nnob question on filtering in pivot tables

[gbonawitz]

Hi. I'm trying to get a filter to work on my pivot table (Excel 2010), and can't it to work as expected. I suspect it might be a simple feature mis-understanding on my part.

When I'm playing around with the PivotTable Field List, I can hover over an item under "Choose fields to add to the report" and a drop menu to appear. If I click on that drop menu arrow, I can set up a filter. Note that I do this but do NOT drag the field to the Report Filter section.

The resulting pivot report does not change (i.e. take into account the filter) although the field list will now show the filter icon. Do I actually have to drag that filter to the filter list for the filter to actually take effect? (If so, why even show that filter icon in the field list the way that I'm doing it now???)

Thanks in advance!

 

[cyrilbrd]

Hi,

Not sure to fully understand your query, when you place a Field Name into the Report Filter (not in the Column Labels or Row Labels or ∑Values...) it will show up above your pivot table, you'll just have to hover the mouse on said cell, click on the arrow

and select whichever specific filter (one or several) you wish to apply.

Is this answering your query?


Please do take note that filtering within Column Labels or Row Labels is absolutely possible as well...

 

[gbonawitz]

Hi cyrilbrd...

That's the thing...so currently, I do not select the field into the Report Filter. I know *how* to do that, and do see a difference in the numbers when I do do it.

The question I have is even if I do NOT select a field into the Report Filter, I CAN get the little filter icon to show up next to a field under "Choose fields to add to report" without having selected the checkbox to the left of that field's name in the list. The fact that the filter icon shows up to me would seem to indicate the filter is active (or should be...).

The answer might very well be as simple as ~ "a filter only takes effect when it's explicitly listed/selected into the Report Filter section", but it just seems odd that I can have the filter icon appear next to a field without that field being listed in Report Filter.

(BTW - I just realized that I posted this question in the PowerPivot forum instead of the regular Excel forum...sorry about that!)

 

[gbonawitz]

Here is a picture of what I'm talking about...I did select a value to filter on for Account ID, but it's not impacting the pivot table #s...unless I also drag Account ID to Report Filters.

[/URL] print screen windows xp[/IMG]