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Excel PivotTable Default to SUM instead of COUNT

You are here: Home / Excel PivotTables / Excel PivotTable Default to SUM instead of COUNT
Excel Tool Belt
April 11, 2016 by Mynda Treacy

If you put a field in the values area of a PivotTable and it defaults to COUNT as opposed to SUM, the reason is that the column has at least one cell containing text, or one cell that is empty. Yes, one pesky cell that doesn't contain a number is enough for a PivotTable to return COUNT.

PivotTable default to sum instead of count

It’s annoying but unfortunately the only way to make a PivotTable default to SUM instead of COUNT is to make sure your column of data contains a number in every cell. You see the PivotTable is trying to determine the type of data you have and apply a relevant aggregation function for you. It’s trying to be helpful.

Solution: Right-click a value in the column you want to change > Summarize Values By > Sum:

PivotTable default to sum instead of count

Excel Tool Belt
Mynda Treacy

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AUTHOR Mynda Treacy Co-Founder / Owner at My Online Training Hub

CIMA qualified Accountant with over 25 years experience in roles such as Global IT Financial Controller for investment banking firms Barclays Capital and NatWest Markets.

Mynda has been awarded Microsoft MVP status every year since 2014 for her expertise and contributions to educating people about Microsoft Excel.

Mynda teaches several courses here at MOTH including Excel Expert, Excel Dashboards, Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot.

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Category: Excel PivotTables
Previous Post:show text, numbers, dates, formulas on sheetHighlight Text, Numbers, Dates and Formulas on a Sheet
Next Post:Classic PivotTable Default LayoutPivotTable Classic Layout

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Junaid Tahir

    July 15, 2019 at 10:08 pm

    Can i use VBA code to change the field setting in pivot table with variable value field name.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      July 16, 2019 at 9:19 am

      I expet so, yes, but I haven’t tried it before.

      Reply
  2. Brendan Kelly

    April 18, 2016 at 10:40 pm

    Hi,
    I “Control H” my data where possible…find and replace.
    Find “Blanks” and Replace them with zeroes…that way there are no blanks.
    I hope this helps someone,
    Brendan.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      April 19, 2016 at 9:12 am

      Thanks for sharing, Brendan.

      Reply

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