This is interesting, I am in Columbus to meet one of my college friends. I remember him as a very meticulous person from college days. So it is no surprise when he showed me his massively impressive finance tracker last night. He has been tracking expenses, income, credit card payments and gas (petrol) consumption since 2008. Very impressive indeed.
Then out of blue he said, he has a problem with his spreadsheet. In this own words,
When entering data for credit cards, I use one column per card. But in my report view, I want to show credit card details in rows. How do I do this?
Something like this:
Transposing values in a row to column using formulas
If it is a one time process, my friend can use Paste Special > Transpose feature and be done. But this is no one time business. So lets understand which formula helps us do this.
- Lets assume original data is in $F$4:$J$5. Row 4 has card names & Row 5 has amounts.
- Wherever you want the out put, just list running numbers (1,2,3….) in a column. Lets say these are in cells D10:D14.
- To get the first card name, you can use the formula =INDEX($F$4:$J$4, $D10)
- To get the first amount due, use the formula =INDEX($F$5:$J$5, $D10)
- Now drag both these formulas down and you are done!
This is good, but I don’t like the extra column…
If that is the case, you can use the ROWS() formula to generate these running numbers for you on the fly. For example,
=INDEX($F$4:$J$4, ROWS($A$1:A1)) would work perfectly.
Learn more about: using ROWS / COLUMNS formula to generate running numbers.
Play with this formula
See the embedded Excel workbook below. Play with the formula.
(alternatives: download the example file or view it online)
How do you transpose values?
I love using INDEX formula. I use it for transposing values, tables, getting a cell value (or reference) from a large table, use it along with MATCH etc. It is a very versatile formula and I keep learning new uses for it.
What about you? Do you transpose values often? What formulas do you use? Please share using comments.
More on transposing your data:
If you like to transpose, wrestle or arm twist your data often, then you are at right place. Chandoo.org has tons of tutorials, material and tricks on this. Start with these:
- Transpose a table of values in Excel
- Transpose a table quickly with this simple trick
- Transpose data in charts
Also, check out more quick tips.
14 Responses to “Group Smaller Slices in Pie Charts to Improve Readability”
I think the virtue of pie charts is precisely that they are difficult to decode. In many contexts, you have to release information but you don't want the relationship between values to jump at your reader. That's when pie charts are most useful.
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Chandoo,
millions of ants cannot be mistaken.....There should be a reason why everybody continues using Pie charts, despite what gurus like you or Jon and others say.
one reason could be because we are just used to, so that's what we need to change, the "comfort zone"...
i absolutely agree, since I've been "converted", I just find out that bar charts are clearer, and nicer to the view...
Regards,
Martin
[...] says we can Group Smaller Slices in Pie Charts to Improve Readability. Such a pie has too many labels to fit into a tight space, so you need ro move the labels around [...]
Chandoo -
You ask "Can I use an alternative to pie chart?"
I answer in You Say “Pie”, I Say “Bar”.
This visualization was created because it was easy to print before computers. In this day and age, it should not exist.
I think the 100% Bar Chart is just as useless/unreadable as Pies - we should rename them something like Mama's Strudel Charts - how big a slice would you like, Dear?
My money's with Jon on this topic.
The primary function of any pie chart with more than 2 or 3 data points is to obfuscate. But maybe that is the main purpose, as @Jerome suggests...
@Jerome.. Good point. Also sometimes, there is just no relationship at all.
@Martin... Organized religion is finding it tough to get converts even after 2000+ years of struggle. Jon, Stephen, countless others (and me) are a small army, it would take atleast 5000 more years before pie charts vanish... patience and good to have you here 🙂
@Jon .. very well done sir, very well done.
good points every one...
I've got to throw my vote into Jon's camp (which is also Stephen Few's camp) -- bars just tend to work better. One observation about when we say "what people are used to." There are two distinct groups here (depending on the situation, a person can fall in either one): the person who *creates* the chart and the person who *consumes* the chart. Granted, the consumers are "used to" pie charts. But, it's not like a bar chart is something they would struggle to understand or that would require explanation (like sparklines and bullet graphs). Chart consumers are "used to" consuming whatever is put in front of them. Chart creators, on the other hand, may be "used to" creating pie charts, but that isn't an excuse for them to continue to do so -- many people are used to driving without a seatbelt, leaving lights on in their house needlessly, and forwarding not-all-that-funny anecdotes via email. That doesn't mean the practice shouldn't be discouraged!
[...] example that Chandoo used recently is counting uses of words. Clearly, there are other meanings of “bar” (take bar mitzvah or bar none, for [...]
[…] Grouping smaller slices in pie chart […]
Good article. Is it possible to do that with line charts?
Hi,
Is this available in excel 2013?