Indzara - Simple and Effective Templates | Introduction to Column Chart or Vertical Bar Chart in Excel @indzara | Uploaded 2 years ago | Updated October 03 2023
What is a column chart, when to use it and how to create one in Excel.
#excel #chart #dataviz
Chapters
00:25 Why do we need a column chart?
01:44 What are the 2 uses of a column chart?
03:13 4 Examples of column chart
03:59 Key components of a column chart
06:29 How to create a column chart in Excel?
10:45 Formatting a column chart in Excel
Advanced Chart templates with automated calculations and analysis:
Column Chart: https://indzara.com/product/column-chart-excel-template/
Bar Chart: https://indzara.com/product/bar-chart-excel-template/
Data visualization in Excel: https://indzara.com/excel-templates-data-visualization-analytics/
Column chart is a chart or a graph where data is represented as columns. This chart is also called vertical bar chart.
Purpose of a simple column chart
Let us take a simple set of data. We have the # of cars sold by these 7 brands in 2020 in the United states.
If our objective is to find out the order of the brands in terms of sales, and to understand how different the sales are between the different brands, then we would have to do some work to get to those insights from this table.
However, let’s say I present the same data in a column chart.
Now we can quickly see that BMW is the brand with the largest sales among these 7 brands. Bentley has the least sales. Audi is the second and so on.
Comparing the raw data to the column chart, raw data in a table turns into information and insights as we presented it in the chart format.
Column Charts are effective in comparing quantitative measurements of categorical variables or categories.
Identifying the order or position of a category compared to the other categories is a key outcome of column charts. Example: Which product has the highest or lowest sales?
We can also visually compare BMW to Audi to get an impression of whether they are very close or not, based on the relative difference between the height of the columns. Are the top 2 brands neck to neck or is there a noticeable gap? In this case, there is.
X Axis: The horizontal (or x) axis represents a categorical variable or a dimension. Example: Car brand, Product Name, Country name, Employee name, etc. Year or Month can also be a categorical variable.
Y Axis: The vertical (or y) axis represents a numeric variable, something that can be counted or summed. Example: Sales in $, # of employees, etc.
We cannot add two product names together. But we can count the number of units sold of a product. We cannot add or subtract or multiply or divide two departments. But we can add the number of employees in two departments. We can find the average number of employees. We can perform mathematical operations on numeric variables whereas we cannot do that on categorical variables.
The height of the column or the bar represents the value of the numerical variable.
How to create a column chart or vertical bar chart in Excel?
• Click a cell outside the data.
• Insert - Chart
• Choose Series with numeric variable values
• Choose X axis labels with categorical values
• Click OK
Right click on the chart to see the formatting options.
What is a column chart, when to use it and how to create one in Excel.
#excel #chart #dataviz
Chapters
00:25 Why do we need a column chart?
01:44 What are the 2 uses of a column chart?
03:13 4 Examples of column chart
03:59 Key components of a column chart
06:29 How to create a column chart in Excel?
10:45 Formatting a column chart in Excel
Advanced Chart templates with automated calculations and analysis:
Column Chart: https://indzara.com/product/column-chart-excel-template/
Bar Chart: https://indzara.com/product/bar-chart-excel-template/
Data visualization in Excel: https://indzara.com/excel-templates-data-visualization-analytics/
Column chart is a chart or a graph where data is represented as columns. This chart is also called vertical bar chart.
Purpose of a simple column chart
Let us take a simple set of data. We have the # of cars sold by these 7 brands in 2020 in the United states.
If our objective is to find out the order of the brands in terms of sales, and to understand how different the sales are between the different brands, then we would have to do some work to get to those insights from this table.
However, let’s say I present the same data in a column chart.
Now we can quickly see that BMW is the brand with the largest sales among these 7 brands. Bentley has the least sales. Audi is the second and so on.
Comparing the raw data to the column chart, raw data in a table turns into information and insights as we presented it in the chart format.
Column Charts are effective in comparing quantitative measurements of categorical variables or categories.
Identifying the order or position of a category compared to the other categories is a key outcome of column charts. Example: Which product has the highest or lowest sales?
We can also visually compare BMW to Audi to get an impression of whether they are very close or not, based on the relative difference between the height of the columns. Are the top 2 brands neck to neck or is there a noticeable gap? In this case, there is.
X Axis: The horizontal (or x) axis represents a categorical variable or a dimension. Example: Car brand, Product Name, Country name, Employee name, etc. Year or Month can also be a categorical variable.
Y Axis: The vertical (or y) axis represents a numeric variable, something that can be counted or summed. Example: Sales in $, # of employees, etc.
We cannot add two product names together. But we can count the number of units sold of a product. We cannot add or subtract or multiply or divide two departments. But we can add the number of employees in two departments. We can find the average number of employees. We can perform mathematical operations on numeric variables whereas we cannot do that on categorical variables.
The height of the column or the bar represents the value of the numerical variable.
How to create a column chart or vertical bar chart in Excel?
• Click a cell outside the data.
• Insert - Chart
• Choose Series with numeric variable values
• Choose X axis labels with categorical values
• Click OK
Right click on the chart to see the formatting options.
