Can anybody help me in clarifying :
1) What is a pivottable ?
A PivotTable (Excel) or a Crosstab Query (Access) is sort of like turning a
grid of data onto its side and compress lots of values into aggregates so
that you can see "the broad scheme of things"
For Example, say I have a Products table that holds a list of all the
products that I sell, their descriptions, and unit price. Then I have an
Orders table that holds things like the customer ID that placed the order,
the order number, order date, stuff like that. Then I have an Order Details
table that lists all the items on each order.
Now lets say I want to see a sales report that lists quarterly sales totals
by product.
The order dates are in there, and the order item prices are there, but I
don't have quarters, and I don't have totals. So what a PivotTable /
Crosstab query lets me do is SUM all the order detail records over quarterly
date ranges, and use the resulting quarterly date ranges calculated from the
record values, as if they are column headers. In the results of the
PivotTable / Crosstab, a horizontal row represents a product, a column
represents a quarter of the year, and the cells on the grid represent sales
totals by product for each quarter.
2) When do we use it ? examples would be useful
You use a pivot table in Excel. If you are in Access, it's called a
"Crosstab Query", and your Northwind.mdb sample database has an example of
one that you can dissect. I think Excel has one or more sample PivotTables,
but I don't know what or where they are, because I'm a database geek, not an
accountant
--
Peace & happy computing,
Mike Labosh, MCSD
"Working here is like living inside a Salvador Dali painting." -- Me. Yeah,
ME! [Oh fer cryin out loud]
