How to make a 5 Star Chart (Similar to Amazon)

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Earlier in the week Chandoo presented Give more details by showing average and distribution

At the top of the post was a small screen capture from Amazon.com showing a 5 Star chart  showing that Twilight had a 3.5 Star Rating (way over-rated if you ask me).

I received an email shortly afterwards from Rajiv, “How can I make one of those charts ? ” with the Stars Circled

It’s actually very simple and this post will show you how.

The Technique

The technique involves putting a mask in front of a single bar from a Bar Chart

The mask has a plain background and has cut-outs where the Stars are, which are transparent and so only the bar chart shows through in those areas which are cut out.

Lets Do It

On a worksheet we need a cell where we have a Rating Value, lets use B2

Make the value in Cell B2, 5

Select the cell B2 and Insert Chart

Insert a Bar Chart (Clustered Bar)

Delete the following chart objects

  • Title
  • Legend
  • Major Grid Lines


Select the Horizontal Axis

Format Axis

Change the Horizontal Axis Scale to

  • Minimum 0
  • Maximum 5


Delete the Horizontal and Vertical Axis

Move the chart and resize the Bar to your requirements

Change the Bar’s Fill to suit

Set Border color to No Color

Insert Picture

Import the 5 Star mask attached here

Position the mask in front of the charts Bar

With the mask selected shift the Right hand side and then left hand side so that you can just see the edges of the bar.

Check the placement by trying the numbers from 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 0.1 in B2

You should see all the stars perfectly when the placement is correct

Select the Chart and 5 Star Mask together

Use Shift while selecting each one

Group the Chart and Mask together, so that they can’t be moved

Your are free to shift and resize this combined object on your worksheet as required

Vertical Charts

A Similar technique can be used for Vertical Charts using a Column Chart instead of a Bar Chart


Masks

The masks used here were made in CorelDRAW, but can be made in any Drawing/Paint program like Paint.NET, that allows you to save PNG’s with Transparency effects

The masks consists of:

  • 5 Stars which have no outline color and are transparent
  • 1 Rectangle which is White with no Outline color

The 6 objects are then Joined enabling the holes of the Stars to show through the White Rectangle

Using this technique any shape can be used as a mask

I have included the following masks for you to practice with or use:

5 Stars Mask,

5 Stars Mask with Outlined Stars,

5 Circles Mask,

Swirling Line Mask,

Footsteps Mask.

If anybody knows how to join objects together in Excel to make holes through them as required here, Please let us know in the comments below:

Thermometer Charts

The above technique is great for application to Thermometer Charts, where the Thermometer can take on all values from 0 to 100% or 0 to $200,000

or whatever you require.

Files

All the above examples are shown in one file which you can download here or here for the 2003 Version

Download the Waves and Chameleon 2007 or Waves and Chameleon 2003 examples

Extensions of the Technique

This technique can be extended in a number of areas

The Thermometer chart above shows one such area

The other is applying multiple Masks to multiple Bars/Columns in one chart, But I’ll leave you to practice that.

Limitations of the Technique

Two main limitations of this technique are:

Scaling

As Excel charts are scaled, Excel internally decides what space should be between the Plot Area, Titles and the edge of the Chart Area. This is not maintained constantly and hence the Plot Area may scale at a different ratio to the Chart area and overlying mask.

If this happens Ungroup the Chart and mask and reset ecverything at the new size.

Mask Color

The mask has a Fixed color, in the above examples it is white.

The mask cannot be colored in Excel to Match the background color of the Worksheet if it isn’t white.

So a new Mask will need to be made.

What Do you Think of this Technique

What Do you Think of this Technique?

How else can you see this technique being extended?

Let us know in the comments below:

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40 Responses to “Lost Excel Functions”

  1. Luke M says:

    Of all the functions, I think the BAHTTEXT function is the biggest "Why is this here???"
    It's use would be limited to a very, very small demographic. A better function would have been a generic translate function where you pick the language (even if it was only the top 5 or something...)

  2. Kevin says:

    Lost by whose definition? Some people use these functions(me). There are alot of words in English dictionary that aren't used.

  3. This is a great post, especially because I love Lost. Thanks!

  4. SteveT says:

    Nice Post Hui. It is amazing what is in the program that you have never heard of. I typed in =d and looked at the functions. "Delta" popped out although it is documented, why would you ever use it vs. just comparing with an equal sign (=1=1).

  5. Ninad Pradhan says:

    I use Datedif at times. What will be nice is if alternatives to these "Lost" functions can also be posted with examples. That'll be a good reading and also deter users from using functions "soon to be made obsolete"

  6. OlaSa says:

    I don't think the intersect AND logic is very well documented:
    =B1:B3 A2:C2 One intersection
    =SUM(D9:F9 E8:F10) Two intersections
    =SUM(D9:F9 E8:E10 F8:F10) No intersection --> #NULL! Not seen very often
    There might be a OR logic lurking as well
    //Ola

  7. Fred says:

    Interesting post! 😉

    I found out that only "evaluate" isn't available in my excel 2007.

