How to: Create a Pivot Table

• Jun 11, 2023
• 3 minutes to read

The following examples demonstrate how to use the Pivot Table API to create a pivot table, which summarizes data in a cell range.

To create a new pivot table, use the PivotTableCollection.Add method of the Worksheet.PivotTables collection accessed for a worksheet where the report should be located. You can use a cell range as the data source for your PivotTable report, or base it on the data cache of the existing pivot table (for details, see PivotCache).

To fill the created pivot table with data, add the necessary fields to it. All pivot fields are stored in the PivotFieldCollection collection returned by the PivotTable.Fields property. To add a field to the PivotTable report, access the required field by its name in the collection (by default, field names originate from the column labels in the source range) and move it to one of four PivotTable areas, listed in the table below.

To add a field to	Do this
Row axis area	Use the PivotFieldReferenceCollection.Add method of the PivotTable.RowFields collection.
Column axis area	Use the PivotFieldReferenceCollection.Add method of the PivotTable.ColumnFields collection.
Report filter area	Use the PivotPageFieldCollection.Add method of the PivotTable.PageFields collection.
Data area	Use the PivotDataFieldCollection.Add method of the PivotTable.DataFields collection.

Create a Pivot Table Using a Cell Range as the Data Source

View Example

PivotTableActions.cs

Worksheet sourceWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets["Data1"];
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets.Add();
workbook.Worksheets.ActiveWorksheet = worksheet;

// Create a pivot table using the cell range "A1:D41" as the data source.
PivotTable pivotTable = worksheet.PivotTables.Add(sourceWorksheet["A1:D41"], worksheet["B2"]);

// Add the "Category" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields["Category"]);
// Add the "Product" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields["Product"]);
// Add the "Sales" field to the data area.
pivotTable.DataFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields["Sales"]);

PivotTableActions.vb

Dim sourceWorksheet As Worksheet = workbook.Worksheets("Data1")
Dim worksheet As Worksheet = workbook.Worksheets.Add()
workbook.Worksheets.ActiveWorksheet = worksheet

' Create a pivot table using the cell range "A1:D41" as the data source.
Dim pivotTable As PivotTable = worksheet.PivotTables.Add(sourceWorksheet("A1:D41"), worksheet("B2"))

' Add the "Category" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields("Category"))
' Add the "Product" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields("Product"))
' Add the "Sales" field to the data area.
pivotTable.DataFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields("Sales"))

Create a Pivot Table based on the PivotTable Cache

View Example

PivotTableActions.cs

Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets.Add();
workbook.Worksheets.ActiveWorksheet = worksheet;

// Create a pivot table based on the specified PivotTable cache.
PivotCache cache = workbook.Worksheets["Report1"].PivotTables["PivotTable1"].Cache;
PivotTable pivotTable = worksheet.PivotTables.Add(cache, worksheet["B2"]);

// Add the "Category" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields["Category"]);
// Add the "Product" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields["Product"]);
// Add the "Sales" field to the data area.
pivotTable.DataFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields["Sales"]);

// Set the default style for the pivot table.
pivotTable.Style = workbook.TableStyles.DefaultPivotStyle;

PivotTableActions.vb

Dim worksheet As Worksheet = workbook.Worksheets.Add()
workbook.Worksheets.ActiveWorksheet = worksheet

' Create a pivot table based on the specified PivotTable cache.
Dim cache As PivotCache = workbook.Worksheets("Report1").PivotTables("PivotTable1").Cache
Dim pivotTable As PivotTable = worksheet.PivotTables.Add(cache, worksheet("B2"))

' Add the "Category" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields("Category"))
' Add the "Product" field to the row axis area.
pivotTable.RowFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields("Product"))
' Add the "Sales" field to the data area.
pivotTable.DataFields.Add(pivotTable.Fields("Sales"))

' Set the default style for the pivot table.
pivotTable.Style = workbook.TableStyles.DefaultPivotStyle

PivotTable Report Limitations

While creating pivot tables, take into account the following restrictions.

Feature	Limit
Number of pivot tables on a worksheet	Limited by available memory
Number of row fields	Limited by available memory
Number of column fields	Limited by available memory
Number of page fields	256
Number of data fields	256
Number of unique items per field	1,048,576 for XLSX format 32,500 for XLS format