Today lets learn about Excel CHOOSE() function.
CHOOSE eh? What does it do?
To understand CHOOSE() and appreciate its uses, lets invent an imaginary boss-subordinate pair.
Jasmine is the boss. She is, well, lets call her peculiar. She likes olives, Tuesdays & color Red. She hates potatoes.
Martin is the faithful butler of Jasmine. He is obedient, quirky and tall. He likes lotuses, Fridays & color blue. He hates potassium.
Enter Jasmine’s scarf problem:
Jasmine likes to wear a different colored scarf every weekday. She likes to wear Red colored scarf on Mondays & Tuesdays. She likes to put on the blue polka dot scarf on Wednesdays. On Thursdays, she wears her olive colored scarf. On Fridays & Saturdays, she prefers the lovely orange blue scarf. Sundays are no scarf days.
No wonder she is peculiar.
On the first day of his job, Martin understood this schedule. Although he did raise his eyebrows (in bewilderment) more than once, he knew a butler should never question.
So everyday, soon after waking up, Martin would open up the list of scarf requirements, and figure out the scarf for that day. He would then neatly lay it out on Jasmine’s bed while she is in the shower.
Soon this all got boring.
So Martin thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I can feed the scarf schedule to a computer so it automatically told me which scarf to choose everyday morning!.”
Martin reached out to his ninja computer friend who knew how to do this.
YOU.
Your Excel solution for Jasmine’s scarf problem
After hearing the entire story, raising eyebrows a few times and looking at Martin with eyes full of pity, you set out to create an Excel workbook that told him which scarf to pick on any given date.
It is simple & elegant.
In the Cell B3, you wrote =TODAY()
so that everyday A3 will tell what is the latest date.
In B4, you wrote =WEEKDAY(B3)
Then in B5, you wrote a lengthy nested IF formula to figure out the scarf of the day.
Scarf of the day formula:
=IF(B4=1,"No scarf",IF(B4<=3,"Red scarf",IF(B4=4,"Blue polka dot scarf", IF(B4=5,"Olive colored scarf","Orange blue scarf"))))
Martin couldn’t be happier. Now that he has an awesome Excel file telling him what scarf to pick everyday, he has one less thing to worry.
BUT….
Soon after your Excel file, Jasmine had to replace the polka dot scarf with yellow striped one (she slipped an olive on the scarf while eating and it left a permanent mark).
While at it, she also changed the schedule.
And now, Martin is back to square one.
Late that week, he explained the problem to you over a drink. You quickly modified the file to suit new scarf of the day scenario.
The formula now looked like this:
=IF(B4=1,"No scarf",IF(OR(B4=2,B4=4),"Red scarf",IF(B4=3,"Yellow striped scarf", IF(B4=5,"Olive colored scarf","Orange blue scarf"))))
Thats when you got thinking.
The nested IF formula is awfully long and clumsy to maintain. May be there is a better one?!?
Enter CHOOSE formula, built for scarf of the day & more
CHOOSE() formula works beautifully for situations like this.
Instead of the long & clumsy nested IF formula, you could simply write a choose formula.
Syntax of the CHOOSE formula:
The CHOOSE formula is simple to write.
=CHOOSE(some number, value 1, value 2, value 3....)
and CHOOSE will pick a value based on some number.
For example,
=CHOOSE(3,"Chandoo.org","makes","you","awesome")
will result in you.
Scarf of the day CHOOSE Formula:
For our scarf of the day, the choose formula looks like this:
=CHOOSE(B4,"No scarf","Red scarf","Yellow striped scarf", "Red scarf","Olive scarf","Orange blue scarf","Orange blue scarf")
(or this if you want it for schedule prior to olive accident, =CHOOSE(B4,"No scarf","Red scarf","Red scarf","Blue polka dot scarf", "Olive scarf","Orange blue scarf","Orange blue scarf") )
Okay, what else can CHOOSE() do?
CHOOSE cant make you tall, rich or beautiful yet. But, it can do few more things.
Here is one such powerful example.
Fetch one range from many using CHOOSE
We can use CHOOSE() to fetch one of the many ranges, like this:
=SUM(CHOOSE(2, A1:A10, B1:B10,C1:C10,D1:D10))
This will result in the sum of the 2nd range, ie B1:B10.
Here is an interesting example of this:
How many values can CHOOSE take?
CHOOSE() can take up to 254 different values and return one of them based on the index number (first parameter).
What if I have more than 254?
Forget 254. Anytime you want to choose one value from more than a few (say 10), CHOOSE formula becomes tedious (as you have to select individual value cells or type them).
