2.2.5 PivotTables

A PivotTable is a mechanism for summarizing source data (section 2.2.5.2.1) to get an overview of the distribution of that data. In a PivotTable, applicable columns (1) of the source data become fields that can be used to summarize data. In the case of using OLAP source data, OLAP hierarchies and some other OLAP entities become fields in the PivotTable.

A PivotTable has two major parts, a PivotCache (section 2.2.5.2) and a PivotTable view (section 2.2.5.3). There can be multiple PivotTable views based on a single PivotCache.

OLAP PivotTables have one PivotTable view based on a PivotCache, see section 2.2.5.3.1 for details. See section 2.2.5.2.1 for the specification of an OLAP PivotCache. See section 2.2.5.3 for the specification of an OLAP PivotTable view.

The values produced by a PivotTable are placed in cells of a sheet and these cells make up a PivotTable report.

The PivotTable structures are not needed to obtain values from a PivotTable report because those values are available in the sheet cells. The structures are needed for the following purposes:

• To show extra information related to a PivotTable in an application, such as sort and filter information.

• To recalculate a PivotTable view, incorporating changes made to it such as sort and filter, and update the corresponding PivotTable report accordingly.

• To refresh a PivotCache, incorporating changes made to the source data (section 2.2.5.2.1), and then recalculate any PivotTable views associated with the PivotCache and update the corresponding PivotTable reports accordingly.

In addition to being used by PivotTable views, a PivotCache is used by cube functions for caching data. For details, see section 2.2.5.2 and section 2.2.5.2.11.