  8. Prem Sivakanthan says:

    Great post, thanks Hui! 🙂

  9. Hui... says:

    @Fred
    Evaluate is a Excel 4 Macro Function and not a spreadsheet function
    It can only be used in Named Ranges and VBA, not as a spreadsheet function.

    @OlaSa
    I forgot all about the 2 Operators you mention.
    Daniel at Excel Hero has done a story about them at: http://www.excelhero.com/blog/2010/06/which-function-to-use---part-1.html

    @Steve T
    Yes, Delta and Gestep are odd functions and easily replaced with alternative logic.
    These 2 functions may have uses in handling ranges and not just single cells.

  10. juanito says:

    I read somewhere not too long ago (at Daily Dose, possible) that BAHTTEXT is "rumoured" to be a self-interested joke by the MS Excel programmers: although this function would be at least equally useful for other currencies, they did the baht first because they're extremely partial to Thai takeaways and wanted to speed up the turnaround time

  11. Alasdair says:

    ...and why isn't there a reverse ROMAN?

  12. Hi Hui,

    I think you have mis-defined the Result range name because you have made the name relative. The proper formula should have been
    =EVALUATE($A$1).
    NB: I use the technique in this post: http://www.jkp-ads.com/articles/chartanequation00.asp

  13. SteveT says:

    Found this posting with some User Defined Functions and VBA for reversing Roman Numerals:

    http://www.excelbanter.com/showthread.php?t=141566

  14. tra says:

    Hi Hui - Thanks for the post - a little off the excel topic, but wondering what does "you"ll be the full bottle" mean? Have never heard this expression before. 🙂

  15. Hui... says:

    @Tra
    “you'll be the full bottle” is Aussie slang for "You'll know all about it"

  16. Hui... says:

    @Jan Karel Pieterse
    Thanx for the input
    .
    =Evaluate(A1) is ok as long as A1 is the active cell
    It can create problems if it isn't.
    .
    Ideally it should be entered as =EVALUATE(SheetName!$A$1)
    I have updated the post accordingly

  17. Luke M says:

    Further info on DELTA:
    Have 1 cell formatted to number (a1), and the other formatted to text (a2).
    Type the number 1 into both cells
    The formula:
    =A1=A2
    returns FALSE (number does not equal text)
    formula:
    =DELTA(A1,A2)
    returns 1 (the equivalent of true). I see limited places where this would be useful, but wanted to point out that they do function differently.

  18. Hui... says:

    In Excel2010
    I just tried Delta with
    2 2 =Delta(A2, B2) =1
    '2 '2 =Delta(A3, B3) =1
    '2 2 =Delta(A4, B4) =1
    C C =Delta(A5, B5) =#Value!

    Lines 3 & 4 should also give errors but don't ?

    The formatting of the cells shouldn't affect the results as that is just for display

  19. Ed says:

    Great post.

    Interesting that the roman function returns a #value! if you go any higher than 3999

  20. @Chandoo Not trying to be a shameless self promoter (I just want to spread the Excel awesomeness) but I've found an obscure way to create a mouse-over effect in Excel using the Hyperlink() formula and some VBA. I've used this technique in some of my dashboards at work, and as an example of how it's useful, you could use it in the Grammy Bump chart to simply let users rollover a year instead of clicking on it. I talk about it in the latest post of my rarely updated blog which is linked on my name in this post. Or, here's the long and short of it:
    .
    =HYPERLINK(MyFunction(), "Mouseover me!")
    .
    Then in some module:
    Public Function MyFunction()
    Msgbox "hi!"
    End Function
    .
    To test: place your mouse over the underlined portion of the cell. To make the entire-cell a mouse over target (not just the underlined portion), word wrap it. Also, if you want the function to change parts of your spreadsheet, you'll need to wrap the Hyperlink formula in an IFERROR (you'll see what I mean when you try it). Or you can read about it by clicking on my name, either way, make sure to have fun!

  21. Luke M says:

    @Hui
    Seems like DELTA has the advantage in being able to recognize "text as numbers". And yes, thanks for clarifying my statement about formatting. I should have been clearer in the fact that I just wanted to compare a text string with a number...in which case, maybe I should have just written:
    =DELTA(1,"1") 'Results in 1

  22. Chandoo says:

    @Jordan... wow, that is a beautiful trick. I have not yet tested it, but seems like it has lots of potential. Let me play with the idea and may be write a follow-up article on this.

