Remove a Field From a Pivot Table in Excel & Google Sheets

Written by

Mel Jenkins

Reviewed by

Laura Tsitlidze

Last updated on June 30, 2023

This tutorial demonstrates how to remove a field from a pivot table in Excel and Google Sheets.

pivotfield remove

Remove Pivot Table Field

When you have a pivot table in Excel, each field is associated with a column from the source data. To simplify or further summarize your pivot table, you might want to remove one of the fields. There are a few ways to do this.

Remove Field From PivotTable Fields List

The fields displayed in your pivot table are checked in the PivotTable Fields list. Simply uncheck a field to remove it from the pivot table. However, if your field is a date, double-check for automatic date fields that may have been created.

pivotfield remove checks

When you add a date field to a pivot table, it creates two new fieldsQuarters and Years – that are automatically added to the table. To completely remove a date field from the pivot table, you have to remove all the date fields: the original field and the automatically generated fields.

pivotfield removed fields

Drag the Field Off the Layout Grid

You can remove a field from your pivot table by dragging the field off the list. For this example, remove the Region field from the Filters area.

pivotfield drag field

Select the field and drag it off the Field List with your mouse. Note that, since the Regions filter was already set to (All), the Order Amount values don’t change.

pivotfield region removed

Right-Click the Field

Finally, you can remove a field by right-clicking on the field in the pivot table itself and clicking Remove “Region (where the text in quotes is the field name).

pivotfield right click

Tip: Try using some shortcuts when you’re working with pivot tables.

Remove a Pivot Field in Google Sheets

Consider the Google Sheets pivot table below.

pivotfield gs table

It’s been set up with Region as the Columns field, Order Amount for Values, and Salesperson as the Rows field.

pivotfield gs column field

▸ To remove the Region field, in the Pivot table editor, click the cross in the top-right corner next to the field name.

pivotfield gs remove field

The pivot table is updated to reflect the changes, and Order Amount sums are split only by Salesperson.

pivotfield gs updated table

AI Formula Generator

Try for Free

See all How-To Articles