Pivot Table sort by count of crashes 2008 but not 2004

[lrivers]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I have a list of 5000 items (3 columns( that's in a pivot table. With one of the columns as the row in the pivot table and count of that item as the data, Excel 2004 sorts by count instantaneously while 2008 goes slowly and crashes at about the 50% mark, every time. I'd rather not bounce back & forth so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

 

[Sergio]

The same problem here. All the pivots with pre-sorting setup, crash excel recalculating the pivot.
If you create a pivot, and then you try to sort the result, excel crashes.
This happen after last update 12.1.1.

 

[Fergal Condron]

Hi there,

Could you give me some more details about your issue?
What OS are you running? I tried to reproduce what you are seeing but have
no yet been successful. I created a pivot table and changed the Field
settings to automatically sort but this works as expected for me.
Is there any way that you can send me a sample file? My email is
(e-mail address removed)

Fergal Condron,
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Fergal Condron]

Actually please disregard my last post, I just reproduced this on my Tiger
machine.
I'll escalate the issue.

Fergal Condron,
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[komisch]

Anyone know a workaround other than sorting in Excel 2004?

I have a table of 14 columns, 495 rows. I select the data in all the columns
and rows manually (not selecting the whole table as I have read that can
cause problems, and I have seen that it slows performance when calculating
the report by a significant amount)

I then perform a pivot table report and do a sort on one of the columns.
This works fine. However, once I try to specify the report should be
descending on the count of that column, Excel 08 always crashes.

I have tried selecting just the data in the column I want to sort on, e.g.,
I have a column called "products" and instead of selecting all 14 columns, I
simply select the Product column. When I do the pivot table, all works well.
When I try to descend on count of "Product," it crashes.

The only way I have found around this is to save the file in .xls format,
open it in Excel 2004, do the descend on count sort there, and then open it
in Excel 2008. That has no issues, but then what is the point of having the
latest Excel if I have to use the previous version?

 

[Fergal Condron]

Hey there,

As you can see from my post below, this is something that we are aware of
and trying to find a solution. If you select the column you want to sort
and then use the Data\Sort menu item and select 'Descending' do you still
get the same results as expected?

Thanks,
Fergal.

Fergal Condron,
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ¡°AS IS¡± with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Darren]

Just thought I would mention that I have encountered the same problem on multiple occasions.

I have been working around the issue using VMWare Fusion and Excel 2003 on XP.

I know you are working on it--let me know if you need any assistance

Office 12.1.1
Santa Rosa MBP 2.2 4GB

 

[Pat McMillan]

Thanks a lot. We do now have all the information we need on this and are
working on a fix.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[Darren]

Just installed 12.1.2, and have an additional pivot table problem

When using the Field Settings... dialog box to unhide data, Excel will reread the data and then crash when it hits 50% recalc.

It's an easily repeatable problem, so I can send you a spreadsheet if you need to repeat it.

Thanks.

Darren

 

[Fergal Condron]

Hi Darren,

Can you send the file to me directly at (e-mail address removed) ?
I think I know what the problem is but just want to be sure.

Thanks,
Fergal.

Just installed 12.1.2, and have an additional pivot table problem

When using the Field Settings... dialog box to unhide data, Excel will reread
the data and then crash when it hits 50% recalc.

It's an easily repeatable problem, so I can send you a spreadsheet if you need
to repeat it.

Thanks.

Darren

Fergal Condron,
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Fred Hopley]

Hi Fergal,

Thanks for the tip! If you select a cell of data in the pivot table (the
data on which you want the results sorted) and then use Data\Sort it sorts
without crashing! Hope you are still trying to find a proper fix - update
12.1.2 does not fix the original issue.

Regards,

Fred

 

[Darren]

Feral,

Just sent the file to you.

Darren

 

[Fergal Condron]

Hi Darren,

I've analyzed the file you sent and as expected it crashed, the problem is
that we have a bug when sorting by aggregated data.

You will need to check off the option to Autosort the sum of data in your
pivot table. Until we have a fix for this bug you can sort the data using
the Data\Sort menu item.

A lot of other people have also reported this, we are aware of this issue
and working on a resolution for it.

Many thanks,
Fergal Condron,
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Darren]

Thanks for taking a look. I really appreciate the quick response and the simple work around.

Thanks again.

Darren