A pivot table is a table of statistics that summarizes the data of a more extensive table.

Motivation

One of the most basic forms of visualizing data is a table. An upside of a table is that it allows detail to be shown, typically in columns. A downside is that the detail may become overwhelming, if the table is not designed well or attempts to include too much info. Pivot tables are useful both for exploring and presenting data.

We’ll use Medicare physician data to demonstrate some of the fundamental capabilities of pivot tables, by summarizing location and gender information.

Software

Pivot tables are included as a feature in spreadsheet software, databases, programming languages, business intelligence packages, analytics and visualization software. Tableau is an interactive data visualization software company with multiple software products. Tableau requires users to acquire licenses to use their software, but they provide academic licenses free of charge.

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