Excel Pivot Table Tutorial: Copying Data Into Excel

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Updated September 20, 2019

Pivot tables are a powerful feature in Excel. They put flexibility and analytical power in your hands. Pivot tables extract information from large data tables without using formulas. When you find data you want to include in a pivot table, such as data included in a pivot table tutorial, copy the sample data into an Excel worksheet.

Instructions in this article apply to Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; and Excel for Office 365.

Data for Excel Pivot Table Tutorial

Here's an example of data you'll find in a pivot table tutorial:

Cookie Sales by Region
SalesRep	Region	# Orders	Total Sales
Bill	West	217	$41,107
Frank	West	268	$72,707
Harry	North	224	$41,676
Janet	North	286	$87,858
Joe	South	226	$45,606
Martha	East	228	$49,017
Mary	West	234	$57,967
Ralph	East	267	$70,702
Sam	East	279	$77,738
Tom	South	261	$69,496

How to Copy the Tutorial Text

Follow these steps to copy the sample data into your own Excel file. These steps are relevant for any data you want to copy into Excel, not just the specific data shown in the table above.

Highlight the data in the table above. Select from the title Cookie Sales by Region to the number $69,496 at the bottom of the table.
Right-click (or tap-and-hold) any part of the highlighted text and choose Copy from the browser's context menu.

Another way to copy the data from the table is to use the Ctrl+C (Windows) or Command+C (Mac) keyboard shortcut.
Select cell A1 in a blank Excel worksheet to make it the active cell.
Go to the Home tab.
In the Clipboard group, select the Paste dropdown arrow.
Choose Paste Special.
In the Paste Special dialog box, select Text.
Select OK to paste the data into Excel.
Each piece of data is pasted into a separate cell in the worksheet. If cell A1 was the active cell when the data was pasted into the worksheet, the data appears in the range A1 to D12.