Pivot Tables

VisiData's pivot table (Shift+W) gives you cross-tabulated aggregation in one keystroke — the terminal equivalent of Excel's PivotTable. No SQL, no Python, no setup beyond marking key columns and aggregators.

Learning Focus

The setup ritual: set key columns with ! → set aggregator with + → press Shift+W. Key columns become rows, the aggregator becomes the value.

Sample Data

cat > ~/github/practice-folder/visidata/01-loading/01-employees.csv << 'EOF'
name,role,region,salary
Alice,engineer,sg,85000
Bob,manager,kl,92000
Carol,engineer,sg,78000
Dave,manager,sg,95000
Eve,engineer,jk,72000
Frank,analyst,kl,65000
Grace,engineer,jk,70000
EOF

vd ~/github/practice-folder/visidata/01-loading/01-employees.csv

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Create a Simple Pivot Table

Goal: Average salary by role.

Step 1 — Cast salary to float:

# Move to 'salary' column
%

Step 2 — Set aggregator:

+
# Enter: mean

Step 3 — Set key column (row dimension):

# Move to 'role' column
!
# 'role' header turns blue

Step 4 — Open pivot table:

Shift+W

Result:

role      mean_salary
analyst   65000.0
engineer  76250.0
manager   93500.0

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Multi-Key Pivot (Region × Role)

Mark two key columns to get a cross-tabulated view:

# Move to 'region' → press !
# Move to 'role' → press !
# Set salary mean aggregator: move to salary → + mean

Shift+W

Result:

region  role      mean_salary
jk      engineer  71000.0
kl      analyst   65000.0
kl      manager   92000.0
sg      engineer  81500.0
sg      manager   95000.0

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Drill Into Pivot Cells

Press Enter on a pivot row to see the source rows that make up that group:

# In the pivot table, move to 'jk engineer' row
Enter

Source rows sheet opens:

name   role      region  salary
Eve    engineer  jk      72000
Grace  engineer  jk      70000

Press q to return to the pivot table.

For more precision, use zEnter to open rows matching both the row AND the specific column cell value:

# zEnter on a specific pivot cell
# → Opens only rows matching that exact row+column intersection

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Quick Summary Line (zF)

For a quick aggregate without opening any new sheet:

# Move to 'salary' column
zF
# Status bar shows: count=7, distinct=7, min=65000, max=95000, mean=79571.4

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Pivot shows only one column	No key column set	Press ! on the row dimension column first
Aggregator missing from pivot	Aggregator not set	Move to value column and press +
Pivot is slow	Many distinct key values	Use frequency table instead for simple counts

Quick Reference

Key	Action
!	Toggle key column (pivot row dimension)
+	Set aggregator (pivot value)
Shift+W	Open pivot table
Enter	Drill into source rows for a pivot cell
zEnter	Drill into exact row+column intersection
zF	Quick one-line summary on status bar

Hands-On Practice

vd ~/github/practice-folder/visidata/01-loading/01-employees.csv

# 1. Move to 'salary', press % → cast to float
# 2. Press + → enter: mean → set mean aggregator
# 3. Move to 'region', press ! → key column
# 4. Move to 'role', press ! → key column 2
# 5. Press Shift+W → pivot table opens
# 6. Press Enter on any row → see source rows
# 7. Press q → back to pivot table
# 8. Press q → back to source

What's Next

• Combining Datasets — join, append, merge sheets
• Describe Sheet and Profiling — Instant data profiling with Shift+I