On Firday, we proposed a new chart for showing project plans. I chose an ugly name for it and called it Gantt Box Chart.
Essentially, a gantt box chart is what you get when a gantt chart and box plot go to a bar, get drunk and decide to make out. It shows the project plan like any other gantt chart, and it shows the distribution of activity end dates, like any other box plot.
You can see an example gantt box chart for a fictional software project above.
Today, we will learn how to create a similar chart in Excel. Get a steaming cup of coffee or whatever keeps you going and follow these simple steps to make a gantt box chart.
[Read this post if you want to know what GBC is and how to read it]
1. Set up your data:
Just like any other chart in excel, a gantt box chart too requires well structured data. In our case, we need 5 things.
- Activity name
- Start Date
- Best Case End Date
- Realistic (or Plan) End Date
- Worst Case End Date
Getting all the 3 variations of End dates can be tricky. But if you are managing projects for long, you might already know how to get these dates. Otherwise, here is one approach, proposed by Joel Spolsky, called as Evidence Based Scheduling that can help you.
We will also need 3 additional helper columns where we need to calculate some numbers so that our gantt box chart can be constructed without resorting to magic wands. These are,
- BC: Number of days between Start Date and Best Case End Date
- R: Number of days between Best Case End Date and Realistic Date
- W: Number of days between Realistic Date and Worst Case End Date
2. Create a Stacked Bar Chart
Add a new stacked bar chart. The series to be stacked are,
- Best case end date
- R
- W
Use the “Activity Name” column for category axis labels.
Now, our chart should look like:
3. Say your favorite curse word and Reverse the categories
Ok, time for a minor annoyance. Excel has magically showed the first activity of project at bottom. So, we need to reverse the category axis values before any further.
Just select the category axis, go to format axis (press CTRL+1) and click the little box that says “order reverse in Categories”.
Now, the chart should look like this:
4. Add Error Bars to Best Case Series
Now, add error bars to the best case series of the chart so that it looks like a line is drawn connecting best case date to start date of each activity. To do that, follow these steps:
- Select “best case end date” series.
- Add Error Bars (from format ribbon)
- Specify the type of error bar as “Negative only”
- Select “Custom” for error bar values
- Now, point the error bar values to the helper column “BC”
- Format the error bar in such a way that no cap is shown and it is thick.
At this point, our gantt box chart should look like this:
5. Finally, format the chart
Now, our gantt box chart is almost ready. But it is still ugly. We need not hire a Hollywood grade make-up man to beautify this. We just need a few clicks.
- Remove legend
- Add vertical and horizontal grid lines. Make them subtle.
- Change text colors to soothing ones.
- Remove fills from all series in stacked bar chart.
- Apply borders to 2nd and 3rd series to create a box effect.
- Format the date axis,
- Adjust the starting point (unfortunately you have to enter the number equivalent of date, like 1-May-2010 as 40299)
- Adjust major unit – I used 14 days, you can try something else depending on overall project length.
- Set the axis number formatting to d-mmm or mmm or myy or something else that works for you.
- Add a chart title
That is all. Our Gantt Box Chart is finally ready. Now, go figure why your project is not on track and do something about it.
Displaying Completed Activities:
The easiest way to show completed activities is to change all 3 end dates to the same date: that of the actual end date. This way, you just see a line when an activity is done and a box when there are variations in end dates.
Of course, you can use another helper column to show a vertical line or a symbol of your choice to denote the end point as well. I leave it to you to figure out that portion.
Download the Gantt Box Chart Template:
I have prepared an excel template for creating Gantt Box Charts quickly. Go ahead and download the version that you want.
Excel 2007+ version | Excel 2003 version
Here is a mirror with both files as a zip. Go on, be awesome 🙂
Share your experiences of using Gantt Box Chart:
If you like this chart and implementing it in one of your projects, do tell me how it went. Or just share your thoughts on this implementation and any suggestions. Go ahead and share.
