how to graph line chart with microsoft excel 2011

In a line chart, category data is distributed evenly along the horizontal axis, and all value data is distributed evenly along the vertical axis.

Line charts can display continuous data over time, set against a common scale, and are therefore ideal for showing trends in data at equal intervals or over time. So how do you know when to use a line or scatter chart? Depending on the data, these data points are distributed evenly or unevenly across the horizontal axis.Ĭomparing the two charts above, you can see that the scatter chart depicts my data much better than the line chart. Therefore, a scatter chart displays the daily rainfall values as x values on the horizontal axis, and the particulate values as y values on the vertical axis.Īnd because this chart types has two value axes, it can display a single data point at the intersection of each x and y value (which is the reason why this chart type is often called an xy chart). Because my data has only values and no categories, Excel automatically generates numbered categories along the category axis, using numbers 1 through 9 in the line chart below.Ī scatter chart, on the other hand, has two value axes – it displays values rather than categories on the horizontal axis. Instead of displaying values, a category axis shows evenly spaced groupings (categories) of data. This is because in a line chart, the vertical axis is a value axis and the horizontal axis is a category axis. In a line chart, the daily rainfall and particulate values are displayed as two separate data points that are evenly distributed along the horizontal axis. Without knowing better, we often opt for a line chart, while a scatter chart might be the one we should use instead. They look very similar, especially when a scatter chart is displayed with connecting lines, but there is a big difference in the way each of these chart types plots data along the horizontal and vertical axes.įor example, when I use the following worksheet data to create a line chart and a scatter chart, it’s clear that the data is distributed differently in each chart. That’s a good question! Choosing the wrong chart type for your data can easily happen when it comes to line and scatter charts.

How to graph line chart with microsoft excel 2011