How to sort by sum in Pivot Table in Excel?
For example there is a table about monthly sales of goods in the worksheet as below screenshot shown, you want to create a pivot table based on this table and sort these goods by sum of sales in the pivot table, how could you handle this problem? This article will show you the detailed solutions.
Sort by sum in Pivot Table vertically
This method will guide you to create a pivot table based on given table, and then sort items by the sum in the pivot table vertically (from top to bottom) easily.
1. Select the source data you will create a pivot table based on, and click Insert > PivotTable. See screenshot:
2. In the Create PivotTable dialog box, please specify a destination range to place the pivot table, and click the OK button.
Note: In my case, I select Existing Worksheet option, select the first cell of the destination range, and then click the OK button. See screenshot:
3. In the PivotTable Fields pane, please drag Items and drop to the Rows section, and drag Jan, Feb, and Mar and drop to the Values section. See screenshot:
Now the Pivot table is created, but there is no summary column for us to sort. Therefore, I will add a calculated field to show the summary of each item.
4. Select any cell in the pivot table to enable the PivotTable Tools, and click Analyze (or Options) > Fields, Items, & Sets > Calculated Field. See screenshot:
5. In the Insert Calculated Fields dialog box, please (1) name the calculated filed in the Name box, (2) type = Jan + Feb + Mar (please change the formula based on your fields) in the formula box, and then (3) click the OK button. See screenshot:
6. Now the summary column is added in the pivot table. Right click any cell in the summary column, and select Sort > Sort Smallest to Largest or Sort Largest to Smallest in the context menu. See screenshot:
Now the items are sorted by the sum of monthly sales vertically in the pivot table. See screenshot:
Sort by sum in Pivot Table horizontally
If you need to sort total sale amounts of three months in the pivot table horizontally, please do as follows:
1. Please follow Step 1- 3 of above method to create the pivot table.
You will see the total sale amount of each month is added to the Grand Total row of the pivot table.
2. Right-click any cell in the Grand Total row, and select Sort > More Sort Options in the context menu. See screenshot:
3. In the Sort by Value dialog box, please (1) check a sort option in the Sort options section as you need, (2) check Left to Right option in the Sort direction section, and then (3) click the OK button. See screenshot:
Now you will see the total sale amounts are sorted from left to right. See screenshot:
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