Templates & Tutorials on Project Management:
- Excel Gantt Chart Template
- Project Milestones – Timeline Template
- Project Status Dashboard Template
- More resources on using Excel for Project Management
Project Management Template Set – Get a copy today
I have made a set of 24 templates that take care of various activities in a project right from planning to time sheets to issues to project status reporting thru dashboards. These templates have been bought by more than 500 project managers all over the world and they are saving hours of time every week using these templates.
Go ahead and a get a copy of my project management templates.
42 Responses to “Prevent Duplicate Data Entry using Cell Validations”
Hi Chandoo, I need you help in the following problem.
I'm trying to get a direccion from a found result. With this dirreccion I will want the before cell value. For example, If result of a find is 38 localized in cell $C$2, I need to get previus value (cell $B$2 ), maybe Andrés.
Do you know some way to do that?
Thank you for you help.
Hi Chandoo
Thanks for this. One thing though: In my pre-2007 version of Excel, the COUNTIF function doesn't recognise a semicolon (;), but requires a comma.
Is the semicolon an Excel 2007 thing?
Jair... I am not sure I understand what you want. what do you mean by Dirreccion?
@Lincoln: I am sorry, often I forget that I am using European version of excel where the delimiter is ; instead of ,. I have corrected the formula now.
Thanks for this nice tip, i used to do a find all after filling every new items which was cumbersome.
Do you know a way to extend this validation search to other tabs/sheets ?
Thanks for you attention. I'm trying to get of value continue from a found value. Let me show a example:
Name Years
John 35
Maria 28
Teresa 32
If I search the max years, the result is 35, but I need that result to be John. Do you know how I can do it?
@Subbu.. you can easily extend the validation to other sheets by pasting the data validations. See the latest article here: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/10/28/copy-data-validations/
@Jair.. you can use the large() or small() formulas to do this. for eg. =index(A1:A3,large(B1:B3,1)) will get you the name of the person with highest "years". More help here: http://chandoo.org/excel-formulas/large.html
Hi, I don't know if I'm using bad the formula or its performance is diferent for my Office version. Large() formula return the value in the cell, in my example 35. The index() formula use a range, row and column. I'm using the large() as number of row, and it is bad because into the range don't have row 35. This is my perception. What do you think?
Hi, I going to prove, with this solution by JLD http://jldexcelsp.blogspot.com/2008/07/extraer-direccion-de-celda-en-matriz.html
Hello,
I am trying to attempt data validation in Excel Mobile, but the DV tool isnt available. I want to prevent duplicates is all, any advice on acheiving this in Excel Mobile? Thanks..
@Jair... my french aint that good. it starts at "merci" and ends at "beau coup".
Anyhow, you need to merge the large with vlookup to do this. I am not sure if you have solved the problem. Otherwise let me know with details and I can write the formula in comments.
@Chad... I have never used excel mobile, so I have no idea. May be they have not implemented data validations in excel mobile.
Any excel mobile users out there?
Hi Chandoo, the proposed solution by JlD is interesting. He created a macro to get values when the matrix is not one dimensional, how on my problem. This fuction for me.
I would like to share you my work, how can I upload?
@Jair.. sorry for such a delayed reply.. you can upload the files to skydrive and link them here. Or you can email them to me at chandoo.d @ gmail.com and I will upload them somewhere. But it could take forever if you email files to me as I am a bit lazy.
[...] Day 31: Advanced Data Validation Tricks in Excel – Part 2 [...]
Hi,
Can you help me in Microstrategy?
Br,
Moin
really wonderful article. I feel it is implementing Primary Key concept into spreadsheets.
Hi article on data validation. Excel is a very versatile platform to work with and we use it for all kinds of data tabulation. In fact this must have been the most rudimentary data management tools I must have worked with and knowing such tips only adds functuionality to our user experience. Great article. looking forawrd to read more.
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for such a nice idea.
I tried copy paste the data into the validated area, but the pop-up msg (warning msg) doesn't came. Is it something that we need to update the data manually each time,.
Do we have any option where we can bulk upload the number and it throws a warning message that the data already exits and do we want to continue with this ?
Please do reply me.
Thank you.
Regards,
Vasanth.
It was really useful chandoo...thanks a lot...