For all such cases (ie when you have list of values more than 10), I suggest using INDEX(). It is a powerful & versatile formula designed to handle situations like this.
Example workbook:
Here is the example workbook on CHOOSE. When you click the link, it opens Excel inside browser so you can practice this anywhere.
Do you CHOOSE?
I write CHOOSE() formulas often. It is a simple formula and I find several uses for it.
What about you? Do you use CHOOSE()? What are some of your favorite uses of it? Please share your thoughts using comments.
More examples on CHOOSE
Check out these additional examples to learn more:
39 Responses to “Some charts try to make you an April fool all the time (or why 3d pie charts are evil)”
Another little trick they've used in that pie chart is in the positioning of the car sales in relation to each other. The way in which you present them in the column chart is from highest seller to lowest seller, left to right, which is what we're used to seeing. But in the dastardly pie chart, the two smallest selling cars (the SX4 and the Scala) are placed one either side of the Verna, which serves to make it look bigger again.
Also the perspective at which you look at the pie chart makes the Verna look bigger. From my experimintation, a perspective of around 35-37 degrees makes it look like an even bigger slice, which appears to be what the advertiser has done.
All of this manipulation would make you think of the "photoshopping" or "air-brushing" that is done on photos of models, film stars, and so on, in magazines, to give them the unattainable looks, skin, shape, etc., etc., that many aspire to, but can never reach.
This post is quite the learning experience, thanks very much.
please help!!!! im taking a computer class at SPC in clearwater. i have an excel worksheet to turn in and my pie charts are just blank no pie at all, all the other charts are working but i need #D pie chart can anyone help me to restore the 3D Pie chart??? Emergency
@Amanda
Select the Chart
Right Click it
Change Chart Type
Select a 3D Pie chart type
This is a great example of why I do not like pie charts.
I promise to never make a 3d pie chart. If I ever see one, I promise to not rotate or explode it. I also promise to create alternative charts (usually column, bar, line or scatter plots) so that my audience can see the truth better.
And oh yeah, I promise to bake & eat pies whenever possible. Apart from cakes, pastries, ice creams, biscuits and other assorted fun foods that is.
signed David Onder
Reminds me of the quote ... statistics are like bikinis ... what they reveal is suggestive, what they conceal is vital.
I love that Quote and you are so right, now to get the upper management to understand that!!!
Oh .. and wont it be awesome if u can create a quick decision tree tool for jo so that she can buy shoes :p ... perhaps link it to jabong.com or flipkart.com account and boom ... a spreadsheet shopping tool!
There are a only two acceptable pie charts: actual pie and cheesecake.
My own commitment to the truth is to incorporate pereto graphs (Few, 2006) into most of my bar/column graphs. The pereto is activated by a non-printing check box form control. This method has proven its worth on a number of occasions when presenting data and demonstrating its integrity when challenged - Also gets a kudos point from the boss for foresight, preparedness and professionalism :-).
Leonk
Hi Leon,
Can you elaborate? I'm aware of pareto as the 80/20 rule what do you mean by you "include" it?
@JungleJme
A Pareto Chart is a Ranked Column chart
With the column of the highest Rank occurring at the left and the Smallest column at the right
It highlights the issues with most impact easily
Have a read of: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/09/02/pareto-charts/
A little part of me dies inside whenever I see presentations from upper level technical management that includes exploded 3D pie charts.
I promise to never make a 3d pie chart. If I ever see one, I promise to not rotate or explode it. I also promise to create alternative charts (usually column, bar, line or scatter plots) so that my audience can see the truth better.And oh yeah, I promise to bake & eat pies whenever possible. Apart from cakes, pastries, ice creams, biscuits and other assorted fun foods that is.signed Luke M
So if the goal is to mislead, 3-D pie charts are great. There is a use for everything.
Definitely agree with you. They did the appropriate thing as a marketing scheme. The chart is not "wrong" in any way, just misleading to the eye.
I think it's an excellent ploy.
I think these are an excellent display of the versatility of storytelling that is allowed by the champion of charts, the pie. Great work Chandoo. See my site for some further examples of effectively working with pie charts. eagerpies.com
Well done Chandoo, all points clearly made; I'd add that there are lies, damned lies, statistics, pie charts and tweaked pie charts.
I never recommend a pie chart but some of my custoners are so stupi are sure their requirements are correct. And the customer is always right (when he is the boss). So no pledge but lots of support.
When I teach charts I ask what is the purpose of charts? Fairly sharp students talk about information over data. The purpose is to make better decisions happen. The accuracy is essential, the usability is essential, but the real gain is when the manager sees what to do to make the figures better.
