I am trying to sort a pivot table by the subtotals for a data item.

The pivot table has three columns, a name then a list of services received
and then a column showing units for each service. The table is subtotaled by
name so that I can see the total units per person for each service received.

I want to sort the table descending so that the names with the greatest
number of units appear at the top. The subtotal for each name needs to be
the sort field. I need to know who received the most units, then if
necessary I can drill down and display the details to see specifically what
services each name received and how many of each service.

Thank you. I've been searching a lot on here and google and cannot find
this answer.

To sort a pivot table by subtotals, you can follow these steps:

1. Click on any cell within the pivot table.
2. In the "PivotTable Analyze" or "Options" tab in the ribbon, click on "Sort & Filter" and select "Sort Largest to Smallest" or "Sort Smallest to Largest" depending on your preference.
3. In the "Sort By" drop-down menu, select the column that contains the subtotals you want to sort by. In your case, this would be the column with the subtotal for each name.
4. Click "OK" to apply the sorting.

This should sort the pivot table by the subtotals for each name, with the names with the greatest number of units appearing at the top.

If you want to drill down and display the details for a specific name, you can double-click on the subtotal for that name. This will create a new sheet with a detailed view of the data for that name. You can then sort and filter this data as needed.

Right click the field you want sorted (name) and select
Field Settings - Advanced
Under Sorting Select Descending
Choose the subtotal you want to sort by.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"^^Michelle^^" wrote:

I am trying to sort a pivot table by the subtotals for a data item.

The pivot table has three columns, a name then a list of services received
and then a column showing units for each service. The table is subtotaled by
name so that I can see the total units per person for each service received.

I want to sort the table descending so that the names with the greatest
number of units appear at the top. The subtotal for each name needs to be
the sort field. I need to know who received the most units, then if
necessary I can drill down and display the details to see specifically what
services each name received and how many of each service.

Thank you. I've been searching a lot on here and google and cannot find
this answer.

Thanks for the response, Jim.

I tried these instructions in Excel 2003 and I also tried what I beleived to
be the equivalent commands in Excel 2007.

If there are no subtotals, the data will sort as expected. When I display
subtotals, the data does not sort.

Michelle

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

Right click the field you want sorted (name) and select
Field Settings - Advanced
Under Sorting Select Descending
Choose the subtotal you want to sort by.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"^^Michelle^^" wrote:

I am trying to sort a pivot table by the subtotals for a data item.

The pivot table has three columns, a name then a list of services received
and then a column showing units for each service. The table is subtotaled by
name so that I can see the total units per person for each service received.

I want to sort the table descending so that the names with the greatest
number of units appear at the top. The subtotal for each name needs to be
the sort field. I need to know who received the most units, then if
necessary I can drill down and display the details to see specifically what
services each name received and how many of each service.

Thank you. I've been searching a lot on here and google and cannot find
this answer.