Pivot Table data not matching source

Hit something weird today. We are making a lookup table to summarize a
lenghty list

EmpID
<no column>
EmpBen EmpBenAtt

Layout is very important but just to give you an idea.

The concept we are after is they select the EmpID they want from the
drop down and it will give them a list of benefits for that employee.
Now since it is a long list and they're used to a text based system they
are typing the EmpID in. Most of the time this works well - but...

If they type something wrong they get a message "No item of this name
exists in the PivotTable report. Renmae 'X' to 'Y'?" And they hit OK.

At this point the PivotTable data in inaccurate. They've changed an
employee ID to something random and they don't remember what it is or
was (since we figure it out 3 days later).

I check the raw data that the pivot table is based upon and it's correct
- no changes made. So I do a refresh on the PivotTable and the messed
up data remains. I tried clearing Old items as oulined at
http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot04.html but that didn't make any
change.

So.. is there anyway to stop this behavior (protecting the sheet doesn't
work since it kills off needed functionality) OR how do I refresh the
data so that the correct data is displaying not the edited version?

I've only tried this in 2003 and have recreated with all data elements
in a PivotTable in 6 different spread sheets on 2 different computers
(way different models so I know it's not a image issue).


Hope that made sense...

Thanks,
PC_

I hit something like this recently while working with PivotCharts. When
source data was added and then removed, it remained an option for the Chart,
which seems to be your problem, too. To force the data to remove outdated
entries, I had to go to the table properties and remove the field from the
table. Once I had done this and exited, I updated the table (may not be
necessary) and added the field back to the table. Obviously, this is a bit
cumbersome.

To make it easier, I recorded a macro. I just started the recording, went
through the previous steps, and then stopped it. I attached the macro to a
button, and I put it on the main page. I can't tell if this will work for
you, as I am relatively new to PivotTable and PivotChart applications. Good
luck.

"PC" wrote:

> Hit something weird today. We are making a lookup table to summarize a
> lenghty list
>
> EmpID
> <no column>
> EmpBen EmpBenAtt
>
> Layout is very important but just to give you an idea.
>
> The concept we are after is they select the EmpID they want from the
> drop down and it will give them a list of benefits for that employee.
> Now since it is a long list and they're used to a text based system they
> are typing the EmpID in. Most of the time this works well - but...
>
> If they type something wrong they get a message "No item of this name
> exists in the PivotTable report. Renmae 'X' to 'Y'?" And they hit OK.
>
> At this point the PivotTable data in inaccurate. They've changed an
> employee ID to something random and they don't remember what it is or
> was (since we figure it out 3 days later).
>
> I check the raw data that the pivot table is based upon and it's correct
> - no changes made. So I do a refresh on the PivotTable and the messed
> up data remains. I tried clearing Old items as oulined at
> http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot04.html but that didn't make any
> change.
>
> So.. is there anyway to stop this behavior (protecting the sheet doesn't
> work since it kills off needed functionality) OR how do I refresh the
> data so that the correct data is displaying not the edited version?
>
> I've only tried this in 2003 and have recreated with all data elements
> in a PivotTable in 6 different spread sheets on 2 different computers
> (way different models so I know it's not a image issue).
>
>
> Hope that made sense...
>
> Thanks,
> PC_
>
>

That was a good idea unfortunately it didn't work out for me.

I've event tried refreshing the cache progmatically (same link as
before) but to no avail.

The only thing that's really different from the normal situations is the
value I type in and changed to is 'Y'. 'Y' only exists in my PivotTable
- no where else - never has and never will.

I've tried this so far in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 b2.
Same results both places.

=?Utf-8?B?Wm9ycm9UaGVQaWtpbmc=?=
<ZorroThePiking@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:A0A0186F-2F7A-43A5-993A-0266FCDBE7A1@microsoft.com:

> I hit something like this recently while working with PivotCharts.
> When source data was added and then removed, it remained an option for
> the Chart, which seems to be your problem, too. To force the data to
> remove outdated entries, I had to go to the table properties and
> remove the field from the table. Once I had done this and exited, I
> updated the table (may not be necessary) and added the field back to
> the table. Obviously, this is a bit cumbersome.
>
> To make it easier, I recorded a macro. I just started the recording,
> went through the previous steps, and then stopped it. I attached the
> macro to a button, and I put it on the main page. I can't tell if
> this will work for you, as I am relatively new to PivotTable and
> PivotChart applications. Good luck.
>
> "PC" wrote:
>
>> Hit something weird today. We are making a lookup table to summarize
>> a lenghty list
>>
>> EmpID
>> <no column>
>> EmpBen EmpBenAtt
>>
>> Layout is very important but just to give you an idea.
>>
>> The concept we are after is they select the EmpID they want from the
>> drop down and it will give them a list of benefits for that employee.
>> Now since it is a long list and they're used to a text based system
>> they are typing the EmpID in. Most of the time this works well -
>> but...
>>
>> If they type something wrong they get a message "No item of this name
>> exists in the PivotTable report. Renmae 'X' to 'Y'?" And they hit
>> OK.
>>
>> At this point the PivotTable data in inaccurate. They've changed an
>> employee ID to something random and they don't remember what it is or
>> was (since we figure it out 3 days later).
>>
>> I check the raw data that the pivot table is based upon and it's
>> correct - no changes made. So I do a refresh on the PivotTable and
>> the messed up data remains. I tried clearing Old items as oulined at
>> http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot04.html but that didn't make any
>> change.
>>
>> So.. is there anyway to stop this behavior (protecting the sheet
>> doesn't work since it kills off needed functionality) OR how do I
>> refresh the data so that the correct data is displaying not the
>> edited version?
>>
>> I've only tried this in 2003 and have recreated with all data
>> elements in a PivotTable in 6 different spread sheets on 2 different
>> computers (way different models so I know it's not a image issue).
>>
>>
>> Hope that made sense...
>>
>> Thanks,
>> PC_
>>
>>
>

There's a feature that resets the captions, in my pivot table add-in,
that you can download here:

http://www.contextures.com/xlPivotAddIn.html

PC wrote:
> Hit something weird today. We are making a lookup table to summarize a
> lenghty list
>
> EmpID
> <no column>
> EmpBen EmpBenAtt
>
> Layout is very important but just to give you an idea.
>
> The concept we are after is they select the EmpID they want from the
> drop down and it will give them a list of benefits for that employee.
> Now since it is a long list and they're used to a text based system they
> are typing the EmpID in. Most of the time this works well - but...
>
> If they type something wrong they get a message "No item of this name
> exists in the PivotTable report. Renmae 'X' to 'Y'?" And they hit OK.
>
> At this point the PivotTable data in inaccurate. They've changed an
> employee ID to something random and they don't remember what it is or
> was (since we figure it out 3 days later).
>
> I check the raw data that the pivot table is based upon and it's correct
> - no changes made. So I do a refresh on the PivotTable and the messed
> up data remains. I tried clearing Old items as oulined at
> http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot04.html but that didn't make any
> change.
>
> So.. is there anyway to stop this behavior (protecting the sheet doesn't
> work since it kills off needed functionality) OR how do I refresh the
> data so that the correct data is displaying not the edited version?
>
> I've only tried this in 2003 and have recreated with all data elements
> in a PivotTable in 6 different spread sheets on 2 different computers
> (way different models so I know it's not a image issue).
>
>
> Hope that made sense...
>
> Thanks,
> PC_
>


--
Debra Dalgleish
Contextures
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html