Why is one value in my pivot table erroneous?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Why is one value in my pivot table erroneous?

I have a large Numbers table that summarizes tree inventory data. In a pivot table, I show, for each planting site, the number of trees planted, the number still alive, the number that died, and the number that were lost from human activity (removal by vehicles, construction, and vandalism). For one site (Creasy N), 19 trees died, but the pivot table shows 0. I removed the pivot table and then reconstructed it, with the same result.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Feb 16, 2025 7:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Badunit

Level 7

30,366 points

Feb 16, 2025 3:25 PM in response to Treeman47905

One possibility is the "19" in your data table is text, not an actual number.

If the cell format is "automatic" and you did not manually set the justification (left, center, or right), text naturally aligns to the left of the cell and actual numbers align to the right. That is the usual clue. Try deleting the "19" and retyping it.
If the cell format is "text", the numeric characters you see as "19" is text, not actually a number. Format as "automatic" or as "number". Click off of the cell then select it again to make sure the format change took. If it did not then delete the cell contents and retype the "19".

Reply