Using Excel Pivot Tables for OLAP Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

The Data Warehouse Development Life Cycle

Online Analytical Processing and Oracle

Using Excel Pivot Tables For OLAP

Step 2: Invoke The Pivot Table Wizard

The second step in this exercise is to invoke the pivot table wizard. To accomplish this, choose Data|Pivot Table. The wizard should appear, and it will enable you to define the fact and dimension columns for the pivot table. Perform the following steps:

1. In the first wizard screen, choose Data From Excel List, and press Next.

2. Verify the data range (a1:l47), then press Next.

3. Finally, specify the axis names by highlighting your choice, and then drag and drop them onto the pivot table axis, as shown in Figure 5.4, then press Finish.

Figure 5.4 Specifying the axis for a pivot table.

Now, you should have a pivot table defined and displayed on your screen which looks similar to the one shown earlier in Figure 5.1.

Because the entire table is in addressable memory, it is very simple to change the axis of the pivot table and completely recompute the table. To accomplish this, simply press the Pivot Table Wizard button, which appears immediately above the pivot table. You can now redefine the dimensions of the pivot table and create a new representation of your data, as shown in Figures 5.6 and 5.7.

Figure 5.6 Quantity with year-quarter against region.

Figure 5.7 Quantity with region against quarter.

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This is an excerpt from "High Performance Data Warehousing", copyright 1997.

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