AGB 260: Agribusiness Information Technology

Graphing and Sparklines

Useful Chapters in the Textbook Regarding this Lecture Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 22

Charts in Excel

A chart is a visual representation of data.

If done correctly, it allows you to present information in a visual form that is usually more understandable.

Charts in Excel are embedded and reside on the object layer. A chart can also be put into a chart

sheet.

Types of Charts In Excel

Column Bar Line Pie Scatter (XY) Area Radar

Surface Bubble Stocks

Column Chart

A column chart presents your data in vertical columns.

These charts are used to compare discrete items where the height corresponds to the value.

Column charts come in: Clustered Column (3D optional) Stacked Column (3D optional) 100% Stacked Column (3D

optional) 3D Column

Example of Column Chart

Bar Chart

A bar chart is a column chart that has been flipped 90 degrees.

You may want to use a bar chart over a column chart to make your category labels easier to display and read.

Types of column chart: Clustered Bar (3D optional)

Stacked Bar (3D optional)

100% Stacked Bar (3D optional)

Example of Bar Chart

Line Charts

These charts are meant to plot data that is relatively continuous, e.g., years.

Line charts can help you understand the trends and seasonality of your data.

Types of Line Charts: Line (Optional with Markers)

Stacked Line (Optional with Markers)

100% Stacked Line (Optional with Markers)

3D Line

Line Charts Continued

You can add trend lines to your line charts.

This trends can be linear or non-linear.

You can information regarding the trend line, including: The equation that makes the trend

line R2

Example 1 of Line Chart

Example 2 of Line Chart

Pie Charts

A pie chart is helpful in visualizing proportional data or data that can be made proportional.

A pie chart can only handle one data series.

You should be cautious on the number of items you represent in a pie chart.

Types of Pie Charts: Pie (3D optional), Pie of Pie, Bar of Pie,

Doughnut

Example of Pie Chart

Scatter (XY) Chart

A scatter chart shows the relationship between two or more variables where one of the variables could be considered the independent variable to the other.

Types of Scatter Charts: Scatter Scatter with Smooth Lines and

Markers Scatter with Smooth Lines Scatter with Straight Lines and

Markers Scatter with Straight Lines and

Markers

Scatter Chart Example

Area Charts

Area Charts are good at displaying how each contributes to the whole.

Types of Area Charts:Area (3D Optional)Stacked Area (3D Optional)100% Stacked Area (3D

Optional)

Example of Area Chart

Bubble Chart

A Bubble Chart is much like a scatter chart in the sense that it allows you to see the relationship between two variables, but it goes one step further by allowing you the ability to see a third dimension to the data in two dimensional space.

Types of Bubble Charts: Bubble and 3-D Bubble

Bubble Chart Example

Bubble Chart Example 2

Bubble Chart Example 3

Radar Charts

Radar Charts have an axis for each category where the axis moves outward as the numbers increase.

These charts are useful when examining seasonality of products.

Types of Radar Charts: Radar, Radar with Markers, Filled

Radar

Example of Radar Charts

Surface Charts

These charts display two or more variables on a surface.

Excel uses color to help distinguish values.

Types of Surface Charts: 3D Surface Wireframe 3D Surface Contour Wireframe Contour

Example of Surface Charts

Stock Charts

Stock Charts are displaying information that has highs, lows, and averages much like you would see with stock market data and commodity data.

Types of Stock Charts: High-Low-Close Open-High-Low-Close Volume-High-Low-Close Volume-Open-High-Low-Close

Example of a Stock Chart

Sparkline Graphics

A Sparkline Graphic is a chart that is placed in a single cell.

It allows for a quick examination for trends and variation in the data.

It can only deal with one series of data at a time and is placed within the cell rather than on the objects layer.

Types of Sparkline Graphics: Line, Column, Win/Loss

Notes on Charts

If you are unsure of what chart would be appropriate to use for your data, you can click on the Recommended Charts button on the Insert Ribbon. This gives you the ability to look at

your data in different types of charts that Excel believes fits your data the best.

Notes on Charts Cont.

The best way to learn about charts is to experiment with them.