Pivot Tables underwent a bit of a change in Excel 2007. Our reader Miron commented on the Pivot Table section of my review of Excel 2007 saying, “Excel 2007 ruined a really good tool.” Excel 2007 did shake up a lot of things that we were comfortable with – including charts and pivot tables which were probably some of the most frequently used features. But not all have been misses and I think changes have made the pivot tables better (there … I said it) . Here’s my view on how pivot tables in Excel 2007 stack up against those in Excel 2003.
Creating the Pivot Table
We took our sample set with 108 rows and 5 columns as shown below.
Creating a basic pivot is somewhat simpler in Excel 2007. Select the data range and click the Pivot Table button on the ribbon. Press ok and you are done.
The drag and drop features are slightly different. While in Excel 2003 one would drag the field from the pivot table field list straight into the diagram, in Excel 2007, the drag and drop takes place within the field list window. A small checkbox allows the user to defer the actual rendering of the pivot table when working with large data sets.
One major advantage is the “summarize data by option” that you get when you right click on a data field in the pivot table in Excel 2007. A right and a left click is all that it takes to summarize data up by count, by sum, by average and what not ! And I think that really does speed up things up (try doing this with a pivot table with more than 30 fields and you’d begin to shake your head up and down :-))
Design and Layout of the Pivot Table
Both the tables below have the same layout and Excel 2007 pivot table looks like a clear winner. The row fields have option of being collapsible which is a great if you want to structure the data in a meaningful fashion. A single click and you can hide the portions of data that you want. The total appear against the (default) name and a separate total row is eliminated. Contextual tool tips are also a great time saver when you have the scroll across a really large table.
You can hide child row fields in excel 2003 by double clicking the parent row field. However that is fraught with risk. The reader can completely miss out the fact that a portion of data is hidden underneath.
The default pivot table layout in Excel 2007, when you have more than one data field, is to have them placed side by side. This is a bit different from the stacked layout used in a pivot table created in Excel 2003 – and the better for it. The pivot table in this orientation is much more compact and the reader is able to grasp the information in a shorter span of time.
Calculated Field and Calculated Items
The first thought that came to my mind when I tried to create one in excel 2007 was – where the heck are they?Hidden under the now-you-see-it-now-you-dont ‘options’ ribbon is the formulas button that lets you create calculated fields and 
items in the pivot table. It appears only when you select a cell within the pivot table – a point that dawned on me after spending a few perplexed seconds. Now that was way simpler in excel 2003. Turn on the pivot table toolbar and with two mouse clicks, you are there. The interface pretty much remains the same and I really don’t find it intuitive. That’s part of the reason one doesn’t see this very useful feature being used too often.
Pivot Table Response Time (with VBA)
I checked the speed with which a pivot table can be created using the standard VBA code. This code was run on an unsaved excel workbook so any advantages / disadvantages accruing from the format (.xlsm, .xls) etc (in my opinion) could have been nullified. The average time to create a pivot table with the layout shown below stabilized at 0.671 seconds. Here’s the vba code that we used to create the pivot table in Excel 2007:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | Sub Create_Pivot_Excel_2007() t = Timer Sheets.Add ActiveWorkbook.PivotCaches.Create(SourceType:=xlDatabase, SourceData:= _ "Sheet1!R1C1:R109C5", Version:=xlPivotTableVersion12).CreatePivotTable _ TableDestination:=ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 1), TableName:="PivotTable3", DefaultVersion _ :=xlPivotTableVersion12 With ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).PivotFields("Product") .Orientation = xlColumnField .Position = 1 End With ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).AddDataField ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).PivotFields("Sales"), "Sum of Sales", xlSum With ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).PivotFields("Region") .Orientation = xlColumnField .Position = 2 End With With ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).PivotFields("Store") .Orientation = xlRowField .Position = 1 End With With ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).PivotFields("Manager") .Orientation = xlRowField .Position = 1 End With MsgBox Timer - t End Sub |
I then tested Excel 2003 for the speed with which it can create a pivot table.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | Sub Create_Pivot_Excel_2003() t = Timer Sheets.Add ActiveWorkbook.PivotCaches.Add(SourceType:=xlDatabase, SourceData:= _ "Sheet1!R1C1:R109C5").CreatePivotTable TableDestination:=ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 1), TableName:= _ "PivotTable1", DefaultVersion:=xlPivotTableVersion10 '----------SAME AS ABOVE----------- MsgBox Timer - t End Sub |
And here are the results. As you can see, Excel 2003 really whips its younger counterpart by a wide margin. (Note: Other parameters such as RAM, CPU power can and will affect results)
Similar tests with a simple refresh opertaion on the pivot table showed that Excel 2003 beat Excel 2007 by a factor of 5. (I haven’t tested performance with external data sources or with moving the fields around within the table and the results there could indicate otherwise.)
So I think everything put together, pivot tables came out looking much better through the MS wringer. But what’s your experience been with them? How do you find the changes? Have they made your life simpler or even more difficult? Comments are open.