Dynamic Header Configuration in Pivot Tables

Q&A
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Hello,

I’m building a pivot table in Amazon QuickSight where I need the column headers to update dynamically based on the user-selected Month and Year filter.

Current Setup

I have two calculated measures:

    1. total_currentyear → returns the total for the selected year (pYear)

    2. total_lastyear → returns the total for the year before (pYear - 1)

Users select a Month and Year through two parameters (pMonthOfYear and pYear).

The values update correctly for both measures.

Problem

I want the pivot table column headers to reflect:

  • The selected year (e.g., “6/2025”)

  • The previous year (e.g., “6/2024”)

I can achieve the header for the current year by using the parameter pYear directly in the title.

However, QuickSight does not allow arithmetic inside pivot column headers, so I cannot set the previous-year column header to pYear-1.
This results in the column header for “last year” not updating dynamically. As u can see in these images:

image
image808×171 5.5 KB

What I Need Help With

Is there any supported method in QuickSight that allows pivot table column headers to dynamically display:

  • The selected year (pYear)

  • The previous year (pYear - 1)

without:

  • Creating additional datasets or backend data structures

  • Displaying additional parameter controls to the user

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