Forum Discussion
Pivot Table: Grouping doesn't work (tried almost everything)
Hi community, I'm trying to use the "group" function in PivotTables but it always says "cannot group the selected area", without further information. I've strictly followed Microsoft's instruction and since it didn't work, I've already:
- veryfied if there is text or blank space instead of numbers,
- formated everything consistently (no text, only numbers - but it also doesn't work if the data is text only),
- tried it with different excel sheets and different sets of data (and different ways of "selecting" the data to be grouped),
- tried to ungroup it, even though the data isn't grouped (obviously it didn't work, the same error message appeared),
- tried it on another computer.
Nothing helps... Does anybody have any idea how to solve this? I'm using the latest Microsoft 365 Excel desktop version for enterprise, btw.
Many thanks in advance,
May
3 Replies
Most often that happens if you have texts which looks like dates or numbers. "formated everything consistently (no text, only numbers..." won't help. If you apply, for example, date format to text like "07/01/2026" it still will be text, not actual date.
How exactly did you veryfy if there is text or blank space instead of numbers? Checked cell by cell with ISNUMBER or ISTEXT; or transform possible texts to numbers with Text to Columns; or checked values alignment visually; or something else?
If you want tell us….
What field you’re grouping (dates? numbers?)
Whether the PivotTable uses the Data Model
How the data is sourced (manual / CSV / PQ)
This would allow for a more precise identification of the cause and the provision of targeted solutions.
Welcome to your Excel discussion space!
Thank you for your understanding and patience
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
Thanx for your help! I've tried all of this, nothing worked. But I found the problem (and solution) somewhere completely different: When creating the PivotTable, there was a box checked ("add data to data model") which shouldn't have been activated - it prevented the later grouping of data. Once unchecked/removed, everything worked as it should... Thanx anyway!
