XL97: PivotTable Appears Incorrect If Data Contains Merged Cell

MORE INFORMATION

The problem described in the "Symptoms" section occurs because of the way that PivotTables in Microsoft Excel 97 retrieve data from cells in a worksheet. When you create a PivotTable, the PivotTable ignores any merged cells in the list of data and retrieves information stored in the individual cells. Because the cells are blank, they appear in the PivotTable as blank fields.

Example

The following steps demonstrate the problem in Microsoft Excel 97:

1. In Microsoft Excel 97, create a new workbook. In Sheet1, enter the following data:

         A1:  Widget Type   B1:  Quarter   C1:  Sales
         A2:  Alpha         B2:  Q1        C2:  1
                            B3:  Q2        C3:  2
                            B4:  Q3        C4:  3
                            B5:  Q4        C5:  4
         A6:  Bravo         B6:  Q1        C6:  5
                            B7:  Q2        C7:  6
                            B8:  Q3        C8:  7
                            B9:  Q4        C9:  8
         A10: Charlie       B10: Q1        C10: 3
                            B11: Q2        C11: 4
                            B12: Q3        C12: 5
                            B13: Q4        C13: 6
   						

   Note that cells A3:A5, A7:A9, and A11:A13 are blank.
2. Select cells A2:A5. On the Formatting toolbar, click Merge And Center. Repeat this step with the A6:A9 and A10:A13 cell ranges.
3. Select cell B5. On the Data menu, click PivotTable Report.
4. In the PivotTable Wizard, do the following:
   
   
   1. In step 1 of the wizard, click Next.
   2. In step 2 of the wizard, click Next.
   3. In step 3 of the wizard, drag the Widget Type field to the ROW area in the diagram. Drag the Quarter field to the COLUMN area in the diagram. Drag the Sales field to the DATA area in the diagram. Then, click Next.
   4. In step 4 of the wizard, click Existing Worksheet. Select cell A15 in the worksheet and click Finish.

The following PivotTable appears in the worksheet:

   Sum of Sales   Quarter
   Widget Type    Q1        Q2        Q3        Q4        Grand Total
   Alpha                1                                           1
   Bravo                5                                           5
   Charlie              3                                           3
   (blank)                       12        15        18            45
   Grand Total          9        12        15        18            54
				

Note that all of the items in the PivotTable are grouped in the "(blank)" Widget Type except items in rows two, six, and ten in the worksheet. These items are next to the original data in the merged cells so that they are aligned with the correct Widget Types.

The items grouped into the "(blank)" Widget Type are in the same rows as the blank cells in step 1.

Correcting the Example:

To correct the problem in the example, do the following:

1. In the worksheet, click cell A2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Click the Alignment tab. Click to clear the Merge Cells check box, and then click OK.
2. Repeat step 1 for cells A6 and A10.
3. Select cell A2 and fill the value "Alpha" down column A to cell A5. Then, fill the value "Bravo" in cell A6 down column A to cell A9 and fill the value "Charlie" in cell A10 down column A to cell A13.
4. Click any cell in the PivotTable.
5. On the Data menu, click Refresh Data.

The following PivotTable appears on the worksheet:

   Sum of Sales   Quarter
   Widget Type    Q1        Q2        Q3        Q4        Grand Total
   Alpha                1         2         3         4            10
   Bravo                5         6         7         8            26
   Charlie              3         4         5         6            18
   Grand Total          9        12        15        18            54
				

This PivotTable contains the correct information.