Summarize vs crosstab

[KaiLarsen]

I'm trying to come up with good ways to describe summarize vs cross tab to people with no data analytic background. Any help to kick-start my creative process would be greatly appreciated. When can a task be done with either and when is one tool the only option?

[SeanAdams · Accepted solution]

In my mind the difference is whether you're manipulating existing columns or creating new columns from row data.

Summarize is about taking the 10 columns you have and aggregating these in some way (either counting them, summarizing them etc).

Cross-tab is different - it creates new columns based on row-data.

Animal	Weight
Cat	10
Dog	20
Cat	8

Cross-tab on that could be as below (where new columns are created from the rows)

	Dog	Cat
AvgWeight	20	9

Hope that helps @KaiLarsen

Sean

[KaiLarsen]

Well put. It was what I had written, but more to the point, so should help me hone the point.