Bar chart or Line? Scatter plot or box plot? These are the questions we ask ourselves when we set out to make a chart. In this article let me tell you how to pick a chart type so you can make best charts for every situation.
Why is it important to pick right chart?
Because right charts lead to right decisions. We use charts to tell stories, evaluate alternatives, understand trends or find-out if everything is normal. So, an incorrect charting choice can lead to poor judgment of the messages where as a correct chart can lead to right and faster decisions.
How to pick a chart type:
Chart making process can be divided in to 4 steps
- Find-out what you want to say?
- (Re)arrange the data
- Prepare the chart
- Format the chart
1. What is the purpose of this chart?
This is the first and most important step in chart preparation. You must ask yourself, “what is the purpose of this chart?”. Once we know the clear reason why the chart should exist, we will naturally be able to select the correct chart type for that reason.
But I realize that finding the reason itself can be a bit tedious. So I have listed down 6 common reasons that we often have to make a chart:
- to Compare
- to show the Distribution
- to explain Parts of the Whole
- to tell the Trend over time
- to findout the Deviations
- to understand the Relationship
Let us understand these reasons along with the type of charts that go well with these.
1. To Compare:
What it means? You want to compare one set of value(s) with another.
Examples:
- Performance of Product A vs. Product B in 5 regions
- Interview performance of various candidates
Charts that can be used for this reason:
- Bar Charts,
- Column Charts
- Scatter Plots
- Pie Charts
- Line Charts
- Data Tables
2. To Show the Distribution
What it means? You want to show the distribution of a set of values (to understand the outliers, normal ranges etc.)
Examples:
- Distribution of Call waiting times in a call center
- Distribution of bugs found in 10 week software testing phase
Charts that can be used to show distribution:
- Column Charts
- Scatter Plots
- Line charts
- Box Plots
3. Parts of Whole
What it means? You want to show how various parts comprise the whole
Examples:
- Individual product sales as a percentage of whole revenue
- Browser types of customers visiting our website
Charts that can be used to show Parts of Whole:
- Column Charts
- Bar Charts
- Pie Charts
- Data Table
4. Trend over time
What it means? You want to understand the trend over time of some variable(s).
Examples:
- Customer footfalls on the last 365 days
- Share price of MSFT in the last 100 trading sessions
Charts that can be used to show Trend Over Time:
- Column Charts
- Line Charts
- Data Table
5. Deviations
What it means? You want to see which values deviate from the norm.
Examples:
- Failures (or bugs) in the context of Quality Control
- Sales in Various Stores
Charts that can be used to show Deviations:
- Column Charts
- Bar Charts
- Line Charts
- Data Table
6. Relationship
What it means? You want to establish (or show) relationship between 2 (or more) variables
Examples:
- Relationship between Search Phrases and Product Purchases in your website
- Relationship between in-store sales and holidays
Charts that can be used to show Relationship:
- Scatter Plot
- Line Chart
- Data Table
How to pick a chart type when you have more than one reason for the chart?
Simple, use common sense. If I were you, I would either cut down the messages to one or make 2 charts (each conveying one message). If that is not possible, I would consider using dynamic charts or combination charts.
2. (Re)arranging the Data
Even when we know the message and corresponding chart, sometimes, our data may not support us. We then have to rearrange the data. Using excel formulas, pivot tables, tables and data cleaning tools we can easily massage the data.
Once we have the data in required format, we proceed to step 3.
3. Prepare the chart
Since you have already picked the chart type in Step 1, this is very straight forward. Most of the regular charts are available in MS Excel as default charts. You can insert them with few clicks.
But for some special chart types, you may have to prepare the chart by helper series, formatting etc.
4. Format the chart
While most formatting is done as per individual taste, there are some ground rules that apply on almost all charts. Here they are,
- No non-zero axis scale on bar charts [reasons and discussions]
- Make subtle grid-lines (or remove them) [how to remove grid lines]
- Add labels to important points [labeling techniques]
- Add descriptive, bold titles
- Position axis, scales at the right places (for eg. y-axis to the right on a large time series chart)
- Use simple, easy colors
A final word:
The ideas in this post are meant to be guide lines, not final words in the world of visualization. While these rules can help you make a good chart, a great chart take so much more. Knowledge of your data, Passion for what you do and Genuine focus on your audience’ needs can make your chart truly outstanding. All the best.
References:
Communicating Numbers – White Paper by Stephen Few [PDF]
Resources & Further Help:
- Chart chooser – Juice Analytics
- Data vis 101 – How to choose a chart – Hubspot
- Selecting right char type – KD Nuggets
- Charting Principles
- Charting Tutorials from Peltier Tech
- More articles from Stephen Few
- Charting Wisdom from Jorge Camoes
What is the process you use for Chart Selection?
I would love to know the process you use when selecting a chart type. Please share using comments.
20 Responses to “Untrimmable Spaces – Excel Formula”
Hi Chandoo,
First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Wish you and your family another fruitful year ahead.
To answer your question: Power Query is the best way to trim. 🙂
Btw, if Power Query is not available, then formula would absolutely do... but did you forget to mention also Char 32?
One more question: Is the trailing minus meant to be a negative number? Maybe only the sender knows... 🙂
Cheers,
I just see your PQ way, it is amazing, I think it is the most simple way.
