they are? 81.179.177.38 13:23, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I've edited this article to simplify the explanation without removing any technical details. Caltrop 01:49, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that this article is being too specific to Microsoft Excel. Pivot Tables can also be associated to data warehousing and DBMS terminologies. This article does not explain much about pivot tables in general. So, some generalization is required.

I've read the article and followed the links and I don't understand what a pivot table is. The only bit of useful information in the entire article is the following snippet:

"it can automatically sort, count, and total data stored in a spreadsheet and create a second table displaying the summarized data. Pivot tables are useful to quickly create crosstabs."

...which begins to, but doesn't explain what a pivot table is. After reading elsewhere I suspect that the second table is the actual pivot table, in that a pivot table is simply a reorganization and/or summary of the data contained in another table. But I'm not entirely sure.--216.232.239.193 04:34, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

For the first time ever, I came to wikipedia to gain understanding of a subject, and left as confused as when I came. In fact, I'm more confused.

What makes a pivot table different from other tables?

Is anything pivoting? If so, about what? Why use a pivot table instead of another table? Why are they good? What aren't they good for?