# Median average in pivot table **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 17, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747 "2010-03-17T12:30:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/1 "2010-03-17T12:30:20Z")
Does anyone know if it possible to get a median average shown in the data items section of a pivot table in Excel 2003? I’m looking at financial data for a bunch of firms and a few outliers are severely skewing the mean average. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/2 "2010-03-19T02:21:11Z")
I do not know what a median average is. Can you define the term? ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/3 "2010-03-19T03:04:15Z")
Assuming you meant the median, I don’t think it’s one of the available custom subtotals in a pivot table. However, you can easily apply the median function to a set of numbers inside a pivot table. ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/4 "2010-03-19T09:00:23Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > I do not know what a median average is. Can you define the term? It is when all of the figures to be averaged are ranked by magnitude, the middle number (or the mean of the two middle numbers) is the median. Eg. for 1, 2, 3, 4, 100 the median is 3 (while the mean is 22). [http://www.investorwords.com/3030/median.html](http://www.investorwords.com/3030/median.html) > [@nivlac](#): > > Assuming you meant the median, I don’t think it’s one of the available custom subtotals in a pivot table. However, you can easily apply the median function to a set of numbers inside a pivot table. What else would I have meant? 😉 In the end I did do it manually. Given the amount of different averages I had to calculate it took a lot longer than if the pivot table could have calculated it automatically. So if anyone knows if it’s possible it would still help me a lot in future. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/5 "2010-03-19T12:13:06Z")
Be careful that blank values in your pivot table are not shown as 0 (zero). That could screw up your percentiles pretty badly. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/6 "2010-03-19T13:00:10Z")
> [@ColdPhoenix](#): > > What else would I have meant? 😉 The reference to “median” as “median average” appears only in more academic treatments of measures of central tendency. Among mean, median, and mode, “average” is usually a synonym for “mean,” and always so in popular usage. So using the expression “median average” on a general-purpose message board is bound to raise questions. ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/median-average-in-pivot-table/532747/7 "2010-03-19T13:15:05Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > The reference to “median” as “median average” appears only in more academic treatments of measures of central tendency. Among mean, median, and mode, “average” is usually a synonym for “mean,” and always so in popular usage. So using the expression “median average” on a general-purpose message board is bound to raise questions. Okay. I just used the term I remember from school and university.