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Grand Total of Calculated Items in a Pivot Table Incorrect

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    Grand Total of Calculated Items in a Pivot Table Incorrect

    Hi, I am looking for an explanation for the values I am seeing. To outline the problem:

    1. I want a pivot table that shows each item as a percentage of the row total, but i want to retain the grand total count, so I was going to make calculated items for each field.

    2. The problem is the formula I have as "Percent1", and all the "Percent" Items, is supposed to be the sum of the value/sum of Gtot. for the attached workbook, i would think that this would be 5/55 or 9%, instead it is showing up as 76%

    Can someone explain this? or better yet, offer a solution? I would really appreciate it.
    example for upload.xlsx

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    Re: Grand Total of Calculated Items in a Pivot Table Incorrect

    I think this may be a case where the percentage of the sum does not equal to the sum of percentages. For example, (1+3)/(10+4) does not equal (1/10)+(3/4). The key is determining which percentage is more meaningful to your analysis. Are you more interested in the percentage within a group or across all groups? I do not have an answer to your question, since only you know which percentage calculation is more relevant to your analysis.

    My comment here is more to reveal to you why the pivot table is giving you the numbers it is. So, in the case where responded chose "1 - Extremely Unsatisfied", note the following:

    First Case: Percentage of the Sum
    (2+1+2)/(9+12+9+3+3+10+4+5) = 5/55 = 9%

    Second Case: Sum of the Percentages
    (2/9) + (0/12) + (0/9) + (1/3) + (0/3) + (2/10) + (0/4) + (0/5) = 22% + 0% + 0% + 33% + 0% + 20% 0%= 76%.

    One would be very surprised if these two percentages did turn out to be equal. In fact, in the First Case, the final percentage is always less than or equal to 100%. In the Second Case, it is very possible for the final percentages to exceed 100% (which is not a very meaningful way to look at the numbers). So I would recommend ignoring the grand total cells in your pivot table that show the following percentages: 76%, 145%, 130%, 281%, and 168%.

    Hope this helped a bit.

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    Last edited by Dimitrov; 09-11-2013 at 03:09 AM.

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    Re: Grand Total of Calculated Items in a Pivot Table Incorrect

    perhaps this?
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Josie

    if at first you don't succeed try doing it the way your wife told you to

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    Re: Grand Total of Calculated Items in a Pivot Table Incorrect

    Dimitrov - You are indeed correct with the examples you gave. That is precisely the issue. Thank you for the response.
    Joseph - Thank you for your effort as well. This is indeed the solution I must use, despite the fact that it is not the ideal solution.

    If you are curious, I did find an article from Microsoft outlining this exact issue, which confirmed Dimitrov's response. It can be found here:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211470

    Thank you again for your efforts!

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