How to Delete Pivot Table?

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Blog Author :

Tanuj Kumar

Edited by :

Ashish Kumar Srivastav

Reviewed by :

Dheeraj Vaidya, CFA, FRM

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Delete Pivot Table in Excel

As you know, a PivotTable is used to summarize the raw data into an informative table. And you can easily remove a PivotTable by following the below simple steps; generally, the PivotTable has shown the error message -"We can't make this change for the selected cells because it will affect a PivotTable" to prevent the accidental deletion of data.

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How to Delete Pivot Table From Excel?

Let us understand this with some practical examples.

Example #1 - Removing a Pivot table

Below are the steps used for deleting pivot table from excel -

  1. If we cannot make this change for the selected cells because it may affect a PivotTable, as shown in the screenshot below, we must choose the whole PivotTable by pressing u0022Ctrl + Au0022 and then press the u0022Deleteu0022 button again.


    Delete Pivot Table Example 1

  2. Then, pick a cell anywhere in the PivotTable to show the Pivot Tools on the ribbon.


    Click on the u0022Selectu0022 tab, select the u0022Entire PivotTable,u0022 and then press the u0022Deleteu0022 key.

    Example 1-1

    Else, we must select the u0022Clear Allu0022 option under the u0022Analyzeu0022 in the same tab, u0022Clearu0022 (as shown in the below screenshot).

    Delete Pivot Table Example 1-2

    Raw Date:

    Example 1-3

    Pivot Table Data:

    Delete Pivot Table Example 1-4

Example #2 - Remove the Pivot Table by Keeping the Stored Data

We first create a backup for the PivotTable data and then remove the pivot table.

  • Copy the data from the PivotTable and paste it as values to another location, as shown in the below figure.
Example 1-5
  • Then follow the step of Removing a Pivot Table.

Example #3 - Removing the Entire Worksheet

We can delete the entire Excel sheet with the PivotTable to remove a PivotTable from an Excel workbook.

Select the sheet in which the PivotTable is located, right-click on the sheet name, and select the "Delete" sheet to delete the entire worksheet, as shown in the figure below.

Delete Pivot Table Example 1-6

Things to Remember Here

  • We must always take a backup of data before removing the PivotTable.

You can download this How to Remove Pivot Table in Excel template here –  Remove Pivot Table Excel Template