    Btw, you are welcome to share information and links. That is the whole point of commenting. 🙂

  23. SteveT says:

    Alright, i am no engineer, but a simple formula can also do what Delta does without having a whole function for it. That is like creating a function called Add (Syntax =Add(a1,a2) that results in the addition of A1+A2

    This will do what delta does on numbers and textNumbers and its not rocket science or structural engineering 🙂 🙂

    =VALUE(A1)=VALUE(A2) will also yield true/false

    And if you need the result as a number =(VALUE(A3)=VALUE(A4))*1

  24. myckolah says:

    @SteveT
    You know, they invented this function you described in Excel. It is called SUM, not ADD 🙂
    There are also functions PRODUCT, SUMPRODUCT and others. All of them simple definied, and it doesn't mean they aren't to be in Excel.

  25. Doug Jenkins says:

    Of the under-used functions, I think Evaluate is probably the most useful.

    The short UDF presented here:
    http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/evaluate-function/
    allows Excel to evaluate functions entered as text, without the need to create named ranges.

    An application using this function can be downloaded here:
    http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/section-properties-of-defined-shapes-spreadsheet/

  26. Jaspal says:

    thanks for this. I hope to use "convert" more frequently henceforth

  27. Andrew says:

    @ruvelk and @Chandoo

    I checked out the link you provided (ruvelk) and the explanation given of the intervals 'MD' 'YM' AND 'YD' provided above (Chandoo) and the information is not quite correct.

    'MD' returns the number of days since the last completed month.
    'YM' returns the number of months since the last completed year.
    'YD' returns the number of days since the last completed year.

    As far as I can see there is no flaw in the function just perhaps a misunderstanding of what is does.

    eg
    using the 'MD' interval
    02/28/2010 to 01/11/2011
    Last completed month = 12/28/2010
    Number of days between 12/28/2010 and 01/11/2011 = 14

    Using 03/01/2010 to 01/11/2011
    Last completed month = 01/01/2011
    Number of days between 01/01/2011 and 01/11/2011 = 10

    Cheers

    Andrew

  28. Hui... says:

    @Andrew
    I think we are talking about the same thing in different ways.

    From the post:
    "md" Days Excluding Years And Months Complete calendar days between the dates as if they were of the same month and same year.

    so using your dates
    28/2/10 to 11/1/11 will count 29, 30 and 31 as if they are in January and then the first 11 days in January = 14 days.
    That is, it is counting the dates as if they are both in January, same year, and so there is 14 days between them.

  29. Chandra SEkhar says:

    Hi,

    Can any one tell how to enter data into range of cells through a single cell without the help of VBA.

    Regards
    Chandra

  30. Phil Bornemeier says:

    @Chandra
    If you type this into A1:
    ={1,2,3;4,5,6;7,8,9}
    then select A1:C3 and use Control+Shift+Enter
    You will get a 3x3 array in A1:C3
    The formula in each cell in that range will be:
    {={1,2,3;4,5,6;7,8,9}}

    Commas separate columns.  Semicolons separate rows,

    This is of limited use since the cells in this array cannot be individually edited.

  31. Phil Bornemeier says:

    There is at least 1 Excel 4 macro that provides functionality that cannot (AFAIK) be replicated in later versions of Excel.  GET.CHART.ITEM is used to get the exact coordinates of chart elements, including the coordinates of individual points in a line graph (or edge and corner cordinates of bars, or columns for those types of graphs).  For example:
    sngXPos = ExecuteExcel4Macro("get.chart.item(1,1, ""S2P" & lX & """)")
    returns the X position of each point in series 2 of a line graph as you iterate from 1 To ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(2).Points.Count

    Documentation file for Excel4 macros available at:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/128185

    Excel 2010 has incorporated most (but not all?) of this functionality as described here:
    http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2010/02/16/migrating-excel-4-macros-to-vba.aspx

  32. stansult says:

    Unfortunately, I don’t see Evaluate working in Excel 2010.
    I have Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.
    When I try it myself, or download the example file, I have #NAME?
    result in the cell containing “=Result” formula.

  33. […] To know how many months are left between TODAY() and date in A1, use = DATEDIF(TODAY(), A1, “m”). Related: How to use DATEDIF function. […]

  34. […] To know how many months are left between TODAY() and date in A1, use = DATEDIF(TODAY(), A1, “m”). Related: How to use DATEDIF function. […]

  35. Marty says:

    I once ran across an undocumented version of GETPIVOTDATA. The syntax was something like "GETPIVOTDATA($A$3, ...", where $A$# would reference the pivot table then you could concatenate text fields to select the specific data you were after. I found this useful as I could use an IF("condition", "place field text", ""). This way if the "condition" was met it would field data requested otherwise nothing was included. This worked well if nested condition were not available. Hope this is clear. I can't find the alternate syntax for GETPIVOTDATA anywhere. Does someone have it?

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