Like MS Excel, Pivot tables never die
a day ago
- #business-intelligence
- #data-analysis
- #pivot-tables
- Pivot tables are experiencing a renaissance in 2025, proving their enduring value in business intelligence.
- They democratize data analysis by allowing users to summarize complex data without coding, making insights accessible to everyone from CEOs to analysts.
- Pivot tables originated in 1986, were popularized by Excel in 1993, and have evolved with modern computing power and BI tools.
- Core components include row/column dimensions, filters, and value calculations (SUM, COUNT, AVG), enabling dynamic data exploration.
- Modern pivot tables integrate with BI tools like Power BI, Rill, and DuckDB, leveraging fast OLAP backends and cloud data warehouses.
- Their simplicity, standardization, and intuitive interface align with human thinking, fostering trust and control in data analysis.
- Pivot tables are predicted to play a key role in the AI era, potentially enabling direct querying of data lakes and integration with GenBI.