Pivot Table Calculated Field Removed with Excel VBA

If you’re working with pivot table calculated fields in Excel VBA programming, or trying to use the Orientation property for data fields, you might encounter some problems. Here’s how I managed to work around an error that occurs for a pivot table calculated field removed with Excel VBA.

Two Macros for Calculated Fields

There are two macros in this article.

1. The first macro deletes and re-adds calculated fields.
2. If you have multiple pivot tables using the same pivot cache, use the second macro instead — it hides the calculated fields, and doesn’t affect any other pivot tables.

Strange Results for Orientation Property

I encountered the first oddity with Orientation while working with pivot table field names. I wanted to see a bit of information about each pivot field, so I wrote some Excel VBA pivot field code, to show the caption, source name, location (orientation), position, sample data, and a formula (calculated fields).

The code worked well, but the Orientation property gave some strange results for the fields in the Values area. Instead of listing the field location as Data, they were shown as Hidden. At the top of the screen shot below, you can see the field names circled in the pivot table layout, but the list says they’re hidden.

Removing the Data Fields

I experimented with the Orientation property in the code, but had no success in getting it to display correctly when looping through the PivotFields. When I tried to change the Orientation for the data fields, things got even stranger. I could change the regular data fields to xlHidden, to remove them from the pivot table layout, but those calculated fields weren’t removed.

Instead of changing the calculated field Orientation to xlHidden, Excel displayed the error message “Run-time error ‘1004’: Unable to set the Orientation property of the PivotField class”

On the Excel worksheet, you can manually uncheck the calculated field boxes, and remove them from the pivot table, then check the box again, to put it back into the layout. However, if you record a macro while removing the calculated field, that recorded code shows the same error message when you try to run it.

Remove the Calculated Fields

A Google search showed that many other people had encountered this problem, and the only solution was delete the calculated field, instead of trying to remove it from the layout. That approach is okay if you want to permanently remove the calculated field, but wouldn’t be much help if you wanted to keep the calculated field in your pivot table, for use later.

So, I wrote the following code that deletes each calculated field, then immediately adds it back to the pivot table field list, but not into the pivot table layout. If you’ve had trouble removing calculated fields from the pivot table layout, please let me know if this code helps you.

Macro 1 – Removes and Restores Calculated Fields

Update: If multiple pivot tables share the same pivot cache, calculated field is removed from all. See the code in the next section, if you have multiple pivot tables based on the same cache.

Sub RemoveCalculatedFields()
Dim pt As PivotTable
Dim pf As PivotField
Dim pfNew As PivotField
Dim strSource As String
Dim strFormula As String

Set pt = ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1)
    For Each pf In pt.CalculatedFields
        strSource = pf.SourceName
        strFormula = pf.Formula
        pf.Delete
        Set pfNew = pt.CalculatedFields.Add(strSource, strFormula)
    Next pf

End Sub

Macro 2 – Hide All Calculated Fields

[Update] The code above removes the calculated field from the pivot cache, then adds it again. That works okay if only one pivot table is based on the pivot cache. However, it’s a problem if there are multiple pivot tables based on that cache. The calculated field is removed from all of them, and only added back to the layout of the active pivot table.

Thanks to Rory Archibald (in the comments below), who suggested changing the Visible property instead of deleting and re-adding the calculated fields.

With ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1).DataFields(“Sum of NewTax”)
.Parent.PivotItems(.Name).Visible = False
End With

I incorporated Rory’s code into the following macro, that will hide all the Calculated Fields from the pivot table for the active cell:

Sub RemoveCalculatedFields()
Dim pt As PivotTable
Dim pf As PivotField
Dim df As PivotField
On Error Resume Next
Set pt = ActiveCell.PivotTable

If pt Is Nothing Then
  MsgBox "Select a pivot table cell"
  Exit Sub
End If

For Each pf In pt.CalculatedFields
    For Each df In pt.DataFields
      If df.SourceName = pf.Name Then
        With df
          .Parent.PivotItems(.Name) _
            .Visible = False
        End With
        Exit For
      End If
    Next df
Next pf

End Sub

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