KANDA DATA

For those of you currently conducting research, the stages of data entry and data tabulation are important parts of the process. Excel, which we already use daily for data processing, can also help us perform data tabulation quickly.

If you’ve never tried it before, let me introduce you to the Pivot Table in Excel. A pivot table helps us tabulate data, especially when creating tables that summarize the key information from the data we’ve entered.

We can obtain important insights from a pivot table even when the dataset is very large. In this article, Kanda Data will guide you through how to tabulate your research raw data using a pivot table—whether it’s cross-section data, time series data, or panel data.

Example Data for Practice

As practice material for tabulating data using a pivot table in Excel, I’ve prepared a simple dataset for us to work with. The data contains daily sales of coffee and tea products from January 1–3, 2025.

These sales data for coffee and tea are also recorded based on the sales location—Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya. The detailed practice data for our pivot table exercise can be seen in the table below:

Where to Find Pivot Table in Excel

Before I walk you through the tutorial on tabulating data using a pivot table, let’s first locate the pivot table menu in Excel.

To find it, click the Insert ribbon in Excel. Then, at the upper left, you will find the Pivot Table option, as shown below:

Tutorial: Tabulating Data Using Pivot Table in Excel

Now it’s time to directly practice data tabulation using a pivot table in Excel.

First, select all your data, then click Insert and Pivot Table until a new window appears, as shown below.

Next, choose where you want to place your pivot table. There are two options: (a) New Worksheet; (b) Existing Worksheet (if you choose this, you’ll need to select the cell where you want the pivot table to appear). Once done, a new pivot table field list will appear.

Next, check Product and drag it to the Rows area. Then, check Sales and drag it to the Values area. The results will appear as follows:

If you want to see coffee and tea sales based on sales location, check City and drag it to the Columns area. The output will then appear as follows:

Now you know that a pivot table is a very useful tool for tabulating your research data. I hope this pivot table tutorial is helpful for you. Stay tuned for the next educational article from Kanda Data.