#pivot tables

[jkparkin]

I'm obsessed with this woman's Excel sheets now. "Queen of the Pivot."

from Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #2 (DC Black Label, September 2025) by W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran

[kingdomzeldaquest]

Every time I learn something new about pivot tables the closer I ascend to godhood. I don’t make the rules.

[iamvictoriaanne]

I’m always trying to get better at Excel. This is one of the best explanations of Pivot Tables I’ve seen

[strangebiology]

Conservationists to Americans: Please stop buying so many bat mummies from Asia

EBay has hundreds of listings for taxidermy bats, and Etsy has nearly a thousand.

After this article went up, I got some more data from the Department of the Interior, that I had requested before writing it, and I just finally sorted and wanted to share.

In short, over the course of 1.75 years, 22,426 bats came legally into the U.S., 23% of which went to oddities/sales shops, 70% went to museums/academic/research, and 7% were unknown/redacted. More info below the cut. 

I had filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of the Interior asking about bats imported into the U.S. between January 1, 2016, and October 4, 2017 (when I filed the request.)  That’s 1 year and 277 days, or 1.75 years.

Here is the data that they sent me in an Excel spreadsheet/Google sheet, which I’ve copied to a public Google file. If you’re looking at the “Standard Report” sheet, I added the column that says “Academic or No,” separating them into “Academic” (Universities/museums/research/biotech) vs. “No” (Shops, individuals.) Also “Unknown” for destinations that the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife redacted, one that was blank and two I didn’t know.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, over the course of the above dates, this number of bats were legally imported to the U.S.: Total: 22,426 Academic: 15,817 Not Academic: 5,334 Unknown: 1,275 Note: "Unknown” means the importer was redacted, but not the number in the listing. If the number was redacted, then the listing isn’t included in these numbers.

69 different countries exported them, and these ones were the top 4: China: 3,835 Indonesia: 2,119 Peru: 2,102 Liberia: 1,816

Feel free to use the spreadsheet above to find out more, like which academic and non-academic importers import the most, but you would have to use OpenRefine or manually determine which sets of importers are actually the same (ie, “REAL INSECT CO INC” is the same as “THE REAL INSECT CO INC” so you’d have to make sure those aren’t counted separately.)

You can file a FOIA request with the Department of the Interior as well. Maybe it would be interesting to see if there’s an increasing trend or not. 

[blacklemonjuice]

#71

I've learnt about pivot tables and heard about them many times but I've always thought they were kind of useless x)

[techgen06]

Advanced Excel Course: Boost Your Excel Skills and Get More Done

See how an Advanced Excel course transforms your data management, reporting, and daily productivity. Dive into essential Excel functions, useful tools, and the real career benefits of mastering advanced Excel.

Advanced Excel Course: Why Every Professional Needs It

Introduction

Let’s be real—almost every modern workplace runs on data. Sales numbers, budgets, employee info, business stats—you name it, companies track and analyse everything. And when it comes to organizing all that information, Microsoft Excel is still the go-to tool.

Sure, most people get by with the basics. But if you really dig into Excel’s advanced features, you can work faster and smarter. An Advanced Excel course teaches you the kind of tips, tricks, and shortcuts that help you handle big spreadsheets, tackle tricky calculations, and build reports that actually look good.

That’s why advanced Excel skills aren’t just a nice-to-have anymore. For a lot of jobs, they’re essential. If you want to stand out or just make your daily tasks easier, it pays to know your way around Excel.

What is Advanced Excel?

Advanced Excel isn’t just about doing math or making your spreadsheet look nice. It’s about diving into Excel’s more powerful features—stuff like crunching huge datasets, automating repetitive work, and pulling off detailed analysis you just can’t do with the basics.

If you join a proper Advanced Excel course, you’ll learn how to handle big piles of data without getting lost, analyze it from all angles, and build reports that update themselves. No more endless copy-pasting.

You’ll get hands-on with all kinds of tools: advanced formulas and functions, data sorting and filtering, pivot tables and charts, conditional formatting, data validation, and even macros for automation.

Once you know your way around these, you’ll clean up and organize data in no time. Tasks that used to take hours suddenly only take minutes.

Why Learning Advanced Excel Matters

1. Boosts Productivity

Let’s face it—once you get comfortable with advanced Excel, you just get more done. Tasks that once consumed half your day? Suddenly, you’re flying through it in minutes. It ultimately depends on knowing the right formulas and using automation, so you’re not stuck doing everything by hand.

Take those complicated calculations, for example. Advanced formulas handle them in seconds. Need to make sense of a giant pile of data? Pivot tables break it down fast, so you see what matters without endless searching.

2. Makes Data Management Easier

If you have ever looked at an endless spreadsheet, you know how messy things can get. Manually sorting through thousands of rows is a headache.

That’s where advanced Excel tools come in. With features like sorting, filtering, and data validation, you can organize everything quicker and keep your data clean and accurate. It’s just easier to stay on top of things when you know how to use the right tools.

