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28 Feb 2012

Excel 2010 - Data source reference is not valid

In Excel 2010, when you try to create a pivot table it give the following error message:
Data source reference is not vaild

Solution
Often this happens because you opened a CSV or other data file directly from another program.

Make sure you save your data file first, before you attempt to create a pivot table. It will work if it is a saved csv, xls, xlsx, etc.
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2 comments:

  1. Unknown22 August 2012 at 10:52

    Thanks for solution, but do you know real causes of this behavior?
    Could you please add some link to describe why this error appears if we are open data file from another program(for example open *.xls file from IE after this file was downloaded)?

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    Replies
    1. Michael Gerrard31 August 2012 at 23:35

      I don't know for sure but I suspect it is because Excel does not like you working on files opened from a temporary location. For example, if you open a file from a web page, the file is actually downloaded and saved in your browser's temporary folder and opened from there. It's great for viewing but if you want to edit the file it would be best to first save it. Saving it before adding a pivot table makes sense so Excel is doing you a favour giving an error ;-) I only wish the error was more descriptive.

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