Forum Discussion
Pivot Table truncation of original text
Hi, I have a budget vs actual table that includes an original budget note for each line item. The note describes what work or expense was intended. The note on a particular line item can be lengthy. Some notes are well over 300 characters. When I put this information into a pivot table a staff member called my attention to the fact that the pivot table truncates the number of characters sometimes but not others. I investigated and found that the note that wasn't truncated just started out with text and the note that was truncated began with 1). I removed the 1) and the rest of the note appeared in the pivot table. Why does it do this and is there a way to make sure it doesn't happen when a budget owner lists their priorities in their budget notes (as in is there a setting to turn this feature off)?
2 Replies
Two thoughts:
- have managers use a), b), c) instead of 1), 2), 3)
- create a "helper column" in which you truncate or eliminate that leading 1) and use that helper column in the Pivot Table data.
A third thought: it sometimes is possible to create the semblance of a Pivot Table using some of the Dynamic Array functions as a work-around. That might work, although I'll grant you that the simplicity and ease of "letting Excel do all the work" in the Pivot Table is very attractive.
Thanks, I can just have them not list their priorities with numbers. I did not realize that Excel would treat the field as a numerical field and truncate it to 255 characters. While not positive that is what is happening that is what I assume is happening based on the results. Thanks for responding and for offering some alternatives.
