Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Excluding Zero Values from a PivotTable.

Excluding Zero Values from a PivotTable

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 26, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


William has a PivotTable based on parts drawn from a store for a particular piece of equipment. Some parts have not ever been drawn upon and hence the usage is zero. William wonders if there is a way to display in the PivotTable only parts with usage greater than zero.

There are a couple of ways you can handle this situation. One way, obviously, is to remove all the zero-value items from the data used to create the PivotTable. Another way is to go ahead and create the PivotTable, but then apply a filter to the PivotTable to remove those items with a zero value.

To apply an AutoFilter after the PivotTable is created, all you need to do is select the column to the immediate right of the PivotTable and then create the AutoFilter. (Create the AutoFilter as you normally would in your version of Excel.) Excel is smart enough to know that the AutoFilter should not apply to the blank column, but instead does its work on the rows that make up the PivotTable. Click the triangle to the right of the column on which you want to filter, then select Custom. You can then specify that the filter should only include items with a value greater than zero.

Another thing you can try is handy if the item you want to filter (in this case, the Parts field) is either a column field or a row field. Simply right-click the field after it is placed in the PivotTable and then choose Settings. You can then specify that you want a particular value (in this case, the value 0) omitted from the PivotTable.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3276) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Excluding Zero Values from a PivotTable.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Making Changes in a Group of Workbooks

If you need to change the same data in a large number of workbooks, the task can be daunting. Here are some ideas (and ...

Discover More

Repeating Table Rows with Manual Page Breaks

Need to make sure part of a table is on one page and part on another? The way to do so is not to use manual page breaks, ...

Discover More

Stopping a Checked Box from being Unchecked

When creating user forms for use in Excel, you are provided with a range of controls you can add, including check boxes. ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Editing PivotTables without Underlying Data

If you ever try to edit a PivotTable and get an error that tells you that the "underlying data was not included," it can ...

Discover More

Weighted Averages in a PivotTable

PivotTables are used to boil down huge data sets into something you can more easily understand. They are very good simple ...

Discover More

Text Truncated in PivotTable

When you create a PivotTable based on data that contains lots of text, you may be surprised to find that your text is ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 6 - 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.