Tried this in excel 2010 and it did not work?
Could the newer excel have changed that much?
@Leo
It works fine in Excel 2010
The formula used above =COUNTIF($B$4:$B$11,B4)<=1
only applies to the range B4:B11
Did you adjust the range to your data?
This page helped me accurately to find solution of my question. thanx
we want to prevent duplicate entries in three columns combined, using data validation, i.e. say, column A has first name and Column B has middle name, Column C has last name. the first name can be duplicate, middle name can be duplicate, last name can be duplicate, but not all three at the same time.
I want to prevent duplicate entries in three columns combine, using data validation, i.e. say, column A has first name and Column B has middle name, Column C has last name. the first name can be duplicate, middle name can be duplicate, last name can be duplicate, but not all three at the same time.
Hi, I've tried above validation method to prevent duplicate value from entering into the cells. It's work, when user key in the data into the selected range. However, it's not working when user copy-&-paste the info into the same range.
Please advice. Thanks.
Hi Chandoo,
Does it work in Excel 2007?
Please Reply
thanks chandoo........
it does not work when data is copy pasted...any solution for this??
hi i m shaloo and i want to know in excel if i write duplicate no.then it says or show about we are write duplicate no.
Hi Chandoo
I've tried using this with a Named Range, which is actually a column in a Table as DV wont accept a table reference, and it wont work.
Also tried using Offset to specify the Named Range, but that wont work either.
Is it possible to use Named Ranges with DV?
Thanks
Kris
I have tried the above formula on a table column. The Error box does not pop up, there is only the small ! next to the cell with the duplicate. The column I am working with is formulas that produce a date. Is the reason it doesn't work that the cells contain formulas rather than data?
The formula works but only if I enter data in cell above it. So for example, if I have "123" in B11 it does not allow me to enter "123" in B10, B9, B8, etc. But I can still enter "123" in B12. Please help! 🙂
Great tip.. thanks a lot
I have 21 years of experience working as data entry assistant. I constantly read several blogs to keep myself up-to-date with the advances in data entry profession. I really enjoyed this blog post. From my several years of experience, I agree with you 100% when you say, “ We all know that data validation is a very useful feature in Excel. You can use data validation to create a drop-down list in a cell and limit the values user can enter. ”
Keep blogging. I will come here again.
--data entry assistant
Hi,
This is really very helpful.
Thank you
how can i assign two validation on a single cell
one is for list validation (means the data should be from that range)
second i want to prevent them from repetition
how can i do this ?
P7 to P506 have GR# which are for list
i want to prevent C column to not to repeat and should be from the P column
@Junaid
Can you please post the question in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
You have to register to be able to post questions
Please attach a file so that a specific answer can be delivered.
i made an account but there is no option available to post questions ??
where can i ??
@Jubaid
Goto http://forum.chandoo.org/
Goto Ask an Excel Question
Post New thread
Type your question
Attach a file
Please attach a file so that a specific answer can be delivered.
friend can any one tell me the formula
exname location qty
gaurav 1 1
rofan 2 5
sandeep 3 6
gaurav 4 3
rofan 5 4
sandeep 6 8
gaurav 7 9
If this is a data.
if i want a formula by which if i type gaurav then all the location and qty should be shown in a new page.
i had 5,00,000 sku so if i punch one name i can get the entire details
@Gaurav
Can you please post the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Please attach a sample file for a quicker more targeted response
IF(ISERROR(INDEX($B$3:$C$9,SMALL(IF($B$3:$B$9=$B$12,ROW($B$3:$B$9)-ROW($C$2)),ROW(A1:C1)),2)),"",INDEX($B$3:$C$9,SMALL(IF($B$3:$B$9=$B$12,ROW($B$3:$B$9)-ROW($C$2)),ROW(A1:C1)),2))
please explain
YOUR COUNTIF FORMULA IS REALLY HELPFUL AND WORKS. I TRIED SEVERAL SITES BUT THEIR FORMULA DOES NOT WORK. ONLY YOU HAVE GIVEN A RIGHT FORMULA!
THANK YOU!!!!!