Which function is typically used to count the number of purchases in a pivot table?

• A. COUNTA function
• B. COUNT function
• C. SUM function
• D. AVERAGE function

Answer: (A)

Counting purchases in a pivot table relies on counting the number of records, not summing values. COUNTA counts all non-empty cells, so when you place a field that identifies each purchase (like an Order ID) into the Values area and set it to Count, you get the total number of purchases. COUNT would only count numeric entries, which could miss records if the identifier is text or if some rows are missing values. SUM and AVERAGE summarize numeric data, not count transactions, so they aren’t appropriate for this goal. Hence COUNTA is the best fit.