No idea how it did it?
I know these spaces can be a real pain but these days I advise Excel users to learn and use Flash Fill and that will learn what to do pretty quickly.
Highlight range to be cleaned. Then, in Replace, hold down the Alt key and type 0160. Replace with nothing.
I accomplished this by writing a macro to go through all the possible unprintable characters. Looped through the range.
@Steve
Brute force works just as well, its just slower
I use a different method here. First, I will copy the data from Excel and paste it in a notepad. In Notepad, I will do a Find Blanks (Space " ") and Replace (Empty) with nothing.
Then you can copy the data from Notepad and paste it back to Excel which will be a perfect number as you desire.
But Thanks for the formula. Its probably the 2nd out of 8 tricks as Chandoo mentioned. Waiting for the rest among 8 from other users 🙂
Hi....
You don't always need notepad for that. I use the Find/Replace is Excel works just fine.
I don't understand the x's. Why weren't they removed in the formula? Or are they part of some sort of numeric formatting that I'm not familiar with? I saw how you handled the non-breaking spaces and the dashes, but am confused about what role the x's played in all this.
Thanks!
Hi Andrew ,
The xs have been used solely to demarcate the actual data text ; thus , without the x in place at the end of text , as in :
x 4,124,500.00 x
it would be impossible to know that there are unwanted trailing characters , in this case , after the last 0.
These xs are not part of the original data text , nor are they used in the formulae ; they are put in only so that readers can visualize the individual items of data as they are in practice. Think of them as imaginary delimiters.
Oh, that makes sense! Thank you for the explanation. I had a feeling it was something along those lines.
You can type this character using the Keys Alt+0160.
Very useful to replace this Character using Find and Select resource.
For many years, my jobs have included ETL tasks and I built this macro to help long, long ago. I tweak it every now and again. Many co-workers, past and present, have it wired to a button on their toolbar.
Sub Clean_and_Trim()
'CAUTION: Strips leading zeroes -- do not use on zipcodes, etc.
If Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic Then
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
Revert = 1
ElseIf Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual Then
Revert = 0
End If
For Each Cell In Selection
For x = Len(Cell.Value) To 1 Step -1
If Asc(Mid(Cell.Value, x, 1)) = 160 Then
Cell.Replace What:=Chr(160), Replacement:=" ", LookAt:=xlPart, MatchCase:=True
End If
If Asc(Mid(Cell.Value, x, 1)) = 32 Then
Cell.Replace What:=Chr(32), Replacement:=" ", LookAt:=xlPart, MatchCase:=True
End If
Next x
If Cell.Value "" Then
Cell.Value = Application.Clean(Application.Trim(Cell.Value))
End If
Next
If Revert = 1 Then
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
ElseIf Revert = 0 Then
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End If
End Sub
This is awesome! What if you have several characters you need to have removed? What would be the easiest way as I can imagine there are several ways.?
# - 35
$ - 36
- 62
/ - 47
, - 44
. - 46
" - 34
: - 58
This is typical case of a Fitbit data export to Csv file. Each number has CHAR160 as thousand separator.. how smart Fitbit, thank you 😉
By the way, i prefer to copy the character, and use find and replace.
Sometimes it happens if you copy a table from outlook and paste it in excel. When you apply formula on those cells you will get error. What i use to do is
copy one character that looks like space,
select the entire range,
go to Find and replace,
Paste the copied character in Find option
Leave the replace option unfilled..
click on replace all..
All the errors shall be converted in to proper values..
Process looks lengthier.. but it is one of the simplest method
If Clean, Trim, and Substitute, or Find and Replace does not complete the job, I usually enter a value of 1 in an empty cell. Copy the Value of 1, Highlight the range of text numbers, and Paste Special, Values, Multiply. This site is great!
You can use Dose for Excel Add-In that can quickly clean huge data with one click besides more than +100 new functions and features to add to your Excel to save time and effort.
https://www.zbrainsoft.com
Hi,
I have a problem in excel. The sheet attached herewith.
TABLE CONFIG 2/6
A B C D E F G H
1 WEIGHT1 43,599 WEIGH2 62500 WEIGHT3 77000 WEIGHT4 66,500
2 DEDUCTION1 15,000 DEDUCTION1 15,000 TEMP 0 DEDUCTION2 11,005
3 RESULT 58,599 RESULT-1 77,500 RESULT-2 77,000 RESULT-3 77,505
4 RESULT SUBSTRACT 0 0 0
5 REQUIRED VALUE 77,500 77,000 77,505
Note: 1- RESULT (58599) IS TO BE DEDUCTION EITHER FROM D4 OR F4 OR H4 WHICHEVER IS MOST
LEAST CELL AMONG RESULT-1 OR RESULT-2 OR RESULT 3.
2-HENCE, RESULT VALUE $B$3 IS TO BE PRESENTED ON CELL EITHER D4 OR F4 OR H4 WHICHER IS
MOST LEAST VALUE
3-FORMULA =IF(E8<H8,$B$9,IF(E8<J8,$B$9,IF(H8<J8,$B$9,IF(H8<E8,$B$9,IF(J8<H8,$B$9))))))
CREATED ON CELL D4,F4 & H4 DID NOT WORK.
PLS FOR YOUR HELP.
THANK YOU
@R
Why not ask the question in the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
You can attach a file there