Last week in the Chandoo.org Forums, I was asked could I reproduce the chart below in Excel
Which I did.
This post will describe how to tackle this chart step by step.
You can follow along using some sample data: Download Sample File
Data
To produce this chart we are going to use an Excel Stacked Bar chart with two series of data
The first Series will be for the Colored Bars
The second series is for the Arrow and the gap to the left of the arrow
The data required is shown in the above table
The Arrow Value is an input and is the value the Arrow will point to
The data is the values for the colored bars
The Arrow is two calculations that setup the Arrow, the 58 is the offset from zero to the left side of the arrow
The 4 is the width of the arrow. That is the arrow will point to 60 = 58 + 4 /2
The Cumulative Data is required for the Legend
Chart
In Excel 2016
Select the range C3:G4 and goto Insert Chart
Select Bar, Stacked Bar
In Excel 2010
Select the range C3:G4 and goto Insert Chart
Select Bar, Stacked Bar
Now with the Chart selected goto the Chart Tools, Design Tab
Click on the Switch Row/Column Tab
Excel All Versions
You should now have a chart like:
Bar 1 is the data and Bar 2 will become the arrow
We don’t need the Charts Title, Legend, Grid Lines or Axis, so select each and press Delete
Next we will add an arrow
The Arrow will be placed as a Fill in the Upper Orange Bar
Select a Blank Cell eg: I3
Then goto the Insert, Shapes Menu and select an Isosceles Triangle
Fill the Arrow with what ever color you want and drag the Handle down so that the arrow points down
To insert the arrow, select the Arrow and press Copy (Ctrl+C)
Now select the Chart and click on the Upper Orange Bar, click on it again until it is the only Bar with Handles Showing, the press Paste (Ctrl+V)
Now select the Upper Blue Bar and set its fill and outline to None
Right Click on any Bar and select Format Data Series
Set the Series Overlap to 100% and set the Gap Width to 0%
Now click on the chart, just above the Blue Bar
When the Resize Handles appear, drag them to resize the chart so that the gap between the Top and Bottom Bars is none
We can now add the labels
Select the Orange Bar and then Select it again until it is the only Bar with Handles
Right Click on it and Add Data Label
Now click on the new Data Label and click on it again until the Handles change as shown below
Now in the Formula Bar enter =Chandoo.org!$C$5 and apply
Right click on the Data Label and select Format Data Labels
Set the Label Position to Inside Base
Now repeat for each of the other Bars
and Finally add a Label to the arrow linking it to cell C2. You have to manually drag the Label to above the arrow.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to make a Bar Chart with Indicator Arrow, it should take you less than a minute to copy the bar chart, convert it to a Column chart and reformat it to a Column Chart with arrow as shown below
I hope you enjoyed the above tutorial
21 Responses to “Distinct count in Excel pivot tables”
The distinct count option works well but I have found that if I have a date field and want to group by year, month, etc. that option seems to be disabled. I need to do both, distinct count and group by year/month.
Example data; sales orders with item quantities with dates.
Challenge; sum the item quantities, count the distinct orders and group by month. How do I do this?
Perhaps that's not possible due to the grouping?
@Al... When you use data model based pivots, you cannot group values manually anymore. Why not use Excel 2016's default date grouping option? In this case we have just a few dates, so Excel is not grouping them, but if you have an year's worth of data, when you make the pivot with date in the row label area, Excel automatically groups them. If you have fewer dates or want to use your own grouping, just create a table with all dates, add columns with month, week, year etc. Then connect this table (these types of tables are usually called as calendar tables) to your data on date field as a relationship. Now you can create reports by month, quarter etc easily.
Is this the only way to do it in 2013? I find it rather cumbersome to have to create another data table listing dates with the another column for MONTH() and YEAR() to be able to summarise data for senior level...
I know people find adding calendar tables cumbersome, but it is a best practice and let's you add more layers of analysis quite easily. For example, adding analysis by weekday vs. weekend or by financial quarter or YTD calculations (you would need either Power Pivot DAX or some very carefully setup pivot table value field settings)
I had absolutely no idea this was possible. Very useful, nice work!
Doesn't work for 2010 version though (or at least not my works version)
Hi ,
The post has the following in it :
These instructions work only in Excel 2016, Office 365 and Excel 2013.
when i have 2 different Pivot tables, one without the enabled “Add this data to data model” option, and the other one with it enabled.. is there anyway i can link slicers between them?
if the answer is NO,, what to do ?
Quick note, the “Add this data to data model” option is not available for the Mac version.
perhaps outside scope of this article but I have found when I attempt to create a pivot table from an external data source (connection to a sql view) the "Add this data to data model" becomes greyed out. Anybody experienced and found a solution so I can start getting distinct count in my pivot tables?
Is there a way to still add a calculated field when using distinct count?
I found I can't change the date source after tick the " add this data to the data model", can you help to adv how to change the date source in such case?
Is there a way to update the source once you have added to the data model? I receive a new spreadsheet weekly and would like to update the connection so my tables pull from the new source.
Hi Crhis, I like how you have hulk (superhero) as your avatar. Do you know that there is a superhero in Excel too? It's Power Query. You can use it to solve your problem in a simple click. Here an intro if you need some guidance.
Powerful Introduction to Power Query
A big Thank you. It worked.
Hi, have survey data that I need to analyze but the challenge is that my key fields are showing horizontally. I tried to transpose the fields using Power Query, but unfortunately the new fields are returning same values on a pivot table despite using distinct values
How I can a do a pivot table with discount conts in some columns and then generate shor report filter pages. pls it drives crazy
Hi. Why grand total pivot of distinct count is 13? shouldn't it be 67?
Great Answer! Saved me lots of time!
Thank you!!!
Worked awesome! Thanks!!
Hi Chandoo,
I am using pivot tables for distinct count and now I need to update them with new set of data. But when I update the source data, all the columns and formatting of Pivot table disappears and I need to build it from Scratch.
Is there a possibility that I can update the source data with new rows added and also retain my pivot tables?