Watch Video – Creating a Step Chart in Excel Show
A step chart can be useful when you want to show the changes that occur at irregular intervals. For example, the price rise in milk products, petrol, tax rate, interest rates, etc. Let’s take the example of a Petrol hike in India. It can happen any day (as decided by the government) and the value remains constant between these changes. In such a case, a step chart is the right way to visualize such data points. Unfortunately, Excel does not have an inbuilt feature to create a step chart, however, it can easily be created by rearranging the data set.
Step Chart in ExcelIn this tutorial, you’ll learn:
Line Chart Vs. Step ChartA line chart would connect the data points in such a way that you see a trend. The focus in such charts is the trend and not the exact time of change. On the contrary, a step chart shows the exact time of change in the data along with the trend. You can easily spot the time period where there was no change and can compare the magnitude of change in each instance. Here is an example of both the line chart and step chart – created using the same data set (petrol prices in India).  Both of these charts look similar, but the line chart is a bit misleading. It gives you the impression that the petrol prices have gone up consistently during May 2015 and June 2015 (see image below). But if you look at the step chart, you’ll notice that the price increase took place only on two occasions. Similarly, a line chart shows a slight decline from September to November, while the step chart would tell you that this was the period of inactivity (see image below). Hope I have established some benefits of using a Step Chart over a Line Chart. Now let’s go ahead a look at how to create a step chart in Excel. Creating a Step Chart in ExcelFirst things first. The credit for this technique goes to Jon Peltier of PeltierTech.com. He is a charting wiz and you will find tons of awesome stuff on his website (including this technique). Do pay him a visit and say Hello. Here are the steps to create a step chart in Excel: Download the Example File How does this work: To understand how this works, consider this – You have 2 data points, as shown below: What happens when you plot these 2 data points on a line chart? You get a line as shown below: Now to convert this line chart into a step chart, I need to show in the data that the value remained the same from 1 to 2 January, and then suddenly increased on 2 January. So I restructure the data as shown below: I carry forward the data to the next date when the change in value happens. So for 2nd January, I have two values – 5 and 10. This gives me a step chart where the increase is shown as a vertical line. The same logic is applied to the restructuring of the data while creating a full-blown step chart in Excel. While it would be nice to get an inbuilt option to create step charts in Excel, once you get a hang of restructuring the data, it won’t take more than a few seconds to create this. Download
the Example File Hope you find this useful. Let me know your thoughts/comments/suggestions in the comments below 🙂 Related Tutorials:
Other Excel Charting Tutorials You Might Like:
What is the first step that should be taken when creating a chart?To create a chart, follow these steps: Select the data to include on the chart. Place it on its own tab. Delete the chart and try again, selecting different ranges. Change how the data is plotted by choosing Design→Data→Switch Row/Column.
Which of the following steps should be performed to move a chart from a worksheet to a chart sheet *?Which of the following steps should be performed to move a chart from a worksheet to a chart sheet? Use the Move Chart button on the Design tab.
What is the first step for creating a chart in PowerPoint?To create a simple chart from scratch in PowerPoint, click Insert > Chart and pick the chart you want. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Chart. In the Insert Chart dialog box, click the arrows to scroll through the chart types. Select the type of chart that you want and then click OK.
What is the first thing you have to do in a spreadsheet before you can create a chart graph?Create your chart
If you're new to charting, start by exploring the charts you can create in Excel and learn a little more about best ways to arrange your data for each of them. Then, enter your data the way it should be for the chart you want, and select it to create your chart.
|
Which of the following is the first step that should be taken when creating a chart in Excel?
zusammenhängende Posts
Urheberrechte © © 2024 toptenid.com Inc.
