How to Insert Slicer in a Excel Pivot Table? (with Examples)

What is a Pivot Table Slicer?

Pivot Table Slicer is a tool in MS Excel. The purpose of Slicer in excel is to filter the data present in a pivot table. The data can be presented based on various categories with the help of this slicer as it offers a way to apply the filters on the pivot table that dynamically changes the view of the pivot table data.

How to Create a Pivot Table Slicer in Excel?

Step 1: Select the Data and Go to the insert tab then, click on the Pivot Table.

PivotTable fields dialog displays the fields to be added to the resultant report i.e. the dataset for the pivot table slicer. Filters section has the column that acts as a table slicer.
Columns field denotes the columns to be displayed. Rows section has the table field whose data should be displayed for the selected column. Values field displays the actual values to display which the pivot table is prepared for. E.g. SUM, PRODUCT, AVERAGE, etc.

Step 2: Now a Pivot Table is Created.

Step 3: Once the PivotTable is ready, Goto Insert -> Filters tab > Slicer.

Examples

You can download this Pivot Table Slicer Excel template here – Pivot Table Slicer Excel template

Example #1 – Display Fruit-wise Sales for Each Country

Here, the rows would be for each country and the columns will be for each of the fruits as we need to display the fruit-wise sales figures for each country. Hence, as shown in the figure above, Slicer is created on Category field which has 2 Product values, Fruit and Vegetables. Since we have to display the Fruits records, will select Fruit from the slicer.

On the right side, PivotTableFields window, all those fields to needed to be considered while preparing the pivot table are checked. E.g. Quantity, Product, Country and Category. Here, Apple/Banana/Mango are the Products whereas Fruit/Vegetable are the Categories.

Filters field has the column selected as Category as we have to choose between Fruit or Vegetable. Rows section has Country selected and Columns section has Product. The Values section has Sum of Quantity selected as we have to display the total sales for each fruit across the countries.

The Grand Total Column at the last displays the total sales figures of all the Fruits for a given Country. The Grand Total Row at the last displays the Total sales of a given Fruit for all the Countries.

Example #2 – Monthly Fruit Sales for Each Country

This extension is explained in Example #1 above. As shown in the above figure, the Date field was added to the fields to add to the report. The rows sections add a date field, as the sales figures for each month are displayed.

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Example #3 – Multiple Slicers

As illustrated in the above figure. Multiple slicers are used those are the product, country, and category. The fruit is selected from the value category. Mango and Apple are selected from Product options. Australia, Canada, France are chosen from country values.

Consequently, the data displayed in the pivot table on the left contains column data for the values of fruit, i.e. Apple and Mango. The rows are only for the country options selected.

Things to Remember

It is used to create various views out of PivotTable in Excel based on the filters and visualizes the dataset in the desired format.
For PivotTable data, there may be one or more table slicers. Ideally, more slicers in the pivot table, more granular data visualization in Excel is possible.
Fields/ Values in a Table Slicer are multi-selectable as shown in the figure below.
Further, any kind of analysis can be performed on the data filtered using Pivot Slicer.