Data Tutorial

Tutorial on Types of Graphs Used for

Data Analysis, Along with How to
Enter Them in MS Excel

Carryn Bellomo
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
 Overview
You will be given a brief description, example,
and “how to create” for each of the following:
 Bar Graphs

 Line Graphs

 Circle Graphs

 Scatterplots

 Box and Whisker Plots

 Overview
 Go to http://www.unlv.edu/faculty/bellomo
Click on the link for Teachers Forum
Scroll down to Formula Sheets, #7 (How to graph…)
 For the Excel portion of the tutorial, please open the
file Excel_Data.xls
 Each tab on the bottom of the file corresponds to a
data set, which is used to create the example.
 You can follow along to see how to use Excel to
create each data plot.
 Bar Graphs: Intro
 Shows the frequencies of specific data
values in a data set.
 It can be used for categorical or numerical
data.
 The length of the bar drawn for each data
value represents the frequency of that value.
 Bars may be drawn vertically or horizontally.
 To avoid confusion, the bars should be the
same width.
Bar Graph: An Example
 Bar Graph: Creating in Excel
 Click on an empty cell.
 Go to Insert, then Chart.
 Make sure you have Column highlighted, and press Next.
 Sometimes Excel tries to guess what you want, so you may see
values in the Data Range cells. If so, delete them.
 With the cursor in the Data Range cells, click on the left most
value of your data table, and drag to highlight to the right most
data value.
 Click on Next.
 Title your graph, and label the vertical and horizontal axis.
 Then click on Finish.
 Line Graph: Intro
 Typically used for continuous data to show the
change in a variable (usually over time).
 Each element of the sample is associated with an
ordered pair, with a independent variable (such as
time) and a dependent variable.
 The independent variable is marked on the horizontal
axis, and the dependent variable is marked on the
vertical axis.
 Each ordered pair is graphed, and are connected with
line segments.
 Scaling is critical when trying to analyze the
relationship between the variables.
Line Graph: An Example
 Line Graph: Creating in Excel
 Click on an empty cell.
 Go to Insert, then Chart.
 Make sure you have Line highlighted, and choose your
display type. Then press Next.
 Again, if you see values in the Data Range cells, delete
them.
 With the cursor in the Data Range cells, click on the left
most value of your data table and drag to highlight to the
right most data value.
 Click on Next.
 Title your graph, and label the vertical and horizontal axis.
 Then click on Finish.
 Circle Graph: Intro
 Also called a pie chart.
 Is a circle divided into parts (also called
sections or wedges).
 Each part shows the percent of the data
elements that are categorized similarly.
 The parts must sum to 100 percent.
Circle Graph: An Example
Circle Graph: Creating in Excel
 Click on an empty cell. Go to Insert, then Chart.
 Make sure you have Pie highlighted, and choose your
display type. Then press Next.
 Again, if you see values in the Data Range cells, delete
them.
 Go to the Series tab, and click on Add.
 With the cursor in the Values box, enter the values in the
column titled “Percentage”.
 With the cursor in the Category X axis labels box, enter the
values in the “Month” column.
 Click on Next.
 Title your graph, then click on Finish.
 Scatterplot: Intro
 Similar to a line graph, although the
ordered pairs are not connected with line
segments.
 Each element of the data set has two different
measurements.
 The two coordinates of each point are
determined by the two measurements for the
corresponding element of the sample.
 This is the best way to determine if two
characteristics are related.
Scatterplot: An Example
 Scatterplot: Creating in Excel
 Click on an empty cell. Go to Insert, then Chart.
 Make sure you have Scatter highlighted, and choose your
display type. Then press Next.
 Again, if you see values in the Data Range cells, delete
them.
 Go to the Series tab, and click on Add.
 With the cursor in the X Values box, enter the data values
in the column titled “Alcohol”.
 With the cursor in the Y Values box, enter the data values
in the “Tobacco” column.
 Click on Next.
 Title your graph, then click on Finish.
 Scatterplot: The Best Fit Line
 You can fit a linear equation to any scatterplot.
 Once you have the data in a plot, right click on
any data point, and click on Add Trendline.
 Make sure Linear is highlighted.
 Click on the Options Tab, and check the box
titled “Display Equation on Chart”.
 Click OK.
 The linear regression line will be added to
your chart, along with the equation for that
line.
 Box and Whisker Plot: Intro
 This is constructed with the “five-point
summary”.
 The least and greatest values, median, and
first and third quartiles are used to
construct the box plot.
 They are useful for comparing data sets.
Box & Whisker Plot: An
Example
 Box & Whisker: Creating
 Click on an empty cell.
 Find the necessary values by using excel functions
(here, “DataRange” indicates the range of values
where your data is, i.e. A1:A20)
 Minimum: “=Min(DataRange)”

 Maximum: “=Max(DataRange)”

 Median: “=Median(DataRange)”

 25th Percentile: “=Percentile(DataRange, 0.25)”

 75th Percentile: “=Percentile(DataRange, 0.75)”

 Next to these cells, enter a column of 1’s

 Box & Whisker: Creating
 Go to Insert, then Chart.
 Make sure you have Scatter highlighted, and choose the
display type without any connecting lines. Then press Next.
 If you see values in the Data Range cells, delete them.
 Go to the Series tab, and click on Add.
 With the cursor in the X Values box, enter the data values
you found earlier (min, max, etc.)
 With the cursor in the Y Values box, enter a column of 1’s.
 Click on Next, title your graph, then click on Finish.
 Delete the horizontal lines on your graph by clicking on one
of them and hitting the Delete key.
 Delete the vertical axis by clicking on it and hitting the
Delete key.
 Box & Whisker: Creating
 Use the drawing toolbar to make the box and
whiskers (if you do not see the toolbar, click
on View  Toolbars  Drawing).
 Put a line connecting the 1st and 2nd points.
 Put a box connecting the 2nd and 4th points
(with the box highlighted, click on the small
arrow next to and click No Fill to remove
the fill color).
 Put a vertical line through the 3rd point.
 Put a line connecting the 4th and 5th point.
 Summary
 We have gone over several types of graphs.
 Another data set can be found at
http://www.unlv.edu/faculty/bellomo
Click on the link for Teachers Forum
 Practice by opening up the file called
Excel_MoreData.xls and follow the directions
in red.