A pivot table is one of the most powerful tools in Microsoft Excel. It helps you summarize and analyze large amounts of data easily. One useful feature of pivot tables is the Distinct Count. But what does it mean? pivot table distinct count

What Is Distinct Count?

Let’s say you have a list of people who bought items from your store. Some people bought more than once. If you want to know how many different customers made a purchase, that’s where Distinct Count comes in. Instead of counting every row, it counts each unique (or distinct) value only once.

Example:

If your data has:

John

Mary

John

Alice

A normal count will say “4”. But a Distinct Count will say “3” (because John appears twice but is only counted once).

How To Use Distinct Count in Pivot Table:

Select your data and insert a pivot table.

Drag the item you want to count (like “Customer Name”) into the “Values” area.

Click on the dropdown in the Values field.

Choose “Value Field Settings”.

Then, choose Distinct Count (you’ll only see this if your data is in an Excel table or data model).

Click OK, and you're done!

Why Is Distinct Count Helpful?

You can find out how many different customers bought something.

You can see how many unique products were sold.

It helps remove duplicate counts in your reports.

Final Thoughts

Using Distinct Count in pivot tables makes your data more accurate, especially when you only want to count unique values. It’s great for business reports, sales data, and customer analysis. If you’re using Excel often, learning this feature can save you time and give you better insights.

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