Plan a pivot table for a question
Prompt that translates a business question into a pivot table layout with data checks and click steps. Paste it into an AI tool of your choice, which then plans the pivot table.
- Topic
- Spreadsheets & data
- Type
- Prompt
- Level
- Intermediate
- Time
- about 10 min
Results depend on the tool, the model and what you enter.
Result preview
Example: written by our editors, not real AI output.
Figure: revenue per product last quarter Rows: product Columns: month (grouped from date) Values: sum of revenue Filter: region Check first – revenue stored as numbers, not text (right-aligned?) – date consistently stored as a date, not text – duplicate order rows Reading: sort products by grand total, descending. Careful: a product with one large order looks stronger than it is day to day.
Fill in
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- which products brought the most revenue last quarter
- in which month most complaints came in
- which region orders the most per customer
- which channel brings the most new customers
- how many hours were booked per project
- date, product, region, quantity, revenue
- date, customer, reason, status
- order number, customer, region, amount
- date, channel, new customer yes/no
- date, employee, project, hours
- Excel
- Google Sheets
- LibreOffice Calc
- Numbers
- Excel in the browser
Your prompt
You have edited the prompt. Changes in the fields above no longer overwrite it.
This is an instruction for an AI, not the result itself.
Where this prompt works
These AI tools are a good fit for this prompt:
How to use it
- Fill in the fields or tap a suggestion. Leave out names, addresses and other personal data.
- Copy the finished prompt into an AI tool of your choice.
- Check the pivot table total once against the total of the source data before you pass the result on.
Why does this work?
Phrasing the question as a figure per group makes the choice of rows and values almost automatic. Checking the data first prevents the most common wrong pivot results caused by text in number columns and duplicate rows.
Tips
- Remove names and other personal data from the column list; the column headers are enough for the plan.