3. Better Reporting

People rely on Excel for reports in all kinds of workplaces. When you know your way around advanced tools, you can build detailed reports with charts, graphs, and dashboards that actually make sense at a glance.

With stuff like conditional formatting and pivot charts, it’s easy to call out trends or highlight key points right inside your report. Managers and teams don’t have to squint at rows of numbers—they see the story behind the data and can make smarter choices.

4. Automation of Repetitive Tasks

Here’s the real game-changer: automation. Advanced Excel lets you automate those boring, repetitive tasks—like formatting reports or sorting through data—using macros and VBA.

Suddenly, you’re not stuck redoing the same work every week. Automation cuts down on mistakes and saves you a ton of time. Everything just runs smoother.

Key Topics Covered in an Advanced Excel Course

An advanced Excel course usually digs into the tools and skills you need to really master Excel.

Advanced Formulas and Functions

You dive into advanced formulas that handle tough calculations and data analysis.

Some of the big ones you’ll use include:

VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP

INDEX and MATCH

IF and nested IF statements

SUMIFS and COUNTIFS

Logical and statistical functions

These are more than mere fancy names—they help you pull out the exact numbers you need from massive spreadsheets, fast. That means less hunting and more answers.

Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts

Pivot tables in Excel really pack a punch. With just a few clicks, you can take a mountain of data and break it down into clear, useful summaries.

Then there are pivot charts. They take those summaries and turn them into visuals—like graphs or charts—so you can actually see the patterns and trends, not just read about them.

When it comes to data visualization, it’s all about making information easy to grasp. Excel gives you a whole toolbox for this. You get bar charts, line charts, pie charts, and scatter plots—along with useful features like conditional formatting to highlight what matters most.

All these tools work together to turn complicated data into something you can actually understand and use.

Data Cleaning and Data Validation

Let’s talk about data cleaning and validation. Before you dive into any project, you need to make sure your data’s actually accurate and organized, right? That’s where advanced Excel skills come in handy. You learn how to spot and clean up messy data using tools like Remove Duplicates, Text to Columns, and Data Validation. These tools help you trust your data and keep everything neat.

Macros and Automation

At this moment, regarding macros and automation. Macros are a real game changer—they let you record your steps once and then run them again with just a click. No more wasting time on the same old tasks. If you go deeper with Excel, you might get into VBA programming, which lets you build your own custom automations. All of this isn’t just a cool trick; it actually saves you loads of time and makes your work way more efficient.

Why Learning Advanced Excel Matters

1. Boosts Productivity

Let’s face it—once you get comfortable with advanced Excel, you just get more done. Tasks that once consumed half your day? Suddenly, you’re flying through it in minutes. It ultimately depends on knowing the right formulas and using automation, so you’re not stuck doing everything by hand.

Take those complicated calculations, for example. Advanced formulas handle them in seconds. Need to make sense of a giant pile of data? Pivot tables break it down fast, so you see what matters without endless searching.

2. Makes Data Management Easier

If you have ever looked at an endless spreadsheet, you know how messy things can get. Manually sorting through thousands of rows is a headache.

That’s where advanced Excel tools come in. With features like sorting, filtering, and data validation, you can organize everything quicker and keep your data clean and accurate. It’s just easier to keep track of everything once you understand how to use the right tools.

Why Bother with an Advanced Excel Course?

If you’ve ever stared at a spreadsheet and thought, “There’s got to be a better way,” you’re not alone. Learning advanced Excel isn’t just about faster number crunching—it’s about making sense of huge piles of data, organizing it so it actually tells you something, and building reports that people notice. You’ll breeze through tasks that used to take forever, automate the stuff you never want to do again, and actually free up your day for work that matters.

And honestly, this is how you stand out. In an office full of people who know the basics, being the person who can pull off the tough Excel tricks? That’s your edge. It’s the difference between just getting by and actually getting ahead—whether you want a new job or just more time to focus on what you care about.

Conclusion

Here’s the truth: Excel isn’t going anywhere. Every business uses it, and while most people get by with the basics, not many can say they really know their way around the advanced features. That’s where the magic happens. When you’re fluent with powerful formulas, data analysis, and automations, you stop working harder and start working smarter. People notice.

If you’re ready to make spreadsheets work for you, make your daily grind easier, and open up better career options, advanced Excel is the way to do it. It’s not just a checkbox on your resume—it’s how you move forward.

[allaboutyoupostnthings]

What Do You Complain About the Most?

If I had anything to complain about right now, it would be this: I am preparing for two conferences, closing out end-of-year paperwork, keeping the website moving forward, and trying to make sense of pivot tables and Power BI so I can better understand where I stand in sales. I do sales. I know that.But I don’t feel I can do it adequately unless I can see where the leaks might be. I need to see…

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[themirrorofink]

Things I learned this week:

I am older than pivot tables (invented 1986, available to public 1989)

I am about the same age as spreadsheet software (1979)

I am much younger than double entry accounting (1494)

(from 'Why Pivot Tables Never Die' by Simon Späti)