Slicing and Dicing Data with Tables

Excel is absolutely, positively not just for accountants and other number crunchers. For proof, take a look at the extensive set of features you can use to track information stored in tabular format. You’ve probably already figured out that Excel makes it easy to enter a column of names or dates and quickly sort them, but its table-management features go much deeper. A table can include thousands of rows of data and dozens of columns, which you can use to filter, sort, and extract the details for which you’re looking. Want to do sophisticated cross-tabulations of data? That’s no problem when you use the amazing PivotTable features.

You can enter data manually by creating a table, defining columns, and typing each row. Or you can import data from other programs or from Web-based repositories and then perform your own research and analysis. For example, you can do any or all of the following tasks: