Author: michael holford

Excel- Automatically change the Pivot Table source data range

Excel Automatically change Pivot Table source data range

Table of Contents

pivot table refresh

Excel- Automatically change the Pivot Table source data range. When you change the source data of a Pivot Table you need to click Refresh to reflect these changes. But if you add any new rows to the end or columns to the sides of the list, refreshing the data does not detect these additions to the original source data range. The best way to get round this problem is to convert your original range to an Excel Table and then use the table reference as the source data for your Pivot Table. The table reference automatically expands or contracts to fit the range.

Change data source

Pivot Table source data range

If you want to use the original range as your data source then you will have to update the definition of the Data Source by clicking the Change Data Source control on the Options tab of PivotTable Tools. And you will have to repeat this process every time you add any new rows to your list. This article shows you how to automate the process of redefining the source data range using a macro.

Changing the Data Source range automatically

We saw in an earlier article, Make Pivot Tables refresh automatically how to refresh a Pivot Table automatically using the Worksheet_Activate event macro.

You can change the Worksheet_Activate macro so that in addition to refreshing the Pivot Table it also updates the definition of the Data Source. Thus the Pivot Table responds to any additions or deletions made to the original data range. Copy and paste the section below into your Worksheet_Activate macro:

Private Sub Worksheet_Activate()

Dim PTRange As Range

‘Reset the data source and refresh.

Set PTRange = Sheets(“Sheet1“).Range(“A1“).CurrentRegion

ActiveSheet.PivotTables(“PivotTable2)”).ChangePivotCache _
ActiveWorkbook.PivotCaches.Create(SourceType:=xlDatabase, _
SourceData:=PTRange)

ActiveSheet.PivotTables(“PivotTable2“).PivotCache.Refresh

End Sub

You need to be a wee bit careful with the macro above and check the following:

  • The example assumes that your Pivot Table source data range is on “Sheet1” of the workbook and is a range that starts with cell reference “A1”. Should this not be the case then you must change the following line as required:
    “Set PTRange = Sheets(“Sheet1“).Range(“A1“).CurrentRegion”
  • The example assumes that the name of your Pivot Table is “PivotTable2“. To find out the name of a specific Pivot Table, right-click one of its cells and choose Pivot Table Options from the short cut menu.

Visual confirmation

If you want to visually confirm that your Pivot Table has been refreshed you can place an unobtrusive message down the bottom of the Excel window on the Status Bar. Add the following line to your Worksheet_Activate macro and clear the message away when you activate a different sheet using the Worksheet_Deactivate event.

Private Sub Worksheet_Activate()

‘The updating and refreshing macro goes here……see above

‘Show the message.
Application.StatusBar = “Pivot Tables updated at “& Time

End Sub

Private Sub Worksheet_Deactivate()

‘Clear message.
Application.StatusBar = False

End Sub

status bar

Excel’s Status Bar is visible at the bottom of the Excel window and your messages are always shown on the left hand side. If you don’t want the time stamp shown in your message then leave out the “& Time” part of the message.

I hope you managed to follow the “Excel- Automatically change the Pivot Table source data range” article. It looks complicated but it’s only really copying and pasting bits of VBA code.

Related Courses

Microsoft Excel Intermediate – Link

Microsoft Excel Advanced – Link

Excel – Make Pivot Tables Refresh Automatically

Excel Make Pivot Tables Refresh Automatically

Table of Contents

pivot table refresh

Excel – Make Pivot Tables Refresh Automatically. Excel Pivot Tables do not automatically update when their source data is changed. Unlike formulas they have to be refreshed. That’s no problem if you can remember to do it, but it’s all too easy to forget.

To make your Pivot Tables refresh automatically you need a Macro to do the refreshing and an Event to trigger the macro. You record a macro of your refreshing the Pivot Table and then you copy the recorded code and paste it into one of the worksheet’s events. This seems quite an involved process the first time you do it. But it gets easier every time you repeat it as it is just copying and pasting from one workspace to another.

Excel Refresh Pivot Table

Recording the Macro

Firstly, make the recording. Select a cell in your Pivot Table and then click the Record Macro control in the Macros group at the extreme right of the View tab.

Make sure that the Store macro in: setting is This Workbook and click the OK button. Now you have to record your refreshing the Pivot Table; just right-click the active cell and choose Refresh from the shortcut menu. The recording is now completed and you have to turn off the macro recorder by clicking the Stop Recording control in the Macros group on the View tab.

RecordingMacro

The next job is to find the recorded code and copy the instruction that refreshes your Pivot Table. Click the View Macros control in the Macros group on the View tab, select your recorded macro from the list and then click the Edit button on the right hand side. You will now see your recording displayed in the Visual Basic Editor, it should look something like this:

SubMacro
Copy the line of code that refreshes the table. It should be obvious which one you need-the line is highlighted in the illustration above. Do not copy anything else. Now, exit the Visual Basic Editor and return to Excel by clicking an Excel icon or by pressing ALT+F11.

Using an Event to trigger the Macro

RightClick

Next, you need to find the Events for the worksheet where your Pivot Table is located. Every Excel worksheet has a collection of event-driven macros which trigger automatically whenever a particular event occurs. For example, the Selection Change event is triggered whenever you click a cell on the worksheet. We are going to use the Activate event to make our Pivot Table refresh.

Right-click the worksheet tab and choose View Code from the shortcut menu. You are returned to the Visual Basic Editor once again but this time the screen looks blank. Don’t let that put you off, looking at the top of the active window you will see two drop-down lists.

The drop-down list on the left hand side is the Object list, the one on the right hand side is the Procedure list.
The Object List

Go to the Object list on the left and select the Worksheet object and then choose a suitable event from the Procedure list on the right.

Procedure List

All objects have default events and these usually appear in the window automatically, ignore them and scroll up the list to select the Activate event. Paste your recording into the event procedure so that it looks like this:

Event Window
The Activate event is triggered whenever you make that worksheet active, so in order to test that the procedure is working correctly you need to perform the event.

Return to the Excel workspace by clicking an Excel icon or by pressing ALT+F11, select another worksheet in the workbook and then return to the original worksheet where the Pivot Table is stored. This triggers the event and you will see that the tables are automatically refreshed. The best test is to change something in your source data and then see if your Pivot Table updates to reflect the change.

Using your Macro Again

Of course, you do not have to do the macro recording every time, all you need is the code for the Refresh method so you can type it in or paste it from a previous recording. But, be careful, each Pivot Table needs to be correctly referenced using its Name Property, this is the text value inside the brackets. In the example below the name of the Pivot Table is “PivotTable1”
 
ActiveSheet.PivotTables(“PivotTable1”).PivotCache.Refresh
 
To find out the name of a specific Pivot Table, right-click one of its cells and choose Pivot Table Options from the short cut menu.

If you have several Pivot Tables that need to be refreshed then it is quite in order to list the various Pivot Tables one after the other in your macro but it is probably best if you recorded Refresh All in which case the initial recording would like the illustration on the right.

Saving your file

When your Excel workbook file contains macros remember to save the file in the Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook format.

Recording Refresh all

Make Excel Pivot Tables Refresh Automatically Summary

I hope you managed to follow all of this and you get a successful result. It’s only a macro recording and a copy and paste but well worth the effort as now you will never have to remember to refresh your Pivot Tables.

If you also need to automatically update the definition of the source data range before refreshing the data, see the article Excel- Automatically change the Pivot Table source data range.

Related Courses

Microsoft Excel Intermediate – Link

Microsoft Excel Advanced – Link