title: Add calculated fields in a Pivot Table using LEFT() function
body: <p>I have a basic pivot table in Excel in which I want to add a calculated column, which describes <code>year</code>, and which is simply enough just the four leftmost characters from the <code>Sale Date</code> column. </p>
  
  <p>Hence I do <code>[Select somewhere in pivot table]-&gt;Analyze-&gt;Fields, objects,..</code></p>
  
  <p>and then I use the settings:</p>
  
  <p>Name: Year
  Formula: =LEFT('Sale DATE',4)</p>
  
  <p>but this gives the error that <code>Sale Date</code> cannot be found. But, <code>Sale Date</code> is added from the available columns in the report, and thus is not misspelled. </p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have any idea?</p>
  
  <p>I've tried to use <code>;</code> instead of <code>,</code> in the formula as I'm using a European version of Excel but then I got the same error as well. </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>EDIT</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I've tried to do some basic calculations with the same approach (for instance creating a new field which is the Product of a field and a constant) and it has worked fine. Perhaps I'm using the wrong formula language, or that Pivot tables does not permit "advanced" formulae? </p>