PIVOTBY is great for analysis, but PivotTables still have the edge when formatting needs to adapt to data changes.

PivotTable-aware conditional formatting ties rules to fields, so visuals persist even when you refresh, filter, or change layout.

In Excel, common causes include using relative references in formulas (so the rule shifts unexpectedly), mismatched data types (e.g., numbers stored as text), or having multiple overlapping ...