Why do you have strikethru option in replies that is visble when editing but lost when posted? Of course is this does show a strikethru I must have got it wrong; let's see..
... no thought not. Register aplea for strikethru to work. Thanks
Hand on experience, thank you for sharing this.
My favourite (if that's the right word) is Stve Jobs at
http://www.myspace.com/crazyalaskandude/photos/30206354
Some people must be assumed to know better, in which case it must be intentional.
There's a classic book called How to Lie with Statistics, and another called How to Lie with Maps. Time for How to Lie with Charts?
A time and a place for everything, in my opinion. E.g. pie charts are good for communicating specific things to a wide and general audience, because everyone feels comfortable with the form at least.
3D pie charts are good for giving the appearance of analysis to people who wouldn't read them anyway.
In Excel, I use flattened 3D pie charts because they let me control the rotation of the chart to put the most important slices where I want them. That said, I don't use pie charts very often because my audience doesn't demand them
Sorry, but all kind of 3d stuff is horrible! Better, let's back a pie!
Sorry, but all kind of 3d chart stuff is horrible! Better, let's back a pie!
Ha Ha you are right, but why 3D on a flat screen that doesn't work I think and in the end it's all about the data right..
Call this the chandoo effect!!! Did u check out the same advertisement with a different type of chart in yesterdays newspapers??? Even the marketing managers listen to chandoo.
I've always disliked pie charts for this reason and exploded 3d pie charts makes a liar out of their creators. its like the old man and his fish story.... I promise to never make a 3d pie chart (unless its as a joke). If I ever see one, I promise to not rotate or explode it. I also promise to create alternative charts (usually column, bar, line or scatter plots) so that my audience can see the truth better.
And oh yeah, I promise to bake & eat pies whenever possible. Apart from cakes, pastries, ice creams, biscuits and other assorted fun foods that is.
I teach mathematics at high school, and this article will now feature as a regular teaching tool in the topic Misleading Graphs. Thank you.
...and along those lines, I realise I need to create more exploded 3D pie charts, more over-formatted graphs and more line graphs for categorical data to demonstrate poor graph choice.
...and the staircase graph is even worse than the 3D pie chart. When you analyse it in terms of the amount of yellow on the graph compared to any other colour - particularly green which was second - it appears that Verna holds at least 50% market share.
I ran through this graph as a lesson on Misuse of Graphs. We placed a 5mm grid over the image of the graph and counted the squares. The image is 58% yellow. This surprised the students because they were analysing the chart and interpreting it as about 40%. I remarked that the 58% yellow was influencing their judgement. It was a very good lesson.
Thanks for this great teaching resource.
For most practical reasons, I believe there is no need to use a 3D chart unless a Z-axis is needed for your data -- and pie charts need not be 3D since they don't need to show any axis!
Your method of telling the whole thing in this paragraph is genuinely good, every one be capable of simply
understand it, Thanks a lot.
I agree about pie charts. I didn't recognize the name "Verna" so I had to Google it: Hyundai sells the same car in the US as the "Accent."
I cant stand 3d pie charts. 2d ones are bad enough. And im my opinion the staircase chart is even worse. Note that with the verna we see two sides which gives it a visible width on the page/screen about three times as wide as the second highest scoring one, where we can only see one side of it.
However, I won't make the promise. Whilst I think acurate representation of stats is a morale obligation of those who need to present impartial data, you have to admire the marketing team for not missing a single trick.
Unfortunately with slick charts with the lighting and 3d effects, it makes acurate flat charts look boring and unprofessional to the uniformed 90% who view style over substance.
As an example of this, I was reading information packs from vendors, and out of the dozen or so, not a single one had flat charts....
Hi, Chandoo!
Can we download some chart template like in your post? ))
It is really pretty.
[…] Ah good day to my Tableau disciples. Peace be with you. May your day be free of exploding 3D pie charts… […]
[…] ovšem uvádí Chandoo, kolá?ové grafy lze naproti tomu dob?e využít k manipulaci. Linkovaný p?íklad s videem […]
[…] Even people who have the best of intentions create graphics that mislead just because they don’t know about statistics, they don’t know about logic, they about the principles of visualization. It’s not their fault, just like it was not my fault 10 or 15 years ago. Nobody had educated me. It was only through the process of reading books, studying, and learning from other people that I discovered the many mistakes that I’d made in the past, for example, creating 3D pie charts. […]
I think if the point is to create BS, everything should be not only in 3d but in 4d!
4d FTW
[…] makes it very difficult to visually compare data. A good example of how misleading a 3-D charts can be found here. Less is more. Make your visualizations as simple and clean as possible, it makes them much easier […]