Both Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel use Microsoft PivotTable to analyze and summarize large amounts of organized data. Two of the functions available with Microsoft PivotTable data fields are COUNT and SUM. Both functions add data values, but operate on different types of data values. (See References 1)
Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel provide users with a way of storing data. Microsoft Access organizes data using databases. (See References 2) Microsoft Excel stores data in spreadsheets. (See References 3)
Pivot tables analyze data without the user needing to enter formulas. Pivot tables also make it easier to manipulate data without performing complex copy and paste exercises. (See References 2)
A data field in the pivot table contains values from the original data used to create the pivot table. The data field contains the data on which pivot tables perform operations such as SUM and COUNT. (See References 4)
SUM is the default operation used to add numerical data in a pivot table. (See References 5) A data field containing the values 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 would sum to 15.
COUNT is the default operation performed on all other data types in a pivot table. (See References 5) A data field containing red, blue, red, yellow and green would return the values of 2 for the count of red, 1 for the count of blue, 1 for the count of yellow and 1 for the count of green. (See References 4) COUNT is also the operation used to add up the number of entries in a data field. A data field containing the values 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 would return 5 for the count of data values.