Doing Statistical Analysis with MS Excel - How to make a histogram using MS Excel
(Page 2 of 4 )
A histogram is a plot that shows the frequency of data sets. This is an important tool used to analyze the distribution of data. By graphically analyzing the histogram, you can tell where the mean may be located. You can even tell the variation of the samples, or if the data are skewed to the right or left instead of following the normal curve (the mean at the center of the distribution).
To do this using MS Excel, say for example that you have the following data:
37.2, 37.8, 37.1, 37.8, 36.2, 36.5, 36.6, 36.3, 36.5, 36.6, 36.2, 36.9, 37.1, 37.6, 37.3, 36.1, 36.5, 36.3, 35.8
Step 1. First, open your MS Excel, and then position/copy the data above vertically, starting on cell A1 with data = 37.2 and continuing to cell A20 with data = 35.8
Step 2. Compute the minimum and maximum values of the data set. To do this, in cell A21, paste this formula: =MIN(A1:A20), then on cell A22, paste this formula: =MAX(A1:A20)
The minimum and maximum values of the data set are needed to make a data bin for the histogram.
Step 3. Compute the bin statistics. The bin statistics are the values required to make the graph.
Increment value = (Max value - Min value) / Number of samples
Starting value = (Min value - Increment value)
Ending value = (Max value + Increment value)
In this example, you can use cell A23 for the increment value, cell A24 for the starting value and finally cell A25 for the maximum value.
The starting value should be less than the minimum value of the data, so that the minimum value can be seen in the plot. The same logic applies to ending value. In this example, the following are the computed values:
Minimum value = 35.8
Maximum value = 37.8
Increment value = 0.1
Starting value = 35.7
Ending value = 37.9
Next: Making a histogram continued >>
More BrainDump Articles
More